It is one of the most important ancient historical schools in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is located at the intersection of Bab al-Silsilah Road and Haret al-Sharaf Road. It included a number of facilities, including a book for memorizing the Qur’an for children, a school for teaching religious sciences, and a shrine in which the founder of the school, the Mamluk Prince Tashtamur al-Ala’i, and his son Ibrahim, were buried.
The school no longer currently performs its educational roles. Rather, the part that was designated for books has been turned into shops. As for the upper floors, Jerusalemite families reside, while the ground floor is used as the headquarters of the Supreme Islamic Authority, while the shrine remains as it is.
Founding Prince
The Tashtamariyya School is located at the intersection of Bab al-Silsilah Road and Harat al-Sharaf Road, 30 meters west of Burkat Khan.
It bears the name of its builder, the Mamluk Prince Saif Tashtamur bin Abdullah Al-Ala’i, according to what is written in an inscription on an alabaster stone on the northern facade of the building, which reads: “He ordered the establishment of this blessed place, the honorable residence of Al-Sayfi Tashtamar Al-Ala’i, on the date of the year 784 AH,” which corresponds to 1382 AD.
Prince Tashtamur Al-Ala’i held several positions in the Mamluk state. He was appointed Daodara (a title for the one who holds the sultan’s crest or prince) in the year 772 AH during the reign of the Mamluk Sultan Shaaban, then deputy of Damascus, and then atabka and military commander in Egypt.
After Prince Barquq seized power, he arrested Prince Tashtamur and imprisoned him before deciding to appoint him as governor of Safed, which he considered an exile and a removal of him from decision-making positions, so he asked to be relieved of this position and settle in the city of Jerusalem.
Some sources mention that Tashtamur felt his death was approaching after he became ill, so he asked to move to Jerusalem and began building his school very quickly. This was in the year 784 AH.
It is said that he spent the last two years of his life seeking knowledge. Ibn al-Qadi described him as being eager to study religious sciences, while Ibn Taghribi described him as loving learning poetry and listening to music. He died in 786 AH/1384 AD and was buried in the school, and his son Ibrahim was buried after him in the place. Himself.
School building
Historical sources mention that Tashtamer bought several houses in the Old City of Jerusalem, used the eastern part of them for housing, demolished the other parts, and used the same building materials to rebuild parts of the school, the sabil, and the two iwans above Bab al-Silsilah.
The school had 5 halls used to accommodate students and everyone related to the school. It had a kitchen, a bathroom, and a meeting room, and various legal and linguistic sciences were taught in it.
It included several facilities, including a school, a shrine, a water fountain, and classrooms for orphans.
There is an entrance to the school on the northern façade adjacent to Bab al-Silsilah Road, and above it are 3 groups of muqarnas on which a quarter ribbed dome rests. It is likely from architectural evidence that the northern façade of the building may have been made elsewhere or belong to another building and was moved and installed. It seems that the reason behind this is The construction process was rushed, which is clearly evident in the mismatch between the middle of the muqarnas and the middle of the entrance.
The entrance leads to an arched hall leading to the shrine room and the madrasa. The main facade of the madrasa – which includes the entrance – lacks a unified decorative pattern, and many decorative elements may have been brought from other places and inserted into the building, making it appear less homogeneous and symmetrical when compared to other buildings. Similar from the same period.
The tomb, or shrine room, occupies the northwestern corner of the site, and its main facade overlooks Bab al-Silsilah Road. It is considered larger than any tomb built in the Mamluk era in Jerusalem.
Its shape is approximately square, topped with a hemispherical dome mounted on a cylindrical neck with 12 windows that provide natural lighting for the shrine. However, some of these windows are currently closed due to recent additions to the roof.
Shrine and book
Slightly south of the center of the room there is a stone shrine that may be the tomb of Tashtamur Al-Ala’i. The soil also contains a mihrab in the southern wall, which has a decorated floor. The two windows overlooking the Silsila Road have their sills decorated with colored mosaics.
The building includes a book in which children used to learn science, especially the sciences of the Qur’an and the hadith of the imam or sheikh. It is located in the northeastern corner of the building and took a narrow, longitudinal shape due to the thickness of the side walls.
According to historical sources, the original entrance to the book was open on Bab al-Silsilah Road, so that passers-by could hear the reading of the Qur’an on their way to the sanctuary, but now part of the vestibule of the original entrance has been closed and it has become a shop, and the place can only be reached from an entrance opposite a room. The shrine is across the entrance hall to the school.
To the right of the stairs leading to the entrance to the school is the sabil, and there are those who believe that Tashtamur was influenced by the architectural element used in Cairo, as sabils and ketubs spread in Cairo in that era, and it was common to build a sabil with a book above it to teach orphan children. If that is true, then the sabil It was moved from its original place at the bottom of the book to its current location west of the entrance at a later period of time. It appears that the sabil was drawing water from the well beneath the soil, as there is an opening for the well in the northwestern corner of the shrine room, close to the sabil.
The madrasa is adjacent to the shrine room on the southern side, and is connected to it through the northwestern corner door. It consists of a low iwan in the middle topped with a polygonal arch, with an octagonal lighting hole in the middle.
This opening is currently closed with cement from the outside, and from the inside a piece of gypsum decorated with colorful geometric arabesques has been placed in its place. The middle iwan is surrounded by 4 iwans with intersecting arches. In the middle of the school hall, where the middle iwan is a low-height octagonal marble basin surrounded by mosaic tiles, is located directly under The aforementioned octagonal lighting hole.
As for the southern “Al-Qibli” iwan, it is the largest in area. It is square in shape, and on its southern facade from the top there is a triple window with pointed arches. It is believed that a mihrab was also built on the same facade, but no trace remains of it. In the western and eastern mural there are two opposite doors, each leading into To a side room that may have been used for teaching or for teachers to rest.
Currently used by school
Education is no longer one of the current uses of school. In addition to the shops overlooking Bab al-Silsilah Road, which are believed to have been part of the book, 5 Jerusalemite families live on the upper floors, while the ground floor is currently used as the headquarters of the Council of the Supreme Islamic Authority, while the soil remains as it is.
As is the case with most buildings in the old town, many additions were built, especially in the inhabited parts, to meet the needs of contemporary daily life.
Many maintenance and restoration works were carried out on the site at various intervals, the most recent of which was the comprehensive restoration project carried out by the Welfare Foundation, which restored the external facades and ceilings, in addition to the inhabited parts, the soil, and the school, in accordance with recognized state standards, and these works were completed in 2004.