This watercolor of ceramic facade details at the Shadi Mulk mausoleum at the Shah-i Zindah necropolis in Samarkand is from the archeological part of <em>Turkestan Album</em>. The six-volume photographic survey was produced in 1871-72 under the patronage of General Konstantin P. von Kaufman, the first governor-general, in 1867-82, of Turkestan, as the Russian Empire’s Central Asian territories were called. The primary compilers for the visual material were Aleksandr L. Kun, an Orientalist attached to the army, and Nikolai V. Bogaevskii, a military engineer. They devoted special attention to Samarkand’s Islamic architecture, such as 14th- and 15th-century monuments from the reign of Tamerlane and his successors. Shah-i Zindah (Persian for “living king”) is revered as a memorial to Kusam-ibn-Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. The mausoleum of Shadi-Mulk Aka was built in 1372 for the burial of Uldjai Shadi-Mulk, the daughter of Tamerlane's elder sister, Kutlug-Turkan-Aka. Its facade displays an array of vibrant ceramic work, including majolica tiles and rosettes, carved terra-cotta columns, and patterned Arabic script in the cursive Thuluth style. The polychrome fragment shown here reveals a pattern of curvilinear floral details and geometric elements. Such watercolor sketches convey color information unavailable in the photography of that period.
<br>Architectural decorations and ornaments; Islamic art; Sepulchral monuments; Shāh-i Zindah; Tiles; Tombs; Watercolors
Shostak, L. A.
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