private rooms on the ground floor, while more rooms are situated on the upper floor around the courtyard (many of them with windows onto the courtyard), for a total of 39 student rooms (13 on the ground floor and 26 on the upper floor. On the courtyard's southeastern side is a large chamber, entered via an ornate archway with muqarnas, which served as the madrasa's mosque or prayer hall. In the middle of its southeastern wall is a mihrab (niche symbolizing the direction of prayer) which is surrounded by intricately-carved stucco decoration with arabesque and geometric motifs as well as Arabic inscriptions. French scholar George Marçais, in his major work on Islamic architecture in the region, noted that the Bu Inania Madrasa of Meknes represented a kind of architectural transition between the madrasas built by Abu al-Hasan and the ones built by his son Abu Inan. See also Madrasa of Abu al-Hasan (in Salé) Al-Attarine Madrasa (Fes) Sahrij Madrasa (Fes) Ben Youssef Madrasa (Marrakesh) References External Links Manar al-Athar digital photo archive Meknes - Bou Inania Madrasa (photos from many angles and of details) Madrasas in Morocco Buildings and structures in Meknes Marinid architecture 14th-century madrasas