Madrasā ar-Ruknīyyā al-Barrānīyyā: Portal

 

A rather simple door is surmounted by a monolithic lintel with an uninscribed tabula ansata topped by a slightly joggled monolithic slotted relieving arch. The tabula ansata is awkwardly tall for the height of the block into which it was carved.

The relieving arch, however, is inscribed in the depth of the block with a wide multipart decorative inscription in Nasẖī, carved in intaglio, and squared Kūfic, rendered in relief by cutting away the background. Reading from right to left up through the end of the Kūfic section, it contains all of surah 112, which is appropriate for any Islamic religious context:

قُلْ هُوَ اللهُ أَحَدٌ 

اللهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ

لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ

وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُۥ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌۢ

Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “He is Allah—One ˹and Indivisible˺;

Allah—the Sustainer ˹needed by all˺.

He has never had offspring, nor was He born.

And there is none comparable to Him.”

In the stone above the slotted relieving arch is an eight-lobed design radiating toward an outer ring of eight segments in which is carved Qur'ān 15:45–47:

إِنَّ ٱلْمُتَّقِينَ فِى جَنَّـٰتٍۢ وَعُيُونٍ

ٱدْخُلُوهَا بِسَلَـٰمٍ ءَامِنِينَ

وَنَزَعْنَا مَا فِى صُدُورِهِم مِّنْ غِلٍّ إِخْوَٰنًا عَلَىٰ سُرُرٍۢ مُّتَقَـٰبِلِينَ

Indeed, the righteous will be amid Gardens and springs.

˹It will be said to them,˺ “Enter in peace and security.”

We will remove whatever bitterness they had in their hearts. In a friendly manner, they will be on thrones, facing one another.

This imagery suits both the tomb and its garden setting, looking down to the bank of a major canal, and out across the Damascus oasis.

Again in this inscription the carving is in the depth of the block, recessed from the surface. 

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