Kukeldash Madrasah (1568–1569)

The Kukeldash madrasah stands near Lyabi-Hauz and remains the largest in Bukhara and one of the largest in Central Asia. It was built in 1568–69, under Abdullah Khan II, with money from the Bukharan grandee Kulbaba. He served several khans and managed to keep on good terms with all of them, earning the title kukeldash — milk brother — one of the highest court offices. The madrasah took its name from the title.

It is often taken for part of the Lyabi-Hauz complex, but it is not: excavation showed the building to be independent, with no connection to Divan-begi's work.

Architecturally it was unusual for its time. Almost every madrasah of those years followed one scheme: a closed courtyard, a ceremonial entrance and blank walls all round. Here there are no blank walls — niches and balconies finished in ganch take their place. There are a hundred and sixty hujra cells on two floors around a spacious courtyard.

The best masters of the age built it. The decorative vaults are assembled from cast ganch arches in many combinations, and the mosaic on the entrance gates was put together without glue or nails; geometry dominates the main doorway.

The building has taken damage: an earthquake badly harmed the front portal, which was held together with plain iron clamps, and under Bekler-bek the second floor and its blue domes were pulled down for brick. The madrasah kept its original look thanks to enthusiast craftsmen who often took the restoration on themselves. In the eighteenth century it even served for a time as a caravanserai.

The northern part now holds a memorial museum to Sadriddin Ayni, one of the major Central Asian writers of the twentieth century, who lived and worked here. His personal belongings and some of his manuscripts are on display.