Islam Khodja Complex

The Islam Khodja complex is among Ichan-Kala's chief treasures and its calling card, though by local standards it is recent — 1908–1910 — and its forms look back to buildings of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Its fame lies in the contrast: by the architect's design, Khiva's tallest minaret stands beside its smallest madrasah. The minaret looks the more imposing for it and is visible from far off — at the start of the last century this helped travellers find their way to the city, and it works the same way now.

The tower was built to the old fourteenth-century canon: a broad base narrowing markedly towards the top. It was commissioned and paid for by Islam Khodja, chief vizier of the Khanate of Khiva under Muhammad Rahim Khan II. Under his son Isfandiyar Khan the minaret was to outdo Bukhara's Kalyan — and did. It is 56.6 metres against Bukhara's forty-six, with a base 9.5 metres across, yet the tower reads as slender and light. Khiva's best masters worked on it: Khudaibergen Khodja, Bolta Vaizov, Ishmuhamed Khudaiberdiev. The lightness comes from the facing — bright bands of blue, white and turquoise majolica running horizontally around the shaft; on a sunny day they compete with the Khivan sky.

A viewing platform sits at forty-five metres, and from it the whole city with its sixty-odd monuments is laid out — the best panorama in Khiva. The top of the minaret carries ganch openwork grilles, a cornice and a small dome sheltering the muezzin's chamber.

The entrance to the small asymmetrical madrasah is right at the foot of the minaret. Inside are a large domed hall, forty-two single-storey cells around a small courtyard, and a mosque in the south-eastern part. The mosque is covered by a massive low dome, and the mihrab is finished in majolica and ganch patterning. The madrasah entrance is in majolica too, matching the minaret in colour and style; a second storey is built above it.

Islam Khodja himself held progressive views, travelled to St Petersburg and worked for firm relations with the Russian Empire. Under him Khiva got its first secular school, a cotton-cleaning plant, a hospital, a pharmacy, a post office and a telegraph. Not everyone shared this: the khan was urged to remove his vizier, on the argument that his policy would rebound on the ruler. One evening, returning to his country residence, Islam Khodja was attacked and stabbed to death. The khan may have known of the plot and looked away.

The vizier's name has stayed in memory for this complex rather than for his reforms.