Ancient Library Debate: Experts Challenge Morocco’s Claim to World’s Oldest

The library is the "place where a considerable number of books are organized for reading". If we stick to this definition, the library located in the city of Ebla, in present-day Syria, where archaeologists Paolo Matthiae and Giovanni Pettinato discovered up to 1,800 clay tablets written in cuneiform over 4,000 years old, would not be one. In the same vein, the mythical library of Alexandria, whose existence dates back to the 6th century BC and where more than 700,000 papyrus scrolls were kept, would also be ruled out, reports HuffPost.

Thus, in chronological order, the al-Qarawiyyin library in Fez, Morocco, built by Fatima Al-Fihri in 859, would be the oldest still in operation. But some experts dispute the creation date of this library, which would be over 1,100 years old. Javier Albarrán, an expert in the history of al-Andalus at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), believes that there is not enough conclusive evidence to indicate that the Moroccan library was built in the 9th century AD. In fact, the library of the University of Salamanca, built by Alfonso X the Wise, and inaugurated in 1254, would become the oldest in the world.