North Africa

Fatima al-Fihri (فاطمة الفهرية), also known as Umm al-Banin, was a visionary Muslim woman who founded Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco in 859 CE, establishing what would become the world's oldest continuously operating university and one of the leading centers of Islamic learning for over a millennium.

A major Shia Islamic caliphate (909-1171 CE) that ruled North Africa, Egypt, and parts of the Middle East. Founded by the Ismaili Shia dynasty claiming descent from Fatimah, the Fatimids established a powerful empire centered in Cairo rivaling the Abbasid and Umayyad caliphates.

Africa holds the largest Muslim population of any continent, some 550 million people or roughly 31 per cent of Muslims worldwide. Islam reached Egypt and the Maghreb in the 640s and spread over the following centuries through trade, scholarship and teaching.

Musa ibn Nusayr (c. 640-716 CE) was the Umayyad governor of North Africa who completed the conquest of the Maghreb, authorized Tariq ibn Ziyad's crossing into Spain, and personally led the second wave of the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.

Omar al-Mukhtar (1858-1931) was a Libyan resistance leader who fought Italian colonization for over twenty years. Known as the 'Lion of the Desert,' he became a symbol of anti-colonial resistance and Islamic steadfastness, leading guerrilla warfare until his capture and execution at age 73.

The University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco, founded as a mosque in 857-859 CE, is recognised by UNESCO as the oldest existing, continually operating institution of higher learning in the world, and a historic centre of Maliki legal scholarship in the western Islamic world.

Uqba ibn Nafi (c. 622-683 CE) was the Arab commander who conquered North Africa for Islam, founded the city of Qayrawan (Kairouan) in Tunisia, and reportedly rode his horse into the Atlantic Ocean declaring he had reached the end of the land. He was martyred by Berber forces in 683 CE.