Incredible Detail in the Al-Attarine Madrasa

I wasn’t aware of the importance of the Al-Attarine Madrasa, From the outside, it doesn’t look important but how wrong I was. Apparently, this madrasa was built in 1323 but it doesn’t look that old. It is possible that restoration was already done on this structure but the skills to restore this would have also been great to begin with. A closer look at the detail of the walls and pillars of the madrasa would reveal something which I have never seen before. While I can’t say that I have been to a lot of madrasa or Islamic school before, but the detail found here is truly special. It is was almost like every square inch of the structure was carved.

The walls of the madrasa have been carved with intricate patterns. It is not just the traditional geometric shapes that are common in Islamic art. There are still repeating patterns here but probably much more flamboyant. The closest thing I could think of when I see this are the patterns which I saw in temples in the Asia, in particular, the ones in Angkor Wat. Baroque church architecture probably doesn’t even begin to compare with this. It makes you wonder how they made something amazing like this. What is probably even more amazing is the fact that the madrasa is open in the center meaning, this is all exposed to the elements. If they really did a restoration on this, the skills to make them is probably still there.

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