page_title: University of al-Qarawiyyin
section_title: The exterior
hierarchical_section_title: University of al-Qarawiyyin / Architectural description of the mosque / The exterior
caption_attribution_description: English: Al-Qarawiyyin University in Fes, Morocco
context_page_description: 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 859 and subsequently became one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the historic Muslim world. It was incorporated into Morocco's modern state university system in 1963 and was officially renamed "University of Al Quaraouiyine" two years later. The mosque building itself is also a significant complex of historical Moroccan and Islamic architecture encompassing elements from many different periods of Moroccan history.
  Scholars consider that the Qarawiyyin was effectively run as a madrasa until after World War II and distinguish this status from the status of "university", which many view as a distinctly European invention. They date the transformation of the madrasa of al-Qarawiyyin into a university to its modern reorganization in 1963. Some sources, however, such as UNESCO and the Guinness World Records cite the Qarawiyyin as the oldest university or oldest continually operating higher learning institution in the world. Women were first admitted in the 1940's.
context_section_description: The 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 (whose current doors, however, are replicas replacing the originals now kept by the Dar Batha Museum), and the southwestern gate Bab al-Gna'iz which leads to the Jama' al-Gna'iz or Funeral Mosque. The much more monumental 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, which date from the Almoravid period.
  Adjacent to Bab al-Ward, on its west side, is another doorway, Bab al-Hafa ("Gate of the Barefooted"), from the Almohad era, which is distinguished by a small water channel across the floor just inside it. This water allowed for worshipers entering the mosque to wash their feet on the way in, helping with initial ablutions.
  Also next to the mosque is a tower known as the Borj Neffara (برج النفارة , "Tower of the Trumpeters"), an observation tower that is sometimes confused as a minaret but was actually part of another Dar al-Muwaqqit (timekeeper's house).
caption: The inner side of Bab al-Ward (far right) and of Bab al-Hafa (middle archway), seen from the courtyard.
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