Publication Date
525-533 / 1131-1138 and 1192-1192 / 588
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;pa;Mon01;33;ar
Library Location
It is located inside the Old City, several meters west of Lions Gate, on the northern side of the beginning of the Mujahideen Road, Jerusalem
Date
525-533 / 1131-1138 and 1192-1192 / 588
Notes
The origin of the site was a Byzantine church that continued to be used until the Abbasid era, but was then neglected for unknown reasons. During the Fatimid era, the site was transformed into a science teaching house, and it remained that way until the Franks came and built the current church. The site remained in the hands of the Crusaders for nearly a century until Saladin liberated the city of Jerusalem in AH 583 / AD 1187, and turned the church into a school for teaching Shafi’i jurisprudence. Converting the site into an Islamic school did not prejudice the site’s status and previous importance in the Christian faith. Prince Fakhr al-Din, Emir of Hama and a relative of Sultan Saladin, showed his appreciation for the place by sweeping it and washing it with rose water himself. Also, the Franciscan Fathers were allowed to continue holding religious services in the building on holidays. Pilgrims were also allowed to visit it, as they went to the cave located beneath the building. This indicates the policy of tolerance for which Commander Saladin was famous. The site was abandoned in the late 12th century / 18th century. Following France's assistance to the Ottoman Empire in the Crimean War against Russia, Emperor Napoleon III (r. 1268-1287 / 1852-1870) asked Sultan Abdul Majid (r. 1255-1277 / 1839-1861) to grant him the authority to return the building to a church, which was done. To the north of a garden with a statue in the middle of Cardinal Lavigerie (1825-1892), founder of the Order of the White Fathers. The church can be entered through a door located south of the main central entrance, which is open on the northern facade of the church. Before entering the church, you can see the only remaining trace that indicates that the building was previously a school for Shafi’i jurisprudence. It is a panel measuring 144 cm long and 50 cm wide containing a founding inscription written in prominent Ayyubid Naskh script and consisting of five lines. The text of the inscription is as follows: “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Whatever blessing you have, it is from God. This blessed school was endowed by our Lord, King Al-Nasser, Salah of the world and the religion, the Sultan of Islam and the Muslims, Abu Al-Muzaffar Yusuf bin Ayyub bin Shadi Muhyi, Commander of the Faithful, and the Commander of the Faithful. May God honor his supporters and combine for him the good of this world and the hereafter among the jurists among the companions of Imam Abu Abdullah Hamad bin Idris Al-Shafi’i. May God be pleased with him in the year five hundred and eighty-eight. “The horizontal plan of the church is a rectangle occupied by three aisles, the widest of which is the middle one, meaning that the church follows a basilica plan. The church's floor is paved with marble, and its ceiling consists of intersecting vaults supported by Gothic arches, which in turn are supported by a group of rectangular stone pillars. The ceiling of the apse, where the altar is located, is covered by a shallow semi-dome supported by massive arches. The church is sparsely decorated, and is therefore influenced by the teachings of Saint Benedict (ca. 480-547). Thus, the decoration that exists is almost limited to decorating the altar with a bas-relief sculpture executed by the artist Philip Kiblan in the modern period (1954), which depicts scenes from the Annunciation, the birth of Christ, and Mary’s embrace of Christ after he was taken down from the cross, according to the Christian faith. In the decoration of some column capitals, the head of a bull is seen, symbolizing Saint Luke, and a statue of the upper half of a human being, symbolizing Saint Matthew, and some incomplete column capitals. The church includes a natural cave topped today by a modern stone dome and preceded by a small altar. The cave is the place where the birth of Mary, the mother of Christ, was marked, according to what is known in the Eastern Christian tradition, and the church that we see today was built there.
Sample Text
Yusuf al-Natsheh “The Saliha School” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;pa;Mon01;33;ar
