Historical and Architectural Importance

The Khusrawiyya complex, which has been standing for more than 450 years, marked the beginning of the ‘Ottomanization’ of both the cityscape and the mosque architecture of Aleppo in the middle of the 10th century AH / 16th century AD.[1]. It was the first imperial complex that had been erected there by a high Ottoman official. Thus, its distinctive and representative design went back to the Ottoman centre, namely the imperial atelier in Istanbul, whose chief architect was Sinan.[2]

For the first time after the Ottoman conquest of Aleppo in 922 AH / 1516 AD, a külliye, a complex comprising several facilities with different socio-religious functions, was installed in the Syrian-Arab province.[3] Actually, the Madrasa al-Khusrawiyya was – together with the Madrasa-Mosque al-ʿUthmaniyya (first half of the 12th century AH / 18th century AD) – the only two madrasas which were built as an integral part of such a complex during the Ottoman era.[4]

The Jamiʿ al-Khusrawiyya formed – unlike previous mosques built in Aleppo – the prominent centre of an independent architectural complex that aimed at an immediate and striking visual effect.[5] It signified the transformation from the Mamluk to the imperial Ottoman stylistic language. Its characteristic hemispherical dome and typical pencil-shaped minaret dominated the city’s skyline south of the citadel. During the decades following the middle of the 10th century AH / 16th century AD, this was continued with the Jamiʿ al-ʿAdiliyya and the Jamiʿ al-Bahramiyya, a southerly parallel to the main east-west axis of the central covered market (suq) towards the west.[6]

By the time of its erection, the new Friday mosque was second in size only to the Umayyad Mosque or Great Mosque of Aleppo. The mosque’s prayer hall, designed as a freestanding cube with a typical domed portico at the front, contained the largest and highest dome in Aleppo. [7] Without support piers for the roof, its centralized interior differed fundamentally from that of any other mosque interior built in Aleppo up until that point, providing a completely different sense of space and light. However, some design elements remained rooted in the local building tradition.

In the furnishing of the mosque, a new type of internal balcony (sudda) at the northwestern corner of the prayer hall raised on ten columns with muqarnas capitals occurs besides the traditional one. [8]

This, at first sight, classical Ottoman Friday mosque can be associated with more traditional Ottoman mosques due to the so-called tabhane (guest room), here used to extend the front of the prayer hall on either side, recalling an important formal and functional element of early Ottoman mosque architecture. By the classical period of Sultan Suleiman I, it gradually went out of style in the capital Istanbul and then in provincial centres including Aleppo.[9]

In the wake of the distinctively different architectural style of the Khusrawiyya complex and its Friday mosque, new decor elements appear in Aleppo. Most prominent are the polychrome painted underglaze tiles with floral and geometric patterns, which covered the window lunettes in the prayer hall and at the front facade inside the portico. The minaret was provided with an ornament band of blue-and-white underglaze tiles below its balcony. [10]

Yet, traditional Syrian elements, mostly from the previous Mamluk era, mixed with Ottoman ones, were used in the decoration of the building and in the design of the prayer niche (mihrab), the sermon pulpit (minbar), and the entrance portal of the prayer hall. [11]

Social and economical importance

One of the various important social, educational, and religious purposes that the charitable endowment (waqf) of the Khusrawiyya was founded for, was the formation of a takiyya (hospice, travellers lodge).[12] After the Ottoman conquest of the Arab lands in 1516–1517, the Ottoman sultan served as guardian of the Islamic pilgrimage (hajj) to the holy cities Mecca and Medina, which played the decisive role for his religious legitimacy.

The third endowment document (waqfiyya, dated 974 AH / 1566 AD) of the Khusrawiyya describes in Arabic the daily meals that were prepared in the public kitchen and distributed to the staff and students of the madrasa, and to the guests of the takiyya: The cooks and bakers had to make 260 loafs of bread and 14 pounds (6.34 kg) of cooked lamb every day for lunch and dinner and 8 pounds (3.62 kg) of lamb cooked with rice as soup. For Ramadan dinners during the holy month of fasting they had to prepare 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of meat. Every Friday night and every night of Ramadan, they used 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of rice to make a dessert.[13]

In Ottoman times, Aleppo had not only become an important station serving the pilgrimage route down south to the Hijaz, but also the second most important provincial centre of the empire for internal and external trade located at the crossroads of major routes between Europe, Asia and Africa.[14] Therefore, the income-generating assets of the charitable endowment of the Khusrawiyya, like shops and caravanserais, contributed substantially to a higher economic purpose being a significant investment in the city’s and province’s commercial infrastructure.

About 30 years after the Ottoman conquest, Khusraw Pasha showed off his loyalty to the Ottoman sultan by establishing the first multifunctional complex with an Ottoman style Friday mosque (külliye).[15] It seems that this endowment complex was also a means to install his own family in Aleppo. [16]

The Khusrawiyya as a madrasa or religious school – a purpose supposed to remain until the destruction of the complex – was the most prestigious Islamic educational institution in Aleppo and the north Syrian region until the 20th century. [17]

Footnotes

[1] Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 37, 58, 120.
[2] Kafescioğlu, “In the Image of Rūm,” 83–84; David, “Domaines et limites,” 190–91.
[3] Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 50–52.
[4] Kasmo,“Restoration Project of al-Ahmadiyya,” 15.
[5] Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 69–70.
[6] Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 61, 173.
[7] Al-Jassir, “Tatawwur ʿAmarat al-Madaris,” 439.
[8] Al-Jassir, “Tatawwur ʿAmarat al-Madaris,” 353.
[9] Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 64–65; Oğuz, “Multi-functional buildings,” 99–100.
[10] Necipoğlu, The Age of Sinan, 473.
[11] Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 66–67.
[12] Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 76–77.
[13] Al-Ghazzi, Nahr al-Dhahab, 2:96–97.
[14] See Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 122.
[15] See Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 11-12.
[16] Al-Ghazzi, Nahr al-Dhahab, 2:93.
[17] Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 76.