Madrasat al-Firdaws in Aleppo
Yasser Tabbaa
Synopsis:
Founded in 632/1235 by the Regent Queen Dayfa Khatun, the Madrasat al-Firdaws impresses us today by its female patronage, architectural merits, and by its long and unique inscriptions. Its eleven domes and magnificent mihrab emulate similar features in the earlier Shi‘i Mashhad al-Husayn while its exterior iwan, once facing a verdant garden, resonates with its manifold paradisiac connotations. The madrasa’s Qur’anic and Sufi inscriptions, which culminate in a description of devotees having a vision of God, seem to offer a Sufi-Sunni alternative to Shi‘i piety and ritual practices, especially in medieval Aleppo.
References:
Herzfeld, Ernst. Matériaux pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum. Pt. 2, Syrie du Nord. Inscriptions et Monuments d’Alep, 3 vols. Cairo: Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1954–56. 
Mulder, Stephennie. The Shrines of the ‘Alids in Medieval Syria: Sunnis, Shi‘is, and the Architecture of Coexistence. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014.
Mulder, Stephennie. “Seeing the Light: Enacting the Divine in Three Medieval Syrian Shrines.” In Envisioning Islamic Art and Architecture: Essays in Honor of Renata Holod, ed. David Roxburgh, 88–108. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2014.
Moaz, Abdal-Razzaq et al. The Ayyubid Era: Art and Architecture in Medieval Syria. Vienna: Museum With No Frontiers, 2015.
Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1975.
Tabbaa, Yasser. Constructions of Power and Piety in Medieval Aleppo. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.
Tabbaa, Yasser. The Production of Meaning in Islamic Architecture and Ornament. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021.
Citation:
Yasser Tabbaa, “Madrasat al-Firdaws in Aleppo,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 21 March 2024.
Yasser Tabbaa (Ph.D., Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, 1982) has written primarily on the architecture, calligraphy, and ornament of the medieval Islamic world, with occasional forays into contemporary religious architecture. In addition to his numerous articles, Tabbaa has published four books: Constructions of Power and Piety in Medieval Aleppo (Penn State Press, 1996); The Transformation of Islamic Art During the Sunni Revival (University of Washington Press, 2001); Najaf: The Gate of Wisdom (UNESCO, 2016); and The Production of Meaning in Islamic Architecture and Ornament (Edinburgh University Press, 2021). He has taught Islamic art and architecture at several US and Middle Eastern universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, Oberlin College, and NYU-Abu Dhabi.