The Al-Aqba - the First University circa. 800 A.D.
Meaning "The Great" in Arabic. The first University in the World was set up by Muslim's in Alexandria, circa. 800 A.D. The city had nearly been raised by the Holy Warriors that burst out of Arabia as it resisted, but luckily saved at the last moment. Alex. still has a sizable Egyptian Christian Community (mainly Native Egyptians the builders of the Pyramids, NOT Arab Colonists), also found in the Sinai (where the freed Jewish Slaves wondered for 40 years in search of the Promised Land and Moses received the Ten Commandments from God written on stone tablets, that were later carried round in the Ark of the Covenant). They have their own Pope and close links with the Ethiopian Christian Church as they were both converted by the Apostle Matthew, who's ship got wrecked on the way to India. The Jewish quarter (40% of the city) was emptied by the Roman Emperor, Hadrian circa. 300 A.D. and the inhabitants sold in Slavery, after a failed rebellion. Possibly some helping to build Hadrian's Wall. The last ethnic Greeks were expelled in circa. 1900 even though it is they who had founded the City.
Anyway the University had three faculties:
Medicine: To keep the Caliph and his circle in good health thus ensuring a long reign. Chinese Medicine actually goes back 1000's of years, but some treatments use multiple compounds so have still to be tested and passed by Western Doctors do to their extreme complexity.
Law: to collect taxes and deter crime.
Theology: to keep the masses in order.
It was know as the Al-Aqba. The Western Educational Establishment draws the use of the Mortar-board Master's and Professor's Hat from this University. These Hat's are not in common use anymore, except in Graduation Ceremonies and you might see them in Ox-Bridge. Another famous Muslim educational institution was the 'House of Wisdom' in Baghdad where Scholars from across the Caliphate were drawn. Algebra was developed there, drawing it name from it's discoverer. This was at a time when the Dark Ages had spread across Western Europe. Only the Church maintaining the touch of knowledge threw the Common Tongue Latin. Unfortunately most common people couldn't understand it, a particular problem at Church. People next to Hadrian's Wall didn't even know what it had been used for.