Madrasah "Nadir Divan-begi" (1622)

The ensemble was assembled by the vizier Nadir Divan-begi, uncle and chief officer of Emir Imam Quli Khan, in the early 1620s. He first put up the khanaka — a lodge for wandering Sufis, with cells around the perimeter and a hall for their gatherings — then raised a building on the other side of the future pool, intended as a caravanserai.

The well-known story attaches to that second building. At the opening, the emir looked it over and called it a madrasah — and a ruler's word is not taken back. The caravanserai had to be hastily converted into a school: hujra cells, a darskhana and a mosque were added. It has lived as a madrasah ever since, though the courtyard is not laid out quite the way a school's would be.

What people come for is the portal. Two Simurgh birds are set into it, deer in their talons, flying towards a sun with a human face. Images of living creatures are not usual in Islamic decoration, and such a scene on a madrasah façade is rare — usually explained by the pre-Islamic tradition that never quite died out in Bukhara. The mosaic is vivid and reads best in the light of sunset.

The khanaka opposite is plainer: a severe portal, a domed hall, cells along the sides. Together with the pool and the Kukeldash madrasah the two buildings make up the Lyabi-Hauz square that draws people to Bukhara towards evening.