دراسة لمبنى من العهد الايوبي ١_a .. كتاب العمارة العربية الاسلامية

Study of a building from the Ayyubid era

Al Adliya Grand School:

The Great Adiliyya School in Damascus: It has been the headquarters of the Arab Scientific Academy since 1919, and in the same year it was still the headquarters of the National Museum in the process of its establishment. It was named after King Al-Adil Saif Al-Din Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Ayyub, who established it in the year 612 / 1215. We chose the Al-Adiliyya School to be a model for the buildings of the Ayyubid era, as it is one of the most important buildings in terms of planning, sobriety of construction, and carefully crafted architectural elements. It has undergone some modifications over time as a result of demolition and restoration work. But its main sections and important elements still maintain their original status. These include its eastern and southern facades, its gate, its vestibule, its courtyard, its foundation, the facade of the sanctuary, and some of its large northern iwan.

The general plan: The school has a door in the middle of its eastern façade, leading to a wide vestibule covered with a vault, followed by a second door on one axis, with the outer door open within a high iwan overlooking a heavenly court. On the southern side of the vestibule is a door to the soil, and another door on the northern side leads to the floor rooms. The upper part of the school (see diagram No. 20)

The courtyard is square in shape, surrounded on the southern side by the prayer hall, and facing it on the northern side is a large iwan. The western side was completely renewed in the modern era. There is no doubt that it contained a group of rooms. The soil occupies the southeastern corner, between the prayer hall and the vestibule (see the general plan).

External interfaces and gateway:

The facades are built of well-carved limestone, with courses approximately sixty centimeters (0.60 m) high. It ends at the top with a cornice made of molded stone. It is devoid of decoration, with only windows. It is rectangular and equipped with an iron grille. Its lintels are surmounted by an arch that reduces the weight.

The gate has a unique architecture that does not resemble the usual gates in other Ayyubid buildings. It consists of an iwan that rises to the height of the facade, roofed with a stone arch in the middle of which is a dangling stone, like a key. Its length is 2.20 meters. The iwan arch is divided into two arches, each with three lobes (see Photo No. 29). The iwan is roofed with two small adjacent domes made of muqarnas stones. At the top of the iwan is the door, which is rectangular in shape and composed of alternating black and white stones. It has a frame decorated with numerous moldings and another frame of protruding teeth. We also see this last frame surrounding the façade of the great gate, extending into the iwan to the bottom of the arched ceiling and slightly above the door lintel.

Above the door's lintel is a stone covered with geometric decorations like those we see engraved on wood. Above it is the style, which is the place designated for engraving historical inscriptions, surrounded by a frame with embossed moldings. But in its place we find a recent inscription, inscribed in 1919 when the school was being restored.

The courtyard and interior facades: The school has a square sky courtyard (18 x 17 metres) paved with stone. The tiles are interspersed with panels of geometric decoration, most of which are gold. In the middle of the courtyard is a square water pool (8.5 x 8.5 metres) with semicircular corners at its corners, as is the case in most Ayyubid pools (see the general plan).

As for the facades overlooking the courtyard, they are made of stone, devoid of decoration. On the northern side is the large iwan, and most of its stone arch has been destroyed. The capacity of the iwan is (21 metres) and its height is (27 metres). On either side of it are two doors that end with a pointed arch. Each of them has a rectangular window above it, and these two doors lead to the school’s annexes and rooms.

On the opposite, southern side is the prayer hall, which is a rectangular hall, which was roofed with three intersecting vaults, traces of which still remain in the walls of the hall. It contains a mihrab decorated with stalactites that end in a shell at the top. The facade of the prayer hall consists of a high door in the middle, and on each side of it are two windows, all of which end with a pointed arch at the top. Above each window is a rectangular window (Plan 21). As for the eastern side overlooking the courtyard, it has a small iwan in the middle, open to the vestibule of the main door of the school. On its northern side there is a room, and on its southern side there is another door to the soil.