Amiriya Madrasa

Al-Amiriya (Arabic: المدرسة العامرية) is a 16th-century madrasa (educational institution) located in Rada, Yemen. It is under consideration for inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.^[1] It was built in 1504 and is an example of the architecture of Tahirids, Yemen. The monument was in poor condition until 1978 when Iraqi-born archaeologist Selma Al-Radi saw it and enlisted financial help from foreign missions to restore it in a more than twenty-year effort which she led.^[1][2]

The Amiriya School

History

The complex was originally commissioned in 1504 by Amir ibn Abd Al-Wahhab [ar], then Sultan of the Tahirid Dynasty, and was built in his name.^[3] The project was one of many sought by Wahhab, who had amassed significant wealth through trade across the Indian Ocean from the port city of Aden.^[4][5] Its date of completion was some time in 910 Rabi' al-Awwal of the Islamic calendar (August to September 1504).^[6][7] It was built to serve equally as a mosque, a madrasa and a private residence of Wahhab.^[8] Yemeni folklore tells that Wahhab occasionally ordered each window in the complex to the filled with lanterns as he rode on the hills of Radda with his daughter.^[3]

In 1517, Wahhab was killed in battle by invading forces from the Mamluk Sultanate, his head being decapitated and displayed on a pike in Sanaa.^[5] With the Tahirid's defeated, the Mamluks ceded the former kingdom's territories including Radda to their allies in Yemen, the Zaydi imamate.^[5][8] The Zaydi's, who were enemies to the Shafi'i-Sunni Tahirid's, viewed the Madrasa's opulence as a distraction from prayers and incompatible with their interpretation of Islam. The Madrasa was left abandoned for several centuries afterwards as it fell into decay.^[6][3]

Significance

This site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on July 8, 2002, in the Cultural category.^[1]

The restoration process revived the art of qadad, a form of waterproof interior and exterior plastering. In 2004 a documentary film, Qudad, Re-inventing a Tradition, was made on the subject by the filmmaker Caterina Borelli (preview).^[9]

Close-up of part of the restored Amiriya Complex, showing white qadad

The restoration of the Amiriya Complex was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2007.^[10]

See also

• More pictures of Amiriya Complex
• Qadad