KHIVA: A CONSERVED HERITAGE WITHIN THE SANDS - Tourism in Central Asia: Cultural Potential and Challenges - page 109

to release the slaves once the construction was completed, was not content
with the building and asked for new work, he was lynched by the slaves
before the construction was over. The building is comprised of two-story
rooms on the entrance wing, and single-story rooms around the courtyard.
The reading room rests behind the big portal of the entrance wing. This
madrassah has been the center of Islamic science of the Khiva Khanate
and was named “House of Scholars” in local language. Today it is used as
an area for exhibitions of poetry (for example the famous Turkmen poet
Mahtum Kulu, who graduated from here) and medicine (Gombos, 1976;
Macleod and Mayhew, 2004).

MUHAMMAD RAKHIM KHAN MADRASSAH

This madrassah was built in 1871 by Muhammad Rakhim Bahadir Khan
(1864-1910), who wrote under the nickname Feruz and recognized the
domination of Khiva by Russians during his reign. It is known by the
blue tiled pishtak and facade, and the little domed towers placed at the
corners of the building. (Fig. 11) New functions have been assigned to the
madrassah; initially as Khiva Handcrafts Center in 1998, and nowadays
as a museum which reflects the last periods of Khiva with local clothes
and arms, flags, and photos of Feruz and Isfendiyar Khan (Macleod and
Mayhew, 2004).

FIGURE 11 Muhammad Rakhim Khan Madrassah (flickr.com, Photo by dalbera / CC-

BY 2.0).
Retrieved November 15, 2013 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/dalbera/5606468162/
sizes/m/in/photostream/