title: Roman naming conventions

text: The number of tribes varied over time; tradition ascribed the institution of thirty tribes to Servius Tullius, the sixth King of Rome, but ten of these were destroyed at the beginning of the Republic. Several tribes were added between 387 and 241 BC, as large swaths of Italy came under Roman control, bringing the total number of tribes to thirty-five; except for a brief experiment at the end of the Social War in 88 BC, this number remained fixed. The nature of the tribes was mainly geographic, rather than ethnic; inhabitants of Rome were, in theory, assigned to one of the four "urban" tribes, while the territory beyond the city was allocated to the "rural" or "rustic" tribes.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: Geography was not the sole determining factor in one's "tribus"; at times efforts were made to assign freedmen to the four urban tribes, thus concentrating their votes and limiting their influence on the "comitia tributa". Perhaps for similar reasons, when large numbers of provincials gained the franchise, certain rural tribes were preferred for their enrollment. Citizens did not normally change tribes when they moved from one region to another; but the censors had the power to punish a citizen by expelling him from one of the rural tribes and assigning him to one of the urban tribes. In later periods, most citizens were enrolled in tribes without respect to geography.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: Precisely when it became common to include the name of a citizen's "tribus" as part of his full nomenclature is uncertain. The name of the tribe normally follows the filiation and precedes any cognomina, suggesting that its addition preceded formal recognition of the cognomen — thus, no later than the second century BC. However, in both writing and inscriptions, the "tribus" is found with much less frequency than other parts of the name; so the custom of including it does not seem to have been deeply ingrained in Roman practice. As with the filiation, it was common to abbreviate the name of the tribe. For the names of the thirty-five tribes and their abbreviations, see Roman tribe.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: In the earliest period, the binomial nomenclature of praenomen and nomen that developed throughout Italy was shared by both men and women. Most praenomina had both masculine and feminine forms, although a number of praenomina common to women were seldom or never used by men. Just as men's praenomina, women's names were regularly abbreviated instead of being written in full. A list of women's praenomina can be found at praenomen.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: For a variety of reasons, women's praenomina became neglected over the course of Roman history, and by the end of the Republic, most women did not have or did not use praenomina. They did not disappear entirely, nor were Roman women bereft of personal names; but for most of Roman history women were known chiefly by their nomina or cognomina.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: The first of these reasons is probably that the praenomen itself lost much of its original utility following the adoption of hereditary surnames. The number of praenomina commonly used by both men and women declined throughout Roman history. For men, who might hold public office or serve in the military, the praenomen remained an important part of the legal name. But, as in other ancient societies, Roman women played little role in public life, so the factors that resulted in the continuation of men's praenomina did not exist for women.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: Another factor was probably that the praenomen was not usually necessary to distinguish between women within the family. Because a Roman woman did not change her nomen when she married, her nomen alone was usually sufficient to distinguish her from every other member of the family. As Latin names had distinctive masculine and feminine forms, the nomen was sufficient to distinguish a daughter from both of her parents and all of her brothers. Thus, there was no need for a personal name unless there were multiple sisters in the same household.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: When this occurred, praenomina could be and frequently were used to distinguish between sisters. However, it was also common to identify sisters using a variety of names, some of which could be used as either praenomina or cognomina. For example, if Publius Servilius had two daughters, they would typically be referred to as "Servilia Major" and "Servilia Minor". If there were more daughters, the eldest might be called "Servilia Prima" or "Servilia Maxima"; younger daughters as "Servilia Secunda, Tertia, Quarta", etc. All of these names could be used as praenomina, preceding the nomen, but common usage from the later Republic onward was to treat them as personal cognomina; when these names appear in either position, it is frequently impossible to determine whether they were intended as praenomina or cognomina.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: Although women's praenomina were infrequently used in the later Republic, they continued to be used, when needed, into imperial times. Among the other peoples of Italy, women's praenomina continued to be used regularly until the populace was thoroughly Romanized. In the Etruscan culture, where women held a markedly higher social status than at Rome or in other ancient societies, inscriptions referring to women nearly always include praenomina.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: Most Roman women were known by their nomina, with such distinction as described above for older and younger siblings. If further distinction were needed, she could be identified as a particular citizen's daughter or wife. For instance, Cicero refers to a woman as "Annia P. Anni senatoris filia", which means "Annia, daughter of Publius Annius, the senator". However, toward the end of the Republic, as hereditary cognomina came to be regarded as proper names, a woman might be referred to by her cognomen instead, or by a combination of nomen and cognomen; the daughter of Lucius Caecilius Metellus was usually referred to as "Caecilia Metella". Sometimes these cognomina were given diminutive forms, such as "Agrippina" from the masculine "Agrippa", or "Drusilla" from "Drusus".


title: Roman naming conventions

text: In imperial times, other, less formal names were sometimes used to distinguish between women with similar names. Still later, Roman women, like men, adopted "signa", or alternative names, in place of their Roman names.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: With the fall of the western empire in the fifth century, the last traces of the distinctive Italic nomenclature system began to disappear, and women too reverted to single names.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: As Roman territory expanded beyond Italy, many foreigners obtained Roman citizenship, and adopted Roman names. Often these were discharged auxiliary soldiers, or the leaders of annexed towns and peoples. Customarily a newly enfranchised citizen would adopt the praenomen and nomen of his patron; that is, the person who had adopted or manumitted him, or otherwise procured his citizenship. But many such individuals retained a portion of their original names, usually in the form of cognomina. This was especially true for citizens of Greek origin. A name such as or would be typical of such persons, although in form these names are not distinguishable from those of freedmen.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: The "Constitutio Antoniniana" promulgated by Caracalla in AD 212 was perhaps the most far-reaching of many imperial decrees enfranchising large numbers of non-citizens living throughout the empire. It extended citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire, all of whom thus received the name "Marcus Aurelius", after the emperor's praenomen and nomen. The result was that vast numbers of individuals who had never possessed praenomina or nomina formally shared the same names. In turn, many of the "new Romans" promptly discarded their praenomina, and ignored their nomina except when required by formality. As a result, the cognomina adopted by these citizens, often including their original non-Latin names, became the most important part of their nomenclature.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: During the Republic, a person's names were usually static and predictable, unless he were adopted into a new family or obtained a new surname. In imperial times, however, names became highly variable and subject to change. Perhaps no names were more variable than those of the emperors.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: For example, the first emperor, known conventionally as Augustus, began life as , or Gaius Octavius, the son of Gaius Octavius. His ancestors had borne the same name for at least four generations. Although the Octavii were an old and distinguished plebeian family, the gens was not divided into "stirpes" and had no hereditary cognomina; Octavius' father had put down a slave revolt at Thurii and was sometimes given the surname "Thurinus" (a cognomen "ex virtute"), but this name was not passed down to the son.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: At the age of eighteen in 44 BC, Octavius was nominated "magister equitum" by his granduncle, Gaius Julius Caesar, who held the office of dictator. On the Ides of March, Caesar was assassinated, without legitimate children; but in his will he adopted his nephew, who then became , "Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, son of Gaius". Thus far, his name follows the Republican model, becoming that of his adoptive father, followed by his original nomen in the form of an agnomen.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: Two years later, Caesar was deified by the Roman Senate, and Octavian, as he was then known, was styled , "son of the divine (Caesar)", instead of . Still later, after having been acclaimed "Imperator" by the troops under his command, Octavian assumed this title as an additional praenomen, becoming ; in some inscriptions his original praenomen is discarded altogether. In 27 BC, the Senate granted him the title of "Augustus", which would ever after be affixed as a cognomen to the names of the Roman emperors.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: A similar pattern was followed by Augustus' heirs. The emperor's stepson and eventual successor was born "Tiberius Claudius Nero;" after his adoption by the emperor, he became "Tiberius Julius Caesar" (retaining his original praenomen). His brother, born "Decimus Claudius Nero", subsequently became "Nero Claudius Drusus", exchanging his original praenomen for his paternal cognomen, and assuming a new cognomen from his maternal grandfather. Other members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty used praenomina such as "Drusus" and "Germanicus".


title: Roman naming conventions

text: In subsequent generations, all reigning emperors assumed "Imperator" as an additional praenomen (usually without foregoing their original praenomina), and "Augustus" as a cognomen. "Caesar" came to be used as a cognomen designating an heir apparent; and for the first two centuries of the empire, most emperors were adopted by their predecessors. The result was that each emperor bore a series of names that had more to do with the previous emperor than the names with which he had been born. They added new cognomina as they fought and conquered enemies and new lands, and their filiations recorded their descent from a series of gods. As the names of the emperors themselves changed, so did the names of the members of their families.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: During the Empire, a variety of new naming conventions developed which, while differing, were internally coherent.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: Under the "High Empire", the new aristocracy began adopting two or more nomina – a practice which has been termed 'binary nomenclature'. This arose out of a desire to incorporate distinguished maternal ancestry in a name or, in order to inherit property, an heir was required by a will to incorporate the testator's name into his own name. For example, the suffect consul of AD 118/9, Gaius Bruttius Praesens Lucius Fulvius Rusticus, has a name which is composed of two standard sets of tria nomina: he was the natural son of a Lucius Bruttius, and added the nomina of his maternal grandfather, Lucius Fulvius Rusticus, to his paternal nomina.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: In order to reflect an illustrious pedigree or other connections, the aristocracy expanded the binary nomenclature concept to include other nomina from an individual's paternal and maternal ancestry. There was no limit to the number of names which could be added in this way (known as polyonomy), and, for example, the consul of 169 AD, (usually called Q. Sosius Priscus) had thirty-eight names comprising fourteen sets of nomina reflecting a complex pedigree stretching back three generations.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: The praenomen, even under the classic system, had never been particularly distinctive because of the limited number of praenomina available. Between the late Republic and the second century AD, the praenomen gradually became less used and eventually disappeared altogether. Even among the senatorial aristocracy it became a rarity by about 300 AD. In part this came about through a tendency for the same praenomen to be given to all males of a family, thereby fossilizing a particular preaenomen/nomen combination and making the praenomen even less distinctive e.g. all males in the emperor Vespasian's family (including all his sons) had the praenomen/nomen combination Titus Flavius:


title: Roman naming conventions

text: The cognomen, as in Vespasian's family, then assumed the distinguishing function for individuals; where this happened, the cognomen replaced the praenomen in intimate address. The result was that two names remained in use for formal public address but instead of praenomen + nomen, it became nomen + cognomen.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: With the Constitutio Antoniniana in 212, the emperor Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. It had long been the expectation that when a non-Roman acquired citizenship he, as part of his enfranchisement, took on a Roman name. With the mass enfranchisement of 212, the new citizens adopted the nomen "Aurelius" in recognition of Caracalla's beneficence (the emperor's full name was Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus, with Aurelius as the nomen). "Aurelius" quickly became the most common nomen in the east and the second most common (after "Julius") in the west. The change in the origins of the new governing elite that assumed control of the empire from the end of the third century can be seen in their names: seven of the eleven emperors between Gallienus and Diocletian (Claudius Gothicus, Quintillus, Probus, Carus, Carinus, Numerian and Maximian) bore the name "Marcus Aurelius"


title: Roman naming conventions

text: Although praenomina were not adopted by the new citizens, reflecting the pre-existing decline amongst "old" Romans, in the west the new names were formulated on the same basis as the existing Roman practices. In the east, however, the new citizens formulated their names by placing "Aurelius" before versions of their non-Roman given name and a patronymic. Ultimately, the ubiquity of "Aurelius" meant that it could not function as a true distinguishing nomen, and became primarily just a badge of citizenship added to any name.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: Although a nomen would long be required for official purposes, and, in isolated corners of the empire and in parts of Italy, its usage would persist into the seventh century, the nomen was generally omitted from the name (even of emperors) by the third century.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: Two factors encouraged its frequent non-use. Firstly, the cognomen increasingly became the distinguishing name and general name of address. As a result, "New Romans" and, under their influence, "old Romans" too, either dropped the nomen from their name or, in some cases, treated the nomen as a praenomen.


title: Roman naming conventions

text: Secondly, with the nomen becoming an increasingly fossilized formality, non-Italian families, even those who had acquired citizenship and a nomen prior to 212, began to ignore their nomen. When a nomen was required for official purposes they would simply put the default nomen of "Aurelius" in front of their name, rather than use their actual nomen.


title: Alba Longa

text: Alba Longa (occasionally written Albalonga in Italian sources) was an ancient Latin city in Central Italy, 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Rome, in the vicinity of Lake Albano in the Alban Hills. Founder and head of the Latin League, it was destroyed by the Roman Kingdom around the middle of the 7th century BC, and its inhabitants were forced to settle in Rome. In legend, Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, had come from the royal dynasty of Alba Longa, which in Virgil's "Aeneid" had been the bloodline of Aeneas, a son of Venus.


title: Alba Longa

text: According to Livy, Roman patrician families such as the Julii, Servilii, Quinctii, Geganii, Curiatii and Cloelii originated in Alba Longa.


title: Alba Longa

text: Livy said of Alba Longa that it was founded by Ascanius to relieve crowding at Lavinium. He placed it at the foot of the Alban Mount and said that it took its name from being extended along a ridge. Dionysius of Halicarnassus repeated the story, but added that Ascanius, following an oracle given to his father, collected other Latin populations as well. Noting that means "white" and means "long", he translated the name into the Greek language as "long white town". Dionysius placed the town between the Alban Mount and the Alban Lake, thus beginning a long controversy about its location.


title: Alba Longa

text: Since the 16th century, the site has been at various times identified as that of the Convent of St. Paul at Palazzola near Albano, Coste Caselle near Marino, and Castel Gandolfo. The last named of these places in fact occupies the site of the Villa of Domitian which, according to Juvenal, was situated on the arx of Alba.


title: Alba Longa

text: Archaeological data show the existence of a string of villages in the Iron Age, each with its own necropolis, along the south-western shore of Lake Albano. At the time it was destroyed by Rome, these villages must have still been in a pre-urban phase, beginning to group around a centre which may well have been Castel Gandolfo, whose significantly larger necropolis suggests a larger town.


title: Alba Longa

text: In the later republican period the territory of Alba (the "Ager Albanus") was settled once again with many residential villas, which are mentioned in ancient literature and of which remains are extant.


title: Alba Longa

text: According to Roman mythology, after the fall of Troy in 1184 BC, Aeneas led a group of surviving Trojans through the Mediterranean Sea to Sicily, Carthage, and eventually the Italian Peninsula. On landing in Italy he was welcomed by Latinus, king of the early Latins. Soon, Aeneas married king Latinus' daughter, Lavinia, and founded the city of Lavinium in her name. Latinus later fell in war, making Aeneas king of the Latins and his son Ascanius (also called Iulus) his successor.


title: Alba Longa

text: A few years later Aeneas was killed in battle, like Latinus, and Ascanius became king of the Latins. Ascanius reportedly built Alba Longa as his capital on the slope of Mount Alba, resettling six hundred families there as a colony of Lavinium in 1151 BC, only thirty years after Lavinium itself was founded. His descendants ruled the Latins for another five hundred years.


title: Alba Longa

text: Alba Longa was the leading city of the roughly thirty cities that made up the Latin League. The league's conferences were held by the , in the scenic part of the valley between Albano and Marino. The sacrifices of the league were offered on the Alban mountain from which all the country of Latium might be seen.


title: Alba Longa

text: The colonies of Alba Longa were distinct from the Alban townships which must have consisted of Albani plebs, as the genuine Albans were the populus. Among the Alban colonies some become part of the plebs: others become Latin cities. The others were ceded to the Latins to maintain a consistent thirty townships, thirty being of great importance among the Latin kingdoms as twelve was to the Ionians (or 4 divided into 3 parts each). Accordingly, the Latin kingdom of Latinus, and the Rutulian kingdom of Turnus must have had thirty cities each with Laurentum as the Latin capital prior to the arrival of Aeneas.


title: Alba Longa

text: In the seventh century BC, the Roman king Tullus Hostilius succeeded Numa Pompilius. During his reign, Rome's attitude toward its neighbors reflected Tullus's own predilection for war. When a dispute erupted between a group of Romans and Albans, he seized upon the mutual accusations of robbery as a pretext for conflict. Both sides sent emissaries to demand redress. When the Alban delegation arrived in Rome, Tullus purposefully gave them such a warm greeting that they delayed making their demand. The Roman delegates, however, immediately addressed the Albans and were refused. By virtue of the Alban first refusal, Tullus was justified in declaring war.


title: Alba Longa

text: Livy describes the war as being akin to a civil war, because the Romans were said to be descended from the Albans.


title: Alba Longa

text: The king of the Albans, Cluilius, marched with his army into Roman territory, established camp, and dug a huge trench around Rome, which became known as the Cluilian trench. However, Cluilius died in the camp of unspecified causes, whereupon the Albans appointed Mettius Fufetius as dictator to lead the army in his place.


title: Alba Longa

text: Tullus emerged from Rome with his army, passed the Alban camp at night and marched into Alban territory. Mettius followed, camped near the Roman army, and then sent a representative to invite Tullus to confer before any engagement. Tullus accepted the invitation. However, both sides were drawn up for battle while the leaders met between the two forces.


title: Alba Longa

text: At the conference, Mettius proposed that the dispute be resolved by some means other than mass bloodshed, citing the concern that the nearby Etruscans would fall upon the two Latin states if these were weakened by war and unable to defend themselves. It was agreed that a set of triplets from each side, three brothers Horatii and three Curiatii, would battle for the victory of the two states. Livy refers to conflict amongst his own sources as to which set of brothers represented which state, but prefers the view that the Horatii were the Romans, and the Curiatii Albans.


title: Alba Longa

text: Vows were entered into in a most solemn form by each of the Romans and the Albans as to this agreement by which the future of each state would be bound by the outcome of the fight. Marcus Valerius was appointed Fetial, and Spurius Fusius Pater Patratus, for the purposes of binding Rome by the treaty.


title: Alba Longa

text: The combat commenced. Two of the Romans were the first to fall. Then the remaining Roman, Publius Horatius, slew the three Albans, and thus won victory for Rome. Afterwards, Tullus ordered Mettius to return with his army to Alba, but to be prepared in the event of war with Veii. The Albans became, in substance, a vassal state of Rome.


title: Alba Longa

text: Not long afterwards, war did indeed break out with Veii and also with the Fidenates. Mettius and the Albans were ordered to march to battle with Tullus and the Romans, and they met the Etruscans on the far side of the Anio, on the banks of the Tiber. However, when the battle commenced, Mettius led his troops away from the battle, leaving the Romans to fight the Etruscans alone.


title: Alba Longa

text: Rome was victorious against the Etruscans. After the battle Tullus executed Mettius for his perfidy. Then, on Tullus' orders, the Roman soldiers demolished the 400-year-old city of Alba Longa, leaving only the temples standing, and the entire population of Alba Longa was transported to Rome, thereby doubling the number of Roman citizens. Tullus enlisted the leading families of Alba amongst the patricians, namely the Julii, Servilii, Quinctii, Geganii, Curiatii and Cloelii. Tullus built a new senate-house, the Curia Hostilia, to house the enlarged Roman senate. He also recruited ten new "turmae" of equites from amongst the Albans, and new legions. The Alban immigrants lived on the Caelian Hill in Rome.


title: Alba Longa

text: The temple of Vesta which stood at the foot of the Palatine hill outside Rome presumably predated the city, which at the time of its founding only occupied the top of the hill: the hearth of Vesta would not ordinarily be built outside a city's walls.


title: Alba Longa

text: Worship of Vesta in Italy began in Lavinium, the mother-city of Alba Longa. From Lavinium worship of Vesta was transferred to Alba Longa. Upon entering higher office, Roman magistrates would go to Lavinium to offer sacrifice to Vesta and the household gods the Romans called "Penates". Roman mythology claims that the Penates were Trojan gods first introduced to Italy by Aeneas. Among these household gods must have been Vesta who has been referred to as "Vesta Iliaca" (Vesta of Troy), with her sacred hearth being named "Iliaci foci" (Trojan hearth).


title: Alba Longa

text: The priestesses of Vesta, known as Vestal Virgins, administered her temple and watched the eternal fire. Their existence in Alba Longa is connected with the early Roman traditions, for Silvia the mother of Romulus was a priestess. They were finally established in Rome during the reign of Numa, where they would remain until the institution was disestablished with the rise of Christianity during the late Roman Empire.


title: Alba Longa

text: On the top of the Monte Cavo (Mons Albanus) was a very ancient shrine consecrated to Jupiter Latiaris. Florus (2nd century) states that the site was selected by Ascanius, who, having founded Alba, invited all the Latins to celebrate sacrifices there to Jupiter, a custom which eventually led to the annual celebration there of the Feriae Latinae, at which all the cities that belonged to the Latin Confederation would gather under the aegis of Alba, sacrificing a white bull, the flesh of which was distributed among all the participants.


title: Alba Longa

text: After Alba Longa was destroyed and her leadership role was assumed by Rome, tradition records the building of a full-scale temple to Jupiter Latiaris on the Alban Mount in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus; of which only a few courses of perimeter wall remain today, now removed off site. There are, however, substantial remains of the paved road that connected it to the Via Appia near Aricia.


title: Alba Longa

text: Much of the science fiction story "To Bring the Light" takes place in Alba Longa at the crucial time of Rome's founding. Alba Longa is described as seen by Flavia Herosilla, a well-educated woman who lived in Imperial Rome and was hurled a thousand years back in time, and who is concerned to ensure that Rome will be founded on schedule - for which purpose she successfully instigates a bloody regime change in Alba Longa.


title: Theodor Morell

text: Theodor Gilbert Morell (22 July 1886 – 26 May 1948) was a German medical doctor known for acting as Adolf Hitler's personal physician. Morell was well known in Germany for his unconventional treatments. He assisted Hitler daily in virtually everything he did for several years and was beside Hitler until the last stages of the Battle of Berlin. Morell was granted high awards by Hitler, and became a multi-millionaire from business deals with the Nazi government made possible by his status.


title: Theodor Morell

text: Morell was the second son of a primary school teacher, born and raised in the small village of Trais-Münzenberg in Upper Hesse. He studied medicine in Grenoble and Paris, then trained in obstetrics and gynecology in Munich in 1910. On 23 May 1913, he completed his doctoral degree and was fully licensed as a physician. He served as a ship's doctor until 1914, when he volunteered for service at the Front during the First World War. Morell served as an army battalion medical officer until 1917. By 1918, he was in Berlin with his own medical practice, and in 1920 he married Hannelore Moller, a wealthy actress. He furnished his office with the latest medical technology through his wife's fortune. He targeted his unconventional treatments at an upscale market, his practice becoming fashionable for treatment of skin and venereal diseases, and turned down invitations to be personal physician to both the Shah of Persia and the King of Romania.


title: Theodor Morell

text: Morell joined the Nazi Party when Hitler came to power in 1933. In 1935, Hitler's personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, was successfully treated by Morell. Hoffmann told Hitler that Morell had saved his life. Hitler met Morell in 1936, and Morell began treating Hitler with various commercial preparations, including a combination of vitamins and hydrolyzed "E. coli" bacteria called Mutaflor, which successfully treated Hitler's severe stomach cramps. Through Morell's prescriptions, a leg rash which Hitler had developed also disappeared. Hitler was convinced of Morell's medical genius and Morell became part of his social inner circle.


title: Theodor Morell

text: Some historians have attempted to explain this by citing Morell's reputation in Germany for success in treating syphilis, along with Hitler's own (speculated) fears of the disease, which he associated closely with Jews. Others have commented on the possibility that Hitler had visible symptoms of Parkinson's disease, especially towards the end of the war.


title: Theodor Morell

text: Hitler recommended Morell to others of the Nazi leadership, but most of them, including Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, dismissed Morell as a quack. As Albert Speer related in his autobiography:


title: Theodor Morell

text: When Hitler was troubled with grogginess in the morning, Morell would inject him with a solution of water mixed with a substance from several small, gold-foiled packets, which he called "Vitamultin". Hitler would arise, refreshed and invigorated. Hitler gave a packet to Himmler, who immediately became suspicious and instead secretly ordered one of his SS physicians, Ernst-Günther Schenck, to have it tested in a laboratory. It was found to contain methamphetamine. On at least one occasion, Hitler ordered his private train stopped so that Morell could inject him without worrying about the train jostling.


title: Theodor Morell

text: Speer characterised Morell as an opportunist, who once he achieved status as Hitler's physician, became extremely careless and lazy in his work. By 1944, Morell developed a hostile rivalry with Dr. Karl Brandt, who had been attending Hitler since 1934. Though criticized by Brandt and other physicians, Morell was always "restored to favor".


title: Theodor Morell

text: Morell was not popular with Hitler's entourage, who complained about the doctor's crude table manners, poor hygiene and body odor. Hitler is said to have responded "I do not employ him for his fragrance, but to look after my health." Hermann Göring called Morell "Der Reichsspritzenmeister", ("Reich Master of Injections"), and variations on that theme, implying that Morell resorted to using drug injections when faced with medical problems, and overused them.


title: Theodor Morell

text: Morell kept a medical diary of the drugs, tonics, vitamins and other substances he administered to Hitler, usually by injection (up to 20 times per day) or in pill form. Most were commercial preparations, some were Morell's own mixes. Since some of these compounds are considered toxic, historians have speculated that Morell inadvertently contributed to Hitler's deteriorating health. The fragmentary list "(below)" of some 74 substances (in 28 different mixtures) administered to Hitler include psychoactive drugs such as heroin as well as commercial poisons. Among the compounds, in alphabetical order, were:


title: Theodor Morell

text: An "almost" complete listing of the drugs used by Morell, wrote historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, was compiled after the war from his own meticulous daily records unlikely to have been exaggerated.


title: Theodor Morell

text: In 1939, Morell inadvertently became involved with the invasion of Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak president, Emil Hacha, became so scared at Hitler's outburst that he fainted. Morell injected stimulants into Hacha to wake him, and although he claimed these were only vitamins, they may have included methamphetamine. Hacha soon gave in to Hitler's demands.


title: Theodor Morell

text: When Reinhard Heydrich, who was serving as Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia – the rump left of Czechoslovakia after Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland – was the victim of an assassination attempt in May 1942, Morell was one of the doctors brought in by Heinrich Himmler to treat the badly-wounded SS man. His recommendation to use antibiotics was ignored by Heinrich Himmler's chief doctor, Karl Gebhardt, gangrene set in, and Heydrich died a week later.


title: Theodor Morell

text: After the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt against Hitler, Morell treated him with topical penicillin, which had only recently been introduced into testing by the U.S. Army. Where he acquired it is unknown, and Morell claimed complete ignorance of penicillin when he was interrogated by American intelligence officers after the war. When members of Hitler's inner circle were interviewed for the book "The Bunker," some claimed Morell owned a significant share in a company fraudulently marketing a product as penicillin.


title: Theodor Morell

text: When Hitler developed jaundice in September 1944, Dr. Erwin Geising – an ear, nose and throat specialist who had originally been brought in to treat the dictator after the damage done to his eardrums from the bomb explosion of the 20 July plot – began to be suspicious of Morell's treatment of Hitler. Suspecting that he knew the cause of the jaundice, Geising deliberately dosed himself with some of the "Dr. Koester's Anti-Gas Pills" which Morell had Hitler taking in large numbers every day, and found that they had effects that were mildly harmful. Having them analyzed, he found they contained strychnine and belladonna, the strychnine being the cause of the jaundice. Geising reported his results to two of Hitler's other doctors, Karl Brandt and Hanskarl von Hasselbach, who in turn told other members of Hitler's retinue. When word of this finally reached Hitler, he was furious. Declaring that he had total faith in Morell and his treatments, he dismissed all three doctors – Geising, Brandt and Hasselbach – even though the latter two had been with him since his early days in power. Several months later, Brandt was imprisoned and condemned to death at the Nuremberg trials.


title: Theodor Morell

text: By April 1945, Hitler was taking many pills a day, along with numerous injections. The personal notes of Morell describe how he treated Hitler over the years, including notations such as, "injection as always", and, "Eukodal", an early German trade name for the opioid oxycodone.


title: Theodor Morell

text: Morell was one of the occupants of the "Führerbunker", located in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, once Hitler and his entourage relocated there from the Wolf's Lair in Rastenburg in East Prussia. As the Battle of Berlin progressed and the outlook became dire, it was Morell who provided the cyanide capsules which Eva Braun would later use to kill herself, and which Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda used to murder their six children before killing themselves.


title: Theodor Morell

text: On 20 April 1945, Morell, Albert Bormann, Admiral Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer, Dr. Hugo Blaschke, secretaries Johanna Wolf, Christa Schroeder, and several others were ordered by Hitler to leave the bunker and Berlin by aircraft for the Obersalzberg. Hitler told Morell he did not need any more medical help, although he continued to take many of the medications Morell had prescribed for him; during the last week of Hitler's life, it was administered by Dr. Werner Haase and by Heinz Linge, Hitler's valet. The group flew out of Berlin on different flights by aircraft of the "Fliegerstaffel des Führers" over the following three days. Morell was on the flight which left Berlin on 23 April.


title: Theodor Morell

text: Hitler awarded Morell the title of Professor and gave him the Golden Party Badge and the Knights Cross of the War Merit Cross. Morell was able to use his relationship with Hitler to sell his "Vitamultin" to the German Labor Front and his delousing product "Rußla powder" to the Wehrmacht. In addition to an annual salary of , these business ventures earned Morell a fortune of about seven million Reichsmark.


title: Theodor Morell

text: Morell was captured by American forces and interrogated on 18 May 1945. One of his interrogators was reportedly "disgusted" by his obesity and lack of hygiene. Although he was held in an American internment camp on the site of the former Buchenwald concentration camp, and questioned because of his proximity to Hitler, Morell was never charged with a crime. Grossly obese and suffering from poor health, he died in a Tegernsee hospital on 26 May 1948.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (born 7 August 1925) is an Indian agronomist, agricultural scientist, plant geneticist, administrator and humanitarian. Swaminathan is a global leader of the green revolution. He has been called the main architect of the green revolution in India for his leadership and role in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice. Swaminathan's collaborative scientific efforts with Norman Borlaug, spearheading a mass movement with farmers and other scientists and backed by public policies, saved India and Pakistan from certain famine-like conditions in the 1960s. His leadership as Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines was instrumental in his being awarded the first World Food Prize in 1987, recognized as the Nobel or the highest honours in the field of agriculture. United Nations Environment Programme has called him 'the Father of Economic Ecology'.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Swaminathan contributed basic research related to potato, wheat and rice, in areas such as cytogenetics, ionizing radiation and radiosensitivity. He has been a President of the Pugwash Conferences and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In 1999, he was one of three Indians, along with Gandhi and Tagore, on "TIME" magazines' list of the '20 Most Influential Asian People of the 20th Century', along with Eiji Toyoda, Dalai Lama and Mao Zedong. Swaminathan has received numerous awards and honours, including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, Ramon Magsaysay Award and the Albert Einstein World Science Award. mms chaired the National Commission on Farmers (NCF) in 2004 which recommended far-reaching ways to improve India's farming system. He is the founder of an eponymous research foundation. He coined the term 'Evergreen Revolution' in 1990 to describe his vision of 'productivity in perpetuity without associated ecological harm'. He was nominated to the Parliament of India for one term between 2007 and 2013. During his tenure he tabled a bill for the recognition of women farmers in India, however it lapsed.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Swaminathan was born in Kumbakonam, Madras Presidency on 7 August 1925. He was the second son of general surgeon Dr. M. K. Sambasivan and Parvati Thangammal Sambasivan who hailed from Alappuzha district in Kerala. After his father's death when he was 11, young Swaminathan was looked after by his father's brother.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Swaminathan was educated at a local high school and later at the Catholic Little Flower High School in Kumbakonam, from which he matriculated at age 15. Right from childhood, he had interaction with farming and farmers; his extended family grew rice, mangoes and coconut, later expanding into areas such as coffee. He saw the impact fluctuations in the price of crops had on his family, including the devastation that weather and pest could cause to crops as well as incomes.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: His parents wanted him to study medicine. With that in mind, he took started off his higher education with zoology. But, when he witnessed the impacts of the Bengal famine of 1943 during the Second World War and shortages of rice throughout the sub-continent, he decided to devote his life to ensuring India had enough food. Despite his family background, and belonging to an era where medicine and engineering were considered much more prestigious, he chose agriculture.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: He went on to finish his undergraduate degree in zoology at Maharaja's College in Trivandrum, Kerala (now known as University College, Thiruvananthapuram at the University of Kerala). He then studied at University of Madras (Madras Agricultural College, now the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University) from 1940 to 1944 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural science. During this time he was also taught by Cotah Ramaswami, professor of agronomy.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: In 1947 he moved to the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi to study genetics and plant breeding. He obtained a post-graduate degree with high distinction in cytogenetics in 1949. His research focused on the genus "Solanum", with specific attention to the potato. Social pressures resulted in him competing in the examinations for civil services through which he was selected to the Indian Police Service. However at the same time, an opportunity for him arose in the agriculture field in the form of a UNESCO fellowship in genetics in the Netherlands. He chose genetics.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: He was a UNESCO fellow at the Wageningen Agricultural University, Institute of Genetics in the Netherlands, for eight months. The demand for potato during the second world war resulted in deviations in age-old crop rotations. This caused golden nematode infestations in certain areas such as reclaimed agricultural lands. Swaminathan worked on adapting genes to provide resilience against such parasites, as well as cold weather. To this effect, the research succeeded. Ideologically the university influenced his later scientific pursuits in India with respect to food production. During this time he also made a visit to Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in war-torn Germany; this would later influence him deeply as during his next visit, a decade later, he saw that the Germans had transformed Germany, both infrastructurally and energetically.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: In 1950, he moved to study at the Plant Breeding Institute of the University of Cambridge School of Agriculture. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in 1952, for his thesis, "Species Differentiation, and the Nature of Polyploidy in certain species of the genus "Solanum" – section Tuberarium." The next Christmas he stayed for a week with a F.L. Brayne, a former Indian Civil Service officer, whose experiences with rural India influenced Swaminathan in his later years.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Swaminathan then spent 15 months in the United States. He accepted a post-doctoral research associateship at the University of Wisconsin, Laboratory of Genetics to help set up a USDA potato research station. The laboratory at the time had Nobel laureate Joshua Lederburg on its faculty. His associateship ended in December 1953. He was offered a faculty position, however Swaminathan refused. His aim continued to be to make a difference back home in India.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: He returned to India in early 1954. There were no jobs in his specialisation and it was only three months later that he got the opportunity through a former professor to work temporarily as an assistant botanist at Central Rice Research Institute in Cuttack. At Cuttack, he was under an indica-japonica rice hybridisation program started by Krishnaswami Ramiah. This stint would go on to influence his future work with wheat. Half a year later he joined Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi in October 1954 as an assistant cytogeneticist. Swaminathan was critical of India importing food grains when seventy percent of India was dependent on agriculture. Further drought and famine-like situations were developing in the country.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Swaminathan and Norman Borlaug collaborated, with Borlaug touring India and sending supplies for a range of Mexican dwarf varieties of wheat, which were to be bred with Japanese varieties. Initial testing in an experimental plot showed good results. The crop was high-yield, good quality, and disease free. There was hesitation by farmers to adopt the new variety whose high-yields were unnerving. In 1964, following repeated requests by Swaminathan to demonstrate the new variety, he was given funding to plant small demonstrations plots. A total of 150 demonstration plots on 1 hectare were planted. The results were promising and the anxieties of the farmers reduced. More modifications were made to the grain in the laboratory to better suit Indian conditions. The new wheat varieties were sown and in 1968 production went to 17 million tonnes, 5 million tonnes more than the last harvest.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Notable contributions were made by Indian agronomists and geneticists such as Gurdev Khush and Dilbagh Singh Athwal. The Government of India declared India self-sufficient in food production in 1971. India and Swaminathan could now deal with other serious issues of access to food, hunger and nutrition. He was with IARI between 1954 and 1972.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: In 1972, Swaminathan was appointed as the Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and a Secretary to the Government of India. In 1979, in a rare move for a scientist, he was made a Principal Secretary, a senior position in the Government of India. The next year he was shifted to the Planning Commission. As Director-General ICAR, he pushed for technical literacy, setting up centres all over India for this. Droughts during this period led him to form groups to watch weather and crop patterns, ultimately with the aim of protecting the poor from malnutrition. His shift to the Planning Commission for two years resulted in the introduction of women and environment with respect to development in India's five year plans for the first time.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: In 1982, he was made the first Asian Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. He was there until 1988. One of the contributions he made during his tenure here was conducting an international conference "Women in Rice Farming Systems". America based Association for Women in Development gave Swaminathan their first award for "outstanding contributions to the integration of women in development" based on this. As Director General, he spread awareness among rice growing families of making value of each part of the rice crop. His leadership at IRRI was instrumental in the first World Food Prize being awarded to him. In 1984 he became the President and Vice-President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN) and World Wildlife Fund respectively.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: In 1987 he was awarded the first World Food Prize. The prize money was used to set up the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. Accepting the award, Swaminathan spoke of the growing hunger despite the increase in food production. He spoke of the fear of sharing "power and resources", and that the goal of a world without hunger remains unfinished. In their commendation letters Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Frank Press and President Ronald Reagan, and others recognized his efforts.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Swaminathan would go on to chair the World Food Prize Selection Committee following Borlaug. In ICAR, from the late 1950s onwards, he taught cytogenetics, radiation genetics, and mutation breeding. Swaminathan has mentored numerous Borlaug‐Ruan interns, part of the Borlaug‐Ruan International Internship.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Swaminathan established the Nuclear Research Laboratory (NRL) at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). He played a role in and promoting the setting up of the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India; the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) (now known as Bioversity International) in Italy and the International Council for Research in Agro-Forestry (ICRAF) in Kenya. He helped to build and develop a number of institutions, and provide research support, in China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iran and Cambodia.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: He co-chaired the United Nations Millennium Project on hunger from 2002 to 2005 and was head of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs between 2002 and 2007. In 2005 Bruce Alberts, President of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences said of Dr. Swaminathan: "At 80, M.S. retains all the energy and idealism of his youth, and he continues to inspire good behaviour and more idealism from millions of his fellow human beings on this Earth. For that, we can all be thankful". Swaminathan had the aim of a hunger-free India by 2007.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: He was the chair of the National Commission on Farmers constituted in 2004. In 2007, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam nominated Swaminathan to the Rajya Sabha. Swaminathan introduced one bill during his tenure, The Women Farmers' Entitlements Bill 2011, however it lapsed. One of the aims it proposed was recognising women farmers.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: A term coined by Swaminathan, Evergreen Revolution, based on enduring influence of the green revolution, aims to address the continuous increase in sustainable productivity that mankind requires. He has described it as "productivity with perpetuity".


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: In his later years, he has also been part of initiatives related to bridging the digital divide, and bringing research to decision makers in the field of hunger and nutrition.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: M.S. Swaminathan is married to Mina Swaminathan whom he met in 1951 while they were both studying at Cambridge. They live in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Their three daughters are Soumya Swaminathan (a paediatrician), Madhura Swaminathan (an economist), and Nitya Swaminathan (gender and rural development).


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Gandhi and Ramana Maharshi were influences in his life. Of the 2000 acres their family owned, they donated one-third to Vinoba Bhave's cause. In an interview in 2011, he said that when he was young, he followed Swami Vivekananda.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: In the 1950s, Swaminathan's explanation and analysis of the origin and evolutionary processes of potato was a major contribution. He elucidated its origin as an autotetraploid and its cell division behaviour. His findings related to polyploids were also significant. Swaminathan's thesis in 1952 was based on his basic research related to "species differentiation and the nature of polyploidy in certain species of the genus Solanum, section Tuberarium". The impact was the greater ability to transfer genes from a wild species to the cultivated potato.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: What made his research on potato valuable was its real world application in the development of new potato varieties. During his post-doctoral at Wisconsin University he helped develop a frost-resistant potato. His genetic analysis of potato, including the genetic traits that govern yield and growth, important factors in increasing productivity, was pivotal. His multi-disciplinary systems approach perspective brought together many different genetic facets.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: In the 1950s and 60s Swaminathan did basic research into the cytogenetics of hexaploid wheat. The varieties of wheat and rice developed by Swaminathan and Borlaug were foundational to the green revolution.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Efforts towards growing rice with C carbon fixation capabilities, which would allow a better photosynthesis and water usage, were started at International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) under Swaminathan. Swaminathan also played a role in the development of the world's first high-yielding basmati.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: The Genetics Division of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) under Swaminathan was globally renowned for its research on mutagens. He set up a 'Cobalt-60 Gamma Garden' to study radiation mutation. Swaminathan's association with Homi J. Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, Raja Ramana, M. R. Srinivasan and other Indian nuclear scientists allowed agricultural scientists to access facilities at the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (which would later become the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre). Swaminathan's first PhD student A. T. Natarajan would go on to write his thesis in this direction. One of the aims of such research was to increase plant responsiveness to fertilisers and demonstrate real world application of crop mutations. Swaminathan's early basic research on the effects of radiation on cells and organisms partly formed the base of future redox biology.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Swaminathan received the Mendel Memorial Medal from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1965. Following this he received numerous international awards and honours, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1971), the Albert Einstein World Science Award (1986), the first World Food Prize (1987), the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (1991), the Four Freedoms Award (2000), and the Planet and Humanity Medal of the International Geographical Union (2000). When accepting the Ramon Magsaysay Award, Swaminathan quoted Seneca "A hungry person listens neither to reason, nor to religion, nor is bent by any prayer."


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: He has been conferred with the Order of the Golden Heart of the Philippines, the Order of Agricultural Merit of France, the Order of the Golden Ark of Netherlands, and the Royal Order of Sahametrei of Cambodia. China awarded him with the "Award for International Co-operation on Environment and Development". In the 'Dr Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates' at Des Moines, Iowa, United States, there is an artwork of Swaminathan made up of 250,000 pieces of glass. International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has named a building and a scholarship fund after him.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: One of the first national awards he received was the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 1961. Following this he has been conferred with the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, India's fourth, third, and second-highest civilian awards, as well as the H K Firodia award, the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award and the Indira Gandhi Prize. As of 2002, he had 28 national and 24 international awards. In 2016 "Biotech Express" magazine listed 33 national and 32 international awards. In 2004, an agricultural think-tank in India named an annual award after Swaminathan, the eponymously named 'Award for Leadership in Agriculture'.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: He is the recipient of 84 honorary doctorates and has been a guide for numerous Ph.D. scholars. Sardar Patel University conferred him with an honorary degree in 1970, Delhi University, Banaras Hindu University and others would follow. Internationally, Technical University of Berlin (1981) and Asian Institute of Technology (1985) has honoured him. University of Wisconsin honoured Swaminathan with an honorary doctorate in 1983. When University of Massachusetts, Boston honoured him was a science doctorate they commented on the "magnificent inclusiveness of (Swaminathan's) concerns, by nation, socioeconomic group, gender, inter-generational, and including both human and natural environments." Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, from where he got his PhD in botany, made him an honorary fellow in 2014.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Swaminathan has been elected a fellow of a number of science academies in India. Internationally he has been recognised as a fellow by 30 academies of science and societies across the world including USA, United Kingdom, Russia, Sweden, Italy, China, Bangladesh, as well as the European Academy of Arts, Science and Humanities. He was a founder fellow of The World Academy of Sciences. National Agrarian University in Peru conferred him with an honorary professorship.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: Swaminathan published 46 single-author papers between 1950 and 1980. In total he had 254 papers to his credit, 155 of which he was the single or first author. His scientific papers are in the fields of crop improvement (95), cytogenetics and genetics (87) and phylogenetics (72). His most frequent publishers were "Indian Journal of Genetics" (46), "Current Science" (36), "Nature" (12) and "Radiation Botany" (12). Selected publications include,


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: In addition he has written a few books on the general theme of his life's work, biodiversity and sustainable agriculture for alleviation of hunger. Swaminathan's books, papers, dialogues and speeches include:


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: In the 1970s, a scientific paper in which Swaminathan and his team claimed to have produced a mutant breed of wheat by gamma irradiation of a Mexican variety (Sonora 64) resulting in "Sharbati Sonora," claimed to have a very high lysine content, led to a major controversy. The case was claimed to be an error made by the laboratory assistant. The episode was also compounded by the suicide of an agricultural scientist. It has been studied as part of a systemic problem in Indian agriculture research.


title: M. S. Swaminathan

text: A paper published on 25 November 2018 edition of "Current Science" journal titled 'Modern Technologies for Sustainable Food and Nutrition Security' listed Swaminathan as a co-author. The article was criticised by a number of scientific experts, including by K. VijayRaghavan, the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, who commented that it was "deeply flawed and full of errors". Swaminathan cleared things out by saying that his role in the paper was "extremely limited" and that he shouldn't have been named as the co-author.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: The University of al-Qarawiyyin (; ; ), also written Al-Karaouine or Al Quaraouiyine, is a university located in Fez, Morocco. It was founded as a mosque by Fatima al-Fihri in 857–859 and subsequently became one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the Islamic Golden Age. It was incorporated into Morocco's modern state university system in 1963 and officially renamed "University of Al Quaraouiyine" two years later. The mosque building itself is also a significant complex of historical Moroccan and Islamic architecture that features elements from many different periods of Moroccan history.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Scholars consider al-Qarawiyyin to have been effectively run as a madrasa until after World War II. Many scholars distinguish this status from the status of "university" (similar to how Christian seminaries are not classified as a university), which they view as a distinctly European invention. They date al-Qarawiyyin's transformation from a madrasa into a university to its modern reorganization in 1963. Some sources, such as UNESCO and the Guinness World Records, cite al-Qarawiyyin as the oldest university or oldest continually operating higher learning institution in the world.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Education at the University of al-Qarawiyyin concentrates on the Islamic religious and legal sciences with a heavy emphasis on, and particular strengths in, Classical Arabic grammar/linguistics and "Maliki" Sharia, though lessons on non-Islamic subjects are also offered to students. Teaching is still delivered in the traditional methods. The university is attended by students from all over Morocco and Muslim West Africa, with some also coming from further abroad. Women were first admitted to the institution in the 1940s.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: The Arabic name of the university, means "University of the People from Kairouan ( )". Factors such as the provenance of Fatima al-Fihriya's family in Tunisia, the presence of the letter "Qāf" (ق) – a voiceless uvular plosive which has no equivalent in European languages – the () triphthong in the university's name, and the French colonization of Morocco have resulted in a number of different orthographies for the romanization of the university's name, including "al-Qarawiyyin", a standard anglicization; "Al Quaraouiyine", following French orthography; and "Al-Karaouine", another rendering using French orthography.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: In the 9th century, Fez was the capital of the Idrisid dynasty, considered to be the first Moroccan Islamic state. According to one of the major early sources on this period, the "Rawd al-Qirtas" by Ibn Abi Zar, al-Qarawiyyin was founded as a mosque in 857 or 859 by Fatima al-Fihri, the daughter of a wealthy merchant named Mohammed al-Fihri. The al-Fihri family had migrated from Kairouan (hence the name of the mosque), Tunisia to Fez in the early 9th century, joining a community of other migrants from Kairouan who had settled in a western district of the city. Fatima and her sister Mariam, both of whom were well educated, inherited a large amount of money from their father. Fatima vowed to spend her entire inheritance to build a mosque suitable for her community. Similarly, her sister Mariam is also reputed to have founded al-Andalusiyyin Mosque the same year.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: This foundation narrative has been questioned by some modern historians who see the symmetry of two sisters founding the two most famous mosques of Fez as too convenient and likely originating from a legend. Ibn Abi Zar is also judged by contemporary historians to be a relatively unreliable source. One of the biggest challenges to this story is a foundation inscription that was rediscovered during renovations to the mosque in the 20th century, previously hidden under layers of plaster for centuries. This inscription, carved onto cedar wood panels and written in a Kufic script very similar to foundation inscriptions in 9th-century Tunisia, was found on a wall above the probable site of the mosque's original "mihrab" (prior to the building's later expansions). The inscription, recorded and deciphered by Gaston Deverdun, proclaims the foundation of "this mosque" () by Dawud ibn Idris (a son of Idris II who governed this region of Morocco at the time) in "Dhu al-Qadah" 263 AH (July–August of 877 CE). Deverdun suggested the inscription may have come from another unidentified mosque and was moved here at a later period (probably 15th or 16th century) when the veneration of the Idrisids was resurgent in Fez, and such relics would have held enough religious significance to be reused in this way. However, Chafik Benchekroun argued more recently that a more likely explanation is that this inscription is the original foundation inscription of al-Qarawiyyin itself and that it might have been covered up in the 12th century just before the Almohads' arrival in the city. Based on this evidence and on the many doubts about Ibn Abi Zar's narrative, he argues that Fatima al-Fihri is quite possibly a legendary figure rather than a historical one.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Some scholars suggest that some teaching and instruction probably took place at al-Qarawiyyin Mosque from a very early period or from its beginning. Major mosques in the early Islamic period were typically multi-functional buildings where teaching and education took place alongside other religious and civic activities. The al-Andalusiyyin Mosque, in the district across the river, may have also served a similar role up until at least the Marinid period, though it never equaled the Qarawiyyin's later prestige. It is unclear at what time al-Qarawiyyin began to act more formally as an educational institution, partly because of the limited historical sources that pertain to its early period. The most relevant major historical texts like the "Rawd al-Qirtas" by Ibn Abi Zar and the "Zahrat al-As" by Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Jazna'i do not provide any clear details on the history of teaching at the mosque, though al-Jazna'i (who lived in the 14th century) mentions that teaching had taken place there before his time. Otherwise, the earliest mentions of "halaqa" (circles) for learning and teaching may not have been until the 10th or the 12th century. Historian Abdelhadi Tazi indicates the earliest clear evidence of teaching at al-Qarawiyyin in 1121. Moroccan historian Mohammed Al-Manouni believes that the mosque acquired its function as a teaching institution during the reign of the Almoravids (1040–1147). Historian Évariste Lévi-Provençal dates the beginning of teaching to the Marinid period (1244–1465).


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: In the 10th century, the Idrisid dynasty fell from power and Fez was contested between the Fatimid and Cordoban Umayyad caliphates and their allies. During this period, the Qarawiyyin Mosque progressively grew in prestige. At some point the "khutba" (Friday sermon) was transferred from the Shurafa Mosque of Idris II (today the Zawiya of Moulay Idris II) to the Qarawiyyin Mosque, granting it the status of Friday mosque (the community's main mosque). This transfer happened either in 919 or in 933, both dates that correspond to brief periods of Fatimid domination over the city, and suggests that the transfer may have occurred by Fatimid initiative. The mosque and its learning institution continued to enjoy the respect of political elites, with the mosque itself being significantly expanded by the Almoravids and repeatedly embellished under subsequent dynasties. Tradition was established that all the other mosques in Fez based the timing of their call to prayer ("adhan") according to that of al-Qarawiyyin.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Many scholars consider al-Qarawiyyin's high point as an intellectual and scholarly center to be in the 13th and 14th centuries, when the curriculum was at its broadest and its prestige had reached new heights after centuries of expansion and elite patronage. Among the subjects taught around this period or shortly after were traditional religious subjects such as the Quran and "fiqh" (Islamic jurisprudence), and other sciences like grammar, rhetoric, logic, medicine, mathematics, astronomy and geography. By contrast, some subjects like alchemy/chemistry were never officially taught as they were considered too unorthodox.Starting in the late 13th century, and especially in the 14th century, the Marinid dynasty was responsible for constructing a number of formal madrasas in the areas around al-Qarawiyyin's main building. The first of these was the Saffarin Madrasa in 1271, followed by al-Attarine in 1323, and the Mesbahiya Madrasa in 1346. A larger but much later madrasa, the Cherratine Madrasa, was also built nearby in 1670. These madrasas taught their own courses and sometimes became well-known institutions, but they usually had narrower curricula or specializations. One of their most important functions seems to have been to provide housing for students from other towns and cities – many of them poor – who needed a place to stay while studying at al-Qarawiyyin. Thus, these buildings acted as complimentary or auxiliary institutions to al-Qarawiyyin itself, which remained the center of intellectual life in the city.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Al-Qarawiyyin also compiled a large selection of manuscripts that were kept at a library founded by the Marinid sultan Abu Inan Faris in 1349. The collection housed numerous works from the Maghreb, al-Andalus, and the Middle East. Part of the collection was gathered decades earlier by Sultan Abu Yusuf Ya'qub (ruled 1258–1286), who persuaded Sancho IV of Castile to hand over a number of works from the libraries of Seville, Cordoba, Almeria, Granada, and Malaga in al-Andalus/Spain. Abu Yusuf initially housed these in the nearby Saffarin Madrasa (which he had recently built), but later moved them to al-Qarawiyyin. Among the most precious manuscripts currently housed in the library are volumes from the "Al-Muwatta" of Malik written on gazelle parchment, a copy of the "Sirat" by Ibn Ishaq, a 9th-century Quran manuscript (also written on gazelle parchment), a copy of the Quran given by Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur in 1602, a copy of Ibn Rushd's "Al-Bayan Wa-al-Tahsil wa-al-Tawjih" (a commentary on "Maliki" "fiqh") dating from 1320, and the original copy of Ibn Khaldun's book "Al-'Ibar" (including the "Muqaddimah") gifted by the author in 1396. Recently rediscovered in the library is an "ijazah" certificate, written on deer parchment, which some scholars claim to be the oldest surviving predecessor of a Medical Doctorate degree, issued to a man called Abdellah Ben Saleh Al Koutami in 1207 CE under the authority of three other doctors and in the presence of the chief "qadi" (judge) of the city and two other witnesses. The library was managed by a "qayim" or conservator, who oversaw the maintenance of the collection. By 1613 one conservator estimated the library's collection at 32,000 volumes.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Students were male, but traditionally it has been said that "facilities were at times provided for interested women to listen to the discourse while accommodated in a special gallery ("riwaq") overlooking the scholars' circle". The 12th-century cartographer Mohammed al-Idrisi, whose maps aided European exploration during the Renaissance, is said to have lived in Fez for some time, suggesting that he may have worked or studied at al-Qarawiyyin. The institution has produced numerous scholars who have strongly influenced the intellectual and academic history of the Muslim world. Among them are Ibn Rushayd al-Sabti (d. 1321), Mohammed Ibn al-Hajj al-Abdari al-Fasi (d. 1336), Abu Imran al-Fasi (d. 1015) – a leading theorist of the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, and Leo Africanus. Pioneer scholars such as Muhammad al-Idrissi (d.1166 AD), Ibn al-Arabi (1165–1240 AD), Ibn Khaldun (1332–1395 AD), Ibn al-Khatib (d. 1374), Nur ad-Din al-Bitruji (Alpetragius) (d. 1294), and Ali ibn Hirzihim (d. 1163) were all connected with al-Qarawiyyin as either students or lecturers. Some Christian scholars visited al-Qarawiyyin, including Nicolas Cleynaerts (d. 1542) and the Jacobus Golius (d. 1667). The 19th-century orientalist Jousé Ponteleimon Krestovitich also claimed that Gerbert d'Aurillac (later Pope Sylvester II) studied at al-Qarawiyyin in the 10th century. Although this claim about Gerbert is sometimes repeated by modern authors, modern scholarship has not produced evidence to support this story.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Al-Qarawiyyin underwent a general decline in later centuries along with Fez. The strength of its teaching stagnated and its curriculum decreased in range and scope, becoming focused on traditional Islamic sciences and Arabic linguistic studies. Even some traditional Islamic specializations like "tafsir" (Quranic exegesis) were progressively neglected or abandoned. In 1788–89, the Alaouite sultan Muhammad ibn Abdallah introduced reforms that regulated the institution's program, but also imposed stricter limits and excluded logic, philosophy, and the more radical Sufi texts from the curriculum. Other subjects also disappeared over time, such as astronomy and medicine. In 1845 Sultan Abd al-Rahman carried out further reforms, but it is unclear if this had any significant long-term effects. Between 1830 and 1906 the number of faculty decreased from 425 to 266 (of which, among the latter, only 101 were still teaching).


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: By the 19th century, the mosque's library also suffered from decline and neglect. A significant portion of its collection was lost over time, most likely due to lax supervision and to books that were not returned. By the beginning of the 20th century, the collection had been reduced to around 1,600 manuscripts and 400 printed books, though many valuable historic items were retained.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: At the time Morocco became a French protectorate in 1912, al-Qarawiyyin worsened as a religious center of learning from its medieval prime, though it retained some significance as an educational venue for the sultan's administration. The student body was rigidly divided along social strata: ethnicity (Arab or Berber), social status, personal wealth, and geographic background (rural or urban) determined the group membership of the students who were segregated by the teaching facility, as well as in their personal quarters. The French administration implemented a number of structural reforms between 1914 and 1947, including the institution of calendars, appointment of teachers, salaries, schedules, general administration, and the replacement of the "ijazah" with the "shahada alamiyha," but did not modernize the contents of teaching likewise which were still dominated by the traditional worldviews of the "ulama". At the same time, the student numbers at al-Qarawiyyin decreased to 300 in 1922 as the Moroccan elite sent their children to the newly founded Western-style colleges and institutes elsewhere in the country. In 1931 and 1933, on the orders of Muhammad V, al-Qarawiyyin's teaching was reorganized into elementary, secondary, and higher education.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Al-Qarawiyyin also played a role in the Moroccan nationalist movement and in protests against the French colonial regime. Many Moroccan nationalists had received their education here and some of their informal political networks were established due to the shared educational background. In July 1930, al-Qarawiyyin strongly participated in the propagation of "Ya Latif", a communal prayer recited in times of calamity, to raise awareness and opposition to the Berber Dahir decreed by the French authorities two months earlier. In 1937 the mosque was one of the rallying points (along with the nearby R'cif mosque) for demonstrations in response to a violent crackdown on Moroccan protesters in Meknes, which ended with French troops being deployed across Fes el-Bali and at the mosques.In 1947 al-Qarawiyyin was integrated into the state educational system, and women were first admitted to study there during the 1940s. In 1963, after Moroccan independence, al-Qarawiyyin was officially transformed by royal decree into a university under the supervision of the ministry of education. Classes at the old mosque ceased and a new campus was established at a former French Army barracks. While the dean took his seat at Fez, four faculties were founded in and outside the city: a faculty of Islamic law in Fez, a faculty of Arab studies in Marrakech, and two faculties of theology in Tétouan and near Agadir. Modern curricula and textbooks were introduced and the professional training of the teachers improved. Following the reforms, al-Qarawiyyin was officially renamed "University of Al Quaraouiyine" in 1965.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: In 1975, General Studies was transferred to the newly founded Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University; al-Qarawiyyin kept the Islamic and theological courses of studies. In 1973, Abdelhadi Tazi published a three-volume history of the establishment entitled ("The al-Qarawiyyin Mosque").


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: In 1988, after a hiatus of almost three decades, the teaching of traditional Islamic education at al-Qarawiyyin was resumed by King Hassan II in what has been interpreted as a move to bolster conservative support for the monarchy.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Education at al-Qarawiyyin University concentrates on the Islamic religious and legal sciences with a heavy emphasis on, and particular strengths in, Classical Arabic grammar/linguistics and Maliki law, though some lessons on other non-Islamic subjects such as French and English are also offered to students. Teaching is delivered with students seated in a semi-circle around a sheikh, who prompts them to read sections of a particular text; asks them questions on particular points of grammar, law, or interpretation; and explains difficult points. Students from Morocco and Islamic West Africa attend al-Qarawiyyin, though some come from Muslim Central Asia. Spanish Muslim converts frequently attend the institution, largely attracted by the fact that the sheikhs of al-Qarawiyyin, and Islamic scholarship in Morocco in general, are heirs to the rich, religious, and scholarly heritage of Muslim al-Andalus.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Most students at al-Qarawiyyin range are between 13 and 30 years old, and study towards high school-level diplomas and university-level bachelor's degrees, although Muslims with a sufficiently high level of Arabic can attend lecture circles on an informal basis, given the traditional category of visitors "in search of [religious and legal] knowledge" ("zuwwaar li'l-talab fii 'ilm"). In addition to being Muslim, prospective students of al-Qarawiyyin are required to have fully memorized the Quran, as well as other shorter medieval Islamic texts on grammar and "Maliki" law, and to be proficient in classical Arabic.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque was founded in the 9th century, but its present form is the result of a long historical evolution over the course of more than 1,000 years. Successive dynasties expanded the mosque until it became the largest in Africa, with a capacity of 22,000 worshipers. The present-day mosque covers an extensive area of about half a hectare. Broadly speaking, it consists of a large hypostyle interior space for prayers (the prayer hall), a courtyard with fountains (the "sahn"), a minaret at the courtyard's western end, and a number of annexes around the mosque itself.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: The original mosque building was built in the 9th century. A major modern study of the mosque's structure, published by French archeologist and historian Henri Terrasse in 1968, determined that traces of the original mosque could be found in the layout of the current building. This initial form of the mosque occupied a large space immediately to the south of the "sahn", in what is now the prayer hall. It had a rectangular floor plan measuring 36 by 32 meters, covering an area of 1520 square meters, and was composed of a prayer hall with four transverse aisles running roughly east–west, parallel to the southern "qibla" wall. It probably also had a courtyard of relatively small size, and the first minaret, also of small size, reportedly stood on the location now occupied by the wooden "anaza" (at the central entrance to the prayer hall from the courtyard). Water for the mosque was initially provided by a well dug within the mosque's precinct.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: As Fez grew and the mosque increased in prestige, the original building was insufficient for its religious and institutional needs. During the 10th century, the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba and the Fatimid Caliphate constantly fought for control over Fez and Morocco, seen as a buffer zone between the two. Despite this uncertain period, the mosque received significant patronage and had its first expansions. The Zenata Berber emir Ahmed ibn Abi Said, one of the rulers of Fez during this period who was aligned with the Umayyads, wrote to the caliph Abd al-Rahman III in Cordoba for permission and funds to expand the mosque. The caliph approved, and the work was carried out or completed in 956. It expanded the mosque on three sides, encompassing the area of the present-day courtyard to the north and up to the current eastern and western boundaries of the building. It also replaced the original minaret with a new, larger minaret still standing today. Its overall form, with a square shaft, was indicative of the subsequent development of Maghrebi and Andalusian minarets.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: The mosque was embellished when the Amirid ruler al-Muzaffar (son of al-Mansur) led a military expedition to Fez in 998. The embellishments included a new "minbar" and a dome topped by talismans in the shape of a rat, a serpent, and a scorpion. Of these, only the dome itself, whose exterior is distinctively fluted or grooved, survives today, located above the courtyard entrance to the prayer hall. A similar dome, located across the courtyard over the northern entrance of the mosque ("Bab al-Ward" or "Gate of the Rose"), likely also dates from the same time.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: One of the most significant expansions and renovations was carried out between 1135 and 1143 under the patronage of the Almoravid ruler Ali ibn Yusuf. The prayer hall was extended by dismantling the existing southern wall and adding three more transverse aisles for a total of ten, while replicating the format of the existing arches of the mosque. This expansion required the purchase and demolition of a number of neighboring houses and structures, including some that were apparently part of the nearby Jewish neighbourhood (before the Mellah of Fez). The new expansion of the mosque involved not only a new "mihrab" in the middle of the new southern wall, but also the reconstruction or embellishment of the prayer hall's central nave (the arches along its central axis, in a line perpendicular to the southern wall and to the other rows of arches) leading from the courtyard to the "mihrab". This involved not only embellishing some of the arches with new forms but also adding a series of highly elaborate cupola ceilings composed in "muqarnas" (honeycomb or stalactite-like) sculpting and further decorated with intricate reliefs of arabesques and Kufic letters. Lastly, a new "minbar" in similar style and of similar artistic provenance as the "minbar" of the Koutoubia Mosque was completed and installed in 1144. It is made of wood in an elaborate work of marquetry, and decorated with inlaid materials and intricately carved arabesque reliefs. Its style was emulated for later Moroccan minbars.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Elsewhere, many of the mosque's main entrances were given doors made of wood overlaid with ornate bronze fittings, which today count among the oldest surviving bronze artworks in Moroccan architecture. Another interesting element added to the mosque was a small secondary oratory, known as the "Jama' al-Gnaiz" ("Funeral Mosque" or "Mosque of the Dead"), which was separated from the main prayer hall and dedicated to providing funerary rites for the deceased before their burial. The annex is also decorated with a muqarnas cupola and ornate archways and windows.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Later dynasties continued to embellish the mosque or gift it with new furnishings, though no works as radical as the Almoravid expansion were undertaken again. The Almohads (later 12th century and 13th century) conquered Fez after a long siege in 1145–1146. Historical sources (particularly the "Rawd al-Qirtas") report a story claiming that the inhabitants of Fez, fearful that the "puritan" Almohads would resent the lavish decoration placed inside the mosque, covered up some of the most ornate carvings and decorations from ibn Yusuf's expansion near the "mihrab", but Terrasse suggests this operation may have been carried out a few years later by the Almohad authorities. The Almoravid ornamentation was only fully uncovered again during renovations in the early 20th century.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Under the reign of Muhammad al-Nasir (ruled 1199–1213) the Almohads added and upgraded a number of elements in the mosque, some of which were nonetheless marked with strong decorative flourishes. The ablutions facilities in the courtyard were upgraded, a separate ablutions room was added to the north, and a new underground storage room was created. They also replaced the mosque's grand chandelier with one made of bronze, which Terrasse described as "the largest and most beautiful chandelier in the Islamic world," and which hangs in the central nave of the mosque today. It was commissioned by Abu Muhammad 'Abd Allah ibn Musa, the "khatib" of the mosque during the years 1202 to 1219. The chandelier consists of a 12-sided copula on top of which is mounted a large cone crowned around its sides with nine levels of candlesticks. It could originally hold 520 oil candles; the cost of providing the oil was so significant that it was only lit on special occasions, such as on the nights of Ramadan. The Marinid sultan Abu Ya'qub Yusuf (ruled 1286–1307), upon seeing the cost, ordered that it only be lit for the last day of Ramadan. The visible surfaces of the chandelier are carved and pierced with intricate floral arabesque motifs as well as Kufic Arabic inscriptions. The chandelier is the oldest surviving chandelier in the western Islamic world, and it likely served as a model for the Marinid chandelier in the Great Mosque of Taza.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: The Marinids, who were responsible for building many of the madrasas around Fez, made various contributions to the mosque. In 1286 they restored and protected the 10th-century minaret, which had been made from deteriorating poor-quality stone with whitewash. At its southern foot, they also built the "Dar al-Muwaqqit", a chamber for the timekeeper ("muwaqqit") of the mosque who was responsible for determining the precise times of prayer. The chamber was equipped with astrolabes and other scientific equipment of the era in order to aid in this task. Several water clocks were built for it in this period. The first two do not exist anymore, but are described by al-Jazna'i in the "Zahrat al-As". The first was commissioned by Abu Yusuf Ya'qub in the 13th century and designed by Muhammad ibn al-Habbak, a "faqih" and "muwaqqit". The second was built in 1317 or 1318 (717 AH), under the reign of Abu Sa'id, by a scholar named Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Sanhaji. Its time divisions were engraved by Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn al-Saddina al-Qarsatuni. The clock was neglected then restored between 1346 and 1349 (747–749 AH) by a new "muwaqqit", Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn al-'Arabi. A third and final water clock, built on the orders of Sultan Abu Salim Ali II (ruled 1359–1361), is still partly preserved today. It was designed by Abu Zayd Abd al-Rahman ibn Sulayman al-Laja'i and completed on November 20, 1361 (21 Muharram 763 AH), as recorded by an original inscription. It features a large astrolabe with a diameter of 71 cm, which is embedded into a wooden structure in the corner of the room, but its mechanism is no longer present.The galleries around the "sahn" were also rebuilt or repaired in 1283 and 1296–97, while at the entrance from the courtyard to the prayer hall (leading to the central nave of the mihrab), a decorative wooden screen, called the "anaza," was installed in 1289 and acted as a symbolic "outdoor" or "summer" mihrab for prayers in the courtyard. The stucco decoration on the entrance arch itself, however, dates from much later. At the central outer entrance to the courtyard from the north, the cupola ceiling over the entrance vestibule of the gate called "Bab al-Ward" ("Gate of the Rose") was redecorated with carved stucco in 1337. The richly-sculpted archway on the inner side of the gate also dates from this time.A number of ornate metal chandeliers hanging in the mosque's prayer hall date from the Marinid era. Three of them were made from church bells which Marinid craftsmen used as a base onto which they grafted ornate copper fittings. The largest of them, installed in the mosque in 1337, was a bell brought back from Gibraltar by the son of Sultan Abu al-Hasan, Abu Malik, after its reconquest from Spanish forces in 1333.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: The mosque's library was officially founded by Sultan Abu Inan in 1349 (750 AH), as dated by an inscription over its doorway. This first Marinid library was located at the mosque's northeastern corner (as opposed to the library's current southern location). In 1361, Sultan Abu Salim added a room to it, which was built above and over the adjacent street, and dedicated to readings of the Quran.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: The Saadians embellished the mosque by adding two prominent pavilions to the western and eastern ends of the courtyard, each of which sheltered a new fountain. The Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur was responsible for building the first pavilion to the east in 1587–88, while the western pavilion was added by his grandson Abdallah al-Ghalib II in 1609. The pavilions emulate the ones in the Court of Lions of the Alhambra palaces (in Granada, Spain). Al-Mansur also built a new room for the library on the south side of the mosque (around the library's current location), which was connected to the mosque via a door in the "qibla" wall.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: The Alaouite dynasty, which has ruled Morocco from the 17th century onward, continued to perform minor additions and regular maintenance on the mosque. A ribbed cupola in the central nave, where the 1337 Marinid chandelier hangs, has been dated by Terrasse to the Alaouite period, although Xavier Salmon has more recently argued that at least some elements of the dome seem to date from the Marinid era. The stucco decoration of the central archway at the courtyard entrance to the prayer hall (i.e. the arch inside which the Marinid-era "anaza" stands) also dates from the Alaouite period; an inscription at the top of the arch gives the year 1864–1865 (1281 AH).


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: The present library building dates mainly from a major expansion and modification in the 20th century, particularly in the 1940s. The new library expansion, which included a large new reading room, was inaugurated in 1949.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Al-Qarawiyyin's exterior does not generally present a monumental appearance and is integrated with the dense urban fabric around it. By one count there are 18 separate gates and entrances distributed around its perimeter. The gates vary from small rectangular doorways to enormous horseshoe arches with huge doors preceded by wooden roofs covering the street in front of them. While the doors are generally made of wood, some of the gates have extensive ornate bronze overlays crafted during the Almoravid period. The most ornate and best-preserved examples include the doors of the principal northern gate, "Bab al-Ward" (which opens onto the courtyard), the western gate called "Bab Sbitriyyin", and the southwestern gate "Bab al-Gna'iz", which leads to the "Jama' al-Gna'iz". While the doors of "Bab al-Ward" preserve original pieces and were restored in 2005–2007, the doors of "Bab al-Gna'iz" and "Bab Sbitriyyin" are replicas made in the 1950s that replaced the originals, whose fragments are kept by the Dar Batha Museum. The northwestern gates of the mosque, "Bab al-Shama'in" (or "Bab Chemaine") and "Bab al-Maqsura", also have heavy bronze fittings, including some ornate knockers that date from the Almoravid period.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Adjacent to "Bab al-Ward" on its west side is another doorway, "Bab al-Hafa" ("Gate of the Barefooted"). It is from the Almohad era, which is distinguished by a small water channel across the floor just inside it. The channel allowed worshipers entering the mosque to wash their feet on the way in, and helped with initial ablutions.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Next to the mosque is a tower known as the "Borj Neffara" (, "Tower of the Trumpeters"), an observation tower that is sometimes confused as a minaret but was actually part of another "Dar al-Muwaqqit".


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: The interior hypostyle prayer hall takes up most of the mosque's area. Like the interior of most traditional mosques in Moroccan architecture, it is a relatively austere space with mostly plain walls, wooden roofs, and rows upon rows of arches. The main area, south of the courtyard, is a vast space divided into ten transverse aisles by rows of arches running parallel to the southern wall. The southern wall of this hall also marks the "qibla". The central axis of the prayer hall, perpendicular to the "qibla" wall, is marked by a central nave running between two extra lines of arches along this axis, perpendicular to the other arches. This nave leads towards the "mihrab:" a niche in the "qibla" wall which symbolizes the direction of prayer, and in front of which the imam usually leads prayers and delivers sermons. This overall layout (a hypostyle hall with a central nave emphasized against the others) is a familiar layout for North African mosques generally.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: The "mihrab", which dates from the Almoravid (12th-century) expansion, is decorated with carved and painted stucco, as well as several windows of coloured glass. The mihrab niche itself is a small alcove which is covered by a small dome of "muqarnas" (stalactite or honeycomb-like sculpting). The central nave that runs along the axis of the "mihrab" is distinguished from the rest of the mosque by a number of architectural embellishments. The arches that run along it are of varying shapes, including both horseshoe arches and multi-lobed arches. Instead of the plain timber ceilings, most sections of the nave are covered by a series of intricate "muqarnas" ceilings and cupolas, each slightly different from the other, as well as two "ribbed" dome cupolas (similar to the domes of the Great Mosque of Cordoba and Cristo de la Luz Mosque in Toledo) dating from the Almoravid and Alaouite periods. Many of the "muqarnas"' compositions are further decorated with intricate reliefs of arabesques and Arabic inscriptions in both Kufic and cursive letters. Additionally, there are several elaborately carved bronze chandeliers hanging in the nave which were gifted to the mosque during the Almohad and Marinid eras; at least three of which were made from bells (probably church bells) brought back from victories in Spain.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: To the right of the "mihrab" is the "minbar" of the mosque, which could also be stored in a small room behind a door in the "qibla" wall. The "minbar" is most likely of similar origins as the Almoravid "minbar" of the Koutoubia Mosque, made by a workshop in Cordoba not long after the latter and installed in al-Qarawiyyin Mosque in 1144 (at the end of the Almoravid works on the mosque). It is another exceptional work of marquetry and woodcarving, decorated with geometric compositions, inlaid materials, and arabesque reliefs.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: Aside from the embellishments of the central nave, the rest of the mosque is architecturally uniform, but there are some minor irregularities in the floor plan. For example, the arches in the western half of the prayer hall are shorter than those in the eastern half, and some of the transverse aisles are slightly wider than others. These anomalies have not been fully explained but they appear to have been present since the early centuries of the mosque; they may be due to early reconstructions or alterations which have gone unrecorded in historical chronicles.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: The "sahn" is rectangular, surrounded by the prayer hall on three sides and by a gallery to the north. The floor is paved with typical Moroccan mosaic tiles ("zellij") and at the center is a fountain. From outside the mosque, the courtyard is accessed by the main northern gate, called "Bab al-Ward", whose vestibule is covered by a Marinid-era white dome which is fluted on the outside and covered in painted and carved stucco on the inside. Opposite this gate, situated on the mihrab axis, is the central entrance to the interior prayer hall, guarded by a carved and painted wooden screen called the "anaza" which also acted as a symbolic "outdoor" or "summer" mihrab for prayers taking place in the courtyard. (These features are visible to visitors standing outside the gate.) Both this entrance to the prayer hall and the outer gate across from it have facades decorated with carved and painted stucco.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: At the western and eastern ends of the courtyard stand two ornate Saadian pavilions each sheltering another fountain. The pavilions have pyramidal domes and emulate the pavilions in the Court of the Lions in the Alhambra (Spain). They are decorated with carved wood and stucco, mosaic-tiled walls, and marble columns. Behind these pavilions are extensions of the main prayer hall divided into four naves by rows of arches. The gallery and arched hall on the northeastern sides of the courtyard are a prayer space reserved for women.


title: University of al-Qarawiyyin

text: The minaret was constructed in the 10th century under the sponsorship of the Umayyad caliph of Cordoba, Abd al-Rahman III. It overlooks the courtyard from the west. Along with the contemporary minaret of the Mosque of the Andalusians, it is the oldest preserved minaret in Morocco. It was constructed in local limestone of relatively poor quality and was covered in whitewash by the Marinids in the 13th century in order to protect it from deterioration. It has a square shaft and is topped by a dome, as well as a parapet from which the muezzin historically issued the call to prayer ("adhan"). The full structure is 26.75 meters tall. One feature of the minaret is the lower window on its southern facade, which is shaped like a "triple" horseshoe arch, elongated vertically, which is unique to this structure. On the minaret's southern side, just above the gallery of the courtyard, is the Dar al-Muwaqqit.