ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE DONE BY:NOFAL M, FELEMBAN. Madrasahs did not exist in the early period of...
-
Upload
wendy-dominey -
Category
Documents
-
view
217 -
download
0
Transcript of ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE DONE BY:NOFAL M, FELEMBAN. Madrasahs did not exist in the early period of...
ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE
DONE BY:NOFAL M, FELEMBAN
Madrasahs did not exist in the early period of Islam. Their
formation can probably be traced to the early Islamic
custom of meeting in mosques to discuss religious issues.
At this early stage, people seeking religious knowledge
tended to gather around certain more knowledgable
Muslims; these informal teachers later became known as
the shaykhs; and these shaykhs began to hold regular
religious education sessions called 'majalis'. Established in 859, Jami'at al-Qarawiyyin (located in Al-
Qarawiyyin Mosque) in the city of Fas ,s considered the
oldest madrasah in the Muslim world.
During the late Abbasid period, the Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk created the first major official academic institution known in history as the Nizamiyyah, based on the informal majalis (sessions of the shaykhs). created a system of state madrasahs (in his time they were called, the Nizamiyyahs, named after him) in various Abbasid cities at the end of the 11th century Offering food, lodging, and a free education, madrasas spread rapidly throughout the Muslim world, and although their curricula varied from place to place, it was always religious in character.
A nizamiyya is one of the medieval institutions of higher
education established by Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk in the
eleventh. The name nizamiyyah derives from his name.
Founded at the beginning of the Seljuk empire, they are
considered to be the model of madrassas, or Islamic
religious schools.
Nizamiyyah institutes were the first well organized
universities in the Muslim world. The quality of education
was the highest in the Islamic world. They were supported
financially, politically, and spiritually by the royal
establishment and the elite class.
The most famous and celebrated of all the
nizamiyyah schools was the Nizamiyyah of
Baghdad (established 1065), Other nizamiyyah
schools were located in Nishapur, Balkh, Herat
and Isfahan.
The founder of this medresah was Sultan Hassan, the son of the
great Mamluk Sultan, Al Nasser Mohamed Ibn (son of) Qalawoun.
the Madrasa was not that popular at the time for two reasons.
First, after Sultan Hassan was killed in 1361, the complex was not
completed exactly in the way he envisioned. In fact, it remained
closed for another fifty years. And perhaps because of this, only a
few well known scholars actually taught in this Madrasa. Many
others preferred to lecture and take up teaching posts at other
colleges in Cairo. Nevertheless, it was here in these iwans where
the sheikh or teacher would sit upon a stool or a platform while his
students sat cross legged all around him.
The ceilings of these iwans are very high, and behind the four iwans, the
building is divided into four parts for the four sects of Sunni Islam. Inside
these buildings students use to live and study. Each of these madrasa are
entered by a door between the individual iwans, and inside each has its own
courtyard with their own ablution fountain, quibla oriented iwan, and four or
fives stories of rooms. Some of these cells are larger than others.
Interestingly, this is the only Cairo madrasa that locates most of the cells on
the street side because of the huge iwans that leave no space for windows
on the courtyard side.
The Henefite madrasa, which is the largest one on the right as you face the
quibla.
The next largest madrasa was that of the Shafi'i rite on the left side of the
sanctuary. At the time, the Shafi'i rite was the one most Egyptians followed
during the period.