Salihiyya Madrasa

The Salihiyya Madrasa was one of the most prominent centers of Islamic learning in the Ayyubid and Mamluk era in the 13th-14th centuries CE. Its remains are located along Muizz Street in Cairo, Egypt.

In the 13th century, the Ayyubid dynasty founded by Saladin ruled Egypt and the neighboring lands. In 1242, the sultan at the time, as-Salih Ayyub, built the Salihiyya Madrasa (named after him). It became the first madrasa ("religious college") to teach all four of Sunni Islam's madhabs ("schools of law"). The northern wing of the complex was dedicated to the Shafi'i and Maliki denominations and the southern wing was dedicated to the Hanafi and Hanbali denominations.

In 1249, Shajar al-Durr, as-Salih Ayyub's widow, had a mausoleum for as-Salih built adjacent to his madrasa. This established a medieval Islamic tradition of burying the patron in the religious institution he or she founded. The Salihiyya Madrasa soon became known as the "citadel of the scholars (ulema)." It was deserted sometime following the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Empire in the early 16th century.

According to Muslim chronicler al-Maqrizi, as-Salih Ayyub had the eastern wall of the royal palace demolished in order to construct the two building complexes that made up the Salihiyya Madrasa. The two parallel wings were divided by a public passageway. Each of the wings consisted of two floors centered on open inner courts. The western portion of each wing provided student housing while the eastern halves functioned as iwans—open vaulted halls where teaching took place. The architectural plan originated in Islamic Persia, while the iwans themselves derive from pre-Islamic Persia. Although the Salihiyya Madrasa was not the first madrasa to introduce the iwan court to Egypt, it is the oldest surviving structure of its type in the country. Its plan played a significant role in Cairo's later architecture.

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