The Al-Sabuniyya Madrasa

South-west of Bab al-Jabiya, outside the walls, on Al al-Bayt Street and directly opposite the Bab al-Saghir cemetery. It was founded between 1459 and 1464 by a wealthy merchant, Shihab al-Din Ahmad Ibn al-Sabuni, and set up as a funerary endowment.

Getting there

Come out of the gate of the Bab al-Saghir cemetery, turn onto Al al-Bayt Street, and the facade is in front of you. From inside the walls it is a walk south-west from Bab al-Jabiya. The street carries traffic and the pavement is narrow, so you cross to the cemetery side to take the front in as a whole.

What to see

The front is dressed stone laid in alternating black and white courses, with large geometric roundels cut into the white above. The portal recess is deep, closed by a muqarnas crown that narrows as it comes down, and the panel at the back of the recess is coloured marble inlay framed by interlacing bands. The plan is rectangular and Mamluk: a courtyard, a large western iwan with a mihrab facing south on the axis of the entrance, and a smaller southern iwan. The octagonal minaret carries striped stone and blind niches, and its balcony rests on muqarnas corbels. Inside the dome the plant ornament survives.

How long it takes

Twenty minutes, in front of the facade. The building stands and its decoration is intact, but it is rarely open; finding it shut is normal, and most of what there is to see at this stop is outside anyway. Combined with a visit to the Bab al-Saghir cemetery it costs no extra time.

Don’t miss

The panel at the back of the portal. Most visitors look at the muqarnas overhead and walk on. The real work is in the marble below: bands of black, white and reddish stone pass through one another and knot, and a raised plaited border runs around the edge of the panel. Come here after seeing the bare striped wall of the Qilijiyah and you see where the same idea got to in two hundred years.