Madinah
The Beşir Agha Madrasa was one of the Ottoman colleges that stood around Masjid al-Nabawi near Bab al-Salam. It was founded by Hajji Beşir Agha (d. 1159 AH /…
The Beşir Agha Madrasa was one of the Ottoman colleges that stood around Masjid al-Nabawi near Bab al-Salam. It was founded by Hajji Beşir Agha (d. 1159 AH / 1746), who served as shaykh of the Haram in the Hijaz before becoming chief agha of the Ottoman palace, and who endowed madrasas, libraries and fountains from Istanbul to Cairo. In the early twentieth century Ibrahim Rifat Pasha counted 2,063 books in the library of his madrasa in Madinah. The madrasa was taken down when Masjid al-Nabawi was enlarged in the twentieth century. Its site lies within the mosque and its courtyards today, about 65 metres west of the Green Dome, close to Bab al-Salam.