Samarkand

The Samarkand is the site of Alexander the Great's slaying of his friend Cleitos, the pivot of the Silk Road and the city transformed by Timur in the 14th century into one of the world's greatest capitals. Founded over 5000 years ago, the city flourished until the 16th century before the sea routes to China and the rest of the East diminished its importance as a trading centre. Much of its past glory survives or has been restored.  Samarkand, located on the Zarafshan River, whose exotic reputation has prompted stanzas from poets as diverse as Milton, Keats, Oscar Wilde, and the Persian Hafiz. Although Firdausi, another great Persian poet, speaks of its foundation in the mythical past, the Soviets maintained that it was founded in 530 B.C. We know little of its history prior to the fourth century B.C., but we do know that Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) passed through the city, then called Maracanda, in 328 B.C. in the process of subduing Central Asia. The city rose to become a major staging post on the Silk Route from China to the West. In the mid-seventh century A.D., Sa-mo-kien, as the Chinese called it, was visited by the Buddhist monk Hsuan-tsang (602-649 A.D.), whose memoirs give us a good idea of what life was like in the area prior to the advent of Islam. At this time, the residents of the city were mostly Zoroastrians, although Buddhism was not unknown and Nestorian Christianity had also been introduced into the area. In fact, the Nestorian patriarch had raised it to the rank of metropolitan see, possibly as early as the beginning of the fifth century and certainly by the early seventh century. Without a doubt, the most significant invasion of the area came in the late seventh century, when the armies of the Arab caliph invaded, bringing the religion of Islam to Mawarannahr ("The Land Beyond the River"), as the Arabs called the area. The Arab general, Qutayba ibn Muslim, launched a jihad (holy war) against Transoxiana from Merv (in present-day Turkmenistan, south of the Oxus) in 705: Bukhara finally fell in 709, to be followed by Khiva in 711. In that same year, the armies of Islam succeeded in capturing Samarkand. The city soon developed into a major centre of Islamic scholarship under the Arabs. Among other things, Samarkand was the first place where the Arabs experimented with making paper, a skill they learnt from the Chinese after defeating them at the Battle of Talas (751). The power of the caliph was subsequently replaced by a succession of dynasties: the Samanids (875), the Qarakhanids (999), the Seljuks (1073), the Qarakhitai (1141), and the Khwarezmians (1210). During this time, Samarkand was no mean city: it has been estimated that its population in the tenth century was over half a million. The next major event in the life of Samarkand occurred in 1221: the armies of Chingiz Khan captured the city from Shah Sultan Muhammad, the Turkic ruler of the Khwarezmian empire, who had made it his capital. In return for the Shah's resistance to the great Khan, the city was sacked and looted, its soldiers killed and its artisans carried off into slavery. However, although Samarkand was largely abandoned, its history was not over yet. We have accounts of the city by various travellers through the area, including Marco Polo (1254-1324), who, although he did not actually visit Samarkand, passed through the area in 1272-73, and the Moor Abu Abdullah ibn Battuta (1304-1377), who, in 1333, described it as "one of the largest and most perfectly beautiful cities in the world."


PLACES TO VISIT


REGISTON
Built by the grandson of Timur, Ulugh-Beg, Registan (literally, Place of Sand) in Samarkand is formed by the Ulugh Beg Madrasa, 1418-1422, the Shir Dar Madrasa, 1619-1636, the Tilla Kari Madrasa and Mosque, 15th-16th century, and the 18th century Chor-Su domed market. Earthquakes, seasonal temperature extremes, normal depreciation of the buildings and the economic crises of the 18th and 19th centuries had left the complex in a ruined condition. Domes and portals were partially or, in some cases, totally destroyed, the minarets were dangerously inclined, and facades in some places had lost 70-80% of their ceramic tile coverings.Of these, only the Madrasa survives. Its elaborate entrance portal is composed of an interlocking grid of mosaic tile and stone inlays, crowned by a field of shining stars. It is the height of Timurid architecture. The reconstructed square gives us only a glimpse of the grandeur of this court. A contemporary writer, Babur, of India (one of Timur's conquered lands), wrote in 1450 that Registan 'possessed pavements made in all sorts of mosaic, and hot public baths unlike any other known. The Mosque is called the Carved Mosque because its ceilings and walls are covered with Islamic patterns and 'Chinese' pictures formed of inlaid wood.' The rulers and their court would have been richly dressed in the finest embroidered silks and jewelry, seated on the finest carpets and pillows, amidst floors, walls, and ceilings covered with dizzying patters of glazed and lustered tile and inlaid woods and ivory, lit by the light of flickering candles and lanterns, creating a 'shimmering world,' in the words of Babur.


THE GUR-I AMIR
The fabulous Gur-i Amir ("The Great Prince") is a mausoleum which was originally designed to house the body of Timur's favorite grandson, Muhammad Sultan (1375-1403), who was buried there after being killed on one of Timur's campaigns. Timur's body also rests in this complex, as do those of several other members of his family, including Umar Shaykh, Miran Shah, Pir Muhammad, Shah Rukh, and Ulugh Beg. Timur was the principle builder of this structure and the initial complex, minus the mausoleum, was probably finished by 1401. The mausoleum itself was completed by 1404. According to Clavijo's account, when Timur returned from a campaign to discover that the mausoleum was, in his estimate, too low, he ordered it rebuilt in ten days. As Clavijo recounts, "Without delay the rebuilding was set in hand, day and night the work went on... The chapel had now been completely rebuilt within the appointed ten day's time, and it was a wonder how so great a building could have been put up and completed within so brief a space." Whether or not the rebulding was actually carried out in so short a period of time is debatable. Later on, Ulugh Beg also worked on it, adding an eastern gallery in 1424.


THE BIBI KHANUM MOSQUE
The Bibi Khanum ("The Old Queen") mosque, was reputedly named after Timur's favorite wife, Saray Mulk Khanum, the daughter of the puppet Chagatay khan that Timur and Husayn had installed in 1364 in order to legitimize their conquest of Transoxiana. It is properly called the Masjid-i Jami' (congregational mosque), but has come to be known by the name of Timur's wife. Timur built it with loot that he had brought back from India and reputedly used 95 Indian elephants to haul construction materials from the quarries: it was begun in 1398-1399 and, when completed, was "one of the most colossal monuments ever built in the Islamic world." pparently, as with the Gur-i Amir, Timur ordered part of it reconstructed in 1404-1405, but it is unclear exactly what was rebuilt and why. Clavijo tells us that, since the Amir was in ill health at the time, "it was therefore in his litter that every morning he had himself brought to the place, and he would stay there the best part of the day urging on the work." Opposite the entrance, a madrasah and mausoleum, now mostly in ruins, were erected by the queen herself. The Masjid-i Shah in Isfahan, Iran, as well as some Moghul mosques in India, seems to have copied its basic form.


THE SHAH-I ZINDA
The Shah-i Zinda ("The Living King") is a complex of sixteen buildings which was originally built to commemorate Qusam ibn Abbas, supposedly the cousin of Muhammad himself, who came to preach Islam in Samarkand in 676. There are several legends surrounding him: some say that he was beheaded by the locals, after which he "picked up his severed head and plunged with it into a well from which he will one day re-emerge. A prophecy, believed to date from the fourteenth century, foretold that he would arise and save Samarkand if the Russians attacked the city; but 1868 came and Qasim [sic] did not stir a finger to help, thus permanently damaging his reputation." Another legend recounts that "he was not killed, but in saving himself from the infidels, entered a cliff which opened miraculously before him and closed again after him." 37


THE MADRASAH OF ULUGH BEG
The madrasa and khanaqah that Ulugh Beg, Timur's grandson and Governor of Samarkand, built facing each other across the Registan Square, were part of a large urban project incorporating several mosques, caravanserais and a bazaar. Of this project only the monumental madrasa survives; on the site of the khanaqah now stands the seventeenth century Shir Dar Madrasa. Ulugh Beg, manifestly interested in learning, commissioned two other madrasas during his reign, the Ulugh Beg Madrasa of Bukhara, and the madrasa in Ghujdivan. The madrasa in Samarkand is the largest and most architecturally significant of the three, and was also significant as an institution of learning during the Timurid period, receiving great scholars, both religious and secular. The madrasa operated until the late seventeenth century, after which it provided grain storage for more than a century. Teaching functions were restored in the early twentieth century. A two-story envelope lines a rectangular site, marked by minarets on all four corners and a massive pishtaq facing the square. The pishtaq rises to twice the height of the building, and stretches across the middle two thirds of the façade. The pishtaq iwan leads to another, smaller in scale, which in turn accesses a third that faces the square interior courtyard. A double story gallery lines the courtyard, leading to fifty student rooms. Iwans mark the center of each façade; the western iwan accesses a long, narrow mosque in the rear wall of the madrasa. Cruciform, domed chambers occupy the four corners of the plan, flanking the mosque hall to the west, and the monumental iwan to the east. A variegated decorative scheme, executed in hazarbaf brickwork, haft rangi tiles and mosaic faience, covers every exterior surface. Marble is used to form dados and moldings.


ULUGH BEG'S OBSERVATORY
Ulugh Beg built his observatory in 1420. Babur tells us that the circular building, 48 meters in diameter, was three storeys tall. It originally housed three gigantic astronomical instruments: a sextant, divided into degrees and minutes and featuring the signs of the zodiac; a solar clock; and a quadrant sector. The ground floor contained service rooms, above which were two stories of arcades. The arc of the sextant was oriented along the north-south axis of the building, beginning below ground level and rising to above the top of the third story. The solar clock was located on the wall parallel to the east-west axis, perpendicular to the sextant. The roof, and possibly the piers of the arcades, were marked off with bronze plates to assist in sighting heavenly bodies. The exterior of the observatory was finished with glazed brick mosaics, as were other Timurid monuments. According to a contemporary report, the service rooms were decorated: "Inside the rooms (khaneh-ha) he had painted and written the image (hay'at) of the nine celestial orbits (aflak), and the shapes (ashkal) of the nine heavenly spheres, and the degrees, minutes, seconds, and tenths of seconds, of the epicycles; the seven planets (aflak-i tadawir) and pictures (suwar) of the fixed stars, the image (hay'at) of the terrestrial globe, pictures (suwar) of the climes with mountains, seas, and deserts and related things..." All that remains of this structure today is the large concave slit in the earth which used to house the sextant. It was discovered in 1908 by the Russian archaeologist Viatkin and is a major tourist attraction in Samarkand today.


MAUSOLEUM OF DANIEL
A very spiritual, holy and beautiful place indeed is the Mausoleum of Daniel. According to legend, Amir Temur brought back from one of his campaigns the remains of Daniel's hand and had the bones burried close to Afrasiab, by the small river running along the edge of the old city. The hand grew and grew and grew and lays today under the large marble tombstone. The water from the source is considered to hold healing powers and you are likely to encounter visiting pilgrims.