ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE DONE BY:NOFAL M, FELEMBAN

 Madrasahs did not exist in the early period of Islam. Their formation can probably be traced to the early Islamic custom of meeting in mosques to discuss religious issues. At this early stage, people seeking religious knowledge tended to gather around certain more knowledgable Muslims; these informal teachers later became known as the shaykhs; and these shaykhs began to hold regular religious education sessions called 'majalis'.  Established in 859, Jami'at al-Qarawiyyin (located in Al- Qarawiyyin Mosque) in the city of Fas,s considered the oldest madrasah in the Muslim world.

 During the late Abbasid period, the Seljuk vizier Nizam al- Mulk created the first major official academic institution known in history as the Nizamiyyah, based on the informal majalis (sessions of the shaykhs). created a system of state madrasahs (in his time they were called, the Nizamiyyahs, named after him) in various Abbasid cities at the end of the 11th century Offering food, lodging, and a free education, madrasas spread rapidly throughout the Muslim world, and although their curricula varied from place to place, it was always religious in character.

 A nizamiyya is one of the medieval institutions of higher education established by Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk in the eleventh. The name nizamiyyah derives from his name. Founded at the beginning of the Seljuk empire, they are considered to be the model of madrassas, or Islamic religious schools.  Nizamiyyah institutes were the first well organized universities in the Muslim world. The quality of education was the highest in the Islamic world. They were supported financially, politically, and spiritually by the royal establishment and the elite class.

 The most famous and celebrated of all the nizamiyyah schools was the Nizamiyyah of Baghdad (established 1065), Other nizamiyyah schools were located in Nishapur, Balkh, Herat and Isfahan.

 The founder of this medresah was Sultan Hassan, the son of the great Mamluk Sultan, Al Nasser Mohamed Ibn (son of) Qalawoun.  the Madrasa was not that popular at the time for two reasons. First, after Sultan Hassan was killed in 1361, the complex was not completed exactly in the way he envisioned. In fact, it remained closed for another fifty years. And perhaps because of this, only a few well known scholars actually taught in this Madrasa. Many others preferred to lecture and take up teaching posts at other colleges in Cairo. Nevertheless, it was here in these iwans where the sheikh or teacher would sit upon a stool or a platform while his students sat cross legged all around him.

 The ceilings of these iwans are very high, and behind the four iwans, the building is divided into four parts for the four sects of Sunni Islam. Inside these buildings students use to live and study. Each of these madrasa are entered by a door between the individual iwans, and inside each has its own courtyard with their own ablution fountain, quibla oriented iwan, and four or fives stories of rooms. Some of these cells are larger than others. Interestingly, this is the only Cairo madrasa that locates most of the cells on the street side because of the huge iwans that leave no space for windows on the courtyard side.  The Henefite madrasa, which is the largest one on the right as you face the quibla.  The next largest madrasa was that of the Shafi'i rite on the left side of the sanctuary. At the time, the Shafi'i rite was the one most Egyptians followed during the period.