Madrasah "Muhammad Rahim-khan" (19th century)

The Muhammad Rahim Khan madrasah is among the largest and best known in Khiva. It was built in 1876 in front of the Kunya-Ark fortress, on the orders of a khan popularly regarded as an enlightened ruler and a patron of scholars and poets.

The entrance leads from the street into a courtyard, walled blank on the outside and lined inside with single-storey cells. Beyond, in the inner court, stands the main two-storey building with a large portal on its central front. Guldasta turrets rise at the corners, capped with domes of green mosaic. The façade is faced largely in blue-and-white majolica, which also covers the tympana and columns. Above the ceremonial entrance the iwan's ceiling and the vaults of the loggias are laid in patterned brickwork.

Because the khan supported learning, the madrasah held not only classrooms but a large and well-stocked library, along with winter and summer mosques. Seventy cells surrounded the four-iwan inner court, and they have a distinctive feature: besides the living room, each has a small room for household use.