Historical Context
[Picture source: © 1920 Creswell Archive] [Picture source: © 1920 Creswell Archive] 
Figure 1: al-Madrasa as-Sultaniya,
overview from NE [Picture source: © 2008 Rami Alafandi] 
Figure 2: al-Madrasa as-Sultaniya,
overview from NE [Picture source: © 2008 Rami Alafandi] One of the most glamorous periods in the history of Aleppo was without doubt the reign of the Ayyubid aẓ-Ẓāhir Ghāzī, son of Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf (Saladin). Having acted as governor of Aleppo under his father’s suzerainty, he inherited the principality in 589 A.H./1193 A.D. Aleppo remained a semi-independent state within the Ayyubid confederation after Saladin’s death, with rather stable political conditions under aẓ-Ẓāhir Ghāzī, despite his partial involvement in the struggle for hegemony among the Ayyubid princes.[1]The territory of the principality extended from the Euphrates to Latakia on the Mediterranean and from the Taurus mountains in the north to Maʿarrat an-Nuʿmān in the south.
Aẓ-Ẓāhir Ghāzī became a patron of architecture first of all in his own principality, with a natural focus on Aleppo as its capital. A large part of his building activities consisted in fortifications: City walls and castles were re-built or strengthened and new construction undertaken, such as the massive fortress of Qalʿat Najm on the Euphrates.[2] Particularly famous is the entrance block of the Aleppo Citadel with its two towers shielding the gateway, which bends several times while leading up to the plateau of the citadel interior. Also, the residence within the citadel was rebuilt by aẓ-Zahir Ghaẓi after a devastating fire in 609/1212. He restored or re-erected the citadel palace and Friday Mosque, with an unknown amount of original building material re-used in the new construction.[3]
Aẓ-Ẓāhir Ghāzī’s religious foundations occupied fewer cubic meters of quarried stone than his fortifications, but they constitute important milestones in the history of Ayyubid architecture. In the provincial towns of his principality, a minaret in Latakia and the shrine of Joshua in al-Maʿarra can be named.[4] More important are the Friday mosque (the so-called “upper Maqām”) on the Aleppo Citadel and, in the city’s southern suburb, the Madrasa Ẓāhirīya.[5] Both are particularly relevant, as their construction immediately preceded that of the Madrasa Sulṭānīya. The foundation of two madrasas, one outside the city and one inside, was no singular case but had parallels in the foundations by the amīr Shādhbakht, the atābak Shihāb ad-Dīn Ṭughril and the amīr Sayf ad-Dīn ʿAlī b. Sulayman b. Jandar (of these, only the Madrasa Shādhbakhtīya intra muros and the Madrasa Atābakīya extra muros had been partly preserved). Apparently, the patron of such twin foundations was to be buried in one place or the other, depending on whether he passed away within the city walls or outside.[6]
Aẓ-Ẓāhir Ghāzī had his madrasa in the southern suburbs built during the first years of the 7th/13th century (according to Ibn Shaddād, it was completed in 610/1213-14, but the princely burial of al-Muʾayyad Masʿūd b. an-Nāṣir Yūsuf in 606/1210 suggests the building was at least partly standing at this date)[7]. Perhaps Ghāzī had planned to build his madrasa within the city immediately after, but it is likely that the construction and renovations on the citadel came in between, where investment was badly needed after the fire of 609/1212.
Construction of the new madrasa within the city had probably only just begun when aẓ-Ẓāhir Ghāzī passed away in 613/1216. According to Ibn Shaddād, construction stopped and was only resumed at the initiative of the atābak Shihāb ad-Dīn Ṭughril, tutor for Ghāzī’s successor al-ʿAzīz Muḥammad during his minority.[8] This information is in keeping with the short inscription on the upper cornice of the façade. Its date of 620/1223 can be taken as the date of completion. The inscription also mentions the purpose of the building: The study (qirāʾa) of the Qurʾān and of religious law (sharīʿa), as well as the burial of the founder.[9] Ibn Shaddād reports that this madrasa, which he names “Ẓāhirīya intra muros” was devoted to the Ḥanafite and the Shāfiʿite schools of law, and Ibn al-ʿAdīm mentions that the body of aẓ-Ẓāhir Ghāzī was transferred from his first burial in the citadel to the madrasa in 620/1223-24.[10]
