Historical overview

[Picture source: © 2007 Stefan Weber]

In 1124, Crusaders under the command of Jocelyn of Edessa besieged Aleppo and committed a number of atrocities. Historians report they camped to the west of the city on Jabal Jawshan, desecrated the Muslim graves in the vicinity, destroyed two mashhads on the eastern slope of Jabal Jawshan (the Mashhad al-Husayn and the Mashhad al-Muhassin), burned the trees in the gardens, and so on.[1]

Abu l-Hasan ibn al-Khashshab, a member of a powerful notable family and the city’s judge (cf. Umayad Mosque), demanded that the local Christian communities finance the rebuilding of the two mashshads as compensation for the Crusaders’ outrages. This request was refused, most probably so as to not to set a disadvantageous precedent.[2] The judge then ordered the confiscation of four churches intra muros, including what remained of the old Byzantine cathedral. An anonymous Syriac chronicle, cited by Allen, provides some interesting details: The judge ordered thousands of Muslims to enter the churches, where they destroyed the ‘church characteristics’, like pulpits, altars and icons, opened the southern walls and prayed there, thereby transforming the buildings into mosques.[3] The old cathedral was converted into a mosque bearing the name Masjid as-Sarrajin.[4] Nur a-Din Zengi then founded a madrasa for the Hanafi madhhab in that mosque in 543/1148-49 and established a large endowment (waqf) for it. This new institution became known as al-Madrasa al-Halawiyya, derived from the Arabic name ‘halwa’ for ‘sweets’ that were distributed among its teachers and students following the waqf stipulations.[5]