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Architecture in the Ayyubid era

General characteristics

During the Ayyubid era, the country witnessed an unparalleled urban movement. The reason for this is the consolidation of unity achieved since the days of Nour al-Din, economic prosperity, and the establishment of security. This is despite the state’s preoccupation with fighting the Frankish Crusaders and liberating the occupied lands.

This urban movement was manifested in the expansion of cities, the renewal of their walls, the construction of many castles, and the provision of public roads with hotels as stops for caravans. The cities were filled with public buildings such as mosques, schools, khanqahs, guesthouses, houses for Sufis, luxurious shrines with domes, baths, bimaristans, tsarships, and khans. Many of these buildings still remain today, and some of them are in good condition in major Syrian cities.

As for the residential houses, of which we did not find anything that could be attributed to this era, they were most likely very similar to the construction of schools in terms of architecture and general condition. This is confirmed by what we will see from the news of schools, a number of which were originally residential homes.

Such an urban movement must bring about a revolution in engineering and the development of arts and architectural styles.

There has been a remarkable development in the arts of military architecture. The towers and walls have surpassed, in their height, large size, and the massiveness of their stones, which are dominated by the prominent type, everything known before. The best examples of this are the Citadel of Aleppo, the Citadel of Damascus, and the Citadel of Bosra, which still maintain their authenticity (Photos 41, 39).

As for the general plan of the buildings, the elements introduced in the Seljuk era were rooted in it and mixed with the authentic local elements. The courtyard, equipped with a rectangular or polygonal pool, became surrounded by iwans on most sides of the building, with the exception of the side occupied by the sanctuary in schools and mosques. In Aleppo, we distinguish the arcades that continued as a fixed element alongside the iwans, as in the two madrasas al-Firdaws and al-Dhahiriya (Photos No. 33 and 34). The roofing was based either on vaults (crossing arches) or on domes.

Domes were an essential element in Ayyubid architecture, and they had their own character. They were higher than before and their shapes varied, with a smooth bowl with a pointed top. The predominant shape in Damascus is the grooved type, that is, with vertical ribs (see photos No. 36 and 28).

The domes were provided with a ribbed neck composed of one or two layers, interspersed with windows. In the corners of the domes, as a means of transition between the square-shaped hall and the round dome, one of the following three elements was used:

First: Muqarnas. Their shapes evolved from the muqarnas known in the previous era.

Second: The corner hinges, which resemble the bowl of the niches.

Third: spherical triangles, which are colloquially called pants. While domes were often built with brick, especially in Damascus, most of them were built in Aleppo with carved stone.

As for the facades, they were built with large, well-carved stones and on wide courses compared to buildings of later eras. Coloring did not appear in courses except in a limited manner in the late Ayyubid era. It was limited to gates and archstones. These gates were high, surmounted by a muqarnas arch or equipped with two small domes. In front of it is a well-built arch with a single stone lock in its middle, dividing it into two arches like the doors of the Great Adiliyyah and Qilijiyya Madrasas in Damascus. (Photo No. 29) The arch was used at different heights above the lintels of the doors and windows. Columns were also used in the corridors to carry arches, and for the first time they had muqarnas capitals (Al-Firdaws and Al-Tarantaiya schools) in Aleppo (Photos 33, 34).

As for decoration, although the abundance of decoration is a distinctive feature of Islamic art in general, Ayyubid buildings paid the least attention to decoration. It is rare in facades. It is almost limited to doors only, where we find muqarnas or colored stones. This is of limited use in door arches and lintels. In the late Ayyubid era, we find an early appearance of forged castanets (1), which are alternately colored (Al-Bimaristan Al-Tamimari and the Al-Maridani School in Damascus).

We also find at the doors inscriptions on the history of the building, which add some adornment to it with their beautiful Naskh (Thuluth) script. Or we find an ornament engraved with geometric shapes (Photo No. 30).

Inside, plaster decorations are the common element on the walls. Especially in Damascene buildings, such as the Levantine School, Al-Turbah Al-Khatuniyah, and Al-Bimaristan Al-Qaymari (Photo No. 43). This is in addition to the care given to wooden carvings, examples of which can be found in the coffins of the tombs of great people, such as the tomb of Saladin in Damascus, the tomb of Sheikh Mohsen, and the mihrab of the Al-Halawiyah Mosque in Aleppo.
(See photos No. 45 and 47).