This watercolor of a facade detail of the Khodzha Akhmed 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 (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. Shah-i Zindah (Persian for “living king”) is revered as a memorial to Kusam-ibn-Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. The Khodzha Akhmed Mausoleum was built in the 1360s, presumably for a local spiritual leader. Situated at the end of the necropolis passageway in the northern cluster of shrines, the monument displays vibrant ceramic ornamentation with floral, geometric, and inscriptional patterns. The facade arch, or <em>peshtak</em>, is framed by a carved, glazed terra-cotta band of script in the cursive Thuluth style that reads, in part: “Let Allah prolong their eternity to make the tomb a garden of happiness for Khodzha Akhmed.” This sketch shows a fragment of that inscription on the upper right side of the facade. Although simplified, such watercolors conveyed color information unavailable in the photography of that period.
<br>Architectural decorations and ornaments; Islamic architecture; Sepulchral monuments; Shāh-i Zindah; Tombs; Watercolors
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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