The Al-Zahiriyya Madrasa, Aleppo

It stands on the road running south from Bab al-Maqam, between the Al-Kamiliyya Madrasa and the Firdaws Mosque. Al-Zahir Ghazi began it in 1217 and the work finished in 1219, three years after he died. It was a college for the Shafi’i school of law; today the Quran is taught inside.

Getting there

Walk south from the gate. After 500 metres it is there at the edge of the street, and the portal gives it away. The Al-Kamiliyya lies east on the same line, the Firdaws Mosque further south. Three buildings, one walk.

What to see

The door is the most worked part of the building. Rows of broad muqarnas step up into a half-dome, and a band of interlacing strapwork runs around the whole recess. Inside, a square pool with lobed corners sits at the centre of the courtyard. The prayer wing is a portico under three domes, and of the two columns that once carried its mihrab, one is gone. A high iwan opens in the middle of the east wing; south of it is a room whose dome is larger than those of the prayer hall, pierced for ventilation. The southern half of the west wing is a three-domed room with muqarnas in the corners. The northern half has two storeys, with student cells lining both sides of the upper corridor. The capitals in the north and south porticoes are Roman, reused from older buildings.

How long it takes

Half an hour if the courtyard is open. Ten minutes if it is not: you stand at the door and look up. The building was damaged during the war years and repaired, and it now works as a Quran school, so a visit can run into class time. A traveller who photographed it in 2010 got no further than the doorway and the outer wall.

Don’t miss

The missing column at the mihrab. The mihrab in the middle of the three-domed portico rested on two columns; one is gone, and the gap shows once you are close. Most visitors look at the domes and walk on.