Al-Qarawiyyīn

Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez began as a mosque founded in 857 or 859 by Fatima al-Fihri, whose family had migrated from Kairouan, which gave the institution its name. In 919 or 933 the Friday sermon was transferred to it, making it the chief mosque of the city; it grew into a leading centre of learning.

The Almoravids expanded the building, and the earliest clear evidence of regular teaching there dates to 1121. Under the Almohad sultan Muhammad al-Nasir, between 1199 and 1213, it received a great bronze chandelier for its prayer hall.

The Marinid period marked its intellectual apogee: a chandelier cast from a church bell brought from Gibraltar was installed in 1337, and Sultan Abu Inan founded its library in 1349. Besides the Quran and Maliki law, its curriculum covered medicine, mathematics and astronomy, drawing students from Morocco and Muslim West Africa.