Madrasa of Umm al-Sultan Sha'ban

The layout of the complex is somewhat unusual due to its unusual site at the corner of the main street (Tabbana street, the continuation of al-Darb al-Ahmar street) and a minor side street joining it at an angle. The floor plan of the complex deals with this by forming a three-sided façade around this corner. The monumental main entrance is at the northern end of the eastern façade, but a small side entrance to the madrasa existed on the western side.[1][2] The complex has two domes corresponding to the two mausoleum chambers inside. The minaret and the larger mausoleum dome (which belonged to Khawand's mausoleum) stand together at the southwestern corner, right where the two streets join, thus maximizing their visibility.[2] The exterior of the two domes is ribbed or fluted, like other Mamluk domes of the period (e.g. the Sultaniyya Mausoleum or the nearby Madrasa of Uljay al-Yusufi). Around the drums of the domes are inscriptions in Arabic. Originally, the letters of the inscription were gilded against a green background.[2] The top of the octagonal minaret collapsed or was destroyed in recent centuries, but has been reconstructed (based on photographs of the old one) in the most recent restoration completed in 2007.[1][2] The exterior walls of the building are tall and imposing (around 18 meters high[2]^: 219). The triple windows near its upper parts are partly decorative, seeing as some of the windows (on the left, overlapping with the eastern iwan inside) are blind (i.e. blocked) and don't serve to allow light in.[2][3]

The decoration of the entrance portal.

The entrance portal is one of the building's most remarkable features. Like many Mamluk buildings, the entrance is set in a recess within the exterior walls, the top of which is crowned with a muqarnas (stalactite or honeycomb-like carvings). The muqarnas canopy here is more or less pyramid-shaped like the entrance portal of Seljuk/Mongol buildings in Muslim Anatolia at the time, possibly of the same inspiration as the portal of Sultan Hassan's massive madrasa-mosque, built just over a decade earlier. Nonetheless, the overall decorative design is Mamluk and features heavy use of multi-colored stone and marble.[2] Right below the muqarnas hood is a triple window (smaller but of similar shape as the other triple windows on the building's exterior) flanked on either side by shallow decorative niches in the shape of pointed arches, all featuring multi-colored stone. There are also several inscriptions in Arabic, both carved and inlaid, of one word or of whole passages, around the portal. One inscription wraps around two arch-shaped decorative niches on the sides and around a triple window in the middle, winding its way up and down from one side of the portal to the other. Smaller one-word inscriptions include the word Allah inlaid around the triple window, and small black-and-white inscriptions at the center of the decorative niches on either side. The triangular muqarnas hood at the top of the portal is also framed by an outer rectangular frame filled with carved arabesques, albeit relatively faded.

The sabil next to the entrance portal.

Two other minor features existed on either side of the portal. On the left is a delicately carved wooden screen which is part of the sabil, a kiosk that dispensed water freely. On the right was a drinking trough (Arabic: hawd) for animals, above which is a carved inscription band with the epigraphic blazon or cartouche of Sultan Sha'ban.[2][1]

The entrance portal leads to a long stone-vaulted passage with the madrasa and its central courtyard on the left and some annexes on the right. These annex rooms are part of a series of rooms located within the outer parts of the complex, wrapped around the madrasa courtyard and distributed along three stories.[2] These included service rooms for staff and living quarters for the students.[2]

The rectangular main courtyard of the madrasa is surrounded by iwans on four sides in a cruciform configuration. The iwans along the qibla axis (i.e. aligned with the direction of prayer) are larger than the transverse iwans. A monumental inscription runs along the top of the courtyard's walls, above the openings of the iwans, and features a verse of the Qur'an (3:190-192, from the Surah Ali 'Imran[10]).[1] The iwans had richly painted and gilded wooden ceilings, with the ceiling of the southern iwan being well-preserved and restored today.[3][2] The southeastern iwan is the qibla iwan (the one pointing in the direction of prayer) and features a mihrab which, along with the surrounding wall, is decorated in multi-coloured marble.[2]

The qibla iwan is flanked on either side by the two mausoleum chambers, accessed from the sides of the courtyard. The smaller mausoleum, on the right (to the south) has no mihrab, while the larger mausoleum, on the left (to the north) has a mihrab flanked by two windows.[2] The larger mausoleum contains the tomb of Khawand Baraka (Umm al-Sultan Sha'ban) and a daughter of Sha'ban, while the smaller museum ended up being the tomb of Sultan Sha'ban himself (when his other mausoleum complex was unfinished upon his death) and one of his sons al-Mansur Hajji.[1][2] Both mausoleum domes have simple round squinches in the transition zone between the square chamber and the round base of the dome above rather than the more typical muqarnas-sculpted pendentives found in Mamluk architecture.[2] The squinches nonetheless have some decoration by using two-coloured masonry with a radiating motif.[2] Other than this, the mausoleums are unadorned.

A doorway off the larger mausoleum leads to an irregularly-shaped room sandwiched between other chambers in the floor plan. The room has a richly-decorated ceiling (similar to the painted and gilded wooden ceilings of the courtyard iwans). It is thought that this room may have been used as a workshop to create Qur'an manuscripts, and/or as place to store them.[1][3]