Archaeological and architectural remains of Sheikh Othman Al-Alusi School in the city of Mosul

Abstract

The school is the place and location of the lesson, and it is an independent building separate from the mosque or the mosque, and no minaret or pulpit was built in it. The school contained the wide open courtyard that was common in the mosque and the mosque, as it was distinguished by a small covered courtyard overlooked by an arched iwan or several iwans. The beginnings of learning places in the Islamic era go back to the mosque, then moved to the Kuttabs and the houses of scholars, sheikhs and righteous people. Mosques were associated with the two duties of prayer and seeking knowledge. The school building was allocated to teaching religious sciences, Islamic law, the principles of the Prophetic Hadith, and all Islamic sciences, and it is based on one or several schools. One of the most prominent religious schools in the city of Mosul is the Sheikh Othman Al-Alusi School, as it is located in the Bab Al-Masjid neighborhood near the area known as Hadhira Gentlemen, it has been reported that Hajj Abu Bakr bin Hajj Mustafa Al-Alusi, the founder of the Qadiriyya order, established it and built his mosque next to it in this location. Then he made the mosque a hospice known by this name. A text was found written on the entrances and walls of the mosque that read: “Prayer was prescribed for the believers at fixed times - in the year 1184 AH.” Sheikh Abu Bakr bin Mustafa sought to renovate and expand the mosque in the year 1221 AH. The school was planned in a specific location, consisting of a room or a square or rectangular hall consisting of two wings. On the right of the person entering it is the wing designated for teachers, reciters, sheikhs, or memorizers. As for the second wing, it is located on the left of the person entering and is designated for students and learners. In its front is a bookcase for the students’ need for it. The school is usually roofed and equipped with an entrance and a window overlooking an open courtyard or courtyard. Next to it is a central mosque that follows it and in it is a water fountain for the fountain. Mosul schools varied in their methods of construction and their creativity in Its inscriptions and writings, mostly Qur’anic texts and poetic verses containing historical, propagandistic and funeral phrases and the titles of their owners, etc.,