Al-Mustansiriya: Baghdad’s 800-year-old school that defied invasions and wars

Al Mayadeen’s correspondent Lea Akil takes us inside Al-Mustansiriya, Baghdad’s oldest school and an 800-year-old architectural gem that once served as one of the world’s first universities. Built under the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustansir, Al-Mustansiriya, also known as The Mustansiriya Madrassah, drew scholars from across the Islamic world to study medicine, law, philosophy, and more. Despite Mongol invasions, centuries of neglect, and even the chaos of the 2003 US invasion, Al-Mustansiriya survived, with its halls still carrying Iraq’s enduring legacy of culture, knowledge, and intellectual resilience.