This plan of the tomb of Kusam-ibn-Abbas in the Shah-i Zindah necropolis in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) 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 (1867-82) of Turkestan, as the Russian Empire’s Central Asian territories were called. The album devotes special attention to Samarkand’s Islamic architecture, such as 14th- and 15th-century monuments from the reign of Timur (Tamerlane) and his successors. Among the accomplishments of this period is a collection of mausoleums known as Shah-i Zindah (Persian for “living king”). Built on an ancient burial ground, the necropolis is revered as a memorial to Kusam-ibn-Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. These detailed sketches of the tomb are by L.A. Shostak, the artist who assisted the primary compilers, Aleksandr L. Kun, an Orientalist attached to the army, and Nikolai V. Bogaevskii, a military engineer, by producing watercolors that provided color information unavailable in the photography of the period.
<br>Architectural drawings; Islamic architecture; Sepulchral monuments; Shāh-i Zindah; Tombs
Shostak, L. A.
between 1865 and 1872 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1850-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1319,+1865-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1872-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
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<ul><li>Gallery: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.wdl.org/en/item/3898/">http://www.wdl.org/en/item/3898/</a></li></ul>