Mahmud Gawan Madrasa

The Mahmud Gawan Madrasa in the centre of Bidar was built in 1472 under the Bahmani Sultanate and is a protected national monument. It was paid for by Mahmud Gawan, a merchant from Gilan in Iran who reached the Bahmani court in 1453 and, admired for his learning and modesty, rose to be prime minister. Like the great colleges of West and Central Asia at the time, it gave students free board, lodging and teaching.

The three-storey building held a mosque, lecture halls, 36 classrooms, a laboratory, quarters for teachers and students, and a library of over 3,000 manuscripts. Subjects ranged from Arabic and Persian to theology, philosophy, astronomy and mathematics. A gunpowder blast in 1695 wrecked part of it, but the tall facade with its gateway and towers, and patches of blue tile and Quranic inscription, still survive.