Publication Date
1233/630
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;sy;Mon01;8;ar
Library Location
Al-Salihiyah District, Damascus, Syria
Date
1233/630
Notes
Rabaa Khatun, the younger sister of Salah al-Din and West al-Sham, founded Al-Sahibah School to teach the Hanbali school of thought. It is located in the Salihiya neighborhood on the slopes of Mount Qasioun. The shepherdess Rabaa Khatun was the wife of King Muzaffar al-Din Kawkabari, the owner of Erbil, hence the name of the owner. Rabia Khatun moved to Damascus following the death of her husband, joined its intellectual circle, and became a patron of architecture. It is known that she attended the lecture given by Abd al-Rahman al-Hanbali at the opening of her school in Rajab 628/May 1231. The thirst for knowledge allowed teaching to begin there before the building was completed in 630/1233. The school has a rectangular shape, is entered from the north, and the exterior facade was built. Which had a soft aesthetic, mostly made of limestone, and was crowned with a row of pink stones near its upper end as a shy imitation of ablaq, where stones of different colors alternated, with basalt stone usually being one of its components. A pair of windows open in the façade on either side of the gate. Their piers bear a sunken, rectangular shape over most of their area, and on the stones above them, there is an interlocking geometric shape. To the right of the façade, a pair of converging windows with the same sunken rectangular shape open on their piers. Above them, a group of polygonal stones has been interlocked, in addition to a square stone engraved in a geometric striped shape with the word Shahada, which indicates the location of the shrine room. Above the entrance to the madrasa, which is retreating inward, is a muqarna of stones. Three stories, and a triangular half-dome rising above the building's crowning cornice. The use of stone to build the muqarnas is considered one of the Syrian achievements during the early 7th / 13th century. Before that, brick was used as a traditional material for building the muqarnas, and it is possible that such use of building materials indicates a specific school of architecture that may have been influenced by northern Syria. The plan of the madrasa is symmetrical around an axis, and is of the quatrefoil type. The northern facade overlooking the heavenly expanse consists of a row of three arches of equal height. As for the southern main iwan, it has a central mihrab surrounded by two windows that originally overlooked the gardens of the Yazid River, one of the branches of the Barada River. Since the school was built on a slope, the architect had to reduce the northern and southern iwans, while the eastern and western iwans were covered with double-arched vaults. The western iwan includes a tomb skewed diagonally from the center of the iwan, which is supposed to be the tomb of the patroness, Rabaa Khatun. A pair of open arches rise above the walls of the school and give greater value to the interior of the school. Al-Sahibah School, of all the schools built in the Salhiya area, is still in use today as a primary school for girls. Generations of Salhiya residents have attended this school, and have grown up with popular Ayyubid history.
Sample Text
Abd al-Razzaq Moaz, Zena Takieddine “Sahibah School” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;sy;Mon01;8;ar
