Adiliya School (Great and Small)

Adiliya School (Great and Small)

Great Adiliya School (Al Adiliya Al Kubra)

Overview:

• Al-Adiliya School is located in Old Damascus, between the Al-Faraj and Al-Faradis Gates, opposite the Al-Zahiriyah Library.

Historic overview:

• It is attributed to Al Malik Al Adel, Saif al-Din Abi Bakr bin Ayyub, father of the Ayyubid kings and brother of Salah al-Din, who was buried in the Citadel of Damascus and then transferred in 619 AH to his grave in al-Adiliyah al-Kubra (Great Adiliya), and he still lies there to this day.

• The first person to start building the school was Noor Al-Din Al-Shaheed in the year 568 AH, when he was preparing it for Sheikh Al-Qutb Al-Nisaburi Al-Shafi’i. He started building the mosque and the mihrab, and then stopped working on it after his death in the year 569 AH.

• The school was officially inaugurated in a grand celebration in the presence of the most prominent, senior scholars and judges at the end of the year 619 AH.

• After the academic complex was transformed into the “Arabic Language Academy”, the status of Al-Adiliya declined due to the decline in the status of the complex itself, which transformed from being a school and kept it to be storage for its waste.

Architectural Description:

• The school is a model for the buildings of the Ayyubid era, as it is considered one of the most important buildings in terms of planning, sobriety of construction, and elaborate architectural elements.

Small Adiliya School (Al Adiliya Al Soghra)

Overview:

• It is inside Bab Al-Faraj, east of Bab Al-Qalaa in the locality of Al-Asrounia.

Historic overview:

• Its originator (Zahra Khatun, daughter of Al Malik Al Adel Saif al-Din Abi Bakr bin Ayyub).

• It was a house known to Ibn Musk, (Khatun Asmat al-Din Zahra), daughter of the just king Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ayyub owned it. Then the khatun Zahra owned it to Baba Khatun, the daughter of Asad ad-Din Shirkuh.

• Then (Baba Khatun) endowed for (Zahra Khatun), and after that it became a cemetery, a school, and places of residence, and it stipulated for the school a teacher, an imam, a muezzin and a janitor, and many endowments were made for it. Sheikhs of Shafi'i jurisprudence of eminent scholars were taught in this school. 

Architectural description:

• It was built in the Ayyubid era, but its gate and part of its facade belong to the Mamluk era, and its facade was restored in the Mamluk era, and its interior features have recently changed.

Resources:

Tarekh Al Ebar / by Al zahabi

Al Dares fi Tarekh al Madares / by Al-Nuaimi

Tarekh Al-Salihiyah / by Ibn Tulun

Al Omara Al Islamiya by Al-Rihawi

Khotat Demashq Derasa Tarekhiya Shamela, Akram Hassan Al-Olabi, 1989 AD

Monadamat Al Atlal, Badran

Mokhtasar Tanbeh Al taleb wa Ershad Al dares, Al Olmawi

Archive of the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums

naseemalsham website

Ministry of Awqaf of Damascus

esyria.sy website

artravelers website

1. No comments