https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6282-4334
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Abstract
The Madrasa of Mustafa Al-Nashār Pasha, considered one of the most prominent buildings of Ottoman architecture in Yemen, was commissioned by the first Ottoman governor of Yemen, the eponymous Mustafa Al-Nashār Pasha, in 962–63 AH / 1554 AD. The madrasa was built on the south side of Zabīd with the intention of spreading Hanafī and Shafiʿī Sunnī doctrines, replacing and eliminating Zaydī Shīʿī doctrine. It contains a mausoleum dome for Mustafa Al-Nashār Pasha and his family. The madrasa’s evident Ottoman style is displayed through a main domed section and a multiple-domed portico.
This article provides a short biography of Mustafa Al-Nashār Pasha, and a descriptive and analytical study of the madrasa and its distinctive architectural and artistic features. The paper sheds new light on the historical importance of the madrasa as a prime example of the Ottoman influence on architectural style in Yemen. The article also aims to raise concerns about its exposure to threats of demolition and ruin due to the current conflict in Yemen .
Notes
1 This is an extensively revised and expanded version of an earlier working paper posted in Beni Suef University’s online in-house Journal of the Faculty of Arts 53 (October–December 2019), pp. 39–78.
2 Al-Thawr, “Al-wullāh al-ʿUthmāniyyūn wa-ʾabrāz aʿmālihim fī fatratay al-ḥukm al-ʿUthmānay al-ʾawlā wa-l-ahāniya li-l-Yaman (1538–1635 AH / 1873–1918 AD)”, Majallat Jamīʿat al-Malik Suʿūd 22 (2010), pp. 127–149.
3 Al-Nahrawali, Al-barq al-Yamanī fī al-fatḥ al-ʿUthmānī (1967), p. 94; Al-Akwaʿ, Al-Madāris al-Islāmīya fī al-Yaman (1986), p. 281; Mustafa, Al fatḥ al-ʿUthmānī al-ʾawwal lil-Yaman (1999), p. 73.
4 Al-Akwaʿ, Al-Madāris al-Islāmīya fī al-Yaman, p. 281.
5 Al-Nahrawali, Al-barq al-Yamanī fī al-fatḥ al-ʿUthmānī, p. 94.
6 Shiha, Madkhal ilā- al-ʿimāra wa- al-funūn al-Islāmīya fī al-Jumhūriya al-ʿArabīya al-Yamanīya (1987), p. 50.
7 Al-Akwaʿ, Al-madāris al-Islāmīya fī al-Yaman, p. 282; Al-ʿArūsi, “Al-ʿimāra al-Yamanīya fī al-ʿaṣr al-Islāmī”, Al-Iklil Magazine 27 (2002), pp. 70–71.
8 Archnet, “Jami’ Mustafa Pasha, Zabid, Yemen”.
9 Google Earth, 2019.
10 Keall, “A Preliminary Report on the Architecture of Zabīd”, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 14 (1984), p. 55.
11 Ibn Al-Daybāʿ, Al-faḍl al-muzīd ʿalā bughyat al-mustafīd fī ʾakhbār madīnat Zabīd (1979), p. 39; Ibn Al-Mujāwir, Taʾrīkh al-Mustabṣir: ṣafat bilād al-Yaman wa-Makka wa baʿḍ al-Hijāz (1986), p. 82; Sadek, “The Mosques of Zabīd, Yemen: A Preliminary Report”, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 28 (1998), p. 239.
12 Madrasas were introduced in Yemen by the Ayyubids in the 6th AH century / 12th AD century, and essentially replaced foundations that involved only mosques. According to written records, the first madrasa in Zabīd was an iwan structure (consisting of vaulted gateways and balconies), but it did not become a generally accepted form in Yemen. Yemen developed a madrasa type of its own, very different from those of other countries. Its plan made no allowance for accommodation for teachers and students; it contained only a prayer hall and a place for teaching. Larger madrasas might have a library, a khangah (a building designed for Sufi brotherhood gatherings), and a Quranic school. See: Finster, “An Outline of the History of Islamic Religious Architecture in Yemen”, Muqarnas: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture 9 (1992), p. 136; Petersen, Dictionary of Islamic Architecture (1996), p. 312.
13 UNESCO, “Historic Town of Zabid” (1993).
14 Sadek, “The Mosques of Zabīd, Yemen”, p. 240.
15 A waqf is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitable purposes with no intention of reclaiming the assets.
16 Hārūn, Al-durr al-naḍīd fī taḥdīd maʿālim wa-āthār madīnat Zabīd (2004), pp. 708–741; Dhikrī, Masājd al-Yaman: nasātuhā wa khaṣāṣuhā wa taṭawwuruhā (1998), p. 40.
17 Finster, “An Outline of the History of Islamic Religious Architecture in Yemen” (1992), p. 1423.
18 Al-Haḍramī, Zabīd masāghiduhā wa-madārisuhā al-ʿilmiyat fī al-tarīkh (2000), pp. 145–147.
19 Archnet, “Jami’ Mustafa Pasha, Zabid, Yemen”.
20 Enab, “Madrasa of Mustafa Al-Nashār Pasha in Zabīd, Yemen: Architectural and comparative Study”, Beni Suef University Journal of the Faculty of Arts, 53 (October–December 2019), fig. 5, p. 48.
21 Al-qaḍāḍ is a famous Yemeni technique. It is a mixture of lime, which Yemenis call al-naūrh and special stucco. It is used to cover the walls of bathrooms, domes, houses and water reservoirs because it is characterized by its strength, durability and its superior ability to prevent water leakage. See: Al-Irīānī, “Al-qaḍāḍ”, Al-mawsūʿa al-Yamanīya 1 (1992), pp. 770–772.
22 Photograph by Shaikh Arafat Al-Hadhrami, 2014.
23 Ibid.
24 Adapted by the author from Royal Ontario Museum, “Report of the Canadian Archaeological Mission of the Royal Ontario Museum, Zabid Project 1987–1988” (Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, n.d.)
25 Archnet, “Jami’ Mustafa Pasha, Zabid, Yemen”.
26 Photograph by Shaikh Arafat Al-Hadhrami, 2015.
27 Photograph by the author, 2014.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid.
30 Photograph by Shaikh Arafat Al-Hadhrami, 2014.
31 Photograph by the author, 2014.
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid.
34 Photograph by Shaikh Arafat Al-Hadhrami, 2014.
35 Photograph by the author, 2014.
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid.
39 Drawing by the author, 2014.
40 Photograph by the author, 2014.
41 Enab, “Madrasa of Mustafa Al-Nashār Pasha in Zabīd, Yemen”, , p. 57.
42 Photograph by the author, 2014.
43 Ibid.
44 Al-Hāḍrī, Fann wa handasat al-bināʾ al-Ṣanʿānī (2006), p. 64.
45 Drawing by the author.
46 Photograph by the author, 2014.
47 Ibid.
48 The phenomenon of supplying religious buildings with wells was common in most parts of Yemen due to lack of water sources. Al-Muṭāʿ, Jāmiʿ al-ʾimām al-Hādī fī Saʿda, PhD diss. (2000), p. 184.
49 Drawing by the author.
50 Photograph by the author, 2014.
51 Ibid.
52 Enab, Al-masājid al-ʿUthmānīya al-bāqiya bi-madīnat Sanʿāʾ: Dirāsat āthārīyat muʿammāriyat muqārina, PhD diss. (2014), , p. 62.
53 Al-miqshama is a Yemeni cultural innovation created to optimize the exploitation of scarce resources of water. It is an area of land on which vegetables and some fruits are grown and often located next to mosques or baths [Hehmeyer, “Mosque, Bath and Garden, Symbiosis in the Urban Landscape of Sanʿāʾ, Yemen”, Proceeding of the Seminar for Arabian studies 28 (1997), pp. 105–115].
54 Al-Hāḍrī, Fann wa handasat al-bināʾ al-Ṣanʿānī, pp. 197–198.
55 Photograph by Shaikh Arafat Al-Hadhrami, 2015.
56 Drawing and photograph by the author, 2014.
57 Photograph by Shaikh Arafat Al-Hadhrami, 2015.
58 Al-Akwaʿ, Al-madāris al-Islāmīya fī al-Yaman, p. 282; Shiha, Dirāsah muqārana bayna al-madrasa al-Miṣrīya wa-al-madrasa al-Yamanīya (1992), p. 436.
59 According to the Rasūlid historian Muwaffaq al-Dīn Al-Khazrajī (who was himself from Zabīd), a survey ordered by Sultan al-Ashraf Ismāʿīl in 1392 found the number of madrasas to be between 230 and 240 [Al-Khazrajī, Al-ʿasjad al-masbūk fī man walī al-Yaman min al-mulūk (1982).]
60 Shiha, Dirāsa muqārana bayna al-madrasa al-miṣrīya wa-al-madrasa al-Yamanīya, p. 457.
61 Al-Naṣr, “Al-madāris al-Yamaniya: naẓrat ʿāmma fī taṣmīmhā”, Majallat al-Iklīl 1–3rd year (1406 AH / 1985 AD), p. 107.
62 Aṭṭīah, Dirāsāt fī al-fann al-Turkī, (2007), p. 257.
63 Peterson, Dictionary of Islamic Architecture, p. 312.
64 For more see; Enab, Al-masājid al-ʿUthmānīya al-bāqiya bi-madīnat Sanʿāʾ, pp. 67–126.
65 Ibid., .
66 Ibid., fig. 55.
67 Al-Naṣr, “Al-madāris al-Yamanīya”, p. 51.
68 Al-Akwaʿ, Al-madāris al-Islāmīya fī al-Yaman, p. 280.
69 Al-Naṣr, Al-madāris al-Yamanīya, p. 51. For more, see: Othmān, Al-madāris al-ʿUthmānīya fī Zabīd: dirāsat ʾāthāriyyāt muʿammariya, MA thesis (2017), pp. 35–47.
70 Keall, “A Preliminary Report on the Architecture of Zabīd”, p. 58
71 Enab, “Madrasa of Mustafa Al-Nashār Pasha in Zabīd, Yemen”, , p. 69.
72 Album of Swedish doctor and photographer Björn Wenngren, 1970.
73 Al-Ḥaddād, Sanʿāʾ al-qadīma al-maḍāmīn al-tārīkhīya (1992), p. 82.
74 Al-Naṣr, al-madāris al-Yamānīya, p. 106.
75 Dauge, “Historic Town of Zabid: Photo Gallery”.
76 Ibid.
77 Photographs and drawing by the author, 2014.
78 Dauge, “Historic Town of Zabid: Photo Gallery”.
79 Enab, “Madrasa of Mustafa Al-Nashār Pasha in Zabīd, Yemen”, , p. 73.
80 Al-Muṭāʿ, Al-madrasa al-Manṣūrīya fī Juban, MA thesis (1994), p. 307.
81 Othmān, Naẓarīyat al-waẓīfīya fī al-munshaāt al-dīnīya al-mamlūkīya fī al-Qāhira (2000), p. 354.
82 Photographs by the author, 2014.
83 Khalīfa, Al-funūn al-Islāmīya fī al-ʿaṣr al-ʿUthmānī (2001), p. 39.
84 Photographs and drawing by the author, 2014.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Mohamed Enab
Mohamed Enab is Associate Professor of Islamic Architecture, Department of Islamic Archaeology, Faculty of Archaeology, Fayoum University, Egypt, PO Box 63514, [email protected].