The Qarawiyyin Mosque and university complex, founded in 859, is in the Moroccan city of Fez.
The institution was established by Fatima al-Fihri, traditionally described as the daughter of a wealthy immigrant from Qayrawan. The mosque expanded over centuries and became an important center of religious learning, law, language, and scholarship in the western Islamic world.
Its architecture reflects successive periods of Moroccan history rather than a single original design. The complex includes a large prayer hall, courtyards, fountains, arcades, and a distinctive minaret. The mosque’s long history also illustrates how Islamic religious buildings could function as educational and civic institutions.
The complex is often described as one of the world’s oldest continuously operating educational institutions. That claim concerns the institution’s long scholarly continuity, not the survival of an unchanged ninth-century building.