Abdulaziz Khan Madrasah (1652)

The Abdulaziz Khan madrasah was built in 1652, more than two centuries after the Ulugbek madrasah that faces it, yet together they hold a single architectural scene on this street. The building matters in the history of Central Asian architecture: it shows what the masters of the time could do.

The pishtaq portal is striking for its height and the richness of its finish. The iwan here is many-faceted and hung all over with muqarnas stalactites, where Ulugbek's iwan is plain, built of three descending arches. Verses by well-known poets run across the iwan walls; the neighbouring building carries Qur'anic sayings in the same place.

The ornament differs too. Instead of the usual severe astral and geometric patterns there is a more complex and vivid design, and in it appear a Chinese dragon and the Simurgh, the bird of fortune: Bukhara traded closely with the countries of the Silk Road, and it shows on the walls. Nearly every technique available to the age is gathered in the decoration — relief majolica, marble carving, carved, tile and brick mosaic, glue-paint work on plaster, painting on ganch, and even kundal gilding.

Inside are two mosques, winter and summer: the winter one in the western corner of the entrance corridor, the summer one in the courtyard, both richly finished. In the darskhana it is worth looking closely at the wall paintings — blue on white, with landscapes that recall Chinese and Indian ornament.

The decoration was never completed: the right side of the courtyard and the left side of the façade were left bare. While Abdulaziz Khan was away, a political coup took place, and there was simply no one left to finish the building.