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Madrasa of Córdoba
| Native name | Madrasa al-Qurtuba |
|---|---|
| Established | 8th century |
| Closed | 10th century |
| City | Córdoba |
| State | Al-Andalus |
| Province | Caliphate of Córdoba |
The Madrasa of Córdoba, also known as Madrasa al-Qurtuba, was a Madrasa in Córdoba. It is considered the first public university of Al-Andalus and the first one established in the West.
Madrasas were Islamic educational institutions where various disciplines were taught, and they were forerunners of today's universities. These institutions at first taught only sciences relating to the precepts of the Islamic tradition. From the 10th century onward, and especially in the Caliphate of Córdoba, they began to offer studies in the rational sciences, such as logic, geometry, astronomy, and the science of bodies, among others. In this way they contributed to the development of the Golden Age of the Islamic world.
It was in Córdoba, for example, that the idea of closely linking hospitals with schools of medicine first arose in Europe. This introduced an empiricist, secular, and tolerant model that was also academically rigorous, and it would influence the model of the European universities that arose later.
History
The Madrasa of Córdoba remained active during the periods of the Emirate of Córdoba and the Caliphate of the Umayyads, between the 8th and 10th centuries. It is considered one of the leading educational institutions of its time, and it attracted students and scholars from different parts of the world. It was known for its exquisite architecture and decoration, which reflected the high level of cultural and artistic sophistication of Córdoba.
The university of Córdoba became the most important center of universal learning of the era. It began teaching the kind of subjects that would later also be taught at the Universities of the Middle Ages, such as arithmetic, algebra, geometry, astronomy, philosophy, theology, grammar, poetry, music, medicine, and law.
As a result of all these activities, the City of Córdoba came to have a splendid system of libraries holding hundreds of thousands of volumes. The most important of them, which held 40,000 volumes in Madinat al-Zahra, was destroyed by Almanzor in the year 979 for contradicting the orthodox precepts of Islam.
Alumni
Many arts and sciences were welcomed at the Madrasa of Córdoba. Córdoba was where great masters were trained and carried out their work. They included the philosophers Averroes and Avempace, poets such as Ibn Shuhayd and Ibn Hazm, astronomers such as Ibn Khaldun, Azarquiel, and Abentofail, and physicians such as Avicenna, Rhazes, Maimonides, Abulcasis, and Al-Ghafiqi.
See also
External links
- ¿La primera universidad española? (in Spanish)
