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This Moroccan World News article claims that the Univeristy of Al Qarawiyyin of Fez, Morocco is "the Oldest University in the World".

Dating back to 859, the University is no doubt older than Egypt’s Azhar University (970) and its European counterparts: the University of Oxford, which is regarded as the oldest university in the English-speaking world (roughly founded in 1096), and University of Bologna (founded approximately in 1088). The historic university of Fez is actually recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest degree-granting university in the world.

This is widely considered a fact in Morocco.

Is it true?

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Motaka
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    This is affirmed in essence by the Wikipedia page... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Al_Quaraouiyine – Avery Jun 06 '18 at 01:55
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    Is wikipedia 100% reliable? Wikipedia had as reference "guinnessworldrecords" .. In the article "guinnessworldrecords", Lukas Godfrey said that the oldest university in the world is not Karueein (al-Qarawiyyin), but Nalanda, in Bihar, India! and in this article: https://informationdose.blogspot.com/2014/12/top-5-oldest-universities-around-world.html for example al-Qarawiyyin is not cited as ... – Motaka Jun 06 '18 at 02:21
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    The guy in the comments claiming India doesn't seem to understand that Guinness specifies "the oldest existing, continually operating and the first degree-awarding educational institution in the world", as does Wikipedia. By his logic you could revive Plato's Academy and that would now be the oldest university – Avery Jun 06 '18 at 02:43
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    @Avery Agreed. There are some universities in China that are currently operating that might be considered older, but they were not in continuous use and have changed names several times. The conditions that Guinness specifies for this record makes it so that Al Qarawiyyin will continue to hold the title unless they shut down for some reason. – DenisS Jun 06 '18 at 13:44
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    It's all suspicious. Wikipedia also says that University of Ez-Zitouna was established in 737, which is older than 859... so why isn't it the oldest one? In any case why are they called "universities" if they were teaching the Quran exclusively until the 20th century? European (Italian) universities were teaching actual things like Law and Medicine from the 11th-12th centuries. I've heard this "fact" from most Moroccan acquaintances when discussing the subject. – Gomunkul May 22 '20 at 00:08
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    The [University of Ez-Zitouna](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Ez-Zitouna) has a complex past - was it continually operating? I am not sure your definition of university or your definition of "actual things" is relevant. – Oddthinking May 22 '20 at 05:23
  • This wikipedia page about oldest universities has a ranking with an interesting discussion about "What is considered an university" https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Universidades_m%C3%A1s_antiguas Also consider that UNESCO seems to agree http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/170 – borjab May 22 '20 at 18:43
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    @Gomunkl sorry to disappoint you but they didn't teach only theology. They taught grammar, jurisdiction, astronomy and other sciences of the time. Ibn Khaldun who has been described as the founder of what would become historiography, sociology, economics, and demography, was an Alumini of Ez-Zitouna. – 0x016F2818 Sep 22 '21 at 06:48
  • Not sure how the wikipedia article looked in 2018, but from the way it looks now, I feel this is going to be a debate about "university" vs "higher-learning", which is the term used by Guinness, actually. The title of the Q is also not reflecting the actual [Guinness] claim (of continuous operation). OTOH, the quote itself is pretty bad in clarifying this ... – Fizz Sep 24 '21 at 08:51
  • More substantively the Wikipedia article discusses, alas only at the end, when teaching began (based on available evidence), as opposed to it functioning as a mosque. – Fizz Sep 24 '21 at 09:51

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