Kalyan Mosque

During Soviet times Kalyan Mosque (Maedjid-i ka-lyan) was literally raised from ruins. It is a Jamie mosque that is equal in size to Bibi-khanum Mosque in Samar­kand. Although they are of the same type of building, they are absolutely different pieces of architecture. Monumental pylons serve as a support for the multi-domed roofing of the galleries encircling the courtyard of Kalyan Mosque. The longitudinal axis of the cour­tyard ends up with a maksura, a portal and cupola build­ing with a cruciform hall above which towers a massive blue cupola on a mosaic drum.

As afore-said, at the turn of the 16th century the en­trance to Kalyan Mosque was rebuilt. The forms of the wonderful pillars and facing possess the distinguishing features of the new style of the Bukhara school of ar­chitecture. The restoration was dated on an inscription under the arch of the portal. At the end of a verse from the Koran there is the date of 902 hijra (1514-1515 A.D.) is inscribed. The wealth needed for this work came from the spoils Ubaidulla-khan took during his campaign against Ghujdawan in 1513. In 1541 a marble board was fixed at the main entr­ance with the carved text of the order of Khan abd al-Aziz about releasing the inhabitants of- Bukhara from payment of some of the taxes. Possibly, that is the time the grand mosaic mihrab in the main building of the mosque dates back to. It was built on the level of the floor that existed at that time - about one metre higher than the original building that had been erected in the 15th century. When the restored floors were opened, a panel of blue hexahedral slabs was discovered, that was framed with mosaic borders and a pattern of intertwin­ing Convolvuli. This was characteristic of 15th century monuments. The name of master Bayazid Purani is in­scribed on a mosaic band of the mihrab, while callig-rapher Mir-sheikh-al-Purani put his name under the said decree of Abd al-Aziz-khan. If assuming that this is the name of one and the same master, then the mihrab was built in 1541.

The construction of Mir-i Arab Medresseh is as­cribed to Sheikh Abdullah Yamani of Yemen, the spiritual mentor of early Sheibanids. In the construction of the medresseh he invested the wealth of Abdullah-khan (1512-1539) who received part of the income de­rived from selling 3,000 Persian prisoners who were Shiites and thus proclaimed faithless. Both "clients" were buried in the domed hall in the north, that was at­tached to the group of buildings at the entrance to the medresseh.

Mir-i Arab Medresseh is one of the finest monu­ments in Bukhara. It comprises the architecture of de­corative vaults, "poeticized geometry" in architecture and applied art. The magnificent interiors of the darskhans and burial-vaults are arranged with intersect­ing arches that carry a cupola of lesser weight and diame­ter in contrast to the subdome square. To reduce the square to the circular base of the cupola, additional ribs of alabastar were placed so as to prop the arms of the main arches. The gaps were filled with herringbone brickwork, forming shield-shape pentatives. The frame of intersecting arches formed a grid pattern. The corners between the main arches were attached with pieces of a bent vault and were decorated with ganch stalactites. The planes of semi-vaults above the niches are covered with carved stelliform girikhs. For the first time decora­tive vaults appeared in the entrance-hall of Mir-i Arab Medresseh: girikhs with blue majolic strips and frames in the apertures of the terracotta background, repeated later in Abdullah-khan Medresseh. However, the most wonderful things are the pillars of the iwans in the cour­tyard, where mosaic medallions are framed with lacy ganch stalactites. Here the perfection of skill is displayed in grand style.,/p>

In this monument, that has undergone calamitous de­struction in our days, restoration work concerned the upper part of the portal, the entire north wing of the main fagade. The structures of the cupola and arcades of the courtyard were reinforced. Storks, who fly here from Egypt every year, make their nests on the cupolas. The last of the monuments of Po-i Kalyan ensemble is Amir Alim-khan, that is sited next to Mir-i Arab. It was erected at the turn of the 19th century in the form of three courtyards in violation of all canonic schemes: a public yard and those for dwelling and practical pur­poses. Since 1924 this monument is used as a public lib­rary. Its location in the centre of the city is quite approp­riate and rightful for "Grand Bukhara" was always a centre of learning and possessed huge book deposito­ries.