Step off the spice-scented Souk al-Attarine in the centre of Fes el-Bali and you reach one of the smallest but most concentrated demonstrations of Marinid craft anywhere in the city. Al-Attarine Madrasa was built between 1323 and 1325 by the Marinid sultan Abu Sa'id Uthman II, and takes its name directly from the perfumers' and spice merchants' market it sits beside.

The plan is tight — a single cube-shaped courtyard, a small prayer hall, and about thirty student cells originally housing fifty to sixty learners. What makes the madrasa famous is what's done to the walls: bands of calligraphic sgraffito zellij at eye level rise into densely carved muqarnas stucco, and a wooden cupola crowns the mihrab. The mihrab itself sits perpendicular to the main axis — a clever fix for the cramped urban site.

The mathematician Ibn al-Banna' al-Marrakushi is recorded as having taught here in the 14th century. Today the madrasa is open to non-Muslim visitors and forms part of the Medina of Fes UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1981. It sits one minute on foot from the al-Qarawiyyin mosque-university on Place Seffarine.