Madrasa of Slimaniyya

This madrasa is a place of learning and prayer located in the suk of the kashashines[1] near the Great Mosque of Zitouna in the medina of Tunis. It is built on a plan that is widespread in Ifriqiya. Unlike Ifriqiyan madrasas of the previous era, this monument is distinguished by an elegant, monumental entrance porch surmounted by a green tile cornice. The porch leads into a vestibule graced with ceramic panels decorated with floral motifs made in the best tradition of the Qallaline workshops. The vestibule is surmounted by a cupola on squinches with a semi-spherical flattened dome covered with stuccowork decoration, whose pediments are adorned with eight-pointed stars.

The madrasa consists of a courtyard lined with porticos defined by semicircular arches with black and white voussoirs. Arranged around the courtyard are rooms used as student living quarters. The portico columns are made of light limestone (though some are marble) and are surmounted by crocket, scrolled and neo-Corinthian capitals. These supports relieve the strain on the flat roofs made of wooden joists and roof boards. Behind the southern portico is the prayer hall, which is made up of three bays and three naves. The walls are coated with rendering and decorated with ceramic panels surmounted by stucco panels. In front of the mihrāb, which is out of kilter, rises a dome on squinches whose outer drum is octagonal. The prayer niche is framed and lined with panels of bicoloured marble. The funeral chamber in the north-western corner is also topped by a cupola.

Several decorative elements are used. The floral decoration takes the form of palm leaves, fleurons, foliated scrolls that sprout leaves and flowers, a vase with intertwined stems ending in flowers protruding from it, and a cypress tree. The epigraphic decoration is placed in the upper portion of the prayer hall in accordance with a layout adopted in all Islamic religious monuments since the birth of Islam.

There is a variety of geometric motifs: six- and eight-pointed stars, triangles, crescents and niches in the form of mihrābs.

The Slimaniyya madrasa presents the traditional plan of Ifriqiyan madrasas, as it was adopted from the thirteenth century onward in the region[2]. All Ifriqiyan madrasas are the heirs to the plans of one-storey ribāts like the one in Lamta (Tunisia, 859). It should be noted in this connection that after their military functions came to an end, many ribāts were converted into places of learning.

In their general layout, all Ifriqiyan madrasas share common roots with certain Moroccan madrasas[3]. In fact the Hafsid prince Abu Zakariya, founder of the first Tunisian madrasa (al-Chama'yya, thirteenth century), was a native of Marrakech. Other Moroccan madrasas, however, such as Bu 'Inaniyya (Fez, 1350–1355), differ drastically from the bias adopted here, in terms of their architectural forms and the richness of their decoration.

There is a significant difference between Maghrebian madrasas and Near Eastern ones. In the Near East they were built according to the plan of the iwān because this plan suited the profusion of religious rites practiced there – in contrast to the Maghreb, where the Malekite rite prevailed almost exclusively.

Like several Tunisian madrasas, the Slimaniyya madrasa was to undergo Ottoman influence. That influence is felt here in the existence of a funeral chamber for the donor or a member of his family inside the madrasa. The Turkish input is even more strongly palpable in the geometric and floral motifs such as stars and cypress trees.

[2] Chama'yya Madrasa (Tunis, early thirteenth c. AD), al-'Unqiyya madrasa (fourteenth–seventeenth c. AD)

[3] Madrasa Ben Youssef, founded by the Merinid sultan Abu al-Hassen in Marrakech (Morocco, fourteenth c.).