This Wikipedia page agrees with this comment: en.wikipedia.org/…/List_of_oldest_universities_in…. It lists University of Bologna as the oldest one in continuous operation from 1180–1190.
Comment on It's always been women in STEM.
tobogganablaze@lemmus.org 2 days ago
It was more of a mosque until very recently, so not really.
oce@jlai.lu 2 days ago
MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io 2 days ago
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.
Ancient higher-learning institutions, such as those of … the Islamic world, are not included in this list owing to their cultural, historical, structural and legal differences from the medieval European university… These include the University of al-Qarawiyyin… founded as mosques in 859… These developed associated madrasas… by 1129 for al-Qarawiyyin…
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.
shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Al-Qarawiyyin is recognized by UNESCO and Guinness as the world’s oldest running university.
drolex@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
That’s where the top boffins of the time invented spaghetti with tomato sauce, too!
Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Not long after hops became really popular as a beer ingredients. Coincidence?
mathemachristian@hexbear.net 1 day ago
Nobody tell him how most of the oldest euro uni’s got started
zout@fedia.io 2 days ago
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.