The Al-Sha’baniyya Madrasa, Aleppo

In the old Farafra quarter that runs up against the north side of the citadel: a mosque under a high dome, with student cells set around it. It was founded in the Hijri year 1085, that is 1674. Its founder, Shaban Agha bin Ahmad, collected state revenues under Ottoman rule. What sets this building apart among the Ottoman colleges of Aleppo is not its architecture but the condition written into its endowment deed.

The condition of the endowment

Shaban Agha ruled that anyone drawing on the income of the endowment, meaning anyone lodging in the college, had to come from outside Aleppo, from the countryside. The reasoning was practical: to take the cost of lodging off a student who had travelled in. Aleppines could attend the lessons, but they received neither a bed nor an allowance. A second condition was more personal. Besides his studies, each student was to recite a section of the Quran for the soul of the founder in the Sha’baniyya mosque after the dawn prayer. At some point the rule was broken, the trustee cut the salaries, and most of the students and teachers scattered. In 1921 the endowments department made the acceptance of all students and the payment of allowances compulsory, and the college opened again.

What to see

The domed mosque and 29 cells. Every cell was given over to student lodging — this was a boarding school, not an annexe to a mosque. An open courtyard sits in the middle, and in the middle of that a raised basin for ablutions. North of the basin is the wide teaching room under its own high dome, east of it another room, west a kitchen, south the prayer hall, again domed. The courtyard floor is laid in marble.

How long it takes

Twenty-five minutes. After 1958 the madrasa passed to Shaykh Abdullah Siraj al-Din and a new period began; the shaykh is buried inside the building. It was attacked and damaged in recent years and repairs are still going on. The courtyard is not always open, so ask at the door.

Don’t miss

The cell doors. The 29 cells ring the courtyard, each one built for a single occupant, and the height of the doors tells you how small the rooms are. The rule in the deed becomes a measurement here: these rooms were built for people whose road home was long.