The
Kamiliyya Madrasa is located outside the medieval city walls of Aleppo,
situated about 300 meters south of Bab al-Maqam. Medieval sources date the
construction of the madrasa to 1230-1237/627-634 AH and credit Fatima Khantun,
daughter of Ayyubid sultan al-Malik al-Kamil (d. 1238/635 AH), with ordering
its construction.1
The
building takes the form of a rectangular complex centered on a square
courtyard. One enters via a muqarnas-vaulted portal located on the western end
of the north side of the building. This portal gives onto a long, vaulted
corridor running south down the western side of the complex, then turning at a
right angle to run east onto the courtyard.
The
courtyard has a small octagonal basin at its center. Three archways lead to a
domed prayer hall on the south side, flanked on its east and west by domed
mausolea. A large iwan opens opposite the prayer hall on the north side. The west
side contains dormitories on two levels. At the time that the first plans of
the madrasa were made, the east side of the courtyard was in ruins, so its plan
is difficult to reconstruct.2
Notes:
- Tabbaa, Power and Piety, 136.
- Herzfeld, Alep, 306.
Sources:
Allen, Terry. 2003. "Madrasah al-Kamiliyah". In
Ayyubid Architecture. Occidental, CA: Solipsist Press. http://www.sonic.net/~tallen/palmtree/ayyarch/ch8.htm#alep.mkam [Accessed August 2, 2005].
Herzfeld,
Ernst. Matériaux pour un Corpus inscriptionum arabicarum. Part
2: Syrie du nord. Inscriptions et monuments d’Alep, vol. 1, pt. 2, pp.
305-306. 2 vols. in 3 parts. Cairo: Institut Francais d'archéologie
orientale, 1954-1956.
Meinecke, Michael. Die Mamlukische Architektur in
Ägypten und Syrien (648/1250 bis 923/1517), 1: 54. 2 Vols.
Glückstadt: Verlag J. J. Augustin, 1992.
Rihawi, Abdul Qader. Arabic Islamic Architecture in
Syria, 140. Damascus: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage,
1979.
Tabbaa, Yasser. Constructions of Power and
Piety in Medieval Aleppo, 136. University
Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.
