Kosh Madrasah: Modari Khan Madrasah and Abdullah Khan Madrasah
Kosh is a traditional style of architecture for Central Asia, when two buildings of the ensemble are on the same axis, their facades are a mirror image of each other, as if forming two parallel lines. It is in this style that two madrassas are built, located in the west of Bukhara. “Paired madrasas": Modari Khan and Abdullah Khan, were built in the XVI century by order of the ruler of Bukhara from the Sheibanid dynasty, Abdullah Khan. Khan is known for uniting the Sheibanid governors of Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and Balkh into a single state, which was not possible for any of his predecessors. And later he also annexed Fergana, Shakhrisabz, Karshi and Hisar.
A famous urban planner, Abdullah Khan built a madrasah in honor of his mother in 1566 and named it Modari Khan, which literally translates as “mother of Khan".
Modari Khan Madrasah, a typical, poorly decorated building, in the style of economic rationalism, characteristic of the architecture of medieval Central Asia. The madrasah is brightly decorated only in its facade and in the courtyard, the rest of the walls of the madrasah are built of burnt brick without decoration. The facade of the madrasah is decorated with a peshtak (portal or front arch) in the form of a vertical rectangle with a pointed arch, the height of which exceeds the height of the madrasah itself. The madrasah is two-storied, there are 3 hujras (rooms for students) on each side of the entrance, there are 12 rooms in total. On the sides of the facade of the madrasah there are guldasta towers decorated with glazed bricks. Above the main entrance, the decor is represented by majolica, tiles, ornaments in geometric style. Majolica is poetic, in the lines of which an attentive visitor can see the year 974, this is the year of construction of the madrasah according to the Hijra.
Inside, the courtyard of the madrasah is square in shape, with two floors of khujras and aivans. Each hujra has its own door, elaborately decorated with wood carvings. Also in each cell, in the window opening there is a ganch lattice – panjara (patterned window lattice in Central Asia, which allowed to ventilate the room and provide access to sunlight). The interior is decorated with brick multicolored mosaic in the form of flower buds. In addition, the madrasah has a miyansaray (lobby), a darskhana (study room) and a mosque. Opposite the entrance to the madrasah, each of the corner rooms has its own spherical dome.
At the time of construction of the madrasah, the courtyard was first built strictly square, but the facade of the building is located slightly obliquely in relation to the building itself, since at that time the madrasah was being built in that part of the quarter that was densely populated and built up with houses. Therefore, on the general plan, the madrasah Modari Khan has a kind of trapezoidal shape.
Modari Khan madrasah is inferior in size to the second of the Kosh madrasah, Abdullah Khan Madrasah. This higher educational institution in Central Asia was built in 1588 and is the third largest madrasah in Bukhara after Kukeldash Madrasah and Miri Arab Madrasah.
Abdullah Khan Madrasah, one of the most outstanding works of architecture in Central Asia, which includes a mosque, darskhanas, a courtyard with aivans on four sides and hujras for madrasah students. Its facade is also decorated with a peshtak, two guldasta towers are located at the corners of the facade. In the center of the madrasah there is a large lecture hall, which is crowned by a dome with unusual patterns.
The mosque's decor is represented by an ornament of colored glazed bricks and majolica.
The madrasahs were reconstructed in 1997-1998. Today, the Kosh madrasahs of Bukhara are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.