Foundation of the Khānaqāh

[Picture source: © 1991 Anette Gangler]

According to Ibn Shaddād, the chronicler of late-Ayyubid Aleppo, the princess Ḍayfa Khātūn founded a khānaqāh for women “opposite the mosque (masjid) of the shaykh ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn al-Ustādh”[1]. This foundation has been identified with the building that is known as “al-Khānaqāh bi’l-Farāfira”, which bears an inscription dated 635 A.H./1237-38 A.D.[2]

Ḍayfa Khātūn was the grand old lady of the Ayyubids of Aleppo. A daughter of Saladin’s brother al-ʿĀdil Abū Bakr, she was herself a scion of the ruling dynasty. In 609/1212 she was married to her cousin aẓ-Ẓāhir Ghāzī, son of Saladin, who had inherited the principality of Aleppo. After the demise of her husband in 613/1216, she was influential in the politics of Aleppo, while the atābak Shihāb ad-Dīn Ṭughril acted as regent for her son al-ʿAzīz Muhammad until his maturity in 629/1232. Her power rose even higher when al-ʿAzīz Muḥammad died in 634/1236 and a regency council was established for the heir of the throne an-Nāṣir Yūsuf II, who was only six years old. Ḍayfa Khātūn had the leading position behind this regency council and in fact directed the politics of Aleppo until her death in 640/1242.[3]

The inscription of the Khānaqāh does not name Ḍayfa Khātūn as the founder but mentions her grandson an-Nāṣir Yūsuf with the titles of the ruler and the date of the foundation, 635/1237-38.[4] Instead of “al-khānaqāh”, the term “ar-ribāṭ” appears in the inscription, denoting the purpose of the building. This may be considered a minor distinction, as both terms designated convents for ṣūfīs. This kind of institution, in which a congregation of mystics devoted their lives to worship and asceticism, had spread throughout the Islamic world since the 5th/11th century.[5] Ibn Shaddād lists twenty-five khānaqāhs within Aleppo, of which seven were designated for women; in addition, he names three khānaqāhs extra muros and three ribāṭs.[6] It seems that the term ribāṭ in many places implied a slightly wider function, as it was also meant to be open for paupers who were not ṣūfīs; but in Aleppo the difference was rather negligible.[7] According to Ibn Shaddād’s list, khānaqāhs were donated by princes and other dignitaries of the state, as well as rich citizens. Some founders donated their own residences, to be used as khānaqāhs after they died, while others had new buildings constructed.[8] From the layout and the architecture of the complex, it seems that the Khānaqāh bi’l-Farāfira was purpose-built and was not a converted residential house.[9]

Figure 1: Building inscription in the rear wall of the portal niche [Picture source: © 1995 L. Korn]

Footnotes

[1]
Ibn Shaddād, Aʿlāq (ed. ʿAbbāra) I.1, 237.
[2]
Sauvaget, Inventaire, 84-86, no. 32, fig. 7, pl. 9 right; Sauvaget, Alep, fig. 37; Herzfeld, MCIA Alep, 302-305, pls. 110b, 134, 135b, 138a; Gaube/Wirth, Aleppo, 149-150, 377, no. 289, fig. 30; Allen, Ayyubid Architecture, Ch. 8, s. v. “Khānqāh of Ḍayfa Khātūn”; Tabbaa, Power and Piety, 164-168, figs. 181-190; Korn, Ayyubidische Architektur I, 60-61; II, pp. 245-246, no. Al/110, fig. 50, pls. 112-113.
[3]
Humphreys, From Saladin to the Mongols, 229; Eddé, Alep, 107-131.
[4]
Ghazzī, Nahr II,116; Combe et al., RCEA XI, no. 4145; Herzfeld, MCIA Alep, 163, pl. 134b.
[5]
Eddé, Alep, 422-429.
[6]
Ibn Shaddād, Aʿlāq (ed. ʿAbbāra) I.1, 233-238.
[7]
Allen, Ayyubid Architecture, Ch. 8, s. v. “Khānqāh of Ḍayfa Khātūn”; Tabbaa, Power and Piety, 163-164; Eddé, Alep, 425.
[8]
Korn, Ayyubidische Architektur I, 61.
[9]
Allen, Ayyubid Architecture, Ch. 8, s. v. “Khānqāh of Ḍayfa Khātūn”, and Tabbaa, Power and Piety, 166-167, both arguing against the spectulative passage in Herzfeld, MCIA Alep, 305. As a case in point, one could cite the Maṭbakh al-ʿAjamī as an example of a private house that was converted into a convent; cf. David, Suwayqat ʿAlī, 34-40 (cf. also Gaube/Wirth, Aleppo, 366, no. 182).