EnsemblesUnder 1 km away
Amir Alim Khan Madrasa
A madrasa of 1914–1915 beside Mir-i-Arab on the Poi Kalyan square in Bukhara, the last founded by a Bukharan emir; now a library.
Mir-i-Arab Madrasa
The 16th-century madrasa facing the Kalyan Mosque on Bukhara's Poi Kalyan square, still a working Islamic school today.
Ensembles16th centuryAbout 15 minutes to see
About the place
The madrasa forms one side of the Poi Kalyan ensemble, facing the Kalyan Mosque across the square at the foot of the great minaret. It is linked with the Shaybanid khan Ubaydullah and his spiritual teacher Sayyid Abdullah, known as Mir-i-Arab, who died in 1536 and is buried inside; scholars date the main work to the 1520s–1530s.
Closed in the 1920s, it reopened in 1946 and for most years until 1989 was the only working madrasa in the Soviet Union. It still trains students today, so the inner courtyard is not open to tourists, but the tiled façade is easy to see from the square.
Why go
- Faces the Kalyan Mosque on Poi Kalyan square
- Burial place of the Sufi sheikh Mir-i-Arab
- A madrasa that kept teaching through Soviet times
Sources (4)
Nearby
- Ensembles
BazaarsUnder 1 km awayUNESCO World Heritage
Toki Zargaron
The jewellers' dome, the largest and northernmost of the trading domes, a few steps from the Ulugbek and Abdulaziz Khan madrasas.
EnsemblesUnder 1 km awayUNESCO World Heritage
Po-i-Kalyan ensemble
The square at the centre of old Bukhara: the Kalyan Minaret of 1127, the large Kalyan Mosque and the working Mir-i-Arab madrasa facing it.
EnsemblesUnder 1 km away
Kalan Mosque
Bukhara's great Friday mosque beside the Kalan minaret, completed in 1514 on the site of earlier mosques, with a courtyard for about 12,000 people.