Description
Property Name: Al-Asa’rdiyah School (in Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa)
Inventory No: 972-2-7
Date of infill of the inventory form: 2020-07-17
Country (State party): Palestine
Province: Al Quds/Jerusalem
Town: Old town
Geographic coordinates: 31°46’48.05″N
35°14’4.37″E
Historic Period: Mamluk
Year of Construction: 1385 AC
Style: Early Islamic
Original Use: Madrasa
Current Use: House
Architect: Unknown
Significance
Majd Ad-Din Abdul Ghani bin Saif Ad-Din Abu Bakr Yusuf Al-Asa’rdi ordered building this school in 760 AH/1385 AC, but it was officially endowed in 770 AH/1369 AC. The school’s entrance is located in Al-Aqsa’s northern corridor; it consists of a two-story building and an open courtyard. The school is topped with three beautiful domes and has a mosque that overlooks Al-Aqsa’s courtyard. Today, the building is used as a house.
Selection Criteria
ii. to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design
iii. to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared
vi. to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance
State of Preservation
The Supreme Islamic Council in the era of the British occupation restored it, and transfer to it the bookshop of Al-Aqsa Mosque before it was converted into a residence for the Al-Bitar family.
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