A KORANIC SCHOOL
The architecture of the Medersa Ben Youssef in Marrakech is so delicate and solemn that it naturally imposes contemplation and silence.
Today, it seems difficult to imagine that, a century ago, hundreds of students (up to 900) were living there, studying but also having fun, bursting with joy.
The breath of youth
Certainly, prayer and study could appease the spirits and the severity of masters control the excesses of the young scholars.
But it was a place of life where young minds stayed, ate, learnt their lessons but also had fun and quarreled as in any university residence.
After basic studies in the schools of their home towns or villages, students applied for admission to the prestigious Ecole Coranique Ben Youssef to complete their training and secure their professional future.
In addition to religious education, it provided high-level humanistic, philosophical, literary, theological and scientific disciplines. The boys could study there for about ten years.
Sometimes the students could go out into town. Naturally, they were integrated into the life of the neighbourhood and occasionally took part in festive events, official ceremonies. The inhabitants also benefited from their knowledge and entrusted them with certain tasks: readings, copies, expertises allowed them to earn a few cents.
The very evocative and moving patio in the middle of this maze of corridors leading to the upstairs bedrooms allows the imagination to gallop.
The voices, cries and laughter of the past are rising in minds.
The Medersa Ben Youssef: like an Oxford or a Moroccan Cambridge?
Arranged around seven small patios, framed by handcrafted wooden balustrades, the cells are of reduced size.
Their austere simplicity contrasts with the artistic refinement and general sophistication of the decoration of the whole. Only a few privileged people (the most deserving or the richest) could breathe some fresh air by opening their windows, even a small balcony overlooking the large main courtyard.
Other small, absolutely magical, rays of light penetrate through tiny holes in the thick walls, or through the all high perched windows which can be square, rectangular, arch or oval in shape.
In his book “Marrakech dans les palmes”, published in 1913, the French academician and great traveller André Chevrillon tells about his visit to the Medersa:
“But upstairs, on the floor that goes around the large quadrilateral, the medersa has proved to be alive. Here and there, in the half day of a bay, one discovered a figure of young clerc. This is where the Muslim students live (as, in the past, those of Paris, at the College of Harcourt, Navarre or Normandy). In the same cells a few famous sheikhs, leading scholars, scientists have been trained, or even the Saints, whose tombs rise on the side of Bab Khemis and Bab Armaat… Here is a whole band: scholastic silhouettes, tall, pale boys, hollow-looking in their hooded cloaks. They come and go around the basin, like students in every country before or after a course….”
A pride of Islamic art
The Medersa takes its name from the Sultan Almoravid Ali Ben Youssef but was built by the Saâdien Abdallah Al Ghalib at the end of the 16th century.
The lintel above the door says:
“I have been made for science and prayer by the Prince of believers, the descendant of the seal of the prophets Abdellah, the glorious of creatures. Pray for him, O you who pass through my door, that his highest hopes may be fulfilled.”
With an area of about 1700 m 2, walls with an impressive height of 15 meters, 130 rooms, a large courtyard with a bronze water basin, a prayer room with three naves, colonnades of remarkable finesse, the Medersa Ben Youssef is not only the largest in the Maghreb but a true marvel of Islamic architecture.
This art reaches here its highest level of technicality, combining the most noble traditional materials that are the cedar of the Atlas, zelliges, ceramics, stucco, but also imported white marble from Carrara. The artisans and artists carved, chiseled, painted, turned, applied, calligraphed, incised … with their incomparable know-how and the desire for a near perfect harmony.
Order, correctness of proportions, evidence of the main lines: from all this arises the impression of greatness.
Beyond the centuries
The Medersa district, near Jemaâ el Fna Square, eternal heart of a hectic activity, had to beat part of the rhythm of this lively student life.
The decline and disenfranchisement of this institution so renowned began at the end of the nineteenth century until the monumental doors were closed permanently on the teaching of knowledge.
Today, it is a jewel of national heritage, visited and admired by travellers from all over the world, and in this way, continues its mission of memory, sharing, openness and tolerance.
