At the end of the nineteenth century, when Arab schools were sparsely dispersed in all corners of our Arab world, Al Ma’aref college was founded by Sheikh Mohammed Al Saleh in the Quashlaq building of Jerusalem.
The building dated back before Christ, to the days of the Romans who used it as fortress, until prince Alamuddin Singer, the Muslim governor of Jerusalem and Gaza, who was also a man of letters, converted it into a school under the name of Al Jaoulieh School. In the early ninth century Hijry (15th century AD) the building became the residence of the governors of Jerusalem, and in the tenth century (16th AD) the Ottomans converted it into barracks and local administration centre.
The College devoted itself to fulfilling the needs of Jerusalem and the Higher Islamic Council, and as such , it was numerous official celebrations and historical events. The Arab and Islamic luminaries that addressed its assemblies are legion, and their voices, as they echo in the college to this day, bear witness to its role in reviving the conscience of the Nation. The College hosted the First International Islamic Conference in 1931, and the first two conferences of the savants of Palestine in 1935 and 36. It also welcomed the late King Faisal in 1933, and the prince of poets Ahmad Shawqi in 1932.
On this foundation, the noble patrimony of Al Ma’aref College flourished to erect one of its four branches on a hill in Amman, the city of the Arabs In its 99th year, Al Ma’aref college stands, a landmark unto itself, that draws its present from the proud heritage uninterrupted since its great departed founder, to his sons and grandsons.