intended for a minaret* at least twice as high as
at present, but even now it is the most prominent
architectural object in the town, by reason of its prettily-
built texts from the Koran and . 10 zones of light and
dark blue, green, and brown bricks. I had a great
business to measure with my tape its circumference,
and found it to be 146 feet, and I also estimated its
height to be about the same, and its diameter at the top
about 15 feet. This tower and medresse are built of
particularly good burnt bricks, which the natives said
cost 5d. each, meaning thereby, I presume, those
coloured.
Having referred to so many Central Asian medresses,
I must not omit to say something about the kind of
life the students lead in them.*
The course of instruction is not limited as to time.
Some of the students stay 30 and 40 years, affirming
that if a bird could fly for 30,000 years in a straight
line, the distance it traversed would scarcely give an
idea of the depth of Muhammadan learning. The
prose of that Oriental calculation is that some of the
students like so well their cell, in which somehow or
other they can generally get a piece of bread— from the
foundation, by begging, or a little work— that they do
not care to leave. + O f sciences based on facts, of the
* The composition of a college consists of the direction, the teachers,
and the students. The mutawali look after the property of the college.
The teachers are called mudar ¿ses, meaning readers or teachers, and
the students shagirds, or disciples. The last may be of any age from
15 upwards. No special forms, and no standard of knowledge, are
necessary for admission.
f Students áre grouped, though not sharply, in three courses. In
the lower course they are taught grammar and rhetoric ; in the middle,
dialectics and metaphysics ; and in the upper, jurisprudence, which also
comprises the adoration of God. The student is free to choose, and
the majority take jurisprudence, few going through the complete curriculum
of study. The method of instruction is to commit to memory,