Mathematics, science, languages…whatever subject interests you
most, you might be surprised by its links with the distant past.
In this zone of the exhibition, find out about the time when
people assembled colossal libraries and paid for books in gold.
See the intricate geometrical designs inspired by patterns in
flowers and shells. And look back six centuries to when the love
of learning brought Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars
together to cooperate in creating knowledge. Did You Know
...that there’s a hidden reason behind the way we write the
numbers 1 to 10? ...that everyday English words like cotton,
giraffe and sofa come from Arabic words hundreds of years old?
...that a pious and wealthy young woman called Fatima al-Fihri
founded what became the world’s first university which still
give degrees to the present day? In this zone: Meet Fatima al-
Fihri in our film, and hear how she inherited a fortune and
decided to spend it building a mosque and learning centre called
Al-Qarawiyin, which continues to