Sherdor Madrasa
Abdul-Jabbar; commissioned by Yalangtush Bahadur · Samarkand, Uzbekistan · 1636
Sherdor Madrasa faces Ulugh Beg Madrasa across the Registan and deliberately echoes its overall scale while using a distinctly seventeenth-century decorative program. The entrance façade is famous for large mosaic felines pursuing deer beneath human-faced suns, imagery that makes the building unusual within Islamic monumental architecture. A courtyard is surrounded by student cells and teaching spaces beneath domed corner volumes. Constructed from 1619 to 1636 under Yalangtush Bahadur, Sherdor helped transform the Registan from a Timurid educational precinct into the monumental ensemble seen today.