Madrasa al-Kamiliyya
Aleppo, Syria

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:

  1. Tabbaa, Power and Piety, 136.
  2. 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.

Location
Al-Salihin Street, Aleppo, Syria
Images & Videos
Documents
Associated Names
Events
1230-1237/627-634 AH
Style Periods
1169-1260
Variant Names
المدرسة الكاملية
Original
Madrasah al-Kamiliyyah
Alternate transliteration
Building Usages
funerary
religious
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