Author
The names of those who designed or implemented this building are not known, but it is believed that they were Egyptian craftsmen led by a Coptic architect.
Author Original
لا يُعرف أسماء من صمّم أو نفذ هذا المبنى، ولكن يُعتقد أنهم صناع مصريون رأسهم معمار قبطي
Publication Date
887 / 1482
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;pa;Mon01;8;ar
Library Location
The building is located on the western border of the Noble Sanctuary, between Bab al-Silsilah and Bab al-Qattanin, leading to the Noble Sanctuary, Jerusalem
Date
887 / 1482
Notes
The Ashrafieh School is the most beautiful and most luxurious Mamluk school in Jerusalem. Mujir al-Din al-Hanbali (died 928 / 1521) described it as the third jewel in the Noble Sanctuary after the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Ashrafieh School consists of two floors: ground and first. The ground floor of the school extends eastward to enter the Holy Mosque, bypassing the western wall of the Mosque. It is unique in that, as most of the Mamluk schools were established on the borders of the Noble Sanctuary and not within it. The Achrafieh has an entrance that opens to the eastern and southern sides with two pointed arches. The ceiling of this entrance is covered with a decorated fan vault built of stones, with alternating red and white colors. The door opening is located in a recessed wall surmounted by a panel filled with engraved decorations and inlaid with pieces of glazed ceramic (faience). The two sides of the entrance are surrounded by two stone terraces, and two stories high from the roof of the two terraces there is an inscription scroll dating the construction of the madrasa and mentioning the most prominent titles of Sultan Qaytbay. The entrance to the madrasa leads to a dark corridor (a distributed corridor), to the north of which a large hall was built, known as the complex hall. In the eastern wall of this hall there is a door and two windows, all of which open onto the courtyard of the Holy Mosque. In its northern wall there is a door and a window. In its southern wall there is another window and a mihrab decorated with colored marble. This hall was the headquarters of the Al-Aqsa Mosque library, and it was recently rehabilitated to become a center for the restoration and maintenance of manuscripts and documents. To the south of the Darkah is a stone staircase that leads to the first floor and to the Bab al-Silsilah minaret. The first floor of the school consists of a hall containing four perpendicular iwans, the largest of which is the southern iwan, which contains the mihrab. Today, large parts of the first floor are collapsed, and only their walls remain of the iwans. Despite this, the layout of this floor is clearly defined, and is consistent with the Mamluk style, with four perpendicular iwans with a central courtyard in the middle.
Sample Text
Yusuf al-Natsheh “Ashrafieh School” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;pa;Mon01;8;ar
