Ez-Zitouna University (جامعة الزيتونة) is located in Tunis. It is claimed to be the oldest teaching establishment in the Arab World, since the Ez-Zitouna madrassa was founded in 737 C.E. (120 A.H) as the teaching arm of the Olive-Tree Mosque (Djemaa ez-Zitouna) and has been in continuous existence since then. Famous alumni include the scholar Abdul-Rahman Ibn Khaldun, the encyclopedaist Ahmad Ibn Youssef Ibn Ahmad Ibn Abubaker Tifashi, the trade unionist and writer Tahar Haddad, the politician and writer Abdelaziz Thâalbi, the Tunisian national poet Aboul-Qacem Echebbi, and the judge and scholar M.T Ben Achour. Following Tunisia’s Independence, the modern Zitouna University was established on April 26, 1956. This was succeeded by the Zitouna Faculty of Shari’a and Theology on March 1 1961 which became one of the components of Tunisian University. The present-day institution has some 1200 students and 90 faculty, divided between two associated institutes — the Higher Institute of Theology and the Higher Institute of Islamic Civilisation in Tunis — and a research institution: the Center of Islamic Studies (مركز الدراسات الإسلامية بالقيروان) in Kairouan.