THE OLDEST UNIVERSITIES IN THE WORLD

THE OLDEST UNIVERSITIES IN THE WORLD

Contrary to what many would have expected, the oldest universities in the world are located in Africa, not in ancient Greece or Europe,   a study has revealed. Going by the results of the research, the foundation for the US first university was laid as late as in 1636 while the oldest university in Europe, the University of Bologna in Italy was founded in 1088 years after Africa had established universities, followed by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, which was founded in 1096.  According to the research by Erudera, the oldest universities in the world are located in Egypt, Morocco and Mali respectively.

The Kemetic temple universities

The libraries of Kemet were not only places of archives, sacred words, papyrus manufacturing, and the like, they were also centers of learning, that combined the functions of their libraries and temples into universities.Hence Kemet became a land of temples, libraries, and universities. As 

a result, the "temple-library-university" became the key center of ancient Kemetic intellectual 

and spiritual activity. Ancient Kemetic temples like Waset and Ipet Isut are the oldest universities on planet earth. The Temple of Waset is the world's first university and was built during the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep 111 in the XV111 Dynasty, 1405-1370 B.C. while the Ipet Isut temple was built during the reign of Senusert I of the 12th dynasty, who ruled from 1971-1926 BC.

Al-Qarawiyyin University, Morocco (859 CE - Present) 

The second oldest standing university on earth is in Morocco. Known as Al-Qarawiyyin, the university was founded  by a young princess in 859 A.D. by Tunisian-born Fatima al-Fihri in Morocco’s Fez. According to the United Nations, Guinness World Records, Manchester University Press and other credible sources, al-Qarawiyyin is the oldest university of the world still in use today.

Timbuktu University Mali (989 CE – Present)

The University ofTimbuktu is a collective term for the teaching associated with three mosques in the city of Timbuktu in what is now Mali: the masajid (mosques) of Sankore, Djinguereber, and Sidi Yahya. This third oldest University in the world is one of three ancient centres of learning located in Timbuktu, Mali. It was officially established in 13BC and it prospered and became a very significant seat of learning in the world, especially under the reign of Mansa Musa (1307-1332) and the Askia Dynasty (1493-1591). The University of Sankore has its roots in the Sankore Mosque which was founded in 989 ADby Al-Qadi Aqib ibn Mahmud ibn Umar, the Supreme Judge of Timbuktu.’ At its peak, long before Europeans built universities, the university at Timbuktu had an average attendance of around 25 000 students within a city of around 100 000 people.

All of the universities of Timbuktu predate Islam and were originally learning centers for Dogon and Meroitic sciences, which flourished throughout the Sahel. Islam did not introduce universities to Timbuktu, Islam appropriated the indigenous African universities already in Timbuktu (as well as numerous other ancient African cities) and turned them into masjids.  The Timbuktu Meroitic universities were appropriated into masjids in 989 ce.  This is over 1,200 years after the original university was established. 

However, despite the religious shift of the universities, their architectural heritage remains faithful to the indigenous pre-Islamic Sahelian adobe architecture.