Al-Attarine Madrasa

The Al-Attarine Madrasa sits beside Souk el-Attarine, the spice and perfume market, a few steps from the Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fes el-Bali, in Morocco's Fès-Meknès region. It was built between 1323 and 1325 by the Merenid sultan Abu Said Uthman II, and its name derives from the attarin, the spice and perfume merchants whose stalls surround it. Compared with larger Fes institutions it is small, but it is admired for the density and refinement of its decoration. The main courtyard is paved with marble and centred on a basin, with walls rising in tiers of geometric zellige tilework, carved plaster with calligraphic and floral motifs, and carved cedar beams and screens beneath a wooden eave. A small prayer room opens off the courtyard, with a carved mihrab niche. The upper level holds around thirty tiny student cells, reached by narrow stairways, where students of the neighbouring Qarawiyyin once lived while studying theology, law and grammar; from the cell windows visitors can look down into the courtyard or out over the medina rooftops. The doorway from the street has a studded bronze door and a cedar canopy. The madrasa was a residential college rather than a place of public prayer, which explains its quiet, cloistered feel. After falling into disrepair, the building was restored in recent decades and is now maintained as a heritage monument open to visitors for a modest fee, outside prayer times. It is less visited than Bou Inania and is often visited in a few minutes, though architecture enthusiasts spend longer studying the carving. Standing directly in the old centre, it connects naturally with the Al-Qarawiyyin quarter, the Nejjarine fountain and the surrounding souks, making it an efficient first stop on a medina walk.