This photograph of 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 one-story cloister for scholars and a mosque at the far end, facing the main entrance. This view shows the marble base for an attached column on the left corner of the <em>iwan</em> (vaulted hall, walled on three sides, with one end open) arch of the mosque. (The upper part of the column is missing.) This complex 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. Fragments of ceramic panels are visible on the outer (left) and inner 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/3783/">http://www.wdl.org/en/item/3783/</a></li></ul>