The Al-Qarawiyyin Library has long been an unknown place for residents in Fez, Morocco, as few of them have ever entered it. Opened in 859, it is thought to be the oldest library in the world and the labyrinth of its rooms was long closed to all but a few scholars and students.

In 2012, the Moroccan Ministry of Culture estimated that the Library was in danger of flooding and a large amount of water flowing under the floors, which had damaged many rare books. To save the structure from further damage, an underground canal system was built to carry water to the sewer.

Much work was done to open the Library premises to the public, as well as to invest a considerable amount of old publications in preserving, editing and digitizing. These rare books include, among other things, a ninth-century Qur’an written in Kufic (the oldest form of Arabic calligraphy) on camel skin, which has attracted the attention of scholars.

The experts who dealt with the restoration of this library told Cnn Travel that they always discovered secret entrances, doors to open into courtyards, secret rooms, etc. A notable discovery for them was a secret room with a 12th-century dome.

The library is thought to have been founded by Fatima al-Fihri, the daughter of a wealthy Tunisian businessman (she also founded the Qarawiyyin Mosque and Qarawiyyin University). How to continue this tradition most of the experts who dealt with the al-Qarawiyyin restoration project were women./A2

He lives with his son, daughter-in-law and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren in a dilapidated house in the mountain neighborhood of Rupica in the village of Radovnica near Trgovište.

Dr. Novica Zivanovic, who is the director of the Health Center in Trgoviste, says that he is happy that the grandmother who had a lighter clinical picture managed to defeat the virus that took many lives in this small municipality in the south of Serbia.

– Son and daughter-in-law were positive. When the virus was confirmed in family members, we tested the grandmother and on December 4, she was confirmed to have COVID 19. She had a fever and we gave her intravenous therapy – Dr. Zivanovic begins the story.

Grandma is demented, immobile, skinny, has a sick heart, indications that she has had a stroke in the last couple of years.

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– One complex situation and a difficult patient who was not relocated from the house, but we followed and treated her by visiting her. The residents received the therapy longer than her, but fortunately she managed to get out of the disease with a little medical help. She has fully recovered and given all the circumstances she is now stable – says Dr. Zivanovic.

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For him and his colleagues, the baptismal certificate that his grandmother has and that testifies to her age is a reason for happiness because this municipality was “cut down” by this virus.

– The battle for every life and for every patient lasts constantly. We are all very happy that grandmother Đurđa showed that everything is possible and we consider her our medical phenomenon – says Dr. Zivanovic.

The president of the municipality, Miljana Zlatković, says that her grandmother is a beneficiary of social assistance and that she receives home care.

– These days, we will visit my grandmother and take help to the family in the form of food and clothes. She is our oldest resident who, in spite of everything, managed to overcome the disease, even though she was not aware of it due to her health condition – said Zlatković.

By the way, in this area, there are a lot of middle-aged people in many neighborhoods who are on the threshold of a hundred years.

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