Historical origin of the university gowns and mortarboards.

Listen carefully to opening remarks by Amirul Islam, President of the Oxford University Islamic Society on the historical origin of the gowns (subfusc) and mortarboards as worn by university graduates nowadays made at the opening of the "The Rethinking Islamic Reform Conference".

The oldest university in the world as officially recognised by UNESCO is the University of al-Karaouine in Fez, Morocco founded in 859 AD by a woman Fatima al-Fihri, the daughter of a wealthy merchant named Mohammed Al-Fihri.