Al Mustansiriya University

The original Mustansiriya Madrasah, was established in 1227 (or 1232/34 A.D. by some accounts) by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mustansir and was one of the oldest universities in the world. Its building, on the left bank of the Tigris River, survived the Mongol invasion of 1258 and has been restored. The modern Mustansiriyah University was established with the help and financial support of the Republic of raq Teachers Union in 1963, mainly providing evening courses. In 1964, the University was given the status of a semi-state institution and some state financial support. At the same time it absorbed Al-Shaab University, another private university that had been founded by the raqi Association of Economists, and then moved to a new campus to the north of the city centre. Initially, the University also managed colleges in Mosul and Basra. In 1966 a law was passed under which the private universities were converted into public universities. Mustansiriyah thus became, briefly, a College withi...