Discover the astonishing true story of Fatima al-Fihri (c. 800-880 AD), the visionary woman who single-handedly founded the world's oldest continually operating university. Born to a wealthy merchant family in Kairouan, Fatima migrated to Fez, where a massive inheritance spurred her to an act of unparalleled philanthropy.This book reconstructs her life, moving from a displaced immigrant's daughter to the most powerful civic patron of the Maghreb. Unlike any royal foundation, Al-Qarawiyyin was built and protected by Fatima's own ingenious design: the Waqf, a legal perpetual endowment. This mechanism transformed her entire fortune into a permanent spring of knowledge, guaranteeing the institution's financial and intellectual independence across a thousand years of shifting empires and political upheaval.Explore the comprehensive details of her administrative genius, the relentless battle to safeguard the endowment's integrity, and her profound triple impact-shaping Fez religiously, educationally, and civically.This is a vital correction to global history, celebrating Fatima as an indispensable figure who defined not only the trajectory of higher education but also the enduring power of female agency in the medieval Islamic world. Her legacy is a testament to the fact that the most enduring monuments are those built for the mind and the spirit. Approx.160 pages, 33300 word count