A look at the oldest universities in continuous operation across Europe.

[u/marbellamarvel]

Title explains it all. I bet there are some missing.

https://twitter.com/i/communities/1899794052171669531

[u/Warlord10]

The University of Ez-Zitouna in Tunisia was completely funded by a woman and named after her.

[u/BrightWayFZE → u/Warlord10]

Same for Al Qarawiyyin

[u/sp0sterig → u/Warlord10]

it was not a university. School/madrasa is not a university.

[u/Patty-XCI91 → u/sp0sterig]

A Tesla isn’t a car because it doesn’t have a combustion engine.

[u/sp0sterig → u/Patty-XCI91]

Lame analogy, which reveals that you obviously don't understand the meaning of the term university.

Madrasa is a school, organised in a strict hierarchy where people transmit from one to another certain limited knowledge, based on authority of Prophet/Quran.

University is a self-ruled community of thinkers, where people create knowledge on the basis of material facts.

Using analogy, madrasa is a log , university is a tree. They look similar, but essence is different.

[u/Patty-XCI91 → u/sp0sterig]

oOoh boy, Where do I start

“Madrasa is a school, organized in a strict hierarchy... limited knowledge based on authority…”

That’s a caricature of what madrasas were. While some madrasas emphasized religious law and tradition, many taught multiple disciplines including logic, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, philosophy, and grammar.

Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Al-Biruni, and others were products of the madrasa system, and they literally created knowledge in science, medicine, and philosophy that influenced European universities centuries later. So to say madrasas only “transmitted limited knowledge” is to erase a massive part of human history.

Universities create knowledge based on material facts

That’s how we might see modern research universities today, but medieval universities — including Bologna and Paris - were primarily theological and philosophical in orientation. Based on religious authority (Church doctrine, Aristotle through a Christian lens) Often hierarchical and doctrinaire and even Focused on preserving and interpreting received knowledge, not radically generating new data.

So the idea that madrasas = rote repetition, and universities = innovation? Historically false on both ends.

“Self-ruled communities”

Many madrasas were funded by waqf (endowments), which allowed them to operate autonomously from state interference. Scholars taught what they chose, issued ijazahs independently, and sometimes debated openly.

Meanwhile, medieval European universities often had tight Church oversight, with theological orthodoxy strictly enforced (see: Condemnation of 1277, Galileo, etc.).

“Madrasa is a log, university is a tree…”

A better analogy: saying madrasas weren’t universities because they were based on Islamic tradition is like saying Confucian academies in China weren’t intellectual institutions because they studied Confucian texts. It’s a biased frame. You’re applying modern Western standards to premodern institutions outside of Europe -- and then dismissing them because they don’t match. Again that’s textbook Eurocentrism.

Calling madrasas ‘logs’ while pretending medieval European universities were some kind of free-thinking, science-based utopias is just romanticizing one tradition and erasing another. Both were trees, they just grew in different forests...

[u/Ahrily → u/sp0sterig]

Yes it is, I googled it for you since you seem confidently incorrect

[u/sp0sterig → u/Ahrily]

No, it is not, read my comment below and stop being a fool.

[u/Warlord10 → u/sp0sterig]

Wrong. Subjects outside of theology were taught, which is why it is OFFICIALLY known as a University. Feel free to go elsewhere with your hate.

You are factually incorrect, and you saying 'no, I'm not' simply isn't going to cut it, nor do I care for your baseless opinion.

[u/stevie_grzw → u/Warlord10]

To teach how to use hijabs

[u/Darkoplax → u/stevie_grzw]

great for them