Gallery
Description
Property Name: The Ottoman School (in Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa)
Inventory No: 972-2-8
Date of infill of the inventory form: 2020-07-17
Country (State party): Palestine
Province: Al Quds/Jerusalem
Town: Old town
Geographic coordinates: 31°46’39.32″N
35°14’3.88″E
Historic Period: Ottoman
Year of Construction: 1436
Style: Early Islamic
Original Use: School
Current Use: House
Architect: Unknown
Significance
The Ottoman School is located at the Ablution Gate, next to Al- Ashrafiyah School. It is named after a Turkish lady, called Asfahan Shah Khatun Bint Mahmoud Al-’Uthmaniyah, who established it in 840 AH/1436 CE. The school consists of two floors and can be reached through a beautiful Mamluk entrance surmounted by the inscription of its foundation and decorated with alternating red and white stones. The school consists of a number of rooms and a small open courtyard, overlooking Al-Aqsa Mosque, with a façade made of red and white stones. There are two tombs to the left side of the entrance; one of them is for the lady who endowed it.
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 building was reconstructed by the Supreme Islamic Council, yet the school and its mosque sustained some damages because of the Israeli authorities’ excavations beneath it. The Israeli authorities have confiscated the school’s mosque allegedly to create ventilation for the tunnel beneath it.
References
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Archnet website: archnet.org