Madrasā al-Atābikīyyā: the Plan

 

The slope of the mountainside at aṣ-Ṣāliḥīyyā is so great that most tombs and smaller religious buildings were aligned to the main streets, which run southwest to northeast. In the case of al-ʾAtābikīyyā, it would have been awkward to set a correctly oriented tomb on the west or southwest corner now occupied by the minaret (1). Instead, the architect has made the adjustment to the qiblā by inserting a trapezoidal courtyard between the street and the tomb, with its adjacent prayer hall. As a result, a separate street facade was created. The portal is inserted in this facade, not constructed as part of the main building. Windows in this facade may have provided the visual access usually established by building the tomb on the street. The courtyard may have held a tank, but there is no sign of it now; some ablution facilities must have been provided for the building to be used as a mosque, but they may have been located east of the courtyard. The prayer hall is a rectangle 5.5 x 6 meters. The interior of the prayer hall is simple, and the condition of the exterior suggests that it has been substantially rebuilt. The turbā measures 6.5 x 6.5 meters. The interior of the tomb is conventional, including the subsquinch corbel cell, but the dome is gone (2), and a medial arch has been inserted to help support the secondary roof. The wall between the two chambers has been removed (3).

1. The minaret may have been a later addition to the madrasā.
2. The dome was rebuilt in 2006.
3. The oldest description was provided by ibn Ṭūlūn (al-Qalāʾid al-Ǧawharīyyā p. 188-189). Badrān visited the edifice in 1910 when the madrasā was largely in ruins (Munādamat al-ʾAṭlāl p. 77). 

موفّق دغمان. المدرسة الأتابكيّة. موسوعة الآثار في سورية، المجلّد الأوّل، صفحة ١٥٦-١٥٨. 

Terry Allen. Ayyubid Architecture. Solipsist Press, Occidental, California, 1999.