The diversity and complexity are such that it is difficult to decipher structure.
Portal, The Ark, fortress. Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
Islam Khoja Minaret, Khiva, Uzbekistan.
Islam Khoja Minaret overlooking a street in the old city, Itchan Kala. Khiva, Uzbekistan.
The golden age of the builders
After the Mongol invasion and its train of destruction, construction reappeared in Central Asia. The 14th century saw the construction of the Muhammad Bashshar Mausoleum, the Manas Gumbaz Mausoleum, and the Kubba of the Sufi dynasty, called the Turabek Khanum Mausoleum. The most important masterpieces of monumental architecture were erected during the second third of the 14th century and the first third of the 15th century under the reign of Timur (Tamerlane) who forcibly used the best builders of his immense empire, and under the reign of his grandson Ulugh Beg who erected majestic mosques and madrasahs, a great number of mausoleums, palaces, caravanserais, and covered markets, in Samarkand as well as in Bukhara.
They are famous for the harmony of their forms, the boldness of their architecture, and the richness of their ornaments. Today one can also admire the imposing ruins of the Ak Sarai Palace at Shahrisabz, entirely covered with polychrome alabaster mosaics, and the great mosque of Tamerlane at Samarkand.
This mosque, called Bibi-Khanym (one of Tamerlane’s wives who inspired many legends) was to outshine all the mosques of the Islamic world, according to the architect who planned it. Particular attention was attached to mausoleums. Some were majestic, such as Tamerlane’s tomb called Gur-e Amir at Samarkand, which is one of the gems of Islamic Art. Others are smaller and of gracious forms, such as the numerous mausoleums of the Shah-i-Zinda Necropolis. One of the most striking works by the architect of the Timurid is the Ulugh Beg Madrasah at Samarkand, whose façade is emphasised by a high portal and four minarets at the angles.
All the walls are covered in azure, turquoise, and gold mosaics. The edifices of the 14th and 15th century are dominated by polychrome decoration in glazed bricks and baked clay. The same process is used for the interior decorations and sometimes the polychrome paintings are enriched with gold. Ornamental sculpture on wood or stone also became more important during this epoch.
Dome of a mosque with Oriental decoration. Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Pahlavan Mahmud Mausoleum, 19th-20th century. Khiva, Uzbekistan.
Magoki-Attari Mosque, 12th-16th century. Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
City walls, Itchan Kala. Khiva, Uzbekistan.
Khoja-Akhmad Mausoleum, 14th century. Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Gur-e Amir Mausoleum, 15th century. Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
There were also new tendencies in the ornamentation; plant motifs predominate rather than geometrical ones. They were composed of coloured bricks on vast portions of walls or around the minaret towers. The new style also affected the ornamental inscriptions. Sentences with geometrical designs are inscribed on the outside surface of the edifices. Friezes and borders are also used with inscriptions in ligatural lettering (souls). These architectural ensembles are a remarkable accomplishment of this epoch.
Many of them are striking because of the grandiose character of their forms, the precise projection of architectural volumes such as the Registan at Samarkand, largely rebuilt in the 17th century. Others, such as Shah-i-Zinda are picturesque compositions with groups of little mausoleums and mosques erected in remembrance of a venerated person, along a narrow lane on a hillside in place of the old Aphrasiab. This ensemble, from the spectator’s point of view, is seen as a new combination of volumes sometimes unexpected. The picturesque impression is emphasised by the richness of the polychrome ornamentation of the surface.
The monumental architecture of Central Asia of the 16th and 17th centuries brought very few changes to the outside aspects of the edifices. But the interior architecture, on the contrary, improved with the elaboration of a new type of vault.
The interior decoration of the edifices in Bukhara is particularly rich. The cupolas seem separated from the walls by bay windows giving light or by stalactite corbelling that seems to float on a geometrical trellis-work complex that decorated the trompes.
The earth tiles that adorn the surface, even if they are not of the same quality and have repetitive decorative designs, continued to play an important role in the architectural decoration. But, as in the past, the artistic trades linked to architecture are of high quality.
The ceilings, doors, columns, panels and tombstones demonstrate high artistic form, particularly in the wood and stone sculptures. Still faithful in many points of the process of composition to the previous epochs, architects find new solutions for urban construction. Sometimes two monumental edifices were raised face to face such as the Kalyan Mosque and the Arab-Ata Madrasah, the Madori-khan and Abdullahkhan Madrasahs, the Ulugh Beg and Abdul Aziz Madrasahs at Bukhara.
Kusam-ibn-Abbas Mausoleum, 14th century. Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Shah-i-Zinda Ensemble, entrance detail. Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi Mausoleum, 12th century. Kunya Urgench, Turkmenistan.
Samanid Mausoleum, 9th-10th century. Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
Sometimes the space is closed by three different edifices as is the case for the Registan of Samarkand bordered on three of its sides by madrasahs or the Labi-Hauz Ensemble at Bukhara around a square with a basin in the middle. The memorial ensembles usually have an informal disposition, like Chor-Bakr at Bukhara and Shayhantaur at Tashkent.
The construction of monumental edifices was resumed in Central Asia at the end of the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th century after a hundred years of cultural stagnation. Khiva, the old capital of the khanate of Khiva that appeared and was developed mainly in the 9th and 10th centuries, is astonishing in this respect.
The wall that encloses the centre of the town (Itchan-Kala) has kept its former appearance, with its majestic madrasahs, its mosques and their minarets, its palaces and covered markets (bazaars) with houses in-between with blind façades huddled together, with small courtyards and iwans with slender columns.
Following the narrow alleys, new combinations of architectural volumes can be discovered with their wall surfaces, the vertical lines of the minarets topped with cupolas.
In the decoration of the most sumptuous edifices of Khiva, small tiles of blue and white majolica enhanced with black and white vegetal patterns, largely prevailed. Incidentally in the architectural forms, the palace decorations and the edifices dedicated to the cult, numerous motifs were borrowed from popular architecture (courtyards and iwans with columns) and from the applied arts (columns and carved doors, painted walls and ceilings, abstract and floral ornaments prevailed).
Architechtural details, Sher-Dor Madrasah. Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
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