Culture and education in the Kokand Khanate

The maktabkhana was primary education, and according to the textbook the khanate had 350 such schools; boys’ schools were opened at mosques, madrasas or in a teacher’s home, and girls’ schools in the homes of otins. Children from 5 to 12 were admitted, study lasted 5–7 years, and there were no lessons on Fridays and holidays. Learning went from the Arabic alphabet to the “Haftiyak”, the Qur’an, the “Chor kitob” and Sufi Olloyor’s “Sabot ul-ojizin”; then Sa’di’s “Bo‘ston” and “Guliston”, Hafiz’s “Divan” and Navoi’s poems were studied, and arithmetic and calligraphy were also taught. Dilshod Otin was a poet and teacher who worked in Kokand and, by her own account, taught for 51 years and made 890 girls literate. Madrasas admitted students from 13–15, study lasted 15–20 years, and in 1841 there were 1000 mullahs studying in Kokand’s madrasas. The madrasa taught kalam, hadith, fiqh, Arabic grammar, logic, oratory and calligraphy, and also history, literature, geography and mathematics.