Historical Antecedents

In Greece, the Academy of Plato and the Lyceum of Aristotle were advanced schools of philosophy. During the Hellenistic period, which began in the 4th century bc, Athens attracted many Roman students, including, later, the statesmen and writers Julius Caesar, Cicero, Augustus, and Horace. Also important during this period was the Egyptian city of Alexandria, with its great library (see Alexandria, Library of) and museum, which attracted scholars from the Middle East. The Jewish academies in Palestine and Babylonia, which produced the Talmud, promoted religious and secular intellectual pursuits from about ad 70 through to the 13th century. The University of Nalanda, in northern India, where native and Chinese students studied Buddhism, functioned until the 12th century. Institutions of higher education flourished in China itself from the 7th century onwards, and in Korea from the 14th century. Al-Azhar University in Cairo, now more than 1,000 years old, is the central authority for Islam. Another Islamic institution of equal antiquity is Al Qarawiyin University in Fès, Morocco.