ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE

DONE BY:NOFAL M, FELEMBAN

Madrasahs did not exist in the early period of Islam. Their

formation can probably be traced to the early Islamic

custom of meeting in mosques to discuss religious issues.

At this early stage, people seeking religious knowledge

tended to gather around certain more knowledgable

Muslims; these informal teachers later became known as

the shaykhs; and these shaykhs began to hold regular

religious education sessions called 'majalis'. Established in 859, Jami'at al-Qarawiyyin (located in Al-

Qarawiyyin Mosque) in the city of Fas ,s considered the

oldest madrasah in the Muslim world.

During the late Abbasid period, the Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk created the first major official academic institution known in history as the Nizamiyyah, based on the informal majalis (sessions of the shaykhs). created a system of state madrasahs (in his time they were called, the Nizamiyyahs, named after him) in various Abbasid cities at the end of the 11th century Offering food, lodging, and a free education, madrasas spread rapidly throughout the Muslim world, and although their curricula varied from place to place, it was always religious in character.

A nizamiyya is one of the medieval institutions of higher

education established by Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk in the

eleventh. The name nizamiyyah derives from his name.

Founded at the beginning of the Seljuk empire, they are

considered to be the model of madrassas, or Islamic

religious schools.

Nizamiyyah institutes were the first well organized

universities in the Muslim world. The quality of education

was the highest in the Islamic world. They were supported

financially, politically, and spiritually by the royal

establishment and the elite class.

The most famous and celebrated of all the

nizamiyyah schools was the Nizamiyyah of

Baghdad (established 1065), Other nizamiyyah

schools were located in Nishapur, Balkh, Herat

and Isfahan.

The founder of this medresah was Sultan Hassan, the son of the

great Mamluk Sultan, Al Nasser Mohamed Ibn (son of) Qalawoun.

the Madrasa was not that popular at the time for two reasons.

First, after Sultan Hassan was killed in 1361, the complex was not

completed exactly in the way he envisioned. In fact, it remained

closed for another fifty years. And perhaps because of this, only a

few well known scholars actually taught in this Madrasa. Many

others preferred to lecture and take up teaching posts at other

colleges in Cairo. Nevertheless, it was here in these iwans where

the sheikh or teacher would sit upon a stool or a platform while his

students sat cross legged all around him.

The ceilings of these iwans are very high, and behind the four iwans, the

building is divided into four parts for the four sects of Sunni Islam. Inside

these buildings students use to live and study. Each of these madrasa are

entered by a door between the individual iwans, and inside each has its own

courtyard with their own ablution fountain, quibla oriented iwan, and four or

fives stories of rooms. Some of these cells are larger than others.

Interestingly, this is the only Cairo madrasa that locates most of the cells on

the street side because of the huge iwans that leave no space for windows

on the courtyard side.

The Henefite madrasa, which is the largest one on the right as you face the

quibla.

The next largest madrasa was that of the Shafi'i rite on the left side of the

sanctuary. At the time, the Shafi'i rite was the one most Egyptians followed

during the period.