G. A. Pankratyev

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Uzbekistan

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Timur built this celebrated monument as the resting place of his grandson and heir-presumptive Muhammad Sultan, who died in battle in 1403 at the age of 29. In 1405 Timur himself was interred here, and later so too were his sons Miranshah and Shah Rukh and grandson, Pir Muhammad. Timur's spiritual advisor, Sayyid Barakah, also lies within. Ulugh Beg, who had established the tomb as the Timurid dynastic mausoleum and commissioned additions, was the last of the family to be placed within the crypt. The mausoleum was constructed on the southern side of a walled square courtyard already defined on two sides by a madrasa and khanaqah, no longer extant. Minarets marked each corner of the courtyard, two of which remain in part. The plan of the mausoleum forms a modified octagon on the exterior: a projecting entrance portal extends the northern side of the octagon, decreasing in length the two flanking sides. A bulbous ribbed dome on a tight high drum presents a monumental profile visible across the city. The interior comprises a square chamber, a bay on each wall, a stairway in the southeast corner that leads to the cruciform crypt, an octagonal zone of transition and an unusually steep hemispheric dome. Vertical flanges linked with timber are concealed between the two shells of the dome, supported by the inner dome and providing structure for the outer dome; an invisible 'column' built on top of the center point of the inner dome terminates in angled timber prongs that also support the outer dome. In 1424 Ulugh Beg added a corridor known as his 'gallery', entered through the eastern bay of the mausoleum. Four vaulted bays form the corridor, leading to a small vestibule accessed from the courtyard. In the seventeenth century construction of an iwan on the western side of the mausoleum commenced, but remained unfinished. The exceptional interior decorative scheme employs luxurious materials and a wealth of techniques. Onyx hexagons form a dado, capped by a shallow cornice of marble muqarnas. Above this, a gold inscription band painted onto jasper encircles the mausoleum. Constituting one of the earliest examples of this technique, papier mache was employed extensively; the interior dome, the zone of transition and the muqarnas vaults of the four bays were all decorated with painted molded paper. Other areas were plastered and painted, or covered with a revetment of various materials. The exterior decoration employs extensive hazarbaf brickwork. The dome is tiled in two tones of blue. Bands of tile inscriptions encircle the drum; a monumental kufic inscription of white and black tiles repeats "God is eternal". Sources: Blair, S., and J. M. Bloom. The Art and Architecture of Islam, 41. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994. Brandenburg, D. Samarkand: Studien zur Islamischen Baukunst in Uzbekistan (Zentralasien), 102-41. Berlin: Bruno Hessling Verlag, 1972. Golombek, L., and D. Wilber, eds. The Timurid Architecture of Iran and Turan, 260-63. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. Michell, G. Architecture of the Islamic World, 262. London: Thames and Hudson, 1995. "Guri Amir Mausoleum". World Monuments Fund Panographies. <a href="http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/uz/samarkand/guriAmirMausoleum_out.html" target="_blank">http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/uz/samarkand/guriAmirMausoleum_out.html</a>. [Accessed February 2, 2006, inaccessible October 18, 2013]

Gur-i Amir

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Maqbara-i Qusam ibn Abbas

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The madrasa and khanaqah that Ulugh Beg, Timur's grandson and Governor of Samarkand, built facing each other across the Registan Square, were part of a large urban project incorporating several mosques, caravanserais and a bazaar. Of this project only the monumental madrasa survives; on the site of the khanaqah now stands the seventeenth century Shir Dar Madrasa. Ulugh Beg, manifestly interested in learning, commissioned two other madrasas during his reign, the Ulugh Beg Madrasa of Bukhara, and the madrasa in Ghujdivan. The madrasa in Samarkand is the largest and most architecturally significant of the three, and was also significant as an institution of learning during the Timurid period, receiving great scholars, both religious and secular. The madrasa operated until the late seventeenth century, after which it provided grain storage for more than a century. Teaching functions were restored in the early twentieth century. A two-story envelope lines a rectangular site, marked by minarets on all four corners and a massive pishtaq facing the square. The pishtaq rises to twice the height of the building, and stretches across the middle two thirds of the façade. The pishtaq iwan leads to another, smaller in scale, which in turn accesses a third that faces the square interior courtyard. A double story gallery lines the courtyard, leading to fifty student rooms. Iwans mark the center of each façade; the western iwan accesses a long, narrow mosque in the rear wall of the madrasa. Cruciform, domed chambers occupy the four corners of the plan, flanking the mosque hall to the west, and the monumental iwan to the east. A variegated decorative scheme, executed in hazarbaf brickwork, haft rangi tiles and mosaic faience, covers every exterior surface. Marble is used to form dados and moldings. Sources: Blair, S., and J. M. Bloom. The Art and Architecture of Islam, 45, 204. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994. Brandenburg, D. Samarkand: Studien zur Islamischen Baukunst in Uzbekistan (Zentralasien), 162-168. Berlin: Bruno Hessling Verlag, 1972. Golombek, L., and D. Wilber, eds. The Timurid Architecture of Iran and Turan, 263-265. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. Michell, G. Architecture of the Islamic World, 261. London: Thames and Hudson, 1995.

Madrasah-i Ulugh Beg (Samarkand)

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The Tilla Kari madrasa was commissioned a decade after the adjacent Shir Dar madrasa (1619-1636) by the same patron, Shaybanid feudal general, Alchin Yalantush Bahadur between 1646-60. Once part of the complex built by Timur's wife, Tuman-Aka in the fourteenth century, the site had housed the Mirzoi caravan sarai. Built originally as a theological seminary, this madrasa with its large prayer hall soon became Samarkand's congregational mosque with the collapse of the Bibi Khanum Mosque (b. 1399) and the dismantling of Alikeh Kukeltash Mosque (1439-40). The Tilla Kari madrasa was conceived as the last, largest and most embellished structure of the famed Registan Square. It's name means ''gold-covered', referring to the lavish gilt decoration of its mosque's domed chamber. Yalantush defined the northern edge of the Registan Square with the Tilla Kari's 120 meter-long façade, relieving the square's oppressive symmetry with the off-axis placement of its preponderant dome. The composition is strengthened with the use of domed corner minarets on the main elevation that harmonize with the square's character and scale. Exterior elevations were richly decorated with polychromatic tiles with geometric patterns. Four, recessed alcove bays flank the entrance portal, and mark a significant change from earlier unbroken elevations. The Tilla Kari also deviates from the ensemble's dominant madrasa typology of with internal court iwans and rear elevation minarets. It has a larger built-open volume ratio, with a small square courtyard. The Tilla Kari madrasa makes reference to a madrasa typology seen in Bukhara in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with its deeply recessed five-sided portal niche and small cylindrical corner towers crowned by cupolas. The madrasa consists of student rooms with preceding vestibules surrounding three-sides of a square courtyard, with the domed mosque occupying the fourth. At the center of each façade is an iwan with a tall pishtaq; the iwan to the west gives access to the mosque. The mosque has a central chamber below the great dome, and is connected to domed side galleries by archways. The dome rises in four stages. A high rectangular plinth forms the primary prayer hall and rises above the madrasa walls. Next, two terraced octagonal tiers rise to support a high cylindrical drum. The dome's monochrome blue color contrasts with the drum's polychromatic decoration with calligraphic bands. The interior space is flat-roofed, though a domed effect is achieved by an intricately crafted tromp l'oeil, composed of blind arches supporting three tiers of muqarna rings. The central chamber is richly gilt in relief ornamentation (kundal) and embellished with glazed mosaic faience inlay (kashi after their production center in Kashan) and incised stucco. Shades of blue and gold dominate the interior. The marble mihrab's intricate multi-colored and gilt motifs are magnificent specimens of the Mawara'u'n-nahr region's famed workmanship. The madrasa has been the focus of several rebuilding initiatives in the 1920s, 1930s and 1950s by Russian archaeologists. The originally incomplete dome was built while corner minarets and portals were entirely rebuilt. The interior was restored in 1970. Despite these efforts, the structure's plinth is still threatened by seepage from the high water table. This, along with extreme seasonal temperature fluctuations has caused large surfaces of decorative paintings and tile facings to peel off. The city's World Heritage status has ensured global surveillance and concern, but insufficient financial assistance for required restoration and upkeep expenses. Sources: Blair, Shiela, and Jonathan Bloom. The Art &amp; Architecture of Islam 1250-1800, 205. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. Borodina, Iraida. Central Asia: Gems of 9th-19th Century Architecture, 80, 94. Moscow: Planeta Publishers, 1987. Bulatova, Vera A., and Galina V. Shishkina. Samarkand: A Museum in the Open, 143-168. Tashkent: Izd-vo Lit-ry Iskusstva Im. Gafura Galiama, 1986. Herdeg, Klaus. Formal Structure in Islamic Architecture of Iran &amp; Turkistan, 54-6. New York: Rizzoli, 1990. UNESCO. "Samarkand - Crossroads of Cultures." Accessed October 23, 2013. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/603

Tilla Kari Madrasa

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IMG40074

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IMG40075

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Only four massive fragments and a minaret survive of this enormous mosque commissioned by Timur after a victorious campaign in Hindustan. Located near the Iron Gate, the mosque faced a madrasa, no longer extant, that would later abut the mausoleum constructed for Saray Mulk Khanum, now in a ruinous state. A covered bazaar connected the massive mosque to Registan Square. The four fragments mark the four central points of the courtyard mosque: on the east-west axis, the monumental entrance portal with minarets, and the immense domed sanctuary with an iwan flanked by minarets; on the north-south axis, two smaller iwans and domed chambers that punctuated the long sides of the courtyard. A reconstruction has been approximated from the fragments and excavations. The mosque occupied a space 109 by 167 meters, and consisted of an arcade, or riwaq, linking the iwans, four bays deep increasing to nine bays on the western, qibla side. The façade of the interior courtyard included three tiers of riwaq flanking the north and south iwans, and may have stepped down to two tiers elsewhere. Minarets marked each corner of the exterior envelope; the northwest minaret still stands. The colossal entrance portal protruded from the exterior wall, two minarets projecting out even further from the exterior corners of the pishtaq. Cylindrical shafts sitting on decagonal socles provide the earliest surviving example of minarets flanking a portal that rise from the ground rather than emerging from the top of the iwan. The iwan itself is 19 meters high. Across the courtyard, the sanctuary iwan is framed by a 30m high pishtaq flanked by minarets, protruding from the façade. The domed sanctuary is square in plan, with arched bays in each wall. The north and south bays lead to the riwaq, the west bay holds the mihrab. The north and south domed chambers are similar, on a smaller scale, the pishtaqs, however, were flush with the courtyard façade. The presence of domed chambers behind the lateral iwans represents an innovation to the traditional four iwan plan. The three domes are all sphericonical on the interior, resting on octagonal zones of transition. These inner domes are enclosed by exterior cylindrical drums, above which the exterior domes rise with a tall ellipsoidal profile. The inner dome supports vertical flanges that provide structure for the outer dome. The exterior is clad with blue glazed tiles. Remains of the decoration attest to a varied and imaginative exterior decorative treatment, incorporating hazarbaf brickwork, mosaic faience, haft rangi tiles, and carved stone. The interior surfaces retain traces of painted plaster and gilded papier mache. Sources: Blair, Shiela, and Jonathan Bloom. The Art &amp; Architecture of Islam 1250-1800, 39-40. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. Brandenburg, D. Samarkand: Studien zur Islamischen Baukunst in Uzbekistan (Zentralasien), 84-101. Berlin: Bruno Hessling Verlag, 1972. Golombek, L., and D. Wilber, eds. The Timurid Architecture of Iran and Turan, 255-260. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. Michell, G. Architecture of the Islamic World, 261. London: Thames and Hudson, 1995. "Bibi Khanum Mosque". World Monuments Fund Panographies. <a href="http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/uz/samarkand/bibiKhanymMosque.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/uz/samarkand/bibiKhanymMosque.html</a>. [Accessed February 2, 2006; inaccessible October 22, 2013]

Masjid-i Bibi Khanum

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IMG40077

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IMG40078

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The Amirzadeh Mausoleum is located within the Shah-i Zindah funerary complex; mausolea built between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries that form a string of spectacular tilework down the southern slope of the Afrasiyab hill, north of Samarkand. An unknown amir built the so-called 'Amirzadeh' abutting the southern façade of the earlier Shad-i Mulk Aqa mausoleum. The simple square chamber supports a single shell dome with brick ribs. An elaborately decorated pishtaq on a socle faces the Shah-i Zindah corridor. The decorative scheme makes extensive use of underglaze painted tile with areas of relief, and also carved glazed terracotta, incised imitation brick mosaic, and haft-rangi tiles. An inscription on the façade provides the date 1386. The southern exterior façade is articulated with two arched niches within rectangular frames. Each of the interior walls is articulated with three blind arches. A sixteen-sided drum resting on an octagon forms the interior zone of transition. The mausoleum contains eight graves. Sources: Brandenburg, Dietrich. Samarkand: Studien zur Islamischen Baukunst in Uzbekistan (Zentralasien), 53-55. Berlin: Bruno Hessling Verlag, 1972. Golombek, Lisa, and Donald Wilber. The Timurid Architecture of Iran and Turan, 246. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.

Maqbarah-i Amirzadah

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G. A. Pankratyev

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