Mosques as Higher Educational Institutions in Mamluk Syria1
Open University of Israel and Ben-Gurion University
E-mail: hatim_mahamid{at}hotmail.com
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Abstract |
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Major mosques in various cities in Syria were utilized as important educational establishments, in addition to their role as places of worship. The spread of the madrasa institution had almost no effect on the continued educational activities in the major city mosques, such as the Umayyad in Damascus, the Great Mosque in Aleppo (Umayyad), al-Aqs
and al-Sakhra (the Dome of the Rock) in Jerusalem.
During the Mamluk period, the number of mosques which served as venues for Friday prayers grew, especially in Damascus and Aleppo. Several historians estimate that there were one thousand mosques of different levels in the city of Damascus by the end of the Mamluk era. In the ninth/fifteenth century, many institutions, originally established for different functions, i.e. masjids, madrasas, khnqahs and others in Mamluk Syria, were apparently converted to jmi
s, to provide for the Friday prayers, just as had happened in Mamluk Cairo.
By the late Mamluk period, differentiations between the functions of the various institutions became considerably less clear so that the perception of educational and religious institutions and how they functioned became more complex. That is why different historical sources refer to numerous institutions by different functional names. This study traces the educational activities within mosques in late medieval Syria. It follows, in light of changing political and economic circumstances, developments in the building of new mosques and madrasa-jmis in the main cities of Mamluk Syria.