Ulugh Beg Madrasa
Timurid court architects under Ulugh Beg · Samarkand, Uzbekistan · 1420
Ulugh Beg Madrasa forms the western side of Samarkand’s Registan and is the earliest of the square’s three monumental madrasas. A high tiled pishtaq frames the entrance, while minarets mark the corners and a rectangular courtyard organizes student cells, teaching rooms and a mosque. Built between 1417 and 1420 for the astronomer-ruler Ulugh Beg, the complex combines education, royal patronage and urban spectacle. Its intricate glazed-tile geometry and disciplined courtyard planning made it a major model for Timurid institutional architecture and established the architectural scale later matched by the Registan’s seventeenth-century buildings.