The Mongol conquests and their aftermath
Building activity throughout Central Asia was brought
to a halt for almost a century by the Mongol conquests, which led
to the destruction of towns and villages. A few buildings were nevertheless
erected: for example, the Bukharan protg of the Mongol Khans,
Mascd Yalavach, and his mother built two large madrasas
in Bukhara. Overall, however, it was not until the fourteenth century
that there was some recovery from the state of devastation, with
a resumption of building activity.
Khwarazm developed particularly at that period.
Its capital, Urgench, lay on one of the main trade routes, stretching
from the Volga to Transoxania and Khurasan. Building proceeded at
a vigorous rate under the rule of Kutlugh Timur (132133),
actively assisted by his wife Tra Beg Khnum, and thereafter
under the local ruling Sufi dynasty. The towns development
was only ended by Timurs predatory campaigns.
The architecture of the fourteenth century is characterized
by new construction techniques and architectural approaches. Baked
brick remained the material employed in monumental architecture
but new techniques were evolved for the construction of vaults and
domes: for example, the system of triple-shelled domes. Architectural
decoration changed completely with the use of multicoloured glazed
tiles, enamelled bricks and slabs and glazed, carved terracotta.
Multicoloured majolica appears from the 1360s, sometimes with gold
paint and engobe applied over the glaze and inlaid carved
mosaics, made from a (silicate) slurry, in the most striking colours
(dark blue, sky-blue, yellow, green and also black and white)
(Fig. 2).
The structure of civil edifices remained as before
but our only knowledge of the subject is obtained from the written
sources (for example, a reference to a vast palace in Karshi). Only
a few examples of religious and memorial architecture have survived.
Single-chamber domed mausoleums are now rare. Most
have two or more chambers: the gr-khna (the actual tomb)
and the ziyrat-khna (oratory). Thus two mausoleums standing
side by side in Bukhara, the Buyan Quli Khan mausoleum (1356) and
the slightly later mausoleum of Sayf al-Din Bkharzi, each have
two chambers and the former also has lateral corridors. Even more
elaborate is the design of the mausoleum of Muhammad Bashar (western
Tajikistan), which, in addition to the central ziyrat-khna,
has a further seven chambers containing tombs or else fulfilling
secondary functions. These and a number of other sepulchres are
decorated with multicoloured tiles.
The Friday mosques of Samarkand and Herat, which
had fallen into decay, were restored in the fourteenth
century (Fig. 3). In Urgench, Tra Beg Khnum rebuilt the Friday
mosque and, next to it, the 60 m-high minaret named after her husband,
Kutlugh Timur, which has survived to the present day. The khnaqh
of Shaykh Najm al-Din Kubr, the founder of the Sufi Kubrawi order,
was also built at that period. It has four rooms: the central chamber
contains the tomb of the shaykh and the others were clearly
used for dervish assemblies and rites. The main faade has a well-proportioned,
projecting portal whose vaulting is set in a decorative frame and
is surmounted by a stalactite cornice. Multicoloured majolica covered
with elaborate, interwoven plant and flower patterns and inscriptions
in the mannered dwn script decorate the facing of the
portal as well as the sagan (stepped tombstone) and stela
of the shaykh.
The architectural masterpiece at Kunya-Urgench,
referred to as the mausoleum of Tra Beg Khnum, is actually the
family mausoleum of the Sufi rulers (1360s). The elegant portal
leads to a small vestibule beyond which lies the 10-sided prism
of the ziyrat-khna, occupying the dominant position in
the overall design, and the small gr-khna. The system of
domes is worthy of note: an inner decorative dome and an inner structural
dome, both bowl-shaped, and an outer conical dome resting on a cylindrical
drum. Brick and carved inlaid mosaic are the principal elements
in the decorative scheme and are employed in particular profusion
on the inner dome, where a girih star pattern is developed
on the bowl.
One of the few buildings in Khurasan dating from
that time is the mausoleum of Shaykh Muhammad Luqmn at Sarakhs.
This is a structure of monumental proportions whose square mass
is crowned by a huge dome. The entrance is delineated by a portal,
and baked brick is the dominant element in the structure throughout.
It is similar in type to the mausoleum of Sultan
Sanjar in Merv (Fig. 4), which was built by an architect from Sarakhs.
The traditional forms of pre-Mongol architecture
were also used for buildings in parts of northern Turkistan where
a nomadic population was dominant. One example is the Gumbez Manas
(1334) in the valley of the Talas. Its cuboid volume is surmounted
by a faceted dome resting on a faceted drum. The principle faade
is elevated and adorned with unglazed terracotta tiles; the motifs
employed resemble ksh (tile) ornament.
TIMUR AND HIS SUCCESSORS
The unparalleled growth in architectural and engineering
construction continued during the period of Timurs rule but
was concentrated in Samarkand and his native town of Shahr-i Sabz.
Only individual buildings were constructed in Bukhara (Chashma-Ayyub)
and on the frontier of the nomadic world at Yasa (the mausoleum
of Ahmad Yasawi, see Fig. 5), whereas, like
the countries of the Near East which had been plundered during Timurs
campaigns, Khwarazm and Khurasan had not regained sufficient strength
during this period even to make good their losses. In his own capital
Timur commissioned grandiose building projects, designed to demonstrate
his power to contemporaries and descendants alike. Enormous resources
extracted from the plunder seized in the course of his campaigns
were invested in these projects, and the best architectural craftsmen
and a mass labour force brought from subjugated countries were forcibly
assigned to the task. Despite the context of conscription, the combined
skills of the craftsmen and the fresh opportunities for creative
fulfilment shaped a new style of architecture in which every element
was required to be the epitome of grandeur, magnificence and beauty.
The situation changed after the death in 1405 of
the Ruler of the World. Under his successor, Shh Rukh (140547),
the role of the major appanages became established; held by his
sons and nephews, each had its town capital, court and patron for
building projects. Thus in the Central Asian region, Khurasan with
its capital, Herat, and Transoxania with its capital, Samarkand,
were domains of this sort. In Samarkand, Ulugh Beg (prince in Transoxania
140947, ruler in Transoxania and Khurasan 14479) became
the initiator of architectural projects, a role which was performed
in Herat by his parents Shh Rukh and Gawhar Shd. Khwarazm did
not recover, however, and remained a backwater for centuries. Building
activity declined in Samarkand in the second half of the fifteenth
century and by the end of the century had practically ceased. Herat
at the same time experienced an unprecedented expansion in all areas
of culture under the rule of Sultn Husayn Bayqara (14691506).
This development is particularly evident in architecture.
TOWNS AND TOWN-PLANNING
During the reign of Timur and the Timurids, clear
principles were developed in the area of town-planning. When a town
was re-established it was given a proper geometric plan. That was
true of the building under Shh Rukh of the new town of Merv (the
site of cAbd Allh Khn Qalca) situated to
the south of the pre-Mongol Sultan-Qalca. The square
layout was bisected by the main street, which ran from one gate
to the other, and both of the resulting halves were subdivided by
streets leading off at right angles. There were hawzs (water
cisterns) and an underground town-sewage system. The town was surrounded
by a ditch and walls with regularly placed semicircular towers and
the gates were fortified. In the middle of the fifteenth century,
in response to the growth in population, the town was expanded to
the south-west by order of the Timurid Mirz Sanjar with the construction
of an adjoining new area, similarly fortified and rectangular in
plan.
Towns which had grown up at an earlier period continued
to expand around their old core but certain changes occurred in
their planning and development. In Samarkand, for example, the old
shahr-i darn, the shahr-i birn and part of the rabad
were grouped together in a hisr (inner city enclosed by
walls). Within the hisr, a qalca (citadel)
was set up in 1370 under Timur, containing the main government buildings,
the arsenal, the armourers workshops, two palaces and also
premises where members of the nobility were detained. In 1404, on
Timurs instructions, work began in the hisr to drive
a straight road from one gate to the other. By his death it had
reached the centre of the town, and work was then discontinued.
The hisr in Herat was also ringed by walls
in 1405, and in 1415 a start was made on the transformation of the
old citadel of Ikhtiyr al-Din: the fortifications were entirely
rebuilt and new buildings were erected inside
the walls (Fig. 6). Under Shh Rukh, the towns main
streets were straightened and the bazaars at their intersections
reorganized. The main, walled rectangle of the town was divided
into four parts with a regular internal plan in each part.
VAULTS AND DOMES
From Timurs day vigorous building activity
and the grandiose nature of their assignments presented architects
with problems demanding new engineering solutions. These are particularly
evident in the systems of vaults and domes. If the transition from
the square plan to the dome was initially effected by means of the
traditional octagon of arched pendentives, a system of shield-shaped
pendentives subsequently made its appearance. Then, in the second
third of the fifteenth century, a distinctive design of four intersecting,
strengthened arches was developed, which reduced the diameter of
the dome and at the same time expanded the total volume of the structure
by means of the deep niches inserted between them. This design is
combined with various types of shield-shaped pendentives and stalactite
moulding, providing an effective plastic transition to the sloping
bowl of the inner dome, An outer dome was usually raised above this
on a high cylindrical drum: its weight and thrust were distributed
by a system of internal ribs (Figs. 5 Bressand).
ARCHITECTURAL ORNAMENTATION
Decoration at this period included a variety of
facings made of glazed brick, majolica and carved, inlaid mosaic.
Interiors were covered in polychrome painting, which made lavish
use of gold; one particular variety known as kundal also
features relief ornament. In the first half of the fifteenth century,
dark-blue linear painting on a white background was used in imitation
of Chinese porcelain. Wood continued to play an important role in
the construction of everyday buildings; columns and ceilings were
made of wood, frequently carved or painted (for example, the carved
columns from Turkistan and Khiva). Aesthetic stone working was brought
from Azerbaijan. and India; marble, Jasper and onyx were used for
panels, carved decorative slabs and even columns. Ornamental motifs
were, as before, geometric, foliate and epigraphic; but they were
given a new look. Thus a new style of writing, thuluth, came
into fashion with its two- or three-tiered ligatures and harmoniously
proportioned vertical letters.
DEPICTION OF BUILDINGS
The form and layout of buildings underwent certain
changes, their typology becoming more elaborate. Most of the buildings
which have survived from this period, as from earlier times, are
connected with the Muslim religion or else are memorial structures.
Our knowledge of secular architecture is obtained from miniatures
in books which often depict dwelling-houses, palaces, monasteries
and bathhouses. The dwellings depicted in miniatures usually have
two storeys; the entrance has an arched aiwn or simply a
decoratively carved door; there are windows on both floors, covered
by panjaras (shaped grilles); on the second floor there is
a loggia or hanging balcony; the roof is flat and is used in summer
as an upper terrace. In many instances, the house is fronted by
a light, columned portico. The interior (in miniatures it is usually
the reception room, or mihmn-khna, which is shown) is decorated
with tile panels and wall paintings.
Many bathhouses were also built: ruins going back
to the fifteenth century are to be found in Samarkand, Balkh, Shahr-i
Sabz and Tashkent. All of these buildings had a central hall, domed
adjoining rooms for hot and cold water and other rooms for massage
and relaxation. There was, however, no standard plan: it varied
from one district to another and according to the resources invested.
The performance of dally ablutions was not the only function of
the bathhouse which, as everywhere in the Orient, was also a meeting
place and a place of rest. As can be seen from the miniatures, the
central chamber of the bathhouse was often adorned by painting.
A luxurious bathhouse of this type was erected in Samarkand by Ulugh
Beg, who enjoyed spending time there in the company of his friends.
Among the engineering structures of the fifteenth
century mention should be made of the sardbs (water reservoirs)
and yakhtangs (ice-houses), still preserved at Merv, Anau
and on old trading routes, and also the bridges (on the Hari Rud
and the Balkh-ab). A unique work of civil architecture was the observatory
of Ulugh Beg in Samarkand. This was the architectural embodiment
of a gigantic astronomical instrument: a circular, three-floored,
multi-arched building cleft by the enormous curve of the sextant.
MOSQUES
In the area of monumental architecture, as at earlier
periods, a special position was accorded to religious structures,
some masterpieces being preserved to the present day. Timur and,
later, the wife of Shh Rukh, Gawhar Shd, focused their attention
on the construction or radical reconstruction of the Friday mosques
in the large towns. In the year 1399, on returning from his Indian
campaign, Timur undertook the construction in Samarkand of a new
Friday mosque, for which purpose he earmarked his rich booty (including
elephants, which transported the building materials). Impressed
by the magnificent mosque which he had seen in Delhi, he decreed
that the mosque in Samarkand should be even grander and more sumptuously
decorated. In 1416-18 Gawhar Shd built the spacious Friday mosque
in Mashhad beside the local shrine of Imm al-Rid.
In 14334 the energetic royal builder undertook
the construction of the musall (open space for worship)
of the mosque in Herat. At roughly the same time, Amir Jall al-Din
Firz Shh completely reconstructed the Friday mosque in Herat which
had fallen into decay. The building was badly damaged in an earthquake
towards the end of that century but was restored in 14981500
on the initiative of and at the expense of cAlishir Nawc.
All these mosques were built on a grand scale and are remarkable
for their size, the harmony of their form and the magnificence of
their decoration. They are similar in design: a courtyard surrounded
by arched and domed arcades on brick columns or (as in Samarkand)
marble columns, a ceremonial entrance portal, vaulted aiwns
on the axes of the courtyard, a maqsra located by a monumental
dome and graceful, two- or three-stage minarets. None is a copy,
however. Each mosque is different, each majestic and beautiful in
its own way.
Friday mosques of more modest proportions were
also constructed or rebuilt on old foundations in other towns (Merv
and Ziyaratgah). The Friday mosque in Bukhara was also enlarged.
Each quarter had its own mosque but most were built of perishable
materials and have either completely disappeared or else been transformed
over the centuries. The Baghbanli mosque in Khiva, for example,
was reconstructed in the nineteenth century but it still has its
fifteenth-century carved columns. The mosque of Hawz-i Qarboz in
Herat (1441) is worthy of note: a small, delicate, triple-domed
building with a columned, summer aiwn, it has an inscription
bearing the name of Shh Rukh.
Commemorative mosques built beside the graves of
persons who had been held in high regard continued, as in earlier
times, to play an important role. Some had a vaulted portal which
seemed to shade the grave in front; others were separate structures
with an adjoining mausoleum, an arrangement which allowed for variations
in the overall plan and in the disposition of volume. Among the
most outstanding examples dating from the fifteenth century are
the mosque in Tayabad, and the mosques by the tombs of Shaykh Jaml
al-Din at Anau and the tomb of Ab Nasr Pars at Balkh.
MADRASAS
The construction of madrasas proceeded apace
throughout the fifteenth century. Starting in the year 1417, Ulugh
Beg founded three madrasas, at Bukhara, Samarkand and Gijduvan.
The one at Samarkand (Fig. 7) was not only a centre
for the training of theologians, imams and religious lawyers, but
also performed the function of a university, in which lectures were
delivered on mathematics, astronomy and philosophy. Between 1417
and 1439 three small madrasas Parizad, Balasar and
Dudar were erected beside the shrine of Imam al-Rid in Mashhad.
The madrasa of Gawhar Shd, which contains the tombs of Herati
Timurids, was built in the city of Herat; and the madrasa
of Sultan Husayn Nicmatbd was erected close by towards
the end of the century. In 1444 a small mosque of perfect architectural
form was also erected in the town of Khargird in Khurasan.
The design of the madrasa reached its zenith
in the fifteenth century. The dihliz (entrance portal and
vestibule) led to the courtyard; this was surrounded by, and separated
by an arcade from, the hujras, usually on two floors. There
were either two or four vaulted aiwns on the axis of the
courtyard, spacious dars-khnas at its corners, and a mosque.
The principal faade was imposing with its raised portal and, at
the corners, with turrets or graceful minarets, which had no practical
function and whose sole purpose was aesthetic. A variety of decoration
was employed on the outer and inner faades and, in the most important
madrasas, also in the dars-khnas.
KHANAQAHS
The Sufi orders played an important role in the
intellectual life of the Timurid period, which explains the construction
of khnaqhs (dervish convents), whose spacious, domed central
hall was used for meetings and religlous ceremonies and which had
smaller hujras at the corners. The khnaqh of Ulugh
Beg on the Registan, which has not survived, was of monumental proportions;
according to Bbur, its dome was one of the tallest in the world.
Among those fifteenth-century monuments which have survived are
the khnah near the mausoleum of Hakim al-Tirmidhi at Termez,
the Zarnigr-khna at Gazurgah and the khnaqhs at Arinan
and Ziyaratgah in Herat province.
ARCHITECTURAL ENSEMBLES
The types of buildings representative of late-fourteenth-
and fifteenth-century monumental architecture which have been described
above never stood in isolation but almost always formed part of
large ensembles. Architectural ensembles are one of the outstanding
achievements of urban development during this period. Sometimes
a plan was devised which incorporated pre-existing structures, but
often the different components were virtually contemporary. The
ensemble around the central square, or Registan, in Samarkand, for
example, was erected on the instructions of Ulugh Beg. The old Friday
mosque already stood on the site and a covered bazaar, the Tim Tmn
Aqa, which did not fit in with the architects plans, was demolished
and a similar structure built at another location. Starting in 1417,
monumental buildings were erected around the existing outline of
the square: the madrasa of Ulugh Beg and the khnaqh
opposite it; on the north side, the Mirzi caravanserai; and,
on the south side, the Friday mosque, completely restored by the
dignitary Alike Kkaltash, and the small Muqatta (carved)
mosque, in which the columns, ceilings and other features are covered
with delicate carving. Nearby lay a hawz. The harmonious
combination of these varied buildings provided a magnificent setting
for the square, which was used for military parades, government
ceremonies and popular festivities.
A different type of group was erected in Herat
in the fifteenth century. It included the madrasa and musall
of Gawhar Shd and the madrasa of Sultn Husayn Bayqara,
which seem to follow on from each other along the main thoroughfare
leading to the Malik Gate. Graceful two- and three-stage minarets,
portals on external walls and around courtyards, domes, wall surfaces
treated in a variety of fashions, all faced with polychrome tiles,
created the impression of a magnificent, unique single entity. Another,
more compact ensemble developed beside the tomb of Imam cAli
al-Rid in Mashhad, where there is a vast mosque, together with
three madrasas, dependencies and an outer courtyard.
Contemporaries have left enthusiastic accounts
of the Ikhlasiyya ensemble, which was founded in 14767 by
cAlishir Naw on the outskirts of Herat but which
has disappeared with the passage of time. In an enclosed area outside
the city there stood a group of fine buildings serving a philanthropic
purpose: the Qudsiyya mosque and the House of the Quran-reciters,
the Dr al-Huffz (later transformed into a mausoleum), the Ikhlasiyya
madrasa, the Khulasiyya khnaqh and the Gumbaz for
Friday prayers, the Safaiyya bathhouse and the Dr al-Shif
(House of Healing), as well as the Unsiyya group of residences and
dependencies. These structures were located on both sides of the
Injil canal in the verdant setting of a well-planned park.
A picturesque type of funerary complex developed
in the vicinity of the tombs of revered Muslims. The Shah-i Zinda,
in Samarkand, for example, began to form around the supposed grave
of Qutham b. cAbbs in the pre-Mongol period but most
of the building work was carried out between the 1370s and the middle
of the fifteenth century (Fig. 8). A path,
divided into three by two domed chr-tqs, runs down the
slope on which stands the old defensive wall of the early medieval
shahristn (the site of Afrasiab). Alongside the path, closely
spaced, are the mausoleums of female members of the house of the
Timurids and those of various dignitaries. Nearly all of them are
one-room portal-and-cupola structures; only two, the sultans
mothers and the mausoleum erected by Tmn Aqa, have two rooms.
Each is different in form and in its profuse
ornamentation (Fig. 9). The skill of the architects and the craftsmen
responsible for its architectural decoration, especially that of
the portals and the interiors, is amply demonstrated in the Shah-i
Zinda. From whatever angle it is viewed, the ensemble offers new
combinations of outline and perspective. A striking memorial ensemble
of a different type is situated in the Khwja Ahrr cemetery in
Samarkand. It consists of a commemorative mosque, a madrasa
and a nearby hawz; the cemetery where the influential shaykh
is buried lies not far off. The fifteenth-century Shaykh al-Thawri
and Zengi-Ata ensembles in Tashkent also have an open layout.