Harran University (Middle Ages)

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.

[8] At its height, more than 8,000 students gathered at the Harran University,[3] educated in mathematics, philosophy, medicine, astrology,[8] astronomy and natural sciences.

It might have been brought to Harran by Thābit ibn Qurra in the late 9th century, who could have learnt Neoplatonism in Baghdad.

Alternatively, Neoplatonism might have been brought to Harran as early as the 6th century by Neoplatonists such as Simplicius of Cilicia, who fled persecution in the Byzantine Empire.

[2][9] After the Ottoman Empire captured the region containing Harran, Sultan Selim I (r. 1512–1520) repaired the university and made an attempt to revive it, though it declined in importance again after his reign.