Sba'iyyin Madrasa

The madrasa was built during the Marinid era, when many of Fes's historic madrasas were built. It was commissioned in 1323 by Abu al-Hassan, who later became sultan but at that time was only a prince and heir apparent to his father, Sultan Abu Sa'id Uthman II.[3] The madrasa was initially known as Madrasa al-Sughra (the "Lesser/Smaller Madrasa") because it was built as a complement to the larger Madrasa al-Kubra ("Greater Madrasa"), later known as the Madrasa as-Sahrij.[3][4][5] It eventually came to be known as the Madrasa as-Sba'iyyin (roughly: "Madrasa of those who teach the Seven Recitations of the Qur'an") presumably due to the madrasa's specialization in teaching the seven canonical methods of reciting the Qur'an.[3] Together, the Madrasa as-Sahrij and the Madrasa as-Sba'iyyin provided both lodging and teaching for students studying at the nearby Andalus Mosque, much as the Seffarine and al-Attarine Madrasas served students at the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque across the river.[3][4][2] The madrasas were also accompanied by another funduq or hospice, but this has since disappeared.[3]

The madrasa may likely have been restored multiple times along with its neighbouring counterpart, the Sahrij Madrasa. However, both madrasas eventually fell into neglect in recent decades. There were initial efforts to repair and protect them in the 2000s, including from the World Monuments Fund, but they then suffered from further vandalism.[4] In particular, serious damage was done to the Sba'iyyin Madrasa in 2009 when looters removed two carved wooden beams and some of the marble columns that held up the gallery balcony, causing the second floor of the gallery to collapse.[4][6] The two madrasas were more recently repaired and restored by the local heritage agency ADER-Fès and reopened in 2017, as part of a wider program of rehabilitation for Fes el-Bali which started in 2013.[7][8]