[14 April 2008]

RADA'A, April 14 (Saba)- The main road from the Yemeni capital Sana'a to the south divides at Dhamar: one branch continues south to Taiz and Aden, the other runs south-east towards to Rada'a, the impressively fortified town. Rada'a became the capital of the Tahirid Kingdom (1454-1517), of Sultan Abdul Wahab ibn Tahir. It is famous for its mud-brick citadel and the flair of the design of its mosque and palace named with the Amiriya Madrasa.

The Amiriya Madrasa located in southeast of Rada'a is one of the largest monuments in Yemen. It was established by the last king of Tahirid Dynasty Sultan 'Amir bin abd al-Wahab in1504. Sultan AbdulWahab of the Tahirid Dynasty was not only a great administrator but a lover of art also.

The Madrasat Amiriya was built in Islamic-style in its purity of line and proportion and the use of space. It considered as one of the most important 16th-century buildings still extant in the Yemen. The Amiriya Islamic School, was a remarkable scientific and religious educational center in its day. Students from the Arab and Islamic regions came to the school in search of knowledge.

The al-Amiriya Madrasa is the most extravagantly ornate monument in Yemen, a abundance of domes, arches, and niches on the outside, and a decorated delight on the inside, with wonderful carved stucco patterns and inscriptions and extraordinary painted frescoes whose colors were still vibrant, even after 500 years of neglect.

Al-Amiriya is three stories high. The ground floor contains a series of shops along the outside and vaulted rooms on the inside, with a public bath (hammam) at the southwest corner. The first floor contains the prayer hall preceded by an inner court to the south, and is accessed with stairs from two porches to the east and south.

Its inner court, which is enveloped by an arcade of slender columns, is flanked to the east and west by rectangular madrasa halls that face the street with four mashrabiyya, or timber-screened window boxes. The prayer hall, similarly, is enveloped by vaulted galleries with wide archways pierced into the east, west and south façades of the madrasa. The northern gallery, located behind the qibla wall, is distinguished with carved stucco panels and an octagonal ablution basin.

A ribbed dome rises the end of each gallery, the domes to the north, which occupy the corners of the madrasa, are enclosed into rooms with mashrabiyya. Two other ribbed domes mark the southern ends of the madrasa halls.

Together, the six ribbed domes sit symmetrically on the flat roof terrace, which is protected all around by a parapet of floral crenellations. The walls of the prayer hall rise three meters above the roof terrace, allowing clerestory windows to bring light to the inside. Its six identical round domes, which are hoisted on tall archways falling on two heavy columns, dominate the madrasa's roofline.

Externally, the three fronts north, east and west, are punctuated by arched openings breeze.The blast slender profile crown the building at the terraces, or stand out six domes elevated to the prayer hall.

By the early 1980's the 'Amiriya was in a very advanced state of disintegration, so that was a need for restoration the building. To save it from imminent collapse, a bilateral agreement was signed between the Netherlands and Yemeni governments in which they agreed to restore the building and share the costs of the work.

The actual restoration work was undertaken by traditional craftsmen under the guidance of a master stone mason, usta Izzi Mohammad Gas'a, using only traditional methods. After the initial restoration work in the early 1980, a second more intensive and comprehensive series of restoration campaigns were conducted from 1996 through the late spring of 2005, under the general supervision of Dr. Selma al-Radi and Mr. Yahya Al-Nasiri, Director of Antiquities for Beidha Governorate.

During the restoration, the madrasa was rebuilt using limestone, baked brick, and qudad (a traditional waterproofing mortar composed of lime and volcanic aggregate that is polished with a smooth stone and daubed with animal fat).

The building was polished, re-plastered and an electrical grid was installed. Carved stucco decorations and tempera wall paintings covering the domes and prayer hall were also repaired. The ground floor has been turned into a museum to commemorate the restoration work.

As the first project of its kind in Yemen, it offered local workers the opportunity to revisit and learn traditional building methods. This project has been a labor of love for the eminent Iraqi archaeologist, Dr. Selma al-Radi.

The restoration highlighted that the Amiriya Madrasa was probably founded as a palace, after a number of restoration takes its place in Yemen's cultural patrimony as a palace-museum.

It is certainly appropriate to look at the political value of its

restoration. Its beauty, as valorized by the recalled works, can be

taken as a symbol of the valuable friendship between Yemen and its historical international partners, who unreservedly joined their hands for the pure benefit of the Yemeni people and of the universal knowledge. Such a relation, going beyond the aesthetic side of specific projects, is already something to celebrate and cultivate.

The candidacy of the Al-Ameriya Madrasa for the Agha Khan prize in Islamic architecture and the UNESCO prize for maintaining global heritage undoubtedly represents a due international acknowledgement of the universal importance of this Yemeni cultural heritage masterpiece.

Yet another wider meaning could be added to its enormous artistic value. In fact, the over 500 years old-school enriching the landscape of Rada'a could be nevertheless assumed as a symbol of the successful political and cooperation links Yemen has been creating and strengthening over the past decades.

MD


Saba