Mir-i-Arab Madrasa

History

The madrasa was founded by the Naqshbandi sheikh Sayyid Abdullah Yamani, known as Mir-i-Arab, spiritual guide to the Shaybanid Ubaydullah Khan, who paid for much of the work. The traditional date is 1530–1536, though some researchers argue construction began much earlier, after the Shaybanid victory at Gijduvan in 1512. Both Mir-i-Arab and Ubaydullah Khan are buried in the madrasa's tomb chamber.

Closed in the 1920s, it reopened in 1946 and until 1989 was effectively the only working madrasa in the Soviet Union (a second one operated in Tashkent in 1956–1961). It is still a religious school today.

Architecture

The two-storey madrasa is built around a courtyard lined with student cells. Tall blue domes rise on either side of the portal and, together with the dome of the Kalyan Mosque, create Po-i-Kalyan's best-known skyline. The portal and the dome drums are decorated with tilework and mosaic.

Did you know?

Bukhara's madrasa teachers were ranked: the Mir-i-Arab professor came third, after those of the Kukeldash and Gaukushan madrasas, and bore the title mufti-askar. Sources say the final stage of building was paid for with money Ubaydullah Khan raised by selling prisoners taken in his wars with Iran.