MOHAMMED AMIN KHAN MADRASAH

Built in 1851, during the reign of Khan Mohammed Amin, it was one of the largest madrasas in Central Asia, with a square courtyard measuring 38 m on each side and a building 72 m long and 60 m wide. A building in the image of the khan, Khiva's most illustrious ruler: he conquered Merv and imposed his law on the bellicose Tekke before dying, beheaded during a battle on the Iranian border, leaving Khiva open to nomadic attacks over the following decades.

The impressive building required the destruction of part of the fortification walls. The 125 cells(khudjras), spread over two levels, housed 260 students until 1924. The spandrels of the high portal, as well as the two floors of cells on the main façade, are decorated with blue glazed ceramic motifs.

For Soviet historians, the construction of the madrasa was a perfect illustration of the class struggle of the Khans. In fact, the workers, who after two years of exhausting labor were not receiving any money, revolted: as most of them were peasants, they could no longer tend their fields, and famine loomed. The revolt was put down Khiv-style: the leader of the rebellion, Matiakoub, was wrapped in a damp animal skin and buried alive under the foundations of the minaret!

In the 1930s-1940s, the madrasa was used as a Russian prison. For the past fifteen years, it has been a luxury hotel(Hotel Khiva).