It is a large complex, which consisted of madrasas, a mekteb (Quranic primary school), the imaret (soup kitchen), a mesjid (teaching area), a water tank and taps for washing, and several other facilities for the town's Muslim population.

It is one of the earliest examples of western-style school providing secular education in the Ottoman Empire, in accordance with Muhammad Ali's efforts for modernization.

[1] It used to house rare editions of Ottoman, Turkish and Persian manuscripts, dating from the 12th century; it has been suggested that those were either stolen or destroyed, though it is also claimed that perhaps, following Greco-Turkish turmoil in the 1820s, the Egyptian community transferred them to Egypt instead.

[1][2] In 1954, the imaret along with the house of Muhammad Ali were declared protected historical monuments, and recognized as Egyptian waqfs by the Greek state.

One of the courtyards was converted into a tavern, some cells were turned into storage areas, parts of the lead roofs were stripped down, as were the Ottoman crescents that decorated the domes.

[2] The most crucial decision to preserve and restore the imaret however was made by Kavala resident Anna Missirian in the mid-1990s, in spite of the enormous cost and difficulties she faced in procedure.

Soft curves and arches are also present everywhere else in the large complex: in all the bedrooms each courtyard, a polygonal-like curval rhytmn is the dominant style.

Although the building was built during the Ottoman Baroque era, where Western influence was popular in the East, it keeps unchanged the basic principles of this architecture.