Al-Attarine Madrasa

Behind a plain wall on one of the narrow streets of the Fez medina lies a courtyard where almost no surface is left undecorated: geometric tile mosaic on the floor and the lower walls, a band of calligraphy at eye level, carved stucco lace above it, and carved cedar crowned with projecting wooden eaves at the top. The Al-Attarine Madrasa, named after the neighbouring souk of spice and perfume sellers, is considered one of the highest achievements of Marinid architecture, admired both for the harmony of its ornament and for the ingenuity with which it fits a cramped, awkward plot.

Fes el Bali, the old walled city of Fez, grew around the Qarawiyyin Mosque, for centuries the chief centre of learning in Morocco, and its medina is today a World Heritage Site. The Marinid sultans, who ruled from Fez in the 13th to 15th centuries, built several madrasas close to the Qarawiyyin to lodge students — many of them poor and from distant towns — and to win over the city's scholars. Al-Attarine was commissioned by Sultan Abu Sa'id Uthman II and built between 1323 and 1325; according to the chronicle Rawd al-Qirtas, the sultan himself attended the laying of the foundations together with the city's ulema. Its endowment supported an imam, muezzins, teachers and fifty to sixty students, most of them from the towns of northwestern Morocco such as Tangier, Larache and Ksar el-Kebir.

The building is entered through a bent passage that opens into the courtyard beneath a carved wooden screen. Galleries on two sides rest on pillars and slender marble columns with finely carved capitals, among the best of their period, and the upper floor contains about thirty small rooms for students. Because the plot did not allow the usual alignment, the prayer hall's mihrab sits on a side wall, and the architects solved the problem by placing a square wooden cupola, carved with star patterns, over the space in front of it; coloured glass set in lead grilles lights the hall from above. Even the metalwork is exceptional: the cedar entrance doors are clad in bronze plates chiselled with interlacing stars and Kufic inscriptions — the originals are kept in the Dar Batha Museum — and the prayer hall still holds its original bronze chandelier, inscribed in praise of the founder.

Getting there

The madrasa stands in Fes el Bali, beside the Qarawiyyin Mosque near the heart of the medina. The nearest airport is Fès–Saïss Airport (FEZ), about 15 km away.