Bou Inania Madrasa, Fez

Interesting facts

The Dar al-Magana water clock had 13 carved cedar corbels, each holding a bronze bowl that received a falling weight as the hours passed.

The madrasa's founder, Sultan Abu Inan Faris, seized power from his own father and was assassinated in 1358, aged about 31.

It is the largest and most important of all Marinid madrasas, on a plot roughly 35 by 39 metres.

The canal crossing the building carries water from the Oued el-Lemtiyyin, a branch of the river of Fes, for ablutions.

Its original minbar of ebony and costly woods, inlaid in an eight-pointed star pattern, is now in the Dar Batha Museum in Fes.

An ablutions house built for the madrasa stands across the Tala'a Kebira, opposite the main entrance.

The minaret is decorated with the interlacing darj wa ktaf motif and bands of zellij tilework, topped by a small cupola.

After an earthquake damaged the building in the 17th century, Sultan Mulay Slimane carried out extensive rebuilding of its walls around 1800.

Why it is worth it

The Bou Inania Madrasa in Fes el-Bali is the masterpiece of the Marinid sultans, the dynasty that ruled Morocco in the fourteenth century. It was founded by Sultan Abu Inan Faris; according to its foundation inscription, work began on 28 December 1350 and was completed in 1355. Unlike other madrasas in Morocco, it was also given the status of a congregational mosque for Friday prayers, and so it received a full prayer hall and a brick minaret rising over the old city — a tower that almost no other Moroccan madrasa has.

Inside, the building is a demonstration of everything Marinid craftsmen could do. Around a marble-paved courtyard with a basin for ablutions, the walls are layered in the three materials of Marinid decoration: glazed zellij mosaic in geometric patterns, carved stucco as fine as lace, and carved cedar wood, darkened by time to the colour of honey. Student rooms open off galleries on two floors. The prayer hall is reached across little bridges over a canal that runs through the building, fed by a branch of the river of Fes, and its windows are filled with coloured glass set in stucco grilles.

Across the street is a curiosity attached to the madrasa: the Dar al-Magana, a hydraulic water clock completed in 1357. Its façade carries a row of windows and carved cedar consoles on which brass bowls once stood; each hour a metal ball dropped into one of them. The clock has been silent for generations, and so little is documented about its working that attempts to repair it have not succeeded, but the row of brackets above the bustle of the street is one of the most intriguing details of medieval Fes. The madrasa itself stands on the Tala'a Kebira, the main artery of the medina, and its minaret can be glimpsed through the arch of Bab Bou Jeloud.

Getting there

The madrasa is in the medina of Fes el-Bali, a short walk inside Bab Bou Jeloud, about 2.4 km from the centre of the French-built new town. Fès–Saïss International Airport (FEZ) is about 15 km away. From Bab Bou Jeloud the madrasa is reached on foot along the Tala'a Kebira.

From the encyclopaedia

The Bou Inania Madrasa or Bu 'Inaniya Madrasa is a madrasa in Fez, Morocco, built in 1350–55 by the Marinid sultan Abu Inan Faris. It is the only madrasa in Morocco which also functioned as a congregational mosque. It is widely acknowledged as a high point of Marinid architecture and of historic Moroccan architecture generally.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Bou Inania Madrasa, Fez

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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From the encyclopaedia