آثار العمارة الأيوبية في سورية ٤_a .. كتاب العمارة العربية الاسلامية

B) Aleppo city buildings:

1 - Military architecture: The Ayyubids were concerned with strengthening the city’s walls and renovating its citadel, especially during the reign of Al-Zahir Ghazi bin Saladin, who ruled Aleppo for nearly thirty years. The walls and buildings of the castle were restored and modified during the Mamluk era. However, we can distinguish Ayyubid monuments in many places on the wall and in certain parts of the city gates, such as Bab Antioch, Bab Qinnasrin, and Bab al-Nasr. In the lower sections of the castle’s towers, especially the towers of the main entrance and the group of open doors in the entrance vestibule, the first door is distinguished by its sculpture engraved with coiled snakes (Photo No. 42). As for the third door, we find two prominent lions on it. Also among the Ayyubid antiquities are the shutters of the three iron doors bearing the name of al-Zahir Ghazi and the date of their manufacture (in the years 606 and 608 AH).

2 - Al-Firdaws School: It is considered one of the most important monuments of Islamic architecture in terms of its geometry, plan, and domes. It is distinguished by its leaves standing on the columns that surround the courtyard on three sides, with an iwan on the fourth side: it is roofed by a group of low-height domes because it is without vaults except for the dome in the middle of the sanctuary (see photos 31, 34). It is also distinguished by its well-carved building stones, its door surrounded by muqarnas, and its pool. Rare, with cavities inside.

Finally, the school’s mihrab, made of colored marble interwoven into exquisite geometric shapes, is considered one of the rarest mihrab in the Islamic world (see photo No. 46).

This school was built by Mrs. Daifa Khatun, daughter of King Al-Adil Abu Bakr and wife of Al-Zahir Ghazi, in the year 633 / 1235. The school was located outside the city to the south in the Al-Firdaws district.

3 - The Zahiriyya (Baraniya) school: It is called the Baraniyya school because it is located outside the wall and to distinguish it from the inner Zahiriyya, which is located inside the wall. It was built by King Al-Zahir Ghazi bin Salah Al-Din in the Al-Firdaws area, south of the city, and was built in the year 616 AH. It has a luxurious door decorated with muqarnas. It contains soil, whose graves I have studied, a large iwan, and a group of rooms. The sanctuary occupies the southern side, and is roofed with three domes.

4 - Al-Zahiriyya School (Al-Jawaniyya): It is located opposite the door of the castle, and is known today as Al-Sultaniyah. It contains the burial place of Al-Zahir Ghazi, who died in the year 613 AH. It was built by his son, King Aziz Turba, for his father, and his school for the Hanafi and Shafi’i schools of thought was built in the year (620 AH). Parts of it were demolished, and others were renovated. The most important thing in it today is the Haram, which contains a wonderful mihrab made of yellow stone, on either side of which are two beautiful marble columns. Above the mihrab are intricate decorations similar to the famous mihrab of Paradise. As well as the door of the school, which contains a memorial inscription dated 620 AH in its iwan. There is another contemporary inscription engraved on the eaves of the facade (1).

E - Al-Tarantaiya School: Its location is in the Bab Al-Nayrab neighborhood, Muhammad Bey locality, built by the historian Ibn Al-Adim in the year 649 / 1451. Well-planned and well-built, consisting of two floors of rooms and an iwan. Around its courtyard is a gallery supported by columns with horned capitals and roofed with stone tiles (rabd). The school has a beautiful door with its carvings and muqarnas. The door next to it is from the school era and originally followed it. It was called Al-Tartanaiyah after the Mamluk prince Sayf al-Din Tarantay, who restored it in the year 785 AH and dated this with an inscription on its door bearing his name.

6 - The Kamiliyya Madrasa: It is located near the aforementioned Zahiriyya (Baraniyya) Madrasa, and it is similar to it and contemporary with it, but it is unknown, and neither its builder nor the date of its construction are known (1). Above the door lintel there is a stone tablet prepared to engrave the history, but it was not executed.

7 - The scene of Hussein: It is located to the west of the city on Mount Al-Jawshan. It was built during the reign of Al-Zahir Ghazi in the year 592 / 1195. This is dated by the inscription engraved on the door. The scene is considered one of the masterpieces of the buildings left behind by the Ayyubid era and best expresses the characteristics of the Aleppo school of architecture. It is a huge building, as if it were a ribat or a school, with a heavenly courtyard, a high iwan, and a chapel covered with three domes. In one of its corners there is a spacious room that resembles soil, perhaps a shrine, but it is devoid of graves. It is roofed with a high dome with a neck