The Chor Minor Madrasah

The Chor Minor Madrasah, which means “Four Minarets” in Persian, was built in the XIX century, during the reign of the fourth emir of Bukhara from the Mangyt dynasty, Haidar. The building is a one-story Central Asian madrasah, which was built at the expense of the Turkmen imam-khatib of the Kalyan Friday Mosque, Khalif Niyezkuli. 

According to one of the legends, Khalif Niyezkuli visited the Indian Taj Mahal, and being impressed by the beauty of the building, he decided to build something majestic in his homeland. Having gathered the best architects before the construction of the madrasah, he set two mandatory conditions for them: the madrasah should be located on the Great Silk Road so that merchants could stay there for the night and rest, the second – the madrasah should embody the four cardinal directions. So, at the entrance to the madrasah (darvazakhana), it was decided to build four minarets that symbolize all sides of the world, as well as their equality, that is, the message is that people all over the world are equal and live under the same sky. The sky symbolizes the dome located between the minarets.

According to another legend, the four minarets symbolize the four main religions of the world, which is confirmed by the ornament on the minarets, where you can see Buddhist prayer wheels and Christian crosses. And the dome that unites them is a symbol of heaven and God.

For a long time, the madrasah was a higher educational institution, the Sufi center of Bukhara and was famous for its rich library. The madrasah functioned until the Soviet Union came to power, after which the hujras (rooms for students) began to be used as housing, and in the 1950s part of the madrasah was dismantled for construction materials. 

The architecture of Chor Minor differs from the traditional architecture of that time. In addition to the darvazakhana with four domes, the madrasah had an irregular courtyard surrounded by 59 hujras of different sizes, a mosque functioned in the western corner of the madrasah, and in the southern corner there were extensive stables for Turkmen karabairs. In addition, the madrasah had its own huge garden, part of which has been preserved to this day. 

To date, only a darvazakhona with four minarets, several hujras, a small garden and a water reservoir have been preserved from the entire Chor Minor ensemble. 

The minarets are decorated with blue tiles, their domes are sky-blue, however, the pattern of each minaret is unique and does not repeat on others. There is an opinion that darvazakhana was used only as a Sufi monastery, and the minarets could not serve their intended purpose, since the muezzin could not call the faithful to prayer from there, due to the fact that there was no special platform for this. 

On the ground floor there is a large lobby, on the second floor there is a library, which is crowned by a dome decorated with religious inscriptions and a mukarnas (stalactites). One of the towers has a staircase leading to the second floor, and the other three towers are used as utility rooms.

The architectural monument was repeatedly restored in 1968, 1980-1990. In 1997, with the support of UNESCO, the fallen southeastern minaret was restored. The Chor Minor Madrasah is under state protection and is included in the National List of Objects of Material Cultural Heritage of Uzbekistan. The madrasah is also on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.