About: Harran University (Middle Ages)

The Harran University, also known as the Madrasa of Harran, was a medieval institution of higher learning in Harran (in modern-day southeastern Turkey), active from the 8th to at least the 12th century and later briefly again in the 16th century. The university was the first Islamic institution of its kind, had a liberal intellectual environment and made Harran renowned as a center of science and learning. Translation activity at the university, particularly the translations of documents from Syriac and Greek into Arabic, was historically important in regard to the transmission and preservation of classical Greek and Syriac learning.