Kukeldash Madrasah, Bukhara

Kukeldash is a title rather than a name: it means “foster brother”, a person raised alongside a ruler by the same nurse, and it implied great trust. Kulbaba Kukeldash was a vizier and military commander of Abdullah Khan II, the most powerful of the Shaybanid rulers, who unified much of Central Asia in the second half of the 16th century and filled Bukhara with new buildings, bazaars, caravanserais and bridges. Kulbaba built this madrasah as a monumental contribution to the capital, and also a madrasah in Tashkent that bears the same name.

The madrasah is a massive rectangular building, roughly 80 by 60 metres, with two storeys of cells (hujra) facing both the courtyard and, unusually, the outside streets through balconies, a feature that lightens its great bulk. In the middle of each side of the courtyard is a large open hall (aivan), and at the corners are domed lecture rooms and a mosque.

The main portal faces the square. Its arch, framed by tile mosaic in blue, white and yellow, contains stalactite vaulting; above the doors runs an inscription. The carved wooden doors are worth a close look: their panels are covered with delicate geometric and plant patterns, and the inscriptions include verses of poetry. Inside, look up at the vaults of the corner rooms, built using intersecting arches, a technique Bukharan builders mastered in the 16th century.

The madrasah stood at the heart of a busy quarter of bazaars and baths. When Nadir Divan-Begi created the pool of Lyabi-Hauz in 1620, the Kukeldash became the northern side of the new square, facing the pool across a terrace.

Like many madrasahs in Bukhara, the Kukeldash was a centre of learning for over 350 years, housing students who studied Islamic law, theology, Arabic grammar, logic, astronomy and poetry, sometimes for decades. In the 19th century the poet and thinker Ahmad Donish, a critic of the emirate, studied here, and the madrasah was associated with reformist ideas in the early 20th century.

In the Soviet period it lost its religious function and was used for various purposes, then restored. Over the years it has housed a museum, exhibitions and craft workshops; its cells may be used by artisans and shops. What is open can change from season to season.

Location: north side of Lyabi-Hauz.

Tickets: entry to the courtyard is usually free or very cheap; exhibitions inside may have a small fee.

Time needed: 15–30 minutes.

Tips: come in the morning for the light on the portal across the square, or in the evening when the facade is illuminated. Photograph the full width of the building from the south side of the pool, ideally from the steps by the water. The street on the north side, behind the madrasah, gives a good idea of how the outer balconies looked over the bazaar.

The Kukeldash belongs to the most productive period in Bukhara’s architectural history. In the second half of the 16th century the Shaybanid court, enriched by trade and conquest, built madrasahs, the covered bazaars of the trading domes, caravanserais, baths, cisterns and bridges across the khanate. Officials were expected to contribute monuments of their own. Many of the buildings that give the old city its character today, from the paired madrasahs to the market halls, date from these decades, and the Kukeldash, with its sheer size, is the boldest statement of that ambition.

Across the pool stand the Nadir Divan-Begi madrasah with its simurgh portal and the khanaka. A few minutes to the west are the ancient Magoki-Attori mosque and the first of the trading domes, from which the old bazaar street leads on to Poi Kalyan.