
The Library That Has Been Burning for 1,100 Years
Founded in 859 by a woman. Restored in 2016 by another. Al-Qarawiyyin holds 4,000 manuscripts and a 1,200-year argument about what counts as a university.
Al-Qarawiyyin in Fes is either the oldest university in the world or it is not, depending on which historian you ask. What is not disputed: Fatima al-Fihri founded it in 859, it has been teaching continuously for over a thousand years, and its library holds manuscripts that predate most European institutions.
