This photograph of a detail of the mosque at the Nadir Divan-Begi Madrasah 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 architectural heritage. Located next to the Khodzha Akhrar shrine, this <em>madrasah</em> (religious school) was completed in 1631 by Nadir Divan-Begi, vizier and uncle of the Bukharan ruler Imam-Quli Khan. The madrasah was planned as a rectangular courtyard enclosed by a cloister for scholars and a mosque at the opposite end from the main entrance. This view shows the severely eroded marble base for an attached column on the right corner of the <em>iwan </em>(vaulted hall, walled on three sides, with one end open) arch of the mosque. This marble element begins with an octahedron resting on a square base and buttressed at the corners by pyramidal elements. The octahedral form rises in a tapering, concave curve to an octagonal “collar,” above which the column flares outward until the full octahedral form is reasserted. At this point, lotus figures effect a transformation to a round column. Ceramic fragments are visible on the inner (left) and outer walls of the iwan.
<br>Architectural decorations and ornaments; Columns; Islamic architecture; Mosques; Photographic surveys
Bogaevskii, Nikolai V., 1843-1912
between 1868 and 1872 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1850-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1319,+1868-00-00T00:00:00Z/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/3784/">http://www.wdl.org/en/item/3784/</a></li></ul>