are 22 of the former and 17 of the latter. My notes
say “ 4 large medresses and many small.” The
medresse of Allah-Kuli was built by the present Khan’s
father, about 40 years ago. It is o f 2 stories, and has
100 students, they said. That of Kutlug Murad Inag
has about 100 students. On the square, before the
Khan’s winter palace, is the Medresse Madrahim, built
by the present Khan, with from 60 to 70 students only.
Not far distant is the most important medresse in
Khiva— that of Muhammad Emin (contracted to
Madamin) Khan, which they said was 30 years old.
Taken in all, this was about the most complete we had
seen, and gave us a fair idea of what many of the
medresses in Central Asia must have looked like before
they began to fall into ruin. And that is not saying
very much ; for, to a European eye, they have a dull,
unfinished, unfaced look about them that is disappointing.
Their photographs flatter them. Several of the
Khivan mosques are ornamented with blue and white
tiles, interesting, because locally manufactured, but they
did not advantageously compare for beauty with those
we had seen at Samarkand. This medresse, with 130
cells, has a large quadrangular court, with a well, and
is surrounded by cells fitted with hearths, where each
student does his cooking— when he has anything, that
is, to cook. In one of them I saw a samovar, china
teapots, and felts, but for the most part everything
looked poverty-stricken. More interesting than this
medresse, however, I thought the immense tower without
base or capital, which, owing to the death of the
builder, Vambery says, but to the lack o f funds, as
the people told me, remains incomplete, like the Calton
at Edinburgh— memorials of men who “ began to build
and were not able to finish.” The Khivan tower was
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