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Every year, millions of university graduates around the world walk across the stage,

wearing the same strange uniform, long black robes, square caps,

a ritualized ceremony that marks knowledge as something earned, conferred, and entrusted.

Most people assume these university traditions are medieval European customs.

Think Oxford, Paris, London, but they would all be mistaken.

Nearly a thousand years ago, in the heart of the Muslim world a radically new approach to learning

appeared a precursor to the modern university the Nizamia Madrasa how did this

institution forever reshape education around the world to answer that we have to go

back to the 11th century and to a visionary known as Nizam al-Mulk.

By the mid-10th century, the Abbasid caliphate had collapsed as a political institution.

The Khalifa remained in Baghdad, but only in name.

Real authority had evaporated, and the Islamic world was fragmenting into competing powers.

Into this vacuum stepped a rival dynasty that would threaten everything.

In 910 CE, a man named Ubeidullah landed in North Africa, claiming falsely to be a descendant of Ali,

and Fatima, the Prophet's S. S. S. S. S. S. S. S. S. S. S. S. K. He declared himself to be a descendant of Ali, and Fatima, the Prophet's S.

He declared himself to be a Khalifa,

challenging the Abbas's in Baghdad.

His followers became known as the Fatimids

and Ismaili Shi'ai dynasty with ambitions far beyond military conquests.

They wanted to reshape Islam itself.

The Fatimids conquered Egypt and built a new capital they called Qahara, Cairo.

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