"Qubahan" school is one of the ancient monuments in the Kurdistan Region that is located on the border of the Amedi district on the south of the Solav summerhouse in the Duhok Province border of the Badinan region among a dense forest. Qubahan was a religious and Islamic school possessing a high level of scientific and knowledge degree. Many Mullahs and religion experts graduated from this school.
The History of Qubahan School
The history of this school dates back to the 16th century (1534-1576) and it was built specifically during the reign of Mir Hossein Wali, the mir of Badinan kingdom. This school has been used as a religious and teaching center to teach the sciences of "religion, philosophy, and social subjects" and the students had been taught "religion, science and humanity" subjects. The school area, its twisted staircases, great pillars, and inscriptions carved on the rocks are testimonies of important history not only for Amedi but also for the whole of Kurdistan. However, the majority of the school has been destroyed and its destruction continues.
The Form of Construction of the School
This school is built in a very geometric form and it looks like too much effort has been dedicated to building it. The building has many arcs and domes with inscriptions on them that are carved high on the walls of this school. The width of Qubahan school is 25.30 meters and it is 28 meters long. On the west side of the school's hall, its height reaches 3.80 meters and its door is 2.80 meters wide. This school is made of limestone and its domes are made of red rocks. Solav water was the source of this school's water.
The school is made of five main parts. One part of it was dedicated to "students", one or two parts of it for the "Masters" to rest, one part for "food and drinks" preparation, and one part for "bathroom". The last part was a mosque dedicated to praying.
There were 6 to 7 bedrooms. Some of the students would stay there and the people of Amedi would provide food and other necessities for them. The schoolmasters did not have any income but the people would give them wheat so they could sell it to gain money.
The Importance of Qubahan School in its time
Hundreds of years ago this school was built which was known as Qubahan school. About two thousand manuscripts were preserved at the school, but nearly a century ago most of the manuscripts were lost except for the 400-450 manuscripts that are now being stored in Baghdad.
The Qubahan School of Amedi was once a source of science and knowledge for all parts of Kurdistan; thousands of degrees had been awarded there, but now only the ruins remained. Students from all parts of Kurdistan have studied at this school and thousands of scholars, intellectuals, activists, and well-known personalities of Kurdistan have studied in this school so many people call it Qubahan University.
Historians and history experts confirm that over the past 800 years, education has continued in Qubahan school. It was built in the time of Sultan Hussein and Sultan Hassan repaired it.
In this school sciences of "Kalam, Syntax, Logic, Rhetoric, Prosody, Semantics, Sarf, Literature, Fiqh, and interpretation knowledge" were taught as well as some other sciences like "Medical sciences, engineering, arithmetic, philosophy, and astronomy".
The Qubahan school had correspondence with Al-Azhar University and several famous and knowledgeable characters such as "Abu Sa'oud Amadi, Sheikh Abdulsalam Barzanji, Sheikh Mohammad Maghribi, and Sheikh Ghayasaddin Naqshbandi" were among the graduated students of this school.
Why the name of Qubahan?
There are three opinions about the name of Qubahan. The most popular one is that this school had three domes or "Quba" on the rooftop of the building and Qubahan means domes. Another opinion says that is linked to the name of Sultan Hossein's son's name because he repaired this school and Sultan Hossein chose his son's name for this school. The third opinion says that Qubahan is a reference to a mosque in "Saudi Arabia" with the same name.
