Halawiyya Mosque and Madrasa

[ View thumbnail images ]

Variant Names	Madrasa Hallawiya, Madrasa al-Helawiyya, Madrasa Halawiye
Location	Aleppo, Syria
Client	Nur al-Din al-Zangi
Date	1149
Style/Period	Byzantine, Zangid
Centuries	5th, 12th
Building Types	educational, religious, religious
Building Usage	madrasa, church, mosque
Keywords	777 core monuments

Notes

Now functioning as the Al-Halawiyya madrasa, this building that dates to the 5th century was originally Aleppo's great Byzantine cathedral, and was subsequently converted to a mosque in 1123 during the reign of Balak Ibn Bahram Ibn Ourtoq. The building encompasses a small courtyard and the original chapel with its eight large corinthian columns. These columns resemble ones at the Sam'an Cathedral outside Aleppo. The symmetry of the space allowed a relatively easy transformation from chapel to majid. The mosque located across from the Great mosque is now used as a madrasa for the followers of in 1149 Hanifite school during the reign of Nur al-din al-Zangi. Sources: Allen, Terry. 2003. "Madrasah al-Halawiyah". In Ayyubid Architecture. Occidental, CA: Solipsist Press. http://www.sonic.net/~tallen/palmtree/ayyarch/ch2.htm#alep.mhal [Accessed August 2, 2005] Hadjar, Abdallah. 2000. Historical Monuments of Aleppo. Aleppo: Automobile and Touring Club of Syria (ATCS), 25-26. Rihawi, Abdul Qader. 1979. Arabic Islamic Architecture in Syria. Damascus: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. 104.