this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2025
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It was more of a mosque until very recently, so not really.
That depends on the the view point. It is true that it was founded as a mosque, and became a teaching centre later. Since universities are considered a European invention by some, it is argued that it was a madrassa op until the 1960's. However, madrassa is basically Arabic for place of study, which this mosque was since the eleventh century or earlier. It was in any case a place of study before the foundation of the university of Bologna.
This Wikipedia page agrees with this comment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_universities_in_continuous_operation. It lists University of Bologna as the oldest one in continuous operation from 1180–1190.
I mean…. It does and it doesn’t. Yes, al-Qarawiyyin was founded as a mosque. Yes, it became a “university” within the last 100 years. But there was a looong span of time between where it was an institution of higher learning not formally classified as a “university”
Paragraph 4 of the article you linked specifically notes that such institutions with mixed provenance were omitted from the list.
Basically it is the oldest educational institution that is currently a university, as opposed to the institution having operated under the university model for the longest time.
That's where the top boffins of the time invented spaghetti with tomato sauce, too!
Not long after hops became really popular as a beer ingredients. Coincidence?
Al-Qarawiyyin is recognized by UNESCO and Guinness as the world's oldest continually running institution of higher learning.