Mustansiriya University

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Mustansiriya University, established in 1233 as a college of Sunni Islam, is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the region. The college was incorporated into the Baghdad University in 1962. Its main focus is on teaching law and literature.

Several of its teaching staff were killed in what was claimed to be a systematic campaign to eliminate Iraqi academia during the years following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Prof. Dr. Abdul-Latif Ali al-Mayah was killed on the morning of January 19, 2004, about 12 hours after he had supported direct election of the next Iraqi government, in opposition to the United States plan to choose a government from members of a limited caucus. In 1996 he had similarly opposed Saddam Hussein by proposing direct elections.

One of its former professors, Abdul Sattar Jawad, fled to the United States following the US invasion; he now teaches at Duke University.