It is improbable that Rabīʿā H̱ātūn had founded her madrasā before her return to Damascus in 630 (1), as a septuagenarian, and the fact that the frames for the inscriptions over the doors and windows are prepared, but not inscribed, shows that the building was not entirely finished when she died in 643 (2). The little madrasā is in perfect condition and serves today as a girls school.
The court is almost square, 11 m to a side, with a slight variation of the regular cruciform plan: the entrance is flanked by a pair of small īwāns, and the two lateral īwāns are shifted back, like large alae of an atrium. The square room in the northwest corner is a turbā, but the tomb is in the adjoining īwān. The building uses no cupolas but only barrel vaults, cloisters, and cross vaults. It is built in the very best ʾAyyūbīd style, with conscious simplicity, displaying perfect mastery over stone.
1. Ramaḍān 630 AH (June-July 1233 CE).
2. 1245-1246 CE.
Ernst Herzfeld. Damascus, Studies in Architecture III. Ars Islamica XI-XII 1946 (p. 1-71).
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