Publication Date
844 AH / 1440 AD
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;eg;Mon01;25;ar
Library Location
The school is located at the northeastern end of Al-Azhar Mosque, Cairo, Egypt
Date
844 AH / 1440 AD
Notes
The main facade of the school includes three recessed walls, in which open arched, hollow plaster windows covered with colored glass. The façade is crowned by an honor whose decorative unit consists of a three-petaled leaf. The madrasa was intended for teaching one of the four Sunni schools of thought. Despite the small area of the school, it was designed according to the same system that prevailed in schools in the Circassian Mamluk era. The horizontal layout of the school consists of a small central court surrounded by four iwans overlooking it, the largest of which is the qibla iwan, which is located on the southeast side. The courtyard of the madrasa is covered with a wooden roof in which windows (shanshekhas) are opened. At the southwestern end of the madrasa is the shrine in which Prince Jawhar al-Qanqabai, the founder of the madrasa, was buried. The shrine is covered by a small stone dome that is distinguished by its decorations carved in stone on its outer surface. These decorations consist of extremely beautiful elements, consisting of intertwined, intertwined, and branched three-petal leaves. The decorative elements of the dome were implemented within a design of harmonious proportions, and the decorative units became smaller towards the top of the dome. The school’s architect excelled in taking care to fill its interior surfaces with various decorations, and this is evident in the decoration of the wooden ceilings, their gilding and colouring, in the decorative stones, in covering the mihrab with colored marble, in the plaster windows covered with colored glass in the iwan of the qibla and the iwan opposite it, and in the marble floors in the courtyard and the shrine, in addition to To the founding and Qur’anic inscriptions.
Sample Text
Tarek Torky “The Essential School at Al-Azhar Mosque” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;eg;Mon01;25;ar
