Bukhara Zindan (Prison)

History

The prison was built in the second half of the 18th century, under the Manghit dynasty, in the north-west corner of the shahristan — the Khoja Nizamiddin Bolo quarter, about a hundred metres north-east of the Ark. It was closed after the Bukhara revolution of 1920 brought down the emirate.

Rebels, murderers, robbers, debtors, the condemned awaiting execution and suspects awaiting trial all ended up here. Sentences were often open-ended, and a prisoner's fate hung on help from relatives and on gifts to the qadi or the jailer.

Layout

Ringed by high walls, the Zindan looks like a small fortress entered through a large wooden gate. It has two parts: the zindon-i bolo, an upper prison of courtyards and cells, and the zindon-i poyon, a pit 5 m across and 6.5 m deep into which prisoners were lowered on ropes, as was their food. A separate cell was kept for political prisoners and disgraced officials.

Today the rooms around the courtyard display shackles, figures of prisoners and documents on the history of Bukhara's courts.

Did you know?

Tradition holds that the British officers Charles Stoddart and Arthur Conolly were held in this pit between 1838 and 1842. In 1842 they were executed on the Registan in front of the Ark — one of the most famous episodes of the Great Game.