The Ben Youssef Madrasa is one of the country’s most important sights from an art-historical perspective. But even those who are not interested in art or history should pay a visit to the Madrasa, as the inner courtyard with the water basin and the lavishly decorated building are definitely a feast for the eyes and leave lasting impressions. Next to the Jardin Majorelle and the souks with the Jemaa el Fna, the Koranic school is the biggest attraction in the red city.
You should allow at least one hour to visit the Madrasa, as it would be a shame to just look at the ornate decorations in passing. If you want to see everything in peace and quiet, you should be ready in the morning at opening time if possible.
The outstanding feature of the Koranic school is the spacious inner courtyard with the water basin and the surrounding colonnade, decorated with traditional craftsmanship.
If you are unsure whether you should visit the Bahia Palace or the Madrasa, I would recommend the Madrasa. From an art historical point of view, the medersa is the more beautiful example of Islamic architecture and the visit is also quicker, as the Madrasa is smaller but has the more beautiful overall composition to offer. The Bahia Palace, on the other hand, offers a lushly planted garden that rivals the architecture.
We present further historical sights in our article 10 cultural highlights.
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The Madrasa is located in the northern medina
The entrance is a little hidden in the alleyways. However, the area surrounding the Madrasa has also been spruced up in the course of renovation work in recent years. So if you come to an alleyway with wood paneling and neat-looking plaster, you’re on the right track.
From the Riad Selouane the Madrasa can be reached on foot in about 10 minutes.
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You can hire a guide at the entrance to the Koran school. Unfortunately, the Moroccan guides have little to tell, most of them have memorized the standard phrases and have no in-depth knowledge of the art-historical significance of the Madrasa.
It is better to organize a guided tour with a licensed guide in advance. Only expert guides who have been trained and have passed an exam are granted a license in Marrakesh.
You can book a visit with an expert and licensed guide here: Entrance and visit to the Madrasa with Mustapha Karraoui*.
If you would like to know more, you can take a guided city tour* which also includes a visit to the Madrasa. There are usually more interesting things to learn on these tours than with the local guides.
Due to the translation from Arabic, the Ben Youssef Madrasa is also known as the Ben Youssef Medersa or Madrassa.
History of the Ben Youssef Madrasa
The Almoravid dynasty, whose origins lie with the Berbers in the High Atlas, ruled a huge empire in the 12th century that stretched from Spain via Algeria to present-day Senegal. In 1062, the Almoravids founded Marrakesh, which they made their capital.
Ali Ben Youssef, the second Almoravid sultan, built the Ben Youssef Mosque, which was completed in 1120. He also had the city wall built, which has surrounded the city unchanged since 1122.
In 1147, the Almohads conquered the city, destroyed it almost completely and rebuilt it as their capital.
In 1269, the Merinid dynasty conquered Marrakesh and put an end to Almohad rule.
The Merinids wanted to restore the empire to its former greatness and moved the capital from Marrakesh to Fez. To underpin their rule, they had Koranic schools built all over the country. However, the Merinids were put under pressure by the Europeans in the course of the reconquest of Spain and eventually lost their territories in Europe.
Sultan Abu al-Hasan, estimated to have been born in 1299, was the 7th Merinid Sultan.
He was also known as the “Black Sultan” due to his dark skin color, as his mother was an Ethiopian slave.
He was known for his artistic sense and began building the madrasa next to the existing Ben Youssef Mosque, which gave the school its name, around 1350.
However, nothing remains of this early building, as the Koranic school was completely rebuilt in the middle of the 16th century.
The Saadian dynasty, which could trace its origins back to the Prophet Muhammad, was less reliant on Koranic schools to emphasize the legitimacy of its rule. Nevertheless, they built a new madrasa in Marrakesh, which they made their capital, to replace the existing one.
The Saadian Sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib, born in 1517, probably began rebuilding the Madrasa shortly after coming to power. According to an inscription, the work was completed in 1565. Completed in Merinidian style, the Ben Youssef Madrasa was the largest Koranic school in the Maghreb and could accommodate up to 800 students.
The Madrasa was in operation until the 18th century and was finally closed and abandoned.
In the 19th century, it was renovated by the Alaouite Sultan Moulay Hassan I and reopened as an Islamic school. The Koranic school was then in operation until 1960, when it was opened to tourism as a national monument.
In 2017, the Ben Youssef Madrasa was taken over by the Moroccan state and reopened to the public in 2022 after four years of restoration.
Art historical significance
The Ben Youssef Madrasa is one of Morocco’s most important monuments. The exceptionally well-preserved building impresses with its rich ornamentation, artistic tile mosaics and ornate carvings.
The style is based on the Merinid Madrasas, although the Madrasa was built during the Saadian period.
Especially in comparison to the Moorish buildings in Spain, the Madrasa is largely preserved in its original state and offers a comprehensive overall picture of Islamic architecture.
The filigree work testifies to the incredible dexterity of Moroccan craftsmen.
The architecture
The floor plan of the Madrasa is approx. 40 x 43 m, which results in a floor area of approx. 1700 square meters.
The rooms are grouped around a spacious inner courtyard with a shallow water basin. The bedrooms adjoin on both sides, but do not have direct access to the inner courtyard.
The bedrooms are grouped around a total of 6 inner courtyards that provide light. The bedrooms are different sizes.
One end consists of the entrance and a staircase, the other end houses the prayer room. The entire system is arranged symmetrically.
The inner courtyard is richly decorated with tiles, stucco and wood carvings, while the bedrooms are plain and simple. The prayer room is decorated with stucco and marble and has a huge wooden dome.
The entrance
You enter the Madrasa through an impressive bronze gate in a quiet alleyway. The gate has gigantic dimensions. It’s all too easy to overlook it when there’s a lot going on at the entrance.
The massive gate is decorated with geometric patterns and finely chiseled ornaments.
The inscription above the gate praises Sultan Abdallah as the builder of the Madrasa.
After paying the entrance fee, you walk through a corridor to the central staircase. This long corridor is an important element in Islamic architecture, as it is intended to humble the visitor and then create an aha experience when they reach the actual building.
And it works: The corridor ends in a room with stairs and a large gate into the inner courtyard — and the sight of the inner courtyard is truly an aha experience!
The inner courtyard
The lavishly decorated walls take your breath away at first sight. You really do feel like you’ve been transported back in time here. The hustle and bustle of the medina has been left out and immediately forgotten, and even today the inner courtyard radiates an almost meditative calm.
Two small gargoyles bubble into the approx. 3x7 m water basin, which is lined with colorful Moroccan tiles. The inner courtyard is tiled with white marble from the High Atlas.
The lower part of the walls is covered with tiled mosaics, while almost every free surface above is decorated with ornate stucco work. The finishing touch is provided by magnificent wood carvings that extend up to the roof beams.
A portico provides cool shade. The Arabic inscriptions show verses from the Koran.
The prayer room
On the southern side is the prayer room, which cannot be entered.
Large columns divide the room into three parts.
A mighty cedar dome spans the main room, with an impressive bronze chandelier hanging below.
There are 24 windows with colorful glass mosaics under the dome, which conjure up colorful spots in the prayer hall depending on the position of the sun.
In the middle of the room is an ornate marble basin that served as a washbasin. Made in Cordoba around the year 1000, it came to Morocco after the loss of the Spanish territories in the 13th century and has been used in the Ben Youssef Madrasa ever since.
After the end of the teaching activity, it stood for many years in the Dar Si Said Museum and was only returned to the Koranic school in the course of the last renovation work.
The niche behind the basin, called the mihrab, indicates the direction of prayer.
It is decorated with particularly beautiful stucco.
Koranic suras adorn the wall above the niche.
The marble of the white columns comes from Italy. Carrara marble was already world-famous back then and was sold all over the world.
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The arts and crafts
The whole building is far too elaborately decorated to take in everything at a glance. Take your time and admire the artistic mosaics, stucco reliefs and carvings. Such a masterpiece of Moorish architecture is not often seen!
What artists the craftsmen of the time must have been to carve the tiles, model the plaster or decorate the beams with such precision and finesse. And all without modern aids!
After all, you have to bear in mind that most of the decorations you can admire here are almost 500 years old!
The finely crafted stucco reliefs are carved into the damp plaster with small knives. If you look closely, you can see the boundary of the so-called day’s work — the area that the artist completed one day before applying new plaster the next day.
The stucco has a slightly pink color, as it comes from the Asni area near Marrakesh. Marble powder was mixed in to make it whiter.
Even today, Moroccan craftsmen are still masters of their trade and I am always amazed at the dexterity with which traditional working methods are still used today.
The glazed tiles are called Zellige and are hewn into the right shape by hand with a small hammer. The patterns are traditional and are still produced in exactly the same way today. The craftsmen know exactly what shape the tiles need to be in order to reproduce even the most complicated patterns afterwards and it is incredible how precisely they can carve the tiles.
The ceilings and ceiling beams are decorated with a mixture of relief and painting. Although they are installed at a height of many meters, there is no lack of detail. You almost wish you had binoculars so you could see everything in detail!
The wood used for the carvings and roof beams comes from the cedars of the Middle Atlas.
If you look up in the inner courtyard, you can discover beautiful Islamic vaults in the corners of the courtyard.
These muqarnas, or stalactite vaults, are typical of Islamic architecture and are complicated to construct.
The adjoining rooms
As richly decorated as the inner courtyard of the Madrasa is, the adjoining rooms are just as sparse. The small cells in which the Koran students were housed seem almost ascetic.
The students’ accommodation
The side wings house the rooms for the pupils on both the first floor and the upper floor. Long corridors lead to small atriums around which small, barren cells are arranged.
There are 130 such cells in total. Some of the cells are two-story, some have windows and all were apparently occupied by several students.
The cells are functional, small and offer little space for furnishings. There can’t have been much more than sleeping accommodation in the cells.
Some of the cells offer a beautiful view of the inner courtyard.
Some of the more spacious cells were apparently reserved for teachers.
The washroom
On the first floor of the eastern wing is the old bathing facility, now appropriately used as a toilet.
Even if you don’t have to go to the Quiet Room, you should take a look inside.
4 beautiful columns surround a water basin in the middle and you can easily imagine how the students used to wash themselves here.
The Koranic school
The Madrasa is not the actual school, but only the dormitory of the Koranic school. Students who were not from Marrakesh could stay here to be taught in the nearby Ben Youssef Mosque.
The mosques were the actual places of learning and the sultan’s palaces were also used for teaching.
Islamic theology and Islamic jurisprudence were taught. Over 800 students are said to have studied at the Koran school.
A student of the Koranic school was referred to as taleb. Literally the seeker, this term refers to a student of religious studies.
The Madrasa mainly took in boys from the areas of the High Atlas and the regions south of it. Most of them had already memorized the Koran from the age of 7. Then there was the Arabic language, because the people in the mountain regions are Berber and therefore do not speak Arabic, but Berber.
At the age of 10, they had completed their basic training in their villages. Those who wanted to continue learning were taught in special schools in the larger towns. The training included grammar, literature, the basics of law and Islamic religious studies.
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Only at the age of 20 could the best students transfer to a prestigious Koranic school such as the Ben Youssef Madrasa and follow their school education with a degree. This required a recommendation from their teacher and they had to pass an entrance test.
The costs for the training were borne by the Sultan. They cooked, ate and slept in the rooms.
The lessons took place in the mosque next door. Some courses also took place in the Madrasa. The students were also able to attend classes in the other mosques in the city. Some of the teachers were very famous and students came from far and wide to attend their lessons.
In the first centuries of the Koran schools, religion was taught above all. Later, the Arabic language and subjects such as philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, geography, physics and chemistry were added.
Some students improved their financial situation by copying old texts or textbooks. The libraries were located at the mosques, not in the Madrasa.
The training relied heavily on memorization and listening, rather than practicing.
The training was completed by a pilgrimage to the holy cities in the countries of the Middle East.
Even today, the Madrasa exudes an air of calm that makes it easy to imagine students sitting in the shade of the pillars, reviewing their lessons or chatting with their friends.
In any case, I find it fascinating how much value was placed on a pleasant spatial atmosphere in earlier times, which supported the reason for the building’s existence so excellently and has survived over the centuries.
The Ben Youssef Madrasa is a real oriental gem
Ben Youssef Madrasa Info
Rue Assouel
Marrakech 40000, Maroc
www.medersabenyoussef.ma
Visit to the Ben Youssef Madrasa with a licensed guide*
The Madrasa is open daily from 9 — 19 hrs. The entrance fee is 50 dirhams.
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