World's Oldest University

just a micro-article

Morocco restores world's oldest university - News from Al Jazeera

 

Interestingly enough, it appears as though there is some type of differentiation made between traditional universities and Islamic madrasas (Arabic word for any educational institution). Even more interesting, apparently, the madrasa referenced in this article isn't even the oldest one (the Madarasah of Az-Zaytuna pre-dates it by more than 100 years!)

The more you know!

 

If a university is a place of learning which encourages free thinking, a madrasa does not qualify as it indoctrinates not educates.

 

Well, if you go strictly by that definition, Harvard in 1636 would likely not have qualified - any more than a madrasa.

J.

 

Does the wave of political correctness sweeping across universities in the US constitute free thinking?

 

Nor would Harvard of 2016.................

 

"Salami, salami, baloney" - a Popeye cartoon.

The University of Bologna (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Bologna) lays claim to being the first university. I guess it's all in the interpretation.

 

The university in question - Al Qarawwiyin جامعة القرويين‎‎; is no longer considered a madrasa - it's been a State University for some time. See here for confirmation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Al_Quaraouiyine

Some of Europe's oldest universities e.g. Salerno, in what was the Emirate of Sicily were founded by Arabs. Also University of Cordoba, - not the modern one, but the one founded in the Caliphate of Cordoba. The city of Cordoba at the time had 70 libraries, one with 400,000 books. By contrast, The Swiss Abbey of St. Gall, one of the richest libraries in the West, had only about 600 books.

So don't knock Arab schools because they were religion-centred. So were other schools - just different religion. My mention of Harvard, formed to train Ministers, is a case in point. If it wasn't for medieval Arab scholars, we'd have lost all the work of the Greeks - permanently. We (Westerners) already had. We got it back via the Arabs, after the crusades. They had always seen its value and preserved it.

BTW - the first modern Muslim University in Spain opened in 2016 - at San Sebastian (in Basque country. Spain: first Islamic university opens in San Sebastian - General news - ANSAMed.it

Wonder what their Most Catholic Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella would have thought of that! :smile:

J.

 

Contentious contemporary wisdom. Somewhere this is being argued. In whispers, perhaps. Or aloud, if allowed.

 

I wouldn't call this Moroccan school the world's oldest university. Certainly not if we want to consider ancient higher education institutions that no longer exist.

One would have to consider Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum. There were the Library and Museum of Alexandria. Rhodes had flourishing schools in Hellenistic times.

But perhaps the most substantial ancient higher education institutions were found in India.

Taxila was a very early one, prominent in both Hindu and Buddhist culture. The Arthashastra was said to have been written there, and the great Sanskrit grammarian Panini is said to have been associated with Taxila.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxila

And the later Nalanda was an absolute phenomenon, a huge monastic/educational complex with elaborate architecture, lecture halls, and a star-studded list of professors and graduates. These included most of the big names of Buddhist philosophy including Nagarjuna (the founder of Madhyamaka), his student Aryadeva, Chandrakirti, Dignaga and Dharmakirti the great practitioners of hetuvidya (logic/epistemology), Dharmapala and Naropa (hugely influential in Tibet). The Oxford of the ancient world for sure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda

Even in ruins it's still impressive.



It was Muslim invaders that destroyed Nalanda and killed all of the scholar-monks that were there. Some of those that escaped the slaughter ended up in Tibet whose monks proved to be eager students, giving shape to that country's distinctive culture that preserved late-medieval Indian Buddhist scholarship down to the present time (when it was almost destroyed in the 1960's by Chinese communist barbarians waving Mao's little red book).

 

Salerno isn't in Sicily, it's near Naples. I think that it's true that t got its start as a medical school in the 800's or around there, using Latin translations of Arabic translations of ancient Greek authors like Galen.

I don't think that's entirely true. The Byzantines preserved copies of many ancient texts in the original Greek, many of which found their way into Italy and were translated into Latin. The flow of ancient texts wasn't just by way of the Arabs.

Remember that the Byzantine empire was the East Roman Empire in its shrunken highly-mutated Orthodox Christian form. The Roman Empire didn't definitively fall until 1453 when Constantinople was conquered by the Turks.

 

"If a man can translate well from Latin and Greek and has accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior, only then may he be admitted to Harvard College." From the requirements in the 1640s.

 

So what percentage of Harvard scholars do we think meet these requirements today? I'll set the over/under at 0.5.

 

I'll take "under."

 

Your points - both 100% true. And yes - mine only partially true. A recap from Wikipedia - not the best source, possibly, but somewhat illustrative:

"However, in the Middle East many Greek texts (such as the works of Aristotle) were translated from Greek into Syriac during the 6th and 7th centuries by Nestorian, Melkite or Jacobite monks living in Palestine, or by Greek exiles from Athens or Edessa who visited Islamic centres of higher learning. The Islamic world then kept, translated, and developed many of these texts, (emphasis mine, J.) especially in centers of learning such as Baghdad, where a "House of Wisdom" with thousands of manuscripts existed as early as 832. These texts were translated[by whom?] again into European languages during the Middle Ages.[1] Eastern Christians played an important role in exploiting this knowledge, especially through the Christian Aristotelician School of Baghdad in the 11th and 12th centuries. Later Latin translations of these texts originated in multiple places. Toledo, Spain (with Gerard of Cremona, 1114–1187) and Sicily became the main points of transmission of Islamic knowledge to Europe. Burgundio of Pisa (died 1193) discovered in Antioch lost texts of Aristotle and translated them into Latin."

And yes - I was wrong about Salerno - WAY wrong! Not only was it not in Sicily, as Hierophant correctly pointed out, it wasn't even founded by Muslims, although there were Arab influences, as per this site: The School at Salerno: Origin of the European Medical University - Medievalists.net

My apologies. What the الجحيم (al jahim) was I thinking?

J.

 

Not to harp but https://www.amazon.com/How-Irish-Saved-Civilization-Irelands/dp/0385418493.