Photograph: Muhammad al-RoumiPhotograph: Muhammad al-RoumiPhotograph: Muhammad al-RoumiPhotograph: Muhammad al-Roumi


Name of Monument:

Madrasa al-Shamiyya

Also known as:

Madrasa al-Shamiyya al-Husamiyya after the patron’s son

Location:

The area of present-day Suq Saruja, northwest of the city, outside the city walls, Damascus, Syria

Date of Monument:

Hegira 576–616 / AD 1180–1220

Period / Dynasty:

Ayyubid

Patron(s):

Sitt al-Sham bint Ayyub.

Description:

Madrasa al-Shamiyya al-Husamiyya is one of the grandest madrasas to beconstructed in Damascus. Well known for the richness of its waqf endowments, and the abundance of its scholars, it was built by the renowned benefactor of the City of Damascus, the great Khatun Sitt al-Sham bint Ayyub – Salah al-Din's (Saladin's) sister. A distinguished patron of education and culture, she also commissioned the construction of a bathhouse (hammam), and a Sufi monastery (khanqah). Shewilled that her private home be converted to become another madrasa upon her death.
Entered from the north, Madrasa al-Shamiyya consists of a rectangular courtyard with a row of alternating black-and-white (ablaq)arcs running across it, creating a porch between the courtyard and the subsequent halls. There is a water-basin to the northwest, a funerary hall in the southwest, an oratory that looks into the funerary room in the southeast, and a square-cut minaret to the northeast. It was originally much larger, with rooms for students and dwellings for teachers, but none of them have survived.
By far the most remarkable feature is the funerary hall. Its entrance consists of a grand central gate flanked by two smaller gates, each surmounted by arched and pierced windows. Unlike other mausoleums found in madrasas, this room is not covered by a dome, but by a slightly pointed cross-vault. There is a mihrab on its southern wall. Most astonishing of all is the survival of the painted and pierced stucco work entirely covering the three walls and vaults of the interior. This stucco is applied in symmetrical compartmentalised fields filled with geometric arabesques as well as naskhi and kufic calligraphic banners. Bracket stucco mouldings accentuate the frames and the vault ribs.
Three inscribed tombs rest here, still in their original condition and orientation, and very well preserved. The northernmost tomb nearest the entrance, carries Sitt al-Sham (d. AH 616 / AD 1220) and her son Husam al-Din Lagin (d. AH 587 / AD 1191). The middle tomb carries Nasir al-Din b. Shirkuh, ruler of Homs (d. AH 581 / AD 1185-6), who was Sitt al-Sham's first cousin and second husband. The third tomb belongs to her brother, the ruler of Yemen, al-Mu'azzam Turan Shah (d. AH 576 / AD 1180) who was transferred to Damascus for burial in AH 582 / AD 1185. The wealth of attention given to this tomb chamber indicates the important position held by the Lady of Damascus and her family.

View Short Description

A grand madrasa complex built by the 'Lady of Damascus', Khatun Sitt al-Sham bint Ayyub. Its layout includes a free-standing minaret in a rectangular courtyard with a water-basin and an arcade in front of the entrance to the tomb chamber. This shows a high degree of flexibility and change from the original madrasa layout brought in from Seljuq Iraq and Iran. The impressive cross-vaulted tomb chamber, which holds unique surviving wall-to-wall painted and pierced stucco work, contains three original coffins. They are well preserved and include important inscriptions on the deaths of ruling members of the Ayyubid dynasty buried there.

How Monument was dated:

The monument is dated by the cenotaph inscriptions and by historical records.

Selected bibliography:

Allen, T., “Ayyubid Architecture”, Occidental (electronic publication 7th edition), 2003.
Herzfeld, E., "Damascus: Studies in Architecture”, Part III, Ars Islamica, Vols. XI–XII,1946, pp.1–71.
Moaz, A. R., “Isham al-Mar'a fi al-'Amara bi Dimashq khilal al-'Asr al-Ayyubi [Female patronage in Damascus during the Ayyubid period]”, Al-Turath al-Arabi [Arab Heritage], Vol. 29, 1987, pp.216–26.
Al-Nu'aymi, A.Q. (d. 927 / 1520). Al-Daris fi Tarikh al-Madaris [The Study of the History of Madrasas], Damascus, 1947.

Citation of this web page:

Abd al-Razzaq Moaz, Zena Takieddine "Madrasa al-Shamiyya" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;sy;Mon01;10;en

Prepared by: Abd Al-Razzaq MoazAbd al-Razzaq Moaz

Abd al-Razzaq Moaz is Deputy Minister of Culture, in charge of Cultural Heritage and Head of EU projects, at the Ministry of Culture, Syria. He was born in Damascus in 1962. He received his BA in History at the University of Damascus in 1985, a DEA in Archaeology from the University of Provence, Aix-en-Provence in 1987, and his Doctorate in Archaeology from the same university in 1991. He was a Scholar at the Institut Francais d'Etudes Arabes de Damas, Damascus, 1991–3 and was a Visiting Scholar at the Aga Khan Progam for Islamic Architecture, Harvard University and MIT, USA in 1993/4, at Granada University, Spain in 1994, at Harvard University (Fulbright Scholar) in 1995 and at Harvard University Urban Planning Department in 1996. He was a lecturer at Damascus University, 1997–9 and Visiting Professor, Harvard University in spring 1999. He was Director General of Antiquities and Museums, Syria, from 2000 to 2002. He speaks Arabic, French and English.
, Zena TakieddineZena Takieddine

Zena Takieddine is a researcher of Arab history and Islamic art. She received her BA in history (with distinction) from the American University of Beirut, and her MA in art and archaeology (with distinction) from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She has a diploma in art and antique connoisseurship from Sotheby's, London. Her fields of interest include pre-Islamic Arabian epigraphy and the development of the Arabic script, early Islamic art and architecture, Arab miniature painting, the study of intercultural influences between Islamic civilisation and the Christian West during the medieval period, and post-colonial methodology in the study of history and identity.

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: SY 14

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