Al-Halawiyah Madrasa () is a madrasah complex located in al-Jalloum district of the

Ancient city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

of Aleppo, Syria. It is built in 1124 on the site of Aleppo's Great Byzantine Cathedral of Saint Helena of the 5th century, where, according to tradition, a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

temple once stood. Saint Helena, mother of

Constantine the Great Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterran ...

, built a great

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

cathedral there. When the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

were pillaging the surrounding countryside during the siege of Aleppo in 1124, the city's chief judge, Ibn al-Khashshab, started to convert the cathedral into a mosque during the reign of

Belek Ghazi Belek Ghazi (''Nuruddevle Belek'' or ''Balak'') was a Turkish bey in the early 12th century. Early life His father was Behram and his grandfather was Artuk Bey, an important figure of the Seljuk Empire in the 11th century. He was a short-term ...

. In 1149, Nur al-Din converted the building into a madrasah; an Islamic-religious school for the followers of the

Hanafi The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named a ...

madhab A ( ar, مذهب ', , "way to act". pl. مَذَاهِب , ) is a school of thought within '' fiqh'' (Islamic jurisprudence). The major Sunni Mathhab are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali. They emerged in the ninth and tenth centurie ...

.Halawiyya Mosque and Madrasa
Archnet Digital Library. Parts of the 5th century Christian construction were turned into an Islamic school. It is also known for its fine mihrab.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halawiyah, Madrasa Al 5th-century churches 12th-century mosques Religious buildings and structures converted into mosques Byzantine sacred architecture Former churches in Syria Madrasas in Aleppo Religious buildings and structures completed in 1124 12th-century madrasas

See also

References