Bou Inania Madrasa, Fes

Bou Inania was built in the middle of the fourteenth century and is the largest and most elaborate of the Marinid madrasas of Fes. Unlike other colleges it was given a minaret and functioned as a congregational mosque as well as a school, which is part of why its prayer hall is separated from the courtyard by a channel of running water. The decoration is the point: onyx and marble paving, zellij on every lower wall, carved stucco above it, and a broad band of cedar screening and carved beams under the roof. Across the street, in the wall of a building, sit the remains of a fourteenth-century water clock whose brass bowls and beams are still visible, and whose mechanism nobody has convincingly reconstructed.

History

The Marinid sultan Faris ibn Ali Abu Inan built the madrasa in 1350-1355, at first naming it after his title as al-Mutawakkiliya, and it was the largest and most important of the Marinid madrasas. It was the only madrasa in Morocco to become a congregational mosque, where the Friday sermon was given as in the city's great mosques, which is why it has a prominent minaret and all the facilities of a major mosque, and its decoration in carved stucco, zellij and carved wood is counted the culmination of Marinid architecture. Across Tala'a Kebira from the main building stand its ablutions house and the remains of a water clock (Wikipedia, Bou Inania Madrasa).

Highlights

• The courtyard - onyx and marble paving between walls of zellij and carved stucco.
• The cedar screens - carved and pierced woodwork under the eaves and around the galleries.
• The minaret - rare on a madrasa, visible from the roofs of the surrounding lanes.
• The water clock - the brass bowls and beams set into the wall of the house opposite.

When to go

Mornings are quieter and better lit in the courtyard. The madrasa closes to visitors during Friday midday prayers and at other prayer times, which catches people out. Spring and autumn are the comfortable seasons in the medina; summer afternoons in the lanes are exhausting before you even arrive.

What to expect

It is one room and a courtyard, and forty-five minutes is generous. The prayer hall can only be seen from the doorway. Restoration scaffolding has been up in parts of the building in recent years. Getting there means walking a crowded medina street where touts attach themselves to anyone who looks lost, which most people do.

Nearby

Talaa Kebira, Bab Bou Jeloud and the Nejjarine square are all within the medina walk.

Key facts