Fatima al-fihri childhood

Fatima al-fihri education

Fatima Al-Fihri may not be a household name, but her impact on the world is resounding. Not only the Al-Qarawiyyin mosque, university and library she founded in the 9 th century are still in operation, and are considered symbols of the culture and history of Fes Morocco , but her legacy as a champion of education helped create one of the preeminent centers of learning in the Islamic Golden Age.

At its height in the 13 th and 14 th century, Al-Qarawiyyin boasted hundreds of students — so many that dozens of madrassas religious schools were commissioned in the surrounding suburbs to house students from Al-Qarawiyyin. The library at this time consisted of over 30, volumes from across the Islamic World and Europe. According to UNESCO and the Guinness World Records, Al-Qarawiyyin is the oldest continually-run, and the first degree-granting university in the world, although it was only in that it became a state university.

Luckily for us, shortly after the fire a local scholar, Ibn Abi Zar , wrote a detailed history of the city of Fes, and included many details about the life and contribution of Fatima Al-Fihri. She was born in CE to a merchant family in Qayrawan present day Karaouine , Tunisia, amid the turmoil of power struggles between the Berber tribes and the ruling Caliphate in Baghdad.

That same year, the Caliph granted its victorious agent, Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab, the title of Emir in Qayrawan, giving him hereditary ruling rights of an almost-independent state across the region, where he then established the Aghlabid Dynasty. They traveled to Fes with most of the other exiles and settled there. Growing up, they were tutored at home, as was the custom of the time for middle and upper-class women.

Fatimah married and lived according to the standards of a devout woman, tending her household and spending her time in study and charitable pursuits. Life changed drastically for her when her husband, brother and father died within a short time of one another. Fatima would have been in her fifties at the time. Fatima and Mariam were left a sizable inheritance by their father.

Both women were determined to see this inheritance turned into a lasting legacy. In similar fashion and located quite close by , Fatima also established a mosque, naming it after her hometown of Qayrawan. The initial mosque and madrassa or school of Al-Qarawiyyin was completed in CE.