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

Trade cross-roads

Passing through Po-i Kalyan, the former trade highway leads us to an ancient crossing of the main highways of medieval Shahristan where the traditional four bazaars (Chakhar suk) met and joined in a domed structure that was named Chorsu after the crossway. Acoording to Khafizi Tanysh, a 16th century chronicler, in 1569-1570s the largest of all existed archades in Bukhara - Taq-I Zargaron, the cupola of jewelers, was built on the site of the ancient Chorsu Bukhari, that was a magnificent building in its way.

The task of managing the criss-cross traffic predetermined its centric composition and allowing its passage from four sides. The quadriangled abutments of a 44-metre rectangular building form an octahedral hall roofed with a cupola of 14 metres in diameter. It ia encircled with a multidomed gallery , niches that are connected with stalls (dukkans) adjoined to walls of the exterior. The cupola above the hall is raised on a low cylindrical drum with windows. It was based on multiserial shield- shaped pendentives in the form of a grid casing of 32 intersecting arches. The monumental structure is attractive and full of light and air; its harmony of forms gladdens the eye.

A busy trade by-street , cramped with caravan-serais and rows of stalls, led to the south from Taq-I Zargaron. These structures did not survive the time. The only one of them that exists today is the arcade Tim Abdullakhan, where silk fabric is offered for the sale. It faces the street and is closed from the other sides, though its inner structure has analogy with Taq-I Zargaron (an octahedral hall of 1,4 metres in diameter) that has access to a multidomed octahedral gallery from four passages. The sloping cupola of Tim seems to grow out of sand-hills (barkhans) of small domes and galleries, and dominates in the volume of the building. It has no semblance to magnificent Zargaron; it is simply an ordinary building for different affairs. The trading by-street to the south of Zargaron , that was demolished, is ony described in the architectural measurements carried out in 1924 by a team of post-graduates of the Moscow Institute of Architecture under the leadership of prominent Soviet Architect M.Ya.Ginzburg. There is a project to restore the building all along he open space as far as the neighbouring monumental structures permit. The street will follow its original route, passing through the arcades Taq-i Telpaq Furushon and Taq-i Zarrafon at that have stood there since the 16th century.

At Taq-i Telpaq Furushon it was possible to purchase luxurious headgear: skull-caps embroidered with goldthread and beads, fur-hats, and turbans skillfully rolled up. Five streets at different angles reaches the building. Architects solved this complex problem by making way for the street between six radially dispersing pylons carrying a low cylindrical cupola (of 14.5 metres in diameter) on a duodecennial skylight. The gallery with niches and store-room around the hall were erected on 12 axes.

In the shade of Taq-i sarrafon usurious and currency transactions were carried out through the mediation of money-changers. As to architecture sarrafon has no equal, though its foundation is commonplace - the same central hall with passages on four sides and premises beyond its moved angles (a mosque , stalls, an entrance-hall and bath).

The expressiveness of architecture is achieved by constructive treatment: intersecting arches are introduced in the body of the cupola, reducing the roofing of the hall to a small sky-light at the summit. Massive brick arches are shown up by a high relief inside and outside. The baths of sarrafon, an indispensable item of urban public centre, were cited next to the passage. Exceptional importance was attached to the medicinal and hygienic properties of baths. Even in his "Canon of Medical Science " Ibn Sina noted the merits of a massive structure, moderate temperature, bright light, pure air, a spacious, attractively painted dressing-room and pleasant water for good baths. Baths were always overcrowded, therefore "the rules of attending baths ", laid down in the 11th century oriental code of propriety "Kabus-nameh ", that if baths are deserted, it is the greatest fortune , for men of wisdom consider deserted baths to be greatest of fortunes."

The sarrafon bath comprise a semi-subterranean structure with a frame surface dressing-room and chaikhana. Recesses in the ground were made to preserve the heat: the building was heated with special underground channels. Its lay-out is the finest of Central Asian baths, its plan is notable for its plasticity : a whole cluster of pentagonal and hexagonal halls, connected with numerous comfortable niches in the centre. Taq-i Sarrafon leads to the embankment of Shahrud Canal (it was also called Shahrirud) and Rud-i Zar, a gold-bearing river. It is an ancient waterway that supplied Bukhara with water. Its river-bed has been cleaned, its brinks - reinforced and stone-faced. The embankment as well has become a well-organized place for the inhabitants´ recreation. However, in the 16th century it was different: Shahrud and the ponds were breeders of diseases of which the worst was rishta, described by Anthony Jenkinson as follows: - "A small river flows in the centre of the city, whose water is very unhealthy, as people, especially aliens, who drink it, are affected with worms that are elbow-long and deposit themselves in the foot between the nails and body tissue.They are extracted by surgeons with exceptional skill around the malleonus bone ... Nevertheless, it is forbidden to drink anything here, except water and mare´s milk. If a person is found to have violated this law, he is brutally whipped and beaten and led around uncovered markets. Particular functionaries are singled out for this purpose, who have the right to enter all homes and search for vodka, wine or a beverage made of honey and malt. If anything of this kind is found, the beverage is spoiled by the vessel being broken and the master of the house is severely punished... " .

The organization of public services and amenities of a medieval town or city may be assessed by several sources beginning with 11th century to the 1830s: - "The weather was very bad all the time; it was snowing and raining almost incessantly. Black fluid soil overspread all the streets and squares. Horses and carts literally floated in these lakes of mud. The pitiable passers-by moved along the street with difficulty, clinging to the walls, rushing into the stalls and open doors of houses as if they were refuges, jumping on to a pebble or piece of board, so as not to fall down in a pool ".