Said Ahmad Khoja Madrasa

History

The madrasa was built by Sayyid Ahmadkhonkhoja Giyoskhojayev, a well-known businessman of the turn of the 20th century who also owned cotton-ginning and oil mills. Many sources date it to 1907–1909, while Russian-language sources say the late 19th century; the architect is unknown. It did not serve as a school for long: closed at the end of the 1920s, it later housed a prison, a hostel and, in 1986–1992, the city's museum of literature and art.

In 2007, for Margilan's 2,000th anniversary, the building was thoroughly restored and reopened as a centre of national crafts. It houses the workshops of the Mirzaakhmedov family — Rahimjon and Rasuljon, sons of the atlas master Turgunboy Mirzaakhmedov — the block printer Shukrullo Ahmadaliyev and the coppersmith Abduhamid Madaliyev, fifth in his family line, together with a crafts association, a gallery and a small museum. The Margilan Crafts Development Centre's practice of safeguarding atlas and adras was added to a UNESCO register in 2017.

Architecture

The single-storey madrasa surrounds a square courtyard crossed by an irrigation channel beside an old plane tree. In the north-west corner stands a mosque with a one-sided iwan. It is built of fired brick, but with earthquakes in mind its walls are braced by a double timber frame. The hall, 14 by 7 metres, is roofed with wooden trusses from which the ceiling is suspended — a solution showing Russian influence that leaves the interior free of columns. The ceilings of both iwan and hall are completely painted, each in a different style, which is rare in the Fergana Valley.