This photograph of the mosque at the Nadir Divan-Begi Madrasah in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) is from the archeological part of <em>Turkestan Album</em>. The six-volume photographic survey was produced in 1871-72 under the patronage of General Konstantin P. von Kaufman, the first governor-general (1867-82) of Turkestan, as the Russian Empire’s Central Asian territories were called. The album devotes special attention to Samarkand’s Islamic architectural heritage. Located next to the Khodzha Akhrar shrine, this <em>madrasah</em> (religious school) was completed in 1631 by Nadir Divan-Begi, vizier to the Bukhara ruler Imam-Quli Khan. The madrasah was planned as a rectangular courtyard enclosed by a one-story arcaded cloister for scholars and a mosque facing the main entrance, at the opposite end. This dim and poorly focused view shows the upper part of the wall within the niche formed by one of the cloister arches. Visible here is a portion of the lattice window above the door to the cloister cells (<em>khujras</em>). The window was originally framed by a polychrome ceramic border with floral motifs. Next to the window is an inscription in cursive Perso-Arabic script.
<br>Architectural decorations and ornaments; Inscriptions; Islamic architecture; Madrasahs; Photographic surveys
Bogaevskii, Nikolai V., 1843-1912
between 1868 and 1872 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1850-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1319,+1868-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1872-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
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<ul><li>Gallery: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.wdl.org/en/item/3790/">http://www.wdl.org/en/item/3790/</a></li></ul>