Continuing with our profiles of historical women to help us all see a bit more of the contributions they brought to the world let's fire up the wayback machine again.
Today we're going all the way back to around 800 CE (that's essentially AD for those not quite as current on their historical dating practices) and examining one of the first universities that granted degrees in the world and it was founded by a muslim woman. Her name was Fatima Al Fihri.
As is fairly common for a number of women we know a decent amount about in history Fatima came from a relatively well off family. Her father and brother were successful merchants and Fatima herself was noted as being studious, pious and well-educated. When her father and brother both passed suddenly they left her and her sister a sizeable inheritance.
Rather than live a life of luxury or even continue the family business Fatima and her sister wanted to use the money for the benefit of the community. In the process they made all other rich people look bad I'm quite sure. Fatima would found what would become one of the world's oldest universities and its still in use to this day. Situated in Fes Morocco on the norther coast of Africa is the Al-Qarawiyyin university. It's name's changed a bit since then but it is still a working, teaching university that even in its early days was well known for a variety of subjects and for being a place for scholars from around the world to meet, exchange ideas and learn together.
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| Pictured: Morocco in North Africa in case like me, you needed a bit of a visual |
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| The university is also a mosque. There is contention as to whether it was a mosque first and a university later or both at once from the beginning. |
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| What I assume is a common space in the university |
Fatima's dedication to her community is merely one in an incredibly long example of women recognizing the power of education and learning. It demonstrates the things that can be accomplished when those who are more fortunate are inspires and compelled to give back and use their resources and vision for the greater good rather than simply for their own self enrichment.
That's it for today boys and girls. Let's get back in the time machine and head back to the present day. Tomorrow we'll continue our explorations through the contributions of historical women great and small. I think the wayback machine needs a break so we'll go with someone contemporary tomorrow and you know what... I'm feeling ambitious. I think we need a contemporary T.V. 2 for the prices of 1.
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