Al-Sharafiyah Madrasa

A madrasa complex in the old city of Aleppo, in the quarter of Suwayqat Hatim. It stands east of the Great Mosque, inside the market long called Souq Istanbul and known today as Souq al-Niswan. It belongs to the same belt of Aleppo madrasas as al-Firdaws and al-Sultaniyah, but it is far less visited, and its record is far less clean.

Who endowed it

The endowment is that of Sharaf al-Din Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Ajami. The sources do not agree on when the building was founded. The date usually given is 1259, but no inscription now standing confirms it. The one direct testimony we have is second-hand: Abu Dharr, a grandson of Ibn al-Ajami of Aleppo, read an endowment text on the arch of the well in the courtyard and gave its date as Rabi al-Awwal, AH 640. According to al-Ghazzi, that stone was stolen not long before 1925.

What is known

Other sources report that Sharaf al-Din died before the work was finished and that construction ran for forty years. So we have two different dates, a lost inscription and a very long building site. That is worth knowing as you walk through: there is no single moment of foundation to read here, only phases laid over each other.

Getting there

Leave the Great Mosque by its east door and walk east through the market. You are inside Souq al-Niswan; the madrasa is set back from the street line, and the courtyard is seen through the gateway. Repair work and ownership can change, so confirm access on the spot.