Oldest University in the World & other 5 Oldest Universities
In this episode I talk about the oldest University in the World and other top 5 oldest universities which are still active.
University of Al-Qarawiyyin
Al-Azhar University
University of Bologna
University of Oxford
University of Salamanca
University of Cambridge
Bear in mind, these are some of the videos that I made very early on. So, the edits and intros are very old school and probably a bit too funky. I am in the process of transferring all these videos from YouTube to here before I completely shut down my YouTube channel.
I have also used CE and AD interchangeably in my earlier videos. Some people has taken an exception to it. There was never any activist reason for me to use CE instead of AD at times, it is just a more historically accurate and precise calculation as Jesus was supposed to have been born sometime between 5-7 BC. However, they both point to the same counting system, from the birth of Christ. It would be different if common era started from a time before that like in Star Trek you had more accurate reading of the stars and did it from star dates.
In Islam they use their own dating system still in practice - “lunar dating system comprised of 12 months in a 354- or 355-day year. . It is primarily used to determine the exact timing of Islamic religious rituals and holidays (such as Ramadan and Hajj) and dates back to the migration of Prophet Muhammad from Makkah to Madinah in 622 AD.” In a way, I guess that makes sense. Because that is their common era. But in a more connected world you need a singular frame of reference and it can get really confusing if you start using this or that. I think CE is a way to universalise dating and calendar systems so its not attached to Christ and there can be some standardisation.
CE came into use around 300 or so years ago, predominantly by Jewish academics, and in a way you can understand why. Because for them their era and reckoning of time is not contingent on Christ. They can’t change for all so this was in a way their adaptation where they can live with it without recognising it. It was also used be secularists which is obviously self explanatory. It was never really popular and only came in use widespread in the 20th century. Personally, I am in two minds about it. I used CE (common era) and BCE (before common era) for a short period of time and now I am back to using BC (before Christ) and AD (anno domini). Only time will tell I guess. Sometimes you need to let certain things marinate in your mind for a while before they click and fit. Anyway. As this episode is about universities, I thought it was important to go through it here a bit about the dating systems.
Hope you still enjoy the video. And if you want to support my work then please consider becoming a paid subscriber.
As a bonus, here is also another video about the oldest library in the world:
