Bû ‘Inâniya Madrasa

The Abû ‘Inân madrasa is located at the north-east of the Bû Glûd Qasaba. From its high plane, it overlooks almost all of Fès al-Bâlî. Both a madrasa and a Friday mosque, it was built by Sultan Abû ‘Inân Fâris to teach science, to carry out Friday canonic duties, and to rival the al-‘Attârîn mosque.

Rectangular in shape, it houses an outdoor courtyard, a prayer hall, two study rooms, cells built over two levels, a minaret and two ablution halls, one of which opens opposite the main entrance door on al-Tâl‘a al-Kbîra.

Three galleries supported by strong masonry pillars flank the courtyard on three sides, leading to the student rooms and the latrines. The fourth side is bordered by a canal, which captured the waters of one of the arms of the Fes Oued, and supplied the madrasa with water. Two bridges, built in the corners of the façade, above the canal, provide access to the prayer hall. The prayer hall is reached by two small openings with pointed horseshoe arches, and remains one of the largest of its kind. Two openings facing each other on the lateral side of the oratory link the galleries to the rows of ground floor cells.

The two lateral galleries are pierced in the middle by two study rooms, which face each other. These rooms, with ribbed-dome ceilings, have stately doors. Their location, along with the fountain basin at the centre of the courtyard, highlight the transveral axis, and a cruciform layout, of which the al-Tashfiniya madrasa of Tlemcen (1310) in Algeria offers one of the most ancient buildings in the Maghreb. The al-Shammâ‘iya madrasa in Tunisia (1229), predating the latter madrasa by over a century, constitutes a geographically closer precedent, which may have been a source of inspiration for the architect of the Bû ‘Inâniya. In spite of the irregularity of its north-east surrounding wall, it features a cruciform layout. The longitudinal axis, highlighted by the entrance door on the one side and the oratory door and the mihrâb on the other, is intersected by a discrete secondary axis. This secondary axis is revealed through two irregularly-shaped rooms, which face each other. There could be another reason for building these two rooms – the plane on which the building was erected had undergone recent urbanisation, and lacked a mosque for khutba the size of al-Qarawiyyîn, and that of the Andalucians, which could house gatherings. In order to remedy this lack, the architect may have decided to equip the madrasa with these two rooms, in order to house lessons dispensed by the faqih and theologians.

Wooden balustrades protect the galleries from which fourteen cells open out, via small openings with pointed horseshoe arches. Two staircases, at the either end of the north-west gallery link the ground floor to the upper level of the madrasa. In addition to similarities with the earlier Moroccan madrasa, that of Abû ‘Inân resembles the two major madrasa in Tunis, al-Shammâ‘iya (1229) and al-Mustansiriya (1434-1437). These latter madrasa, given the layout of the entrance hall, the facing rooms of equivalent dimensions, and the dwiriyat (“little houses”, reminiscent of the layout of several rooms around a secondary courtyard) make up a highly homogenous group of buildings, along with the Abû ‘Inân madrasa and the al-Nusâk zâwiya in Salé, and are evidence of exchanges that took place between Fes, Tlemcen and Tunis.