The Madrasas of Bayt Al-Maqdis during the Ayyubid period: Establishment, Operation and Function

After the Crusader occupation of Jerusalem that lasted for nearly ninety years, Salah al-Din’s liberation constitutes one of the most important turning points in the formation of the Muslim identity of the city. Just after the liberation, various activities for the development of the city had been implemented especially through the establishment of Waqf foundations by Salah al-Din himself and other Ayyubid Sultans and princes of the following periods for this purpose. At the forefront of these activities was the establishment of madrasas in the city. The madrasas, which were closely related to education, economy, and social life in terms of their structures and functions, had been adopted by Ayyubid Sultans as the most important means for the patronage of the ulama or scholars. The madrasas were also meant that elite scholars and along with them many student from almost every part of the Muslim World would come to the city. The return of scholars who had left Bayt al-Maqdis during the occupation of the Crusaders was undertaken to ensure that this process happened quickly through means of creating positions in the madrasas for them such as trusteeship, custodianship, professorship, and assistantship. This paper will focus on the history of the madrasas established during the Ayyubid period, the leading scholars employed in them, and the role these madrasas played in the religious, scholarly and social life of the city