Abdulazizkhan Madrasah

My second practice day

May 2, 2023

Day: Tuesday

Historical place: Abdulazizkhan Madrasah

Location: Bukhara region

 

Hello everyone 🤗🤗🤗 👋👋👋

How are you?

Now I share my travelling impressions about one Madrasah of old city.The 2nd of May was the 2nd day of our practice. As usual, we went to Abdulaziz khan Madrasah for knowing informations about it's history and taking photos of the awesome historical monument with my groupmates and practice teacher Aziza Abdullaevna. Our journey was enjoyable and interesting. We knew a lot of informations about it's history.

Built in 1652, a few centuries later than Ulugh-Beg Madrasah (built in 1417), Abdulaziz-Khan Madrasah, which stands across from it, is an integral part of Bukhara’s most outstanding architectural ensemble. Abdulaziz-Khan Madrasah marks the remarkable progress of medieval Central Asian architecture; it shows us how amazingly high the skills of Central Asian architects, builders and artists were at the time.

Abdulaziz-Khan Madrasah is often compared with Ulugh-Beg Madrasah, since they are a duet of completely different structures of different times. Ulugh-Beg Madrasah, built during the reign of the Timurid dynasty, is moderate in size and decoration, while its counterpart is grand and ornate.

The decorative patterns of the latter are also different. They are not precisely geometrical or astral, as it was common; they are bright and rich wavy plant designs. There are even images of a Chinese dragon and a mythical bird called Simorgh inside them, which is a sign of Bukhara’s close relations with Silk Road kingdoms at the time. The walls and chambers of the madrasah show almost all the decoration techniques used in those times: relief majolica, marble carving, tile and brick mosaic, wall painting and even gilding.

However, they did not complete the decoration of the madrasah. The right part of the yard and the left side of the façade remained unadorned because a political coup took place in the country while Abdulaziz-Khan was away, and no master who could complete the work stayed there after it.

Our second practice day was very good and informative for us🙂