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Al-Madrasah al-Zahiriyyah was built in the old city of Damascus after the passing of the Mamluk sultan al-Zahir Baybars in 1277, as a school and mausoleum in…
Al-Madrasah al-Zahiriyyah was built in the old city of Damascus after the passing of the Mamluk sultan al-Zahir Baybars in 1277, as a school and mausoleum in his honour. Its domed tomb chamber, decorated with gold mosaics and marble panelling, holds the grave of Baybars. In 1880 the reformer Shaykh Tahir al-Jaza'iri gathered the scattered manuscripts of the city's old schools into a public library here, which became one of the great manuscript collections of the Arab world. The manuscripts were later moved to the National Library, but the building still carries the name al-Zahiriyyah and stands opposite the Adiliyyah madrasa, a short walk from the Umayyad Mosque.