Day.2

          POI-KALYAN ENSEMBLE.  

Today was our 2nd practice day and it was my and Sevara's turn to be guide

Firstly, we wanted to describe MINARET KALYAN:

Minaret Kalyan the great minaret is the symbol of sacred Bukhara.From its top,the call for prayers had gathered the muslim population.THe supremacy of the minaret  meant predominance of Islam for all the people living in thr Bukhara  

What was the tower used for ?

1. Religious : traditionally every Friday a muzzin convoked all Muslims believers to pray at the Kalyan Mosque which located nearby 

2. Observational: after a while people realized that the tower was an excellent viewing platform from which it was very convenient to observe the situation in the city and notice an enemy in time 

3. Informative : the entire Bukharian people were becknoked from the tower to hear announcements of the decrees of the ruler and other important events 

4. Identifying: the tower served as a lighthouse for trade caravans 

5. Decorative: the minaret tower was considered the main decoration of the city perfectly fifted into the city interior and rightfully become a unique monument of Bukhara

The Kalyan Mosque Bukhara 

Kalyan mosque stands face-to-face with the Mir-i Arab Madrasa, forming the Po-i-Kalyan ensemble with the Kalyan minaret between them. It serves as the city's Friday (congregational) mosque and is the largest in central Asia apart from the Bibi Khanum mosque in Samarkand and the Friday Mosque of Herat, Afghanistan. Completed by the 1530s, it is the earliest of the major Shaibanid monuments of Bukhara and a symbol of the city's rising status in the 16th century.

Friday mosques have existed in Bukhara from the very beginning of the region's turn to Islam. In the year 709, scarcely a century after Muhammad's revelations, the city fell to the armies of Qutayba ibn Muslim (669-715/16), the Umayyad governor of Khorasan. The historian al-Narshakhi, writing in the 10th century, noted that Qutayba built a grand mosque inside the city's citadel in 712/13 on the site of a former temple. To attract the newly-converted Qutayba resorted to paying two dirhams to each attendee and allowed the prayers to be held in the native Sogdian language rather than Arabic.

Al-Narshakhi provides excellent records of subsequent events. By the year 770 attendance had grown so much that the contemporary governor, Khalid Barmaki, built a new mosque between the citadel and the city. The old mosque gradually deteriorated and was eventually turned into the city's tax bureau. The new mosque (or another replacement built after 793/94) was later enlarged by a third by Ismail Samani in the 10th century. Early in the reign of one of his successors, Nasr II (r. 914-943) the mosque collapsed on a Friday, killing a great number of people. Al-Narshakhi wrote that "In the entire city many people perished, so afterwards the city of Bukhara seemed empty" (Frye translation, p. 67). The mosque was quickly reconstructed over the course of the year, only to collapse again—this time without casualties. A replacement built five years later proved more durable, surviving until the year 1068 when it was destroyed by fire during an internecine battle for control of the city.

Al-Narshahki's text was edited and appended by subsequent authors through the 11th-13th centuries, providing further details. Following the mosque's destruction in 1068 it was quickly rebuilt. Several further iterations were built at various times over the next century, each progressively farther from the citadel, finally reaching the present site in 1121-22. More than likely the present mosque follows the same footprint as the 12th century structure which was constructed by Arslan Khan II (r. 1102-29), a Kara-Khanid ruler. That mosque survived only a few years until the minaret collapsed, destroying two-thirds of the mosque. A subsequent reconstruction stood until 1220 when the city was taken by Genghis Khan's armies. The Khan himself visited the site and was so awe-struck by its size that he incorrectly believed it was the ruling family's palace. He also marveled at the minaret that stood (and still stands) outside. While he ordered the minaret spared, his troops set fire to the mosque and left it a ruined hulk. For several subsequent centuries the ruins stood in the open air, a bitter reminder of the near death-blow the Khan had brought to the ancient city.

The ruins were finally cleared in the Timurud era, but it is not known how much of the mosque had been rebuilt before the Shaibanid dynasty took control of the city in the early 16th century. The energetic ruler Ubaydullah-khan, who was later to serve as the Shaibanid Khan (ruling in that capacity from 1534-39), spent his early years as governor of Bukhara; under his rule the facade of the mosque was completed in 1514 or 1515. Further ornament was added through the 1530s at the same time that the adjacent Mir-i Arab madrasa was established. The original minaret was retained, providing a crucial link to the city's pre-Mongol past.

Our third turn was to MIR ARAB MEDRESE

The Mir-i Arab Madrasa is one of three buildings comprising the Po-i-Kalyan ensemble in the heart of Bukhara, along with the 12th century Kalyan minaret and the 16th century Kalyan mosque. It was constructed by the Shaibanid ruler Ubaydullah-khan (r. 1534-39) who was the first of the Shaibanids to make Bukhara his primary capital. Its name, Mir-i Arab, literally means "Prince of the Arabs" and refers to Sheikh Abdullah Yamani of Yemen who rose to fame as head of Bukhara's Muslim community during the reign of Muhammad Shaybani, the founder of the short-lived Shaibanid dynasty. Sheikh Yamani served as the pir (spiritual adviser) of several Khans and was ultimately laid to rest within the madrasa that now bears his name.

Madrasas were in common use in Transoxiana by the 16th century and served as Islamic “colleges”. Most were rectangular with a monumental entrance gate (an iwan), a large central courtyard, and four inward-facing iwans—a set of design principles originating in Iran. The architects of the Mir-i-Arab would likely have been familiar with numerous contemporary examples in Central Asia such as the Ulugh Beg madrasa built in early 15th century Samarkand under the Timurids, as well as other examples which no longer survive. In keeping with Iranian and Central Asian precedent, the Mir-i-Arab is laid out along similar lines and measures 73 x 55 meters on the exterior with an inner courtyards spanning 37 x 33 meters. The two-story facade is almost completely covered in glazed mosaic faience tiles, a time-consuming and expensive decorative treatment that was first popularized under Timur’s rule. However, unlike the Ulugh Beg madrasa which features corner minarets, the corners of the Mir-i-Arab are squat, heavy, and battered, giving the monument a somewhat fortress-like mien.

The interior of the madrasa is honeycombed with dozens of small cells, called hujra, which were--and still are--used as student dormitories. Other rooms include lecture halls and a large domed room in the northwest corner housing the cenotaph of Sheikh Yamani and the graves of various devotees or family members. A mosque, also domed, occupies the same position on the south side. From the exterior, both domes are prominently visible as both are raised on high drums and decorated with dazzling turquoise tiles and muqarnas-style vaulting.

From an urban planning perspective the madrasa completes the Po-i-Kalan square which is bounded on the opposite side by the Kalyan mosque, itself among the largest in central Asia. The older Kalyan minaret stands between the two buildings and is the only surviving remnant of an 11th and 12th century Friday mosque destroyed in the 13th century by Genghis Khan. The construction of two monumental buildings facing one another was a common practice in central Asian cities and was known as kosh; this was practiced elsewhere in Bukhara as well such as the pairing of the Ulugh Beg madrasa and the Abd al-Aziz Khan madrasa facing it to the south.

Owing to some technical problems i can't share our photos with you sorry