the al-‘Attarin Madrasah (Spice Sellers)

The al-‘Attarin madrasah is on al-‘Udul street, to the north-western   of the al-Qarawiyin- Mosque. Its dimensions are relatively small, and it is organised around a central rectangular courtyard adorned with a fountain, bordered on the long side with lateral galleries that are supported by two pillars alternating with marble columns. A prayer room, an ablutions room, a staircase, and a sabat door (door that opens onto a covered passage) take up the short sides of the courtyard, while the two floors house the student living quarters. The south-eastern and north-western facades are each fitted with a monumental axial door: the south-western wall facade links the edifice to the exterior, while the other leads to the prayer room. The same hierarchy of registers is present: three arches rest, through the intermediary of cedar corbels, on pillars (constructed in brick) and marble columns framed by muqarnas arches at the extremities of the facades. The entire structure, with its decorative elements, recalls the wall coverings of the Alcazar of Seville (thirteenth to fourteenth centuries). Like the al-Sahrij madrasah in Fez, the facades are adorned with ceramic mosaics crowned with calligraphic bands in excised ceramic, covered with stucco in the lower parts, and plaster and wood in the upper parts. It extends—like the madrasah of Abu al-Hasan in Salé—over the galleries and facades. The capitals, whose faces are engraved with multiple sculptures, are characteristic of the Andalusian-Maghrib tradition of the fourteenth century. The cylindrical shaft tapers towards the upper part and terminates with a grooved astragal, which serves as the base for a meandering curved acanthus topped by a paralleliped. In the north-western and south-western facades, the faces of the capitals are adorned with a sculpted decoration that combines vegetal and epigraphic motifs.

The prayer room is divided into two unequal areas by an arcade supported by columns fixed to stout pillars. The qibli walls reflect the tripartite organization of the courtyard facades. Two decorative niches topped with cusped pointed arches surround the mihrab's central niche, opened by a pointed north arch that sits on two white marble embedded columns. Above, a geometric interlace originating from the courtyard's eight-point star continues on the four facades of the prayer room. Four columns reinforce the pillars that support the weight of the north-eastern wall and the wooden framework that covers the oratory. Apart from certain details like the turban and the finger-shaped palmettes, these capitals recall those of Sidi Bu Madyan in Tlemcen, or one of the rare conserved capitals of the Marinid madrasah in the ‘Ali Drar street’ in Taza. However, the difference lies in the absence of involution in the lateral palmettes and the over-crude treatment of those in the lower part of the composition. It should be noted that these capitals definitely inspired the sculptors of the Ibn Yusuf madrasah in Marrakech.

The storeys are reserved for the cells that constitute the students' quarters, a collection of closed and irregular spaces arranged in the south-eastern wing around a rectangular courtyard. This is divided by two groups of pillars that support the constructed roof of the galleries, under which open the multifoil bays of the cells, ensuring light and air.

The ablutions room is located in the north-western corner of the madrasah. A long irregular corridor ends in a cell and a courtyard with six lodges. The south-western wall houses a wall fountain with a basin, like those of the al-Sahrij madrasah and the al-Najjarin funduq.