Khanaka "Fayzabad" (late 16th century)

At the end of the sixteenth century, on the edge of medieval Bukhara in the Faizabad district, a mosque was built as a shelter for dervishes travelling between holy places. It was raised by the Sufi Mavlono Poyanda-Muhammad Akhsi Faizobodi. The building was first called Shohi Akhsi and was later renamed for its builder.

It divides loosely in two: a mosque with a mihrab facing Mecca, and the khanaka proper, with three tiers of cells where dervishes could rest and stay a while.

The architecture is exemplary of the sixteenth century: symmetry and measured proportion throughout. The front sits on a stepped portal, with monumental arcaded and domed galleries along the sides. The height grows from the low wings towards the entrance portal, and the open galleries make the building light and elegant — inside it feels more like a spacious, bright palace hall than a shelter for ascetics.

White patterning dominates the interior, set off by a band of colour. The main dome carries a fine layer of white ganch over coloured plaster in the chaspak technique, which makes it seem almost weightless.

The dervishes are long gone, but the quiet and the sense of a place still in use have stayed.