Fatima al-Fihri (nicknamed Oum al Banine, meaning the mother of the kids) was the daughter of Mohammed al-Fihri, with whom she migrated to Fes

Fes, Morocco

Fes or Fez is the second largest city of Morocco, after Casablanca, with a population of approximately 1 million . It is the capital of the Fès-Boulemane region....

, Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

 from Qairawan, located in present-day Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

 and came earlier from west Arabia of Fihrids

Fihrids

The Fihrids were an illustrious Arab family and clan, prominent in North Africa and Muslim Iberia during the 8th century.The al-Fihri were originally an Arabian clan Banu Fihr attached to the Quraysh, the tribe of the Prophet...

 family origin. In 859, Fatima founded the oldest academic degree

Academic degree

An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...

-granting university

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 existing today, the University of Qarawiyyin, with money inherited from her father, a wealthy businessman. She is said to have fasted in order to become closer to Allah

Allah

Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...

during the building of the university.
She intended the Mosque to serve the Tunisian community in Fes.

Her sister Mariam is said to have been responsible for the construction of the Al-Andalus (Andalusian) Mosque in Fes.