Facing the ʾAyyūbīd Madrasa al-ʿĀdilīyya where rest the remains of the ʾAyyūbīd sultan, al-Malik al-ʿĀdil, brother of Saladin, the Madrasa aẓ-Ẓāhirīyya (second half of the thirteenth century) is today the National Library of Manuscripts. It contains the mausoleum of the Mamlūk sultan Baybars, conqueror of the Mongols and Crusaders. It is sumptuously decorated with golden mosaics which repeat, much less skillfully, the artistic themes of the Great Mosque. The funerary chamber, surmounted by a lofty dome, contains the magnificent miḥrāb with its vault and arch of mosaics in mother-of-pearls and polychrome marble.
Jacques Ghislain de Maussion de Favières. Damascus, Baghdad: Capitals and lands of the caliphs. Translation to English by Edward J. Banks. Librairie orientale (Dar el-Mashreq), Beirut, Lebanon. 1972.
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