Madrasahs, Their Shaykhs, and the Civilian Founder

The Bāsiṭīyah Madrasahs in the Mamlūk Era

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Zayn al-Dīn ʻAbd al-Bāsiṭ ibn Khalīl, a high-ranking bureaucrat in the fifteenth-century Mamlūk government, founded five madrasahs in Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, Mecca, and Medina, all of which were named “Bāsiṭīyah” after the founder’s name. This paper seeks to determine who the founder appointed to posts in his madrasahs, especially those of shaykh of Sufis (shaykh al-taṣawwuf/al-ṣūfīyah), and why he made these choices. Our investigation shows that there were various personal and political reasons behind the founderʼs selection of the shaykhs. When he was still in a relatively low position, ʻAbd al-Bāsiṭ selected a well-known ʻālim (religious intellectual) as shaykh of his Cairene institution in order to burnish its reputation. After his advancement, he appointed his favorites and private staff, some of whom had close ties with the Bārizī family, as the shaykhs of Cairene and Jerusalemite Bāsiṭīyahs. He thus engaged in patronage to reward people close to him and to strengthen his connections with the Bārizī family. In Mecca, on the other hand, he chose prominent scholars of local prominent families for political reasons. In Damascus, he also selected a well-known scholar of a local scholarly family as shaykh, but this selection was based on a private relationship with the family rather than politics. Except in the case of the Medinan Bāsiṭīyah that he newly established for a specific person, he did not take the initiative in the selection of the shaykhs after his downfall. This power had fallen from the founder’s hand and passed to the interested ʻulamā’.