Ulugbek and Abdulaziz Khan Madrasahs

Just past the jewellers' dome, two portals face each other across a narrow lane. Central Asian builders called such a pair a kosh, a "double", and this one is a lesson in how taste changed in Bukhara between the Timurids and the Ashtarkhanids.

Ulugbek's madrasah

The northern building was completed in 1417 for Ulugbek, grandson of Timur, then governor of Transoxiana and later famous as an astronomer. It is the oldest of the three madrasahs he founded (the others are in Samarkand and Gijduvan) and is often described as the oldest surviving madrasah in Central Asia. In Ulugbek's colleges students read mathematics and astronomy as well as theology, and an inscription often quoted from its gates declares the pursuit of knowledge a duty for every Muslim man and woman. The decoration is restrained: glazed brick in geometric patterns, with a portal renovated under Abdullah Khan II in 1586. Inside is a small museum on the restoration of Bukhara's monuments.

Abdulaziz Khan's madrasah

Opposite stands the madrasah of Abdulaziz Khan of the Ashtarkhanid dynasty, built in 1652–1654. Its portal is far more theatrical. Deep stalactite vaulting fills the arch; the tilework uses a bright yellow seldom seen in Bukhara before; and among the flowers and vases appear motifs rarely found on a religious building, including birds and landscapes that some scholars link to Chinese and Indian art. The decoration was never fully finished, and parts of the facade remain bare. Several student cells now house shops selling textiles, ceramics and carpets.

How to experience it

Stand in the lane between the two and turn from one portal to the other: the contrast is the point. Late morning puts light on the Abdulaziz Khan portal; the Ulugbek facade is easier to photograph in the afternoon. Both are on the main walking route, so this is a stop of fifteen to thirty minutes between the trading domes and Po-i-Kalyan.