Madrasah Al-Kallāsah
The Madrasah Al-Kallāsah was located in the Middle District of the city of Damascus. It was the madrasah of Jubair al Hakim, the chief scholar of Sultan Salāḥ ad-Dīn, and served as his center of power. From here, surrounded by his most devoted followers, Jubair spread his campaign to burn the city's books and so destroy all knowledge of the past.
History[edit | edit source]
By 1191, the Madrasah Al-Kallāsah had become the seat from which Jubair directed his crusade against the written word. Each day, he gathered his students within its walls to preach, before sending them out into the streets of Damascus to demand the people's books and parchments and consign them to the flames.[1][2] Surrounded there by his most loyal followers, Jubair rarely strayed far from the madrasah, which made it the surest place to find him.[3]
That same year, the Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad was sent to end Jubair's life. Learning that the scholar was to hold another of his gatherings at the madrasah, Altaïr made his way inside, where he witnessed Jubair cast a dissenting scholar into a bonfire. Jubair soon withdrew to a nearby garden to oversee a burning of his own, and it was there, as he addressed the crowd, that Altaïr struck him down.[4]
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- The word madrasah is Arabic for "school".
Gallery[edit | edit source]
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Concept art of the madrasah -
The madrasah's main gate -
Altaïr overlooking Jubair and his missionaries
