Khoja Gaukushan Ensemble

History and layout

Gaukushan means 'bull-slaughterers': before the madrasa was built a big market square stood here, and before that a slaughterhouse. The ensemble was built under Abdullah Khan II at the expense of the Juybari sheikh Khoja Sa'd, nicknamed Khoja Kalon ('the great khoja') — a name carried by the mosque and the whole complex. Khoja Sa'd is buried in the Juybari family necropolis at Chor-Bakr.

The 1570 madrasa follows the usual courtyard plan but is trapezoidal because it sits at a fork in the street. In 1598 a Friday mosque, the Khoja Mosque, was added to its north. Its Khoja Kalon minaret rivals the Kalyan in girth, though it is shorter.