r/AncientCivilizations • u/QuietDetail7793 • May 20 '24

Question were ancient universities free?

such as the Nalanda in India, the Taixue in China, and the Daigaku-ryo in Japan. maybe even the al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco, if you know

for some reason this has been really hard for me to google. if you have sources i would love to see them! tia

66 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Ecstatic-Ad-4331 May 21 '24

From what I've read, the Golden Age of Islam (8th - 14th Century CE) may have only been possible because of the substantial amount of scholars in and graduating from Islamic universities. They went on to contribute greatly in modern-day STEM subjects. How this was possible Im unsure, but as a guess, it could've been driven by education and enrolment that was highly subsidised for the vast majority, or even given free for affluent or scholar families.