Samanid mausoleum
The Samanid Mausoleum is the tomb of Ismail Samani in Bukhara . It is the oldest surviving evidence of Islamic architecture in Central Asia and also the only monument of the Samanid dynasty that has been preserved. It is important in terms of cultural history as the Islamic worldview prohibits the architectural decoration of graves.
location
The mausoleum is located in the northwest of the historical center of Buxoro in the Samanid Recreation Park, west of Citadel Ark and south of the Samanid Bazaar. The Chashmai Ayyub mausoleum is also located on the northern edge of the park .
history
When exactly the building was built is unclear, it is dated around the 10th century (Ismail ruled Khorasan from 900 to 907). Architecturally, the building is based on a type of building that was already known from the Sassanid period - the Zoroastrian fire temple . Cohn-Wiener assumed that it is the earliest Islamic domed tomb ( Qubba ) ever. In the past, even high-ranking spiritual and secular persons were only buried in simple earth graves in the field of Islam .
The Samanid Mausoleum is one of the few remaining structures in Buxoro from the time before the Mongol storm . It once stood in the center of a cemetery and over time sank under several layers of sand. It was not fully excavated until the 20th century and a park was created instead of the cemetery .
description
The mausoleum has a square floor plan with a side length of 10 m and is 14 m high. It is open on all four sides and made of fired bricks in exposed masonry . Three-quarter columns without a base or capitals are set at the four corners of the substructure . An arcade gallery with 10 arches on each side runs around the building above the columns. Beehive-like domes are placed on the roof at the four corners. However, these are not located directly above the pillars, but are shifted towards the center of the building. A dome with a clear height of 9 m, which carries a small lantern , forms the end.
A gate is recessed in a rectangular frame in the middle of each outer wall. Within the rectangular frame, a pointed arch opens inwards, in which a rectangular gate is in turn embedded. Only the frames of these gates are decorated with ornaments made of terracotta . The rest of the design of the mausoleum results solely from the arrangement of the bricks in the masonry , which comes in 47 variants. The circular ornaments around the gate frames and above the arcade gallery were also made of bricks. Due to the arrangement of the bricks, the color of the mausoleum changes depending on the incidence of light.
Inside, the decoration follows the outside view. The square building floor plan of 7.2 × 7.2 m is initially converted into an octagonal shape with arches over the four corners. In the corners of the octagon there are small columns with capitals, which are more of an ornament than a load-bearing element. The pillars in turn support the protrusions of a narrow sixteen-sided band, which finally merges into the round dome. Behind the arch of the octagon are trumpet niches , each characterized by three protruding ribs (one each on the left and right side of the niche and one in the middle), which serve to transfer the forces from the dome to the walls.
literature
- Alfred Renz: History and Sites of Islam from Spain to India , Prestel-Verlag, Munich-London-New York: 2001
- John D. Hoag: Islam , DVA, Stuttgart: 1986
- Ernst Cohn-Wiener : Turan. Islamic architecture in Central Asia , Wasmuth, Berlin: 1930
- Klaus Pander: Musoleum of the Samanids . In: Central Asia . 5th updated edition. DuMont Reiseverlag , 2004, ISBN 3-7701-3680-2 , chapter Bukhara, the noble , p. 150 ff . (DuMont art travel guide).
Web links
Coordinates: 39 ° 46 ′ 37 ″ N , 64 ° 24 ′ 2 ″ E