Name of Monument:

Madrasa al-Gawhariyya inside Al-Azhar Mosque

Location:

The madrasa is located at the northeastern end of al-Azhar Mosque, Cairo, Egypt

Date of Monument:

Hegira 844 / AD 1440

Period / Dynasty:

Mamluk

Patron(s):

The patron was Amir Gawhar al-Qunquba’i who occupied the position of al-Khazandar (Supervisor of the Sultanate Treasuries) during the reign of the Mamluk Sultan, al-Ashraf Sayf al-Din Barsbay (r. AH 825–41 / AD 1422–37).

Description:

The principle façade of the Madrasa Gawhariyya is composed of three recessed walls with arched windows in them adorned with stuccoed coloured glass. The façade is crowned with crenellations composed of units of decorative tri-petalled vegetal leaf motifs.
The madrasa was designated to the teaching of one of the four sunni schools. Despite the small space available to it, the building was designed using the same system that predominated for madrasa-design during the Circassian Mamluk period. The ground plan consists of a small central courtyard surrounded by four iwans that overlook it, the largest of which is the qibla iwan, located on the southeastern side. The courtyard of the madrasa is covered by a wooden ceiling with window openings.
In the southeastern side is the mausoleum where the madrasa's patron, Amir Gawhar al-Qunquba'i, is buried. The mausoleum is covered by a small stone dome that is distinguished by its decoration hewn on the outer surface. These decorations consist of components of extraordinary beauty, which are intertwined, interlocking and interlaced tri-petalled vegetal leaf motifs. The decorative components of the dome are realised as part of a design of harmonious proportions where the decorative elements become smaller towards the pinnacle of the dome.
The architect of the building excelled in filling the interior surfaces with a variety of decoration, manifest in the wooden ceilings, their painting and gilding: in the decorated stone; the panelling of the mihrab with polychrome marble; in the stuccoed coloured-glass windows in the qibla iwan and in the iwan opposite to it; in the marble floors in the courtyard, and in the mausoleum. The inscriptions dedicated to the foundation of the madrasa and Qur'anic epigraphic inscriptions are also remarkable.

View Short Description

Though small, this madrasa comprises all the features of this style of madrasa in the Circassian Mamluk state. It is formed of four iwans with a central covered court paved with polychrome marble. It has one of the smallest domes of Islamic monuments in Egypt, but it boasts beautiful vegetal decorations executed on stone, the earliest of this type.

How Monument was dated:

This building was dated based on a carved inscription on one of the inner walls which includes the name of the builder and his titles as well as the date when construction was completed.

Selected bibliography:

Abd al-Wahab, H., Tarikh al-Masajid al-Athariya bil Qahira [History of Monumental Mosques in Cairo], Cairo, 1979.
Pasha, H., Al-Madkhal ila al-Athar al-Islamiya [Introduction to Islamic Art], Cairo, 1979.
Zaki, Abd al-Rahman, Al-Azhar wa ma hawlahu min al-Athar [Al-Azhar and Surrounding Monuments], Cairo, 1971.

Citation of this web page:

Tarek Torky "Madrasa al-Gawhariyya inside Al-Azhar Mosque" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;eg;Mon01;25;en

Prepared by: Tarek TorkyTarek Torky

Tarek Abdel Aziz Torky holds a BA in Islamic and Coptic Antiquities from Cairo University (1982). He is currently Head of the Statistics Department at the Information Centre of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and reporter of the committee set up to prepare for the celebrations of the centennial of the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo. As Expo Curator for the Discover Islamic Art project in Egypt he prepared the database information for the Egyptian monuments included in the project and participated in formulating the dynastic and cross-dynastic exhibitions. He has participated in the first phase of the Islamic Art in the Mediterranean project as product manager and prepared the texts and photos for the catalogue Mamluk Art: the Splendour and Magic of the Sultans (MWNF, 2001). In 2002 he obtained a scholarship for Med. Master on new technologies for valorisation and management of Mediterranean Cultural Heritage in Ravello, Salerno.

Copyedited by: Majd Musa
Translation by: Amal Sachedina (from the Arabic).
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: ET 25

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