Mirzo Ulugbek Madrasah

In the XIV century, the territory of Transoxiana came under the control of the Temurids. The grandson of Amir Timur, the son of Shahrukh, the great Mirzo Ulugbek ascended the throne in 1409. His real name is Muhammad Taragai, and he was named after the father of his great grandfather, Amir Temur, however, he became world-famous under the name Ulugbek, which translates as “The Great Bek". Ulugbek was not only a highly educated man and a prominent politician, but also a mathematician, astronomer, educator and poet. The creator of the most accurate astronomical tables, the author of a number of scientific works, among which one of the most famous is the “Gurgand Zij” – the catalog of the starry sky, where he first determined the length of the sidereal year and the inclination of the Earth. The second most famous work: “Ziji jadidi Gurgani”, the most accurate astronomical tables, a work that Ulugbek worked on for 30 years. Later, this particular book was translated into Latin and published in a number of foreign sources. 

In addition, Ulugbek was engaged in urban planning activities. He built a large number of madrasahs (educational institutions) since his desire was to make Transoxiana an intellectual center. Three madrasas of his buildings have survived to this day: in Bukhara, Samarkand and Gijduvan.

Mirzo Ulugbek Madrasah in Bukhara was built in 1417. A unique monument of Central Asian architecture, this madrasah became an example of architecture, according to which the buildings of Transoxiana were later built. This is the oldest of the three surviving madrasahs of Ulugbek and the oldest building of this scale in Bukhara since the Timurids. Two centuries later, Abdullah Khan decided to build another madrasah opposite Ulugbek madrasah and form a single Kosh ensemble with it (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).

The madrasah was opened in 1417, but Mirzo Ulugbek himself visited it two years later, in 1419, because of his busy schedule and mourning for his wife Oge-begim. Ulugbek, impressed by the scale of the madrasah, presented teachers and students with luxurious gifts.

Ulugbek madrasah was a higher educational institution where, in addition to theological sciences, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy were taught, as well as people were trained for public service.

The madrasah has been restored many times. Its first restoration was carried out on the initiative of Abdullah Khan II in 1585. At the same time, the madrasah building was lined with majolica. In 1586, the Juybar sheikh Khoja Saad repaired the facade of the madrasah and all the hujras (rooms for students), he added the decor with tiles with inscriptions and patterns. 

Later, the madrasah was restored in the XVII-XVIII centuries.

The entrance to the madrasah is decorated with a peshtak (a richly decorated portal niche, in the form of a vertical rectangle with a pointed arch, the height of which exceeds the height of the building itself). On the facade of the building there are two-tiered loggias and two wings flanked by guldasta towers. The portal is decorated with mosaic patterns of enamel and colored tiles. The patterns are dominated by astral motifs, in memory of the great astronomer. On the walls of the Peshtak arch, among the numerous sulus–style patterns, the name of the chief architect Ismail ibn Tahir Isfahani is printed on a mosaic medallion. There are elegant inscriptions in the calligraphic style of sulus on the gates of the madrasah.

From the entrance to the mosque to the rectangular courtyard there is not a classic exit typical of that time, but a corridor that divides the room into an inner mosque and a darskhana (study room). The courtyard is crowned with aivans on both sides, and there are 80 hujras in the building. There is an extensive library on the second floor of the madrasah. 

The monumental madrasah building combines strict grandeur and simplicity of decoration.

The madrasah is included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  To date, the Museum of the History of the restoration of monuments of Bukhara is located in the building of the Mirzo Ulugbek Madrasah.

Ulugbek's worldview and wisdom can be understood by the hadith that he liked to repeat, and which is displayed on the gates of the madrasah: “The pursuit of knowledge is the duty of every Muslim man and woman”