List of Madrasahs in Khiva

Madrasahs
Hojashberdibiya madrasah (1688, 1834) or Hujrun
Sherghazi Khan Madrasah (1718 to 1720)
Muhammad Amin Inaq Madrasah (1785)
Qutlugh Murad Inaq Madrasah (1804-1812)
Allah Kuli Madrasah (1834 to 1835)
Arab Muhammad Khan (Arabkhan) Madrasah (1616, 1838)
Hoja Maram Madrasah (1839)
Musa Tura Madrasah (1841)
Muhammad Amin Khan Madrasah (1851-1855)
Abdullah Khan Madrasah (1855)
Amir Tura Madrasah (1870)
Muhammad Rahimkhan II Madrasah (1871)
Matniyz Divan-begi Madrasah (1871)
Yaqubbay Hoja Madrasah (1873)
Dost Alyam Madrasah (1882)
Mazari Sharif Madrasah (1882)
Atajanbay Madrasah (1884)
Kazy Kalian Madrasah (1905)
Matpanabay Madrasah (1905)
Matrasulbay Mirzabashi Madrasah (1905)
Yussuf Yassaulbashi Madrasah (1906)
Abdurasulbay Madrasah (1906)
Islam Hoja Madrasah (1908)
Talib Makhsum Madrasah (1910)
Sayyud Mukhammadkhan Madrasah (1864)
Tort Shavvaz Madrasah (1885)
Bikajan Bika Madrasah (1894)
Mamat Maram (Mukhammad Makhram) Madrasah and Mosque (1903)
Palvan Kari Madrasah (1905)
Khorezmshah Madrasah (1915)
Ibrahim Hoja Madrasah (1888)

Madrasahs

A madrasah is a higher educational institution in Islam. Students lived in those higher boarding schools during the whole term of studies, which could last up to ten years. Middle Asia's madrasahs are first mentioned in historical documents of the 10th century. Most of the remaining old buildings in Khiva were madrasahs. Khiva has nearly the largest number of madrasahs in the Middle Asia. There were 65 madrasahs in Khiva at the beginning of the 20th century; 54 of them were within city boundaries, 11 more were located outside. Of those 65 madrasahs, ten were built: by Khans and the rest by Khans' descendants, bays and religious leaders. Madrasahs and mosques were erected with the money of the most prosperous city dwellers to perpetuate the memory of these people and to ease their way to heaven because such deeds were counting as a bonus at the moment when one had to face God and give an account of his deeds on Earth. In addition to constructing the building itself, the benefactor had to hire a manager for the madrasah and allocate some fertile lands or properly from his manor with earnings from them to be given to the madrasah. The property and land allocated were registered in an official legal document called vaquf. With this income the manager had to run the madrasah, pay scholarships to students, salaries to teachers and give donations to needy ones. Khiva madrasahs are different in size, but they always represent the same type of volume-space composition no matter what their size is: it is a campus with public halls (darskhana - lecture rooms and a mosque on both sides from the central U-shaped passage leading to the central yard) that are concentrated close to the entrance part, and hostels placed around the hall in the form of sections on the ground floor and as a gallery on the first floor. As a rule, a section consists of a room and entrance niche - ayvana; in Khans´ larger buildings, however, sections sometimes consist of two rooms. Two or three students occupied each room. There were heating and cooking stoves. The largest madrasah in Khiva was built by Muhammad Amin Khan in 1851. A two-storey building has 125 hujras (rooms). There were 260 students studying at the madrasah simultaneously, and it had a vaquf for 35,325 tanaps (1 tanap =334.4 m2 ) of fertile lands. The smallest madrasah erected in 1888 by Bayzhan, the cream-maker, for his descendants had only four hujras. There were also big-size complexes in Khiva, which included mosque, madrasah, minaret, kharikhana and a small religious school. Madrasahs provided both secular and religious education. Singing or pleasure games were prohibited in madrasahs. The study term was not limited, and education was finished after completing three grades (courses): Adno, the primary grade; Afsat, the secondary grade, and A´llo, the higher grade. At the first grade, Arabic grammar (sarf and naqhv), logic, Shariat rules, religious customs, Arabic and Persian literaTurae were taught. During the other two grades, logic, law (fiqh) and other disciplines were taught. Administrative structure of a madrasah comprised an imam (khaqim); mutaval-li (in charge of economic life); muezzin (who called for prayers); teachers, cleaners, barbers and meshkobchi (water carrier). 15-year-old youths from different classes could be admitted for studies at a madrasah with respect to their abilities and literacy. For example, well-known Turkmen poet Makhtumkuli and Kara-Kalpak poet Hajiniyaz" studied at Sherghazi Khan madrasah. Classes were conducted only on Mondays, Tuesdays, Saturadays and Sundays and continued the whole year with no breaks. When leaving the madrasah, students had to pass exams before a special commission chosen by the Khan. Sometimes the Khan himself was in the commission, or, more frequently, it included the heir to the throne, Kazy Kalyan (chief judge), Kazy Orda (municipal judge) and several other high officials. Those who passed the exams successfully were granted various degrees, such as mufti, alyam, akhun or mukarrir. Madrasah graduates contributed a lot to the development of Khiva and entire Khorezm.