The Al-Muqaddamiyah Madrasa

The oldest madrasa in Aleppo. It stands in the Khan al-Tutun lane, off the Bab Antakia souq, and takes its name from its founder: the emir Izz al-Din Abd al-Malik al-Muqaddam turned the building into a madrasa, a religious school, in 1168. Before that it was a mosque, and before that a church.

Getting there

Enter the souq at the Bab Antakia gate, walk east, then turn into the Khan al-Tutun lane. Asking for the madrasa by name rarely works; asking for the lane does. The building is also known as the Khan al-Tutun madrasa.

How long it takes

Twenty minutes. The building is small: a prayer hall on the qibla side, a few rooms to the west.

What to see

The door faces west. What to look at is directly above it, the inscription set into the lintel. Sources treat that text as the earliest known inscription cut in the naskhi script; stone at the time was still being carved in kufic. The building is known for its arabesque carving as well.

Do not miss

The order matters: church first, then mosque, then madrasa. Ibn al-Khashshab, the chief judge of Aleppo, converted the building into a mosque in 1124. Only one madrasa in Syria was founded earlier — the Mabrak al-Naqa in Bosra, of 1136.

Where things stand

The building was hit by shelling during the war years. How much of it has been repaired is not something this page can confirm. If you are going into the souq, ask locally whether the madrasa is open; the facade can be seen from the lane even when the door is shut.