Al-Qarawiyyin University, established in 859, is officially recognized by UNESCO and the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest university in the world. It predates Italy's University of Bologna, which began operations in 1088 and is considered the oldest in Europe, by more than two centuries. Following these, the University of Oxford was founded eight years after Bologna, while the University of Cambridge was established roughly a century later, at the beginning of the 13th century.
