Al-Qarawiyyin University: Traditions of Origin and Systems of Teaching

The historical roots of al-Qarawiyyin University lie in the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fez, Morocco. Roudh el-Kartas, compiled in the fourteenth century, records that Fatima, originally from Kairouan, inherited property, purchased land, and began building a mosque in Ramadan of AH 245, converted in the French translation to 859 CE. The narrative emphasizes her religious benefaction through lawfully acquired wealth and building materials obtained on the site. It primarily describes the construction of a mosque, not a charter establishing a modern university that year.

The account was written long after the events it describes. Nagy’s architectural-history study notes that an inscription subsequently discovered in the mosque records Dawud ibn Idris ordering its construction in 877, and considers this inscription more reliable than the later tradition of 859. The year 859 should therefore be understood as a traditional account of origins, not an undisputed date when university classes began.

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The mosque’s teaching role developed through a long process of change. Erzini and Vernoit note that al-Qarawiyyin already had teaching chairs in the thirteenth century. Rulers or private individuals established waqfs, charitable religious endowments, for particular courses or books, with their income sustaining instruction. A “chair” could refer either to an academic position or to the wooden seat on which a teacher actually sat; the two meanings cannot be mechanically equated.

An endowment record of 1804–1805 reproduced in their study specified a chair beside a particular doorway in the mosque for teaching al-Bukhari’s work on hadith. The same chair could also be used for different subjects at different times. A fixed location, a particular text, and continuing funding made the transmission of knowledge less dependent on occasional lectures and embedded teaching in the city’s system of religious benefaction.

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Nineteenth-century sources provide a clearer picture of students’ daily lives. Delphin’s book of 1889 assembled answers from people who had studied in Fez, including a translation of Mohammed El Harchaoui’s questions and answers on teaching. El Harchaoui had studied there for five or six years before teaching in Tlemcen. His account reflects the arrangements of his own student years and cannot be projected directly back to the ninth century.

Delphin also interviewed Idris ibn Thabit, who had lived in Fez for many years. The author was interested in drawing on these experiences to reform education in French-ruled Algeria, and his book contains colonial-era prejudices. Using its evidence requires distinguishing interviewees’ specific descriptions from the author’s sweeping judgments about local society.

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According to El Harchaoui, young people from Fez first attended elementary schools, gaining a command of the Qur’an and the foundations of grammar and rhetoric before joining advanced courses. Students from elsewhere arrived with differing levels of preparation. The duration of study varied with individual ability and objectives: some specialized in grammar or law, while others studied a single major work. There was no uniform progression in which everyone entered and graduated together.

Local students could live at home, while outsiders sought the right to use rooms in nearby madrasas. Those unable to afford a room alone shared with companions. Some residences used endowment income for lighting, maintenance, and bread, but students still had to find other living expenses. Residents of Fez also supplied food or supported a poor student over a longer period. Study thus depended on the combined contributions of families, endowments, and townspeople.

References: [4]

Courses were organized around teachers and books. El Harchaoui describes Qur’anic exegesis at al-Qarawiyyin in the early morning, followed by law, with grammar and related subjects predominating in the afternoon. Students could choose among teachers. Some evening classes moved to other mosques in the city and covered literature, medicine, or geometry. Not all intellectual activity in Fez can therefore be counted as a fixed curriculum offered at al-Qarawiyyin alone.

During a lesson, one student read the text aloud, and the teacher explained words, technical terms, and arguments, then compared different commentators and commentaries. Listeners took notes and could raise questions at appropriate moments or follow the teacher afterward to ask for help. In their residences, students could also ask more knowledgeable companions to explain additional books and prepare the next day’s lessons together. Learning combined strict teacher–student etiquette with discussion and mutual assistance.

References: [4]

The credential described by El Harchaoui was the ijaza, a license granted by a teacher to a student to transmit knowledge. On the basis of long-term performance, judgment, and mastery, the teacher specified the books or subjects the student was authorized to teach. Its contents varied between teachers and students; it was not a uniform diploma issued by the city authorities. When judicial positions were filled, such documentation could also help assess candidates’ ability to deal with contracts, marriage, or inheritance.

These relationships of transmission connected Fez with other regions. Delphin began investigating its methods precisely because he encountered people who had studied at al-Qarawiyyin and later traveled to Algeria to teach or take examinations. Scholars carried texts, interpretive methods, and their teachers’ recognition with them, extending the influence of instruction beyond the mosque and city.

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Traditional teaching and new institutions also coexisted. Ageron’s research shows that the engineering school opened in Fez in 1846 was independent of al-Qarawiyyin and trained personnel in surveying, mapmaking, artillery, and other fields. Every new scientific course that appeared in the city cannot be absorbed into the history of the older institution.

Nagy notes that twentieth-century reforms separately developed systems of registration, academic years, examinations, and diplomas, followed by reorganization as a modern state university in 1963. The mosque’s origins, long-standing teaching, charitable support for students, and modern university organization are related but distinct historical layers. Al-Qarawiyyin’s significance lies in the ways these concrete institutions persisted, expanded, and continually adapted.

References: [2] [5]