Al-Madrasah Mosque – Old Ṣan‘ā’
مسجد المدرسة- صنعاء القديمة

Monument description

It is one of the famous historical mosques in the Old City of Dhamar. It consists of one floor, with a flat ceiling. It was historically known as Al-Madrasah, but it is not similar to schools in its design. Religious sciences were following the Zaydi sect, and the students’ homes were built around it. It is located in the Al-Jarajish neighborhood of Dhamar city. It is bordered on the north by the Al-Rabu market, on the east by Al-Majn market, on the west by the Governorate Awqaff Office, and on the south by Al-Jarajish neighborhood. The Mosque and the School function is for teaching religious and language sciences to students and scholars among whom are blind people. It provides housing for students coming from outside the city as well.

Architectural and cultural value

Construction style and built date: The layout of Al-Madrasah Al-Shamsiyyah coincides with the layout of the mosque. It is basically a rectangular Orayer Hall of 22 x 17.5 m, built of black stone. It has a flat roof, and its inner courtyard is based on four rows of columns and arches parallel to the Qibla wall. Yajor brick was used in building the upper parts of the minaret and other structures. Al-Madrasah Al-Shamsiyyah was built in the year 950 AH by Imam Al-Mutawakkil Sharaf Al-Deen Yahya ibn Sharaf Al-Deen. The building of the School was completed by Imam Shams Al-Deen, to whom the School was attributed in Jumada Al-Akhir 947 AH, until its construction was completed in Ramadan (950 AH / 1544 CE) during the reign of his father. It is considered one of the famous abandonments of science in Yemen, and students from Dhamar and other regions of Yemen come to it to study there, and for those coming to it from outside the city of Dhamar, there are private residences attached to the School, in which many Yemeni scholars studied, especially scholars of the Zaydi sect, including Ibrahim bin Youssef and Mahdi bin Ali. The judge, the scholar Ali Bin Hussein Al-Akwa, the scholar Yahya Mohsen Al-Ansi, the scholar Hassan Bin Yahya Al-Dailami, the late writer Abdullah Al-Bardouni, the late writer Ibrahim Al-Hadrani, the writer and martyr Zaid Al-Mushki, the writer Ahmed Abdel-Wahhab, the heir and the famous politician Jarallah Omar.

Components of the Mosque: The School consists of a Prayer Hall and roofed Matahir (Ablution Unit) to its north, a southern courtyard, a southern pond, an eastern pond, and the students’ homes that surround the School, and modern bathrooms on the southwestern side. A concrete School was built in the place of the eastern ponds and Matahir. The School has an external bustan, 200 m in the eastern direction, and a water drainage network extends to it that passes through the middle of the market. The area of the Monument with the courtyard and annexes is about 2785 m2.