Al-MUSTANSIRIYA MADRASA (Baghdad)
The Madrasa Al Mustansiriyah was built by the Abbasi caliph Mustansir Billah in Baghdad on the side of Rusafa overlooking the Tigris between 625 Hijri accordingly 1227 AD and Jamadus sani 631 Hijri accordingly 1234 AD.
It is considered one of the ancient Arab Islamic universities known for teaching the sciences of holy Quran, the Sunnah of the holy Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, doctrine of Islamic jurisprudence, Arabic linguistics, mathematics, religious duties and medicine (Hikmat). This school was most distinguished of all its previous and contemporary schools. In front of the madrasa’s gate there was a clock used to know times of prayers and lectures.
The Madrasa al-Mustansiriya is a rectangular building comprising a courtyard surrounded by porches, and in the middle of each side there are 6-metres-wide halls, each surrounded by two classrooms. Students’ dormitories consisted of two floors and were at the end of halls. The architect enclosed all parts of the madrasa, such as rooms, halls, sitting rooms and porches, by a single frame encompassing all of them, and set an airy and elongated courtyard in the heart.
Lecture halls were built in the southern side whose ceilings are two floors as high as the opposite building that consists of rooms above which are arcades as high as the lecture halls. The two buildings are separated by a two-floor high corridor, connected with the external courtyard through two lateral apertures counter to the prevailing wind. Thus, the air bursts in under the pressure of external wind to fill the corridor’s vacuum. It seems the building is designed to receive the air in a horizontal way, which reveals the extent to which the Muslim architect grasped the principles of aerodynamics well before modern science got to its details.
(The depiction shows the Vestiges of the middle Gate in Baghdad)
Note:- This article is written by Dr. Mustafa Husain Kalhoro, Taagrraai of Ripri who is the 1st history writer of Ripri. There are his 08 published books and several unpublished. His most popular books are “HISTORY OF RIPRI & RAAT JI REHANN”.
