Kukeldash Madrasah (1570)

Kukeldash is the largest madrasah in Tashkent and one of the largest sixteenth-century madrasahs left in Central Asia. It stands in the historic heart of the city by Registan square, where the Kesh gates — one of the three city gates — stood in the ninth and tenth centuries.

It was built around 1570 under the Shaybanids for a vizier close to the Tashkent sultans Barak Khan and Dervish Khan. The vizier bore the nickname kukeldash, milk-brother of the khan, and it stayed with the building.

The madrasah is of fired brick on the usual plan: a large inner courtyard ringed with cells, a tall portal and guldasta corner turrets. Fragments of majolica and glazed brick survive on the portal, and the windows keep their panjara sun screens, in whose patterns the names of Allah and the Prophet Muhammad can be picked out.

Four and a half centuries have put the building through a great deal. In the eighteenth century it served as a caravanserai and later as a fortress; it fell into decay more than once, burned, suffered earthquakes and was rebuilt. Its present appearance differs noticeably from the original, though the scale and general plan survive.

The madrasah stands beside the Juma mosque and a short walk from Chorsu bazaar — the three make a convenient single circuit.