the college. In contrast, the early Sankoré university had no central administration, student registers, or prescribed course of study. The school was divided into several individual madrasas, each run by an imam or ulema, a single headmaster that had a role similar to that of a dean. As such, it is one of the earliest examples of a system reminiscent of the modern residential college system. Most students learned from a single teacher throughout their entire 10-year education, having a relationship akin to that of an apprenticeship, but some were given the option to study at multiple madrasas under a series of teachers. Classes were held either at the mosque or at the teacher's home. While most madrasas were funded by benefactors through endowments in the Muslim tradition of waqf (charitable giving), the students at the Sankoré Madrasa had to finance their own tuition with money or bartered goods. Architecture The courtyard was constructed to exactly match the dimensions of the Kaaba in Mecca, one of Islam's most holy sites. Classes took place in the open courtyards of the mosque-like structure, made entirely of clay and stone beams. The university still stands intact today, likely due to Al-Sahili's directive to incorporate a wooden framework into the mud walls in order to facilitate repairs after the rainy season. As worship was not its main focus, the Sankoré University was smaller and less intricate than earlier Malian mosques such as the Great Mosque of Djenné. Curriculum Islamic schooling had existed in West Africa since the 11th century, and although it was initially intended for elites, the Qur’anic emphasis on equality in education allowed for the spread of the institution and increased literacy rates. The Qur'an itself and the hadiths stress the search for knowledge, and Islamic scholarship, especially in the Golden Age of Islam, focused heavily on education. Al-Kābarī, a scholar that descended from Timbuktu, Mali, and a professor at the Sankoré Madrasa helped create the curriculum, focusing on religious teachings. The Songhai Empire developed Mali as a center for trade and used the growing economic power to further Islamic learning. Timbuktu itself housed 150 Qur'anic schools and became a major educational center in the Muslim world, producing influential jurists, historians, doctors, and theologians. There existed no thorough curriculum for Islamic and Qur’anic studies in the Muslim world until schools like Sankoré Madrasa standardized a method of education. With the Qur'an being