School of Bahadir ibn’ Adullah al-Badri in al-Mazar al-Ganubi, Karak: An Archaeological\Architectural Study

            The School of Bahadir ibn Adullah al-Badri is located in al-Mazar al-Ganubi, 13 km  south of the modern\old city of al-Karak and 140 south of Amman. This paper elucidates, for the first time, the nature of the school building based on its architectural and design similitude to an adjacent shrine, four meters to the east. The latter building is being used as an Islamic museum, while the school’s building is used as a Kuranic center. Similarity between the two buildings are noted in terms of the general design (a hall and a doomed chamber built with solid limestone blocks almost of the same height and number of courses), the design and size of the entrance and number of windows. The shrine includes a commemorative inscription executed on marble plaque stating that  the builder was  Bahadir ibn Adullah al-Badri in 727 AH\1326 AD. A space over the lintel of the school entrance indicates that there used to be an inscription. Equivocally, these unites used to be considered either the shrine and\or mosque of Ja’far Ibn Abi Talib or an Islamic museum built by the ministry of Islamic Affairs, despite the fact that these buildings are located some sixty meters north of Ja’far’s mosque\shrine.  The school architecture is an archaeological exemplar of the architectural tradition that consists of a one-hall, doomed- chamber school built by Bahadir ibn Adullah al-Badri deputy of Sultan Nasir Muhammad Ibn Qalawun in al-Karak and ash-Shawbak Took over the first three times: 693-741 AH / 1293-1340 AD, and the second: 698-708 AH / 1299-1309 AD, and the third: 709-741 AH / 1310-1340 AD).