Draft:Fatima al-Fihri

Fatima al-Fihri
Name	Fatima al-Fihri
Other Names	{{{other_names}}}
Personal Details
Birth Place	Tunis
Brith Date	800 AD
Death Place	Fes
Death Date	878 AD

Fatima al-Fihri was the founder of the Mosque and University of al-Qarawiyyin, where many scholars from the Islamic world acquired knowledge and taught. Among these famous individuals were the founders of the Sanusi school and sect, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi and Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Sanusi, as well as figures such as Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Arabi. This article pertains to this Muslim woman.

Biography

Fatima al-Fihri was the daughter of Muhammad al-Fihri, a wealthy merchant of the Fihrid family. The Fihrid family migrated from the city of Kairouan in modern-day Tunisia to modern-day Morocco along with a group of others in the early 9th century AD. She had a sister named Maryam.

After Fatima and Maryam inherited the wealth of their late father, they decided to build mosques and educational institutions like Kairouan as a waqf or charity for their father.

In the year 244 AH (858 AD), she established the first academic institution that granted higher education degrees, which is still in use today as the University of al-Qarawiyyin in the city of Fes, Morocco.

World's Oldest Library

Fatima al-Fihri established one of the world's oldest libraries at the University of al-Qarawiyyin. This library was recently restored and reopened in May 2016. The library contains over 4,000 manuscripts, including Quranic manuscripts from the 9th century AD and a collection of the oldest hadith book manuscripts..