The "Kosh-Madrasah" ensemble (double madrasah)

The Kosh madrasah — the double madrasah — is an ensemble of two sixteenth-century schools set on one axis, façade to façade. The Abdullah Khan madrasah was built in 1588–1590 and the Modari Khan madrasah in 1566, in honour of Abdullah Khan's mother; both went up on his orders. Such paired compositions are typical of Central Asia, and in the Bukhara of the day this was among the best places to study.

The Abdullah Khan front makes the strongest impression: it seems to rise to the sky, and the majolica tiles on it glow green and blue like the sky before a storm. The walls are covered in ornament and loggias are set into the front of the building — from outside the madrasah looks more like a palace than a school.

The entrance arch was made deliberately vast: walking under it, a person lowers their head without meaning to. The wooden doors carry carving so fine that a hair would not pass between the patterns, and they are assembled mosaic-fashion from different pieces of wood. Inside are a spacious darskhana for lessons, rows of hujra cells and a mosque at the back.

The two buildings stand at the edges of the square like two respected teachers, watching with severe calm whatever passes between them. Students stayed seven years and longer; handing a son over to a madrasah, fathers used an old formula: the flesh is yours, the bones are ours.