The Al-Saffahiyah Mosque, Aleppo

It stands in a narrow street, on a square too small for a car to turn in. Even so, the most photographed minaret in Aleppo is here: eight-sided, carved over every face, and rising straight off the top of the portal.

Who built it

The judge Ahmad ibn Salih ibn Ahmad al-Saffah founded it in 1425. The building sits on the remains of a sesame oil mill. From the start it was endowed not only as a mosque but as a madrasa — the inscription above the door says so, and sets the condition that its imam and preacher follow the Shafi’i school.

Getting there

Southwest of the Citadel, east of the Shibani Church. Take the street that runs down from the Citadel towards Shibani and the minaret comes into view as soon as you pass the church.

What to see

The portal is laid in bands of black and yellow stone; the half-dome inside the arch is filled with muqarnas and carries a round medallion at its centre. Three separate belts of ornament run up the shaft of the minaret — plain, zigzag and lattice — with the balcony and its wooden cap at the top. Inside, the mihrab is marble.

Don’t miss

The inscription above the door. It does not simply give a date; it sets out how the building was endowed and on what condition it passed from one hand to the next. Few endowment inscriptions in Aleppo say this much.

How it stands now

The mosque was partly repaired in 1925. The al-Jalloum quarter was heavily damaged in the fighting of 2012-2016; check at the door for the state of the mosque and whether it is open. We have no verified record of restoration work here.