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| The Ulugbek Madrassa ( 1417 –20) on the left is the original,
finished in 1420 under Ulugbek ( who is said to have taught mathematics
here). Beneath the little corner domes where
lecture halls, and at the rear was a large mosque. About 100 students
lived in two storeys of dormitory cells, some of
which are still visible.
This ancient seminary is appropriately decorated with mosaic of stars over its enormous pishtak or portico. Every other inch of its exterior is covered in mosaic too, using vertually every motif permitted in Islam art: floral ones sculpted into faience tiles around the niches and doorways, spirals up the pillars on the edges of the portico, bands of Kufic calligraphy round the inside of the iwans (the high vaulted arches in the middle of each wing) , and geometric patterns known as girikhs - some of them amazingly reminiscent of computer graphics on the minarets and the facade. The minarets were never used by muezzins; they were said instead to hold up the sky. The northen one is famous for its inward lean The other building are imitations by the Shaybanid Emir Yalangtush. The entrance portal of Shir – Dor (Tiger) Madrassa, opposite Ulugbek’s and finished in 1636, is decorated with roaring tigers, flouting Islamic prohibitions against the depiction of live animals. In between is the Tillya-Kari (Decorated with Gold) Madrassa, with a broad mosque courtyard inside. The hexagonal building in the square’s north-east corner is a 19th century chorsu or market arcade. On some summer evenings, there’s Russian, Uzbek, and English language son et lumiere here. It’s a 10 minute walk from the hotel Samarkand or Afrosiab. |
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E-mail: marakand@online.ru
