Baghdad
The Mustansiriya was founded by the Abbasid caliph al-Mustansir and completed in 1234 as a college where all four Sunni schools of law were taught side by…
The Mustansiriya was founded by the Abbasid caliph al-Mustansir and completed in 1234 as a college where all four Sunni schools of law were taught side by side, together with Qur'an, hadith, Arabic, medicine and mathematics. It had its own library and bath, and was one of the great centres of learning of the medieval Muslim world. It is one of the few Abbasid buildings still standing in Baghdad, a two-storey brick courtyard building with fine carved brickwork. It stands on the Tigris bank in old Rusafa, beside the Shuhada Bridge, within a short walk of the Copper Market and the shrines of al-Kulayni and al-Samari, and it has been under restoration in recent years.