Content of Bukhara History

From the history of the city
Fortifications
The Ark citadel and Registan
Western Section of the modern city
The city and the epoch
Trade cross-roads
Kosh-Medresseh. A Dialogue of the epoch
Subterranean and other mosques
In the eastern part of the city
Suburban Ensembles
In the Bukhara Oasis

In the Bukhara Oasis

The minaret in Babkent is one of the most refined works of Uzbek architecture. The date of the beginning of its construction (1196) is inscribed in the Kufic script in the lower decorative belt, circling the trunk of the minaret. The inscription also mentions the name of Burkhan-ad-Din Ayud-al-Aziz II, who probably ordered the construction. In the upper decorative belt it is written in the Divani script that the "minaret was completed in the month of the year of 595", i.e. in 1198-99.

As it has been mentioned, the minaret served for summoning people prayers. With time, the size of these structures surpassed the practical need. Their breathtaking height and luxury of the architectural decor were designed solely to glorify powerful masters of the earth. However, they have survived as monuments to the craftsmanship of architects. Such is the Babkent minaret with its huge trunk soaring upwards (almost 39 meters high, and 6.2 meters in the bottom diameter), topped with a multi-arched skylight with magnificent stalactite cornices at the bottom and the crown. You can reach to rotund only by a winding brick staircase inside the trunk.

The surface of the minaret is embellished by ten decorative belts of relief ceramics and carved terra-cotta with inscriptions and geometric patterns, interspaced with a facing of win bricks, vertical "bows" and figured brick insets, different in each layer and thus relieving the monotony and creating diversity within a single motive. The Babkent minaret is different from the Kalyan minaret by its elegance and slender proportions. It is a kind of "female" version of the latter.

Along the road to Samarkand, in Ghidjivan, a district administrative center, there also remnants of architectural monuments: the Ulughbeg Medresseh and Abd-al-Khalyk Ghidjivani mazar, dating back to the 15th-16th centuries. This settlement was the native place of the founder o the dervishes´ Order of Khodjagons, a Sufi sheikh, who played a progressive role in his lifetime and was buried there in 1179-80. In 1433, to the west of Abd-al-Khalyk´s grave, was built the latest o the three Ulughbeg Medressehs, of which only the front part has survived to this day. The inscription incorporated in the majolica frieze running around the pylons and the portal wall says as follows: "It is a sacred place, a cloister equal to the gardens of paradise". It mentions further the name of Ulughbeg and the date of construction - 836 year of hejira, i.e. 1433. The lay-out of the building measured by V.A. Shishkin in 1933, really resembles a medresseh. On both sides of the entranceway there are public rooms, and the square yard is flanked by two colonnades leading into cells. The public rooms are executed in the shape of three-spanned halls, characteristic of the late 14th -the early 15th centuries. The khalimkhana in the Khodja Akhmad Yassavi mausoleum in Turkestan, three mosques in the Shakh-Zinda necropolis and the Ulughbeg observatory are executed in the same manner. But the cloister in Ghidjuvan was most probably a khana-gah of a dervishes´ order, and not a medresseh (a religious higher educational establishment), for it had ritual halls (a mosque, jama-atkhana) and a hostel.

In 1541 a brick fence-"khazira" - was built around Abd-al-Khalyk´s grave. In the south and the west a picturesque grave-yard was enclosed by colonnades with carved wooden columns. And in the center, along the axis of the Medresseh, a burial vault-"dakhma" - was built. It´s one of the largest monuments of this kind in Uzbekistan. Only the dakhma and the fromt part of the building of the 15th century have survived, with an adjoining colonnaded mosque built later, and a minaret, a miniature replica of the Kalyan minaret in Bukhara, but without the merits of the latter.

The Khakimi-Mullo-Mir khanagah in Rometan stands far from busy tourist routes, nevertheless, it deserves attention. It is a beautiful monument built in the 90ies of the 16th century in memory of Sheikh-ul-Islam Amir Husein Mullo Mir. His name and the date of his death - 1587 - are inscraibed on the tomb-stone in front of the main facade. It is also a memorial ensemble combining a burial place and a ritual building.

The khanagah is dominated by an extraordinarily broad, with entire width of the main facade, and massive "peshtak", with a surprisingly well-preserved gallery-"revak", higher than the dome over the central hall. The domination of peshtak goes back to the times of Tamerlaine, but in this particular case it serves a purely practical purpose: as a result of this trick, a small building (20 x 26 meters) is perceived as majestic and monumental.

The special structure of the building shows through its forms: the sides are decorated by large portal niches leading into the central hall, and two-tiered colonnades leading into cells for pilgrims and permanent residents.

It is a typical examine of the Bukhara school of architecture: the effective image is created by exclusively architectural means of arranging special volumes and plastic forms, without the superimposed decor. The outside walls are faced with a layer of polished brick with pointed stucco joints. The only decoration on the walls is the majolica latticework - "panjara" - on the windows. The most interesting thing here is the interior of the ritual hall, covered by a sphero-conical dome standing on a sixteen-sided skylight. Structures below the dome are enlivened by netted vaults and stalactites.

Right on the side of a road in the Malik Steppe, one can see a portal of the 12th century, leading into the "Rabat Malik" - "king´s rabat". The surviving decor-carved stucco, figured ornamental brickwork and unglazed carved ceramics - give one only a vague idea of the lost beauty. Rabat was built in the 12th century, next to a settlement that stood near an ancient caravan road between Samarkand and Bukhara. By that time rabats lost their function as fortress of the "defenders of religion", and were actually used as caravan-serais - roadside hotels. From the remnants of the inscription on the portal it is clear that the building was erected by a certain "suktan of the world", probably, a ruler from the Karakhanid dynasty. Old drawings and photographs show that powerful walls looking goffered due to semicircular towers, extended on both sides of the portal, and minarets crowned by arched skylights stood at the corners. A specialist in natural science A.Lenam who came to see the monument in 1841, has left a valuable historical document - a description on the destroyed part of the large building, occupying an area of 84 x 86 meters:"... apparently, one can soon see on entering the portal two narrow parallel vaulted galleries, looking like stables. Then follows rather a spacious front yard, from which a narrow passage leads into the main premises".

During archeological excavations in the 1970ies, a corridor was unearthed, leading into the inner quarters of the complex, and on its axis - a huge dome-topped hall, a rotunda with pillars supporting a massive ceiling.

The hall was surrounded by vaukted galleries opening into oblong courtyards.

The inhabitants of the settlement and the rabat took water from the Malik sardoba, a gigantic brick tank buried in the ground, and covered with an archaic terraced dome. The reservoir was filled with water from the Zerafshan river. It came along a subterranean canal - "kiaryz". One could reach water by walking down a ramp - "pandus".

There are other splendid monuments of medieval architecture along the road from Bukhara to Samarkand. One of them is the Kasymsheikh complex in Kermin, an original version of a memorial ensemble.

The ensemble was built around the grave of a sheikh who played a prominent role in Bukhara´s political life in the second half of the 14th century. At first, the burial vault - dakhma - and the building of ziyaretkhana were surrounded with a fence - khazira. The local ziyaretkhana was built in the style characteristic of "namazgokh" mosques: a three-spanned gallery facing the dakhma, with a suit of vaulted halls deep inside.

In the 80ies of the 16th century a monumental khana-gah was added to the rear of ziyaretkhana. It is an outstanding example of Bukhara architecture. On the 19th -early 20th century two burial yards were built to the south and the west of the khana-gah, both surrounded with cells and other premises. The western burial yard was an imitation of earlier burial grounds: it had both a dakhma and a mosque with a colonnade.

The dominating feature in the ensemble is the Kasym-sheikh khana-gah, a building with many chambers and a cross-shaped hall spanned by four arches supporting a small but unusually high dome, resting on a pillar-like skylight. This creates an unusual and unforgettable silhouette. The facades of the central building (25 x 25 meters, with the hall of 9 x 9 meters) are pierced by deep portal niches, and in the corners between them there are two tiers of beautifully decorated cells. The ceiling of the hall is superb, with interesting relief arches and starry stalactites - iroki. Decorative domes crown the niches in the hall and the corner cells.