Bukhara

The revival was fragile. Ilkhanid troops plundered the oasis again in 1316, and when Ibn Battuta passed through in 1333 he found most of its mosques, madrasas and bazaars in ruins. Under Timur and his heirs Bukhara stood in the shadow of Samarkand, though Ulugh Beg gave it a new madrasa in 1417. Its great age came with the Shaybanid Uzbeks, who made it the capital of their khanate. Abdullah Khan II, a poet himself, gathered scholars and chroniclers at his court in the later 16th century, and most of the city's mosques, madrasas, caravanserais and domed bazaars were raised under his dynasty and the one that followed. Decline set in during the 18th century, and in 1740 the city fell to Nader Shah of Iran. The Manghit amirs who took power in 1756 slowly restored it, and by the early 19th century its rebuilt madrasas again drew students from across the Islamic world.