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179-521: The mausoleum is considered one of the iconic examples of early Islamic architecture and is known as the oldest funerary building of Central Asian architecture. The Samanids established their de facto independence from the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad and ruled over parts of modern Afghanistan , Iran , Uzbekistan, Tajikistan , and Kazakhstan . It is the only surviving monument from

358-463: A misr (Arabic: مصر , pl. amṣār ). This policy continued up to the Umayyad period. Like frontier colonies, these towns served as bases for further conquests. Initially, they appear to have been modest settlements consisting of an agglomeration of tents, perhaps similar to ancient Roman legionary camps . They were established outside existing non-Muslim cities. They were often unfortified and

537-621: A Samanid army in Tukharistan , which resulted in a Samanid victory. Fortunately for Abu Ali Chaghani, he managed to secure the support of other Samanid vassals, such as the rulers of Khuttal , and the Kumiji mountain people , but in the end made peace with Nuh, who allowed him to keep Chaghaniyan in return for sending his son Abu'l Muzaffar Abdallah as hostage to Bukhara. By 945, the Turkic military slave faction (who were formerly recruited by

716-646: A Samanid counter-attack. Nevertheless, the Samanid general Hamuya ibn Ali managed to lure Ahmad out of Merv, and defeated him in a battle at Marw al-Rudh ; he was captured and imprisoned in Bukhara, where he remained until his death in 920. In the west, Nasr II clashed several times with Daylamite and Gilite rulers; In 921, the Zaydids under the Gilite ruler Lili ibn al-Nu'man invaded Khorasan, but were defeated by

895-523: A banquet designed to organize the plot and had the head of their leader cut off. To appease the other officers, he promised to stop the Isma'ili missionaries from continuing their activities. He then convinced his father to abdicate, who died of tuberculosis after a few months. Right when Nuh I ascended the throne, a revolt erupted in Khwarazm, which he managed to suppress. Later in 945, he had to deal with

1074-593: A campaign to restore the Samanid state, but failed. Some time afterwards, he returned to the Zarafshan valley, where he gained the support of the Oghuz and others. A Karakhanid army was defeated in May 1004, but subsequently the Oghuz deserted Isma'il during another battle, and his army fell apart. Fleeing to Khorasan yet again, Isma'il attempted to reenter Transoxiana in the end of 1004. The Karakhanids stopped this and Isma'il

1253-442: A circular dome and mini domes, pointed arches, elaborate portals, columns and intricate geometric designs in the brickwork . At each corner, the mausoleum's builders employed squinches , an architectural solution to the problem of supporting the circular-plan dome on a square. The building was buried in silt some centuries after its construction and was revealed during the 20th century by archaeological excavation conducted under

1432-412: A common feature of Islamic domestic architecture due to the warm climates in most countries. One of the mosque recognizable types is the mashrabiya , a wooden lattice screen which projects from the side of a building and which protected privacy by allowed those inside to look outside without being visible from outside. Another type of lattice screen, not restricted to balconies, is the jali , which

1611-463: A dynastic nature of the monument. Before the time of Genghis Khan 's siege and sack of Bukhara in 1220, the mausoleum is believed to have been buried in mud and sand from flooding and landslides, remaining so for centuries. Thus, when the Mongol armies reached Bukhara, the tomb was spared from their destruction, unlike most other buildings of that era. For the same reasons, the building was not known to

1790-517: A few stucco and wood elements but these are minimal in terms of their relative share in the construction process. A few bounding compounds were discovered during the excavations, alabaster being one of them. It is interesting that due to Islamic restrictions on use of imagery, Samanid Mausoleum decoration in mostly geometric in its layout and patterns, in comparison with the pre-Islamic Central Asian building traditions that blended architecture, sculpture and painting. Researchers found common elements between

1969-664: A flat wooden roof supported by columns, and was decorated with marble panels and glass mosaics. The prayer hall of the Abu Dulaf Mosque at Samarra had arcades on rectangular brick piers running at right angles to the qibla wall. Both of the Samarra mosques have spiral minarets, the only examples in Iraq. A mosque at Balkh in what is now Afghanistan was about 20 by 20 metres (66 by 66 ft) square, with three rows of three square bays, supporting nine vaulted domes. While

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2148-600: A growing influence of the Ghaznavids , who would later rule the region. Under Nuh II , a Hanafi work, which was being used to contest Ismailism, was translated into Persian. Agriculture and trading were the economic bases of the Samanid State. The Samanids heavily engaged in trade with Europe . Thousands of Samanid coins have been found in the Baltic and Scandinavia . During the 9th and 10th centuries, there

2327-768: A man of great perception, was Rudaki, who was born in the village of Panjrudak , which is today part of the Panjakent District in Tajikistan . Rudaki was already becoming popular during his early years, due to his poems, his voice, and his great skill in using the chang (an Iranian instrument similar to the harp ). He was shortly invited to the Samanid court, where he stayed almost the rest of his life. Fewer than 2,000 lines of his poetry have survived, but are enough to prove his great poetic skills—he perfected every basic verse form of medieval Persian poetry: mathnawi , qasida , ghazal and ruba'i . "Look at

2506-531: A masterpiece of the Almoravids founded in 1082, has twelve slender ribs and the shell between the ribs is filled with filigree stucco work. Ottoman architecture developed a specific form of monumental, representative building: large central domes were erected on top of a centrally-planned building. After the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, they found a variety of Byzantine Christian churches,

2685-573: A minor tributary in Sistan. It was during this period that the Samanids were at their height of power, ruling as far as Qazvin in the west and Peshawar in the east. Ismail is known in history as a competent general and a strong ruler; many stories about him are written in Arabic and Persian sources. Furthermore, because of his campaigns in the north, his empire was so safe from enemy incursions that

2864-557: A more classical influence. Muqarnas is a three-dimensional sculpted motif created by the geometric subdivision of a vaulting structure into miniature, superimposed pointed-arch substructures or niches, also known as "honeycomb" or "stalactite" vaults. They can be made from different materials like stone, brick, wood or stucco. The earliest monuments to make use of this feature date from the 11th century and are found in Iraq, North Africa, Iran, Central Asia, and Upper Egypt . This apparently near-simultaneous development in distant regions of

3043-465: A mosque building. Its formal function is to provide a vantage point from which the call to prayer, or adhān , is made. The call to prayer is issued five times each day: dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. In most modern mosques, the adhān is made directly from the prayer hall and broadcast via microphone to a speaker system on the minaret. The origin of the minaret and its initial functions are not clearly known and have long been

3222-415: A mosque, a governor's residence ( dār al-imāra ), and a market were likely the first major constructions to appear, located at the center of the town. More often than founding new cities, the new Islamic rulers took over existing towns. Most of the new Arab settlers nonetheless settled into previously existing urban centers throughout the conquered territories. These cities were transformed according to

3401-791: A relative of the Samanid ruler or a local Iranian prince (such as the Muhtajids ), but was later given to one of his most trusted slaves. The governor of Khorasan was normally the sipah-salar (commander-in-chief). Like in the Abbasid Caliphate, Turkic slaves could rise to high office in the Samanid state, which would sometimes give them enough power to nearly make the ruler their puppet. The Samanids revived Persian culture by patronizing Rudaki , Bal'ami and Daqiqi . The Samanids determinedly propagated Sunni Islam, and repressed Ismaili Shiism but were more tolerant of Twelver Shiism. Islamic architecture and Islamo-Persian culture

3580-469: A result of this, Umayyad architecture is distinguished by the extent and variety of decoration, including mosaics , wall painting, sculpture and carved reliefs. While figural scenes were notably present in monuments like Qusayr 'Amra , non-figural decoration and more abstract scenes became highly favoured, especially in religious architecture. The Umayyad period thus played a crucial role in transforming and enriching existing architectural traditions during

3759-569: A separate and protected space where the sultan could perform his prayers (similar to a maqsura ). A similar feature is also found in the Bara Gunbad complex (late 15th century) in Delhi. The qiblah ( قِـبْـلَـة ) is the direction in which Mecca is from any given location, towards which Muslims face during prayers. Within Islamic architecture it is a major component of both the features and

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3938-519: A small part of it, which was about the conflict between Gushtasp and Arjasp . However, the most prominent poet of that age was Ferdowsi, born in Tus in 940 to a dehqan family. It was during his youth that there was a period of growth under the Samanids. The rapid growth of interest in ancient Iranian history made him continue the work of Daqiqi, completing the Shahnameh in 994, only a few years before

4117-874: A standard feature of all mosques. Several major early monuments of Islamic architecture built under the Umayyads include the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (built by Caliph Abd al-Malik ) and the Great Mosque of Damascus (built by al-Walid I). The Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Al-Aqsa compound, also in Jerusalem, was also rebuilt by al-Walid I, replacing an earlier simple structure built around 670. A number of palaces from this period have also partially survived or have been excavated in modern times. The horseshoe arch appears for

4296-591: A standard feature of mosques until the 11th century. These first minaret towers were placed in the middle of the wall opposite the qibla wall. Among them, the minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia, dating from 836, is one of the oldest surviving minarets in the world and the oldest in North Africa. It has the shape of a massive tower with a square base, three levels of decreasing widths, and

4475-604: A superimposed spherical dome, is the characteristic architectural vault form of the Islamic East. From its beginnings in the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan, this form of vault was used in a sequence of important buildings up to the period of Safavid architecture. Its main characteristics are: While intersecting pairs of ribs from the main decorative feature of Seljuk architecture , the ribs were hidden behind additional architectural elements in later periods, as exemplified in

4654-557: A temporal formwork to guide and center the vault. These ribs, which were left in the structure afterwards, do not carry any load. The ribs were cast in advance on strips of cloth, the impression of which can still be seen in the ribs today. Similar structures are known from Sasanian architecture, for example from the palace of Firuzabad . Umayyad-period vaults of this type were found in Amman Citadel and in Qasr Amra . An iwan

4833-566: A thousand years old, the oldest of which is the Samanid mausoleum. The erection of memorial mausoleums at first categorically contradicted some of the norms of Islam , but this prohibition was first violated by the "permitted" construction of the first Muslim mausoleum Kubba as-Sulabiya over the tomb of the Arab caliph al-Muntasir (861-862), in which two other caliphs were later buried: al-Mu'tazz (866-869) and al-Muhtadi (869-870), after which

5012-431: A topic of scholarly discussion. The earliest mosques lacked minarets, and the call to prayer was often performed from smaller tower structures. The early Muslim community of Medina gave the call to prayer from the doorway or the roof of the house of Muhammad , which doubled as a place for prayer. The first confirmed minarets in the form of towers date from the early 9th century under Abbasid rule and they did not become

5191-455: A total height of 31.5 meters. Minarets have had various forms (in general round, squared, spiral or octagonal) depending on the period and architectural tradition. The number of minarets by mosques is not fixed; originally one minaret would accompany each mosque, but some architectural styles can include multiple minarets. In the newly-conquered areas of the early Muslim expansion, military settlements were often founded, known individually as

5370-564: Is a hall that is walled on three sides and open on one side. It is typically covered by a vault although this can vary. This feature was present in Sasanian architecture, though its exact origins are older and still debated. It was later incorporated into Islamic architecture. Its usage became more common and widespread under the Seljuks in the 10th century. Iwans were used in a variety of ways and arranged in varying positions in relation to

5549-500: Is a notable consistency between the exterior and interior decor in terms of patterns, materials and approach and this signifies that the construction was most likely performed by the same person or team. Repeat pattern of decor and general symmetry were helpful during the restoration works in 1930s as archaeologists used surviving elements to restore those that had been lost. Careful studies of the type of materials, mortar, patterns, thickness and forms of historic layers were conducted before

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5728-659: Is common to Indo-Islamic architecture and is made of perforated stone. Other examples of balconies and related structures include the jharokha in Rajasthani and Indo-Islamic architecture and the mirador , a Spanish term applied to a balcony or lookout pavilion in Andalusi palaces like the Alhambra. Balconies also became an architectural element inside some mosques, such as the hünkâr mahfili in Ottoman mosques,

5907-426: Is due to discrepancies in the calculations of the Islamic scientists in the past who determined where Mecca was from their individual locations. Scholars note that these differences come about for a multitude of reasons, such as some misunderstanding the meaning of qibla itself, the fact that the geographic coordinates of the past do not line up with the coordinates of today, and that the determination of this direction

6086-539: Is often regarded as the traditional "Islamic" city, occurred over a long period and was shaped by multiple social and economic causes that varied according to region and period. The arrival of Islamic rule was only one stage in a process that had already begun by the 6th century. The principle of arranging buildings is known as "horizontal spread". Residencies and public buildings as well as private housing tend to be laid out separately, and are not directly related to each other architectonically. Archaeological excavations at

6265-523: Is sometimes referred to as a "Jewel Box" due to its compact size and elegant, mathematically calculated proportions and rhythmic patterns of its intricate, unprecedented baked brick decoration. The mausoleum of Pakistan's founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah– Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi is modeled after the Samanid Mausoleum. Uzbek scholar Sh. S. Kamoliddin has presented compelling evidence of

6444-424: Is the lintel with inscribed Kufic script with his name found on the eastern side of the building during the restoration works in 1930s. In 1930s, Soviet researchers discovered a copy of a 10th-century waqf document (copied around 1568) that specified that Ismail Samani donated Bukhara's cemetery Naukanda land for what appears to read as a funerary building for his father, Ahmad, confirming earlier assumptions of

6623-520: The Abbasid Caliphate (750–1513) was particularly influenced by Sasanian architecture, which in turn featured elements present since ancient Mesopotamia. Other influences such as ancient Soghdian architecture in Central Asia have also been noted. This was partly a result of the caliphate's political center shifting further east to the new capital of Baghdad , in present-day Iraq. The Abbasids also built other capital cities, such as Samarra in

6802-890: The Bab al-Mardum Mosque in Toledo and the minarets added to the Qarawiyyin and Andalusiyyin mosques in Fez (present-day Morocco ) demonstrate the prevalence of the same stylistic elements across the region. After its initial apogee of power, the Abbasid Caliphate became partly fragmented into regional states in the 9th century which were formally obedient to the caliphs in Baghdad but were de facto independent. The Aghlabids in Ifriqiya (roughly modern-day Tunisia ) were notable patrons of architecture themselves, responsible for rebuilding both

6981-530: The Buddhist origin of this project. The symbols on the walls of the Samanid mausoleum form a complex geometric composition, consisting of embedded squares and a central circle, which are a specific type of Buddhist-Manichaean mandala and can be considered as symbols of Buddhism . It is believed that the overall layout of the mausoleum, when viewed from above, is an exact reproduction of a Buddhist-Manichaean mandala. According to legend, Ismail Samani , known to

7160-675: The Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire and the Sasanian Empire . These two empires both cultivated their own major architectural traditions. Occupying the borderlands between these two empires – in the desert and steppe regions of Syria , Palestine , Mesopotamia and northern Arabia – were two Arab tribal client states : the Lakhmids , who were clients of the Sasanians and had their capital at al-Hira (in present-day Iraq ), and

7339-496: The Capilla de Villaviciosa , located several bays before the mihrab. In sections which now supporting these domes, additional supporting structures were needed to bear the thrust of the cupolas. The architects solved this problem by the construction of intersecting arches. The domes themselves are built with eight intersecting stone ribs. Rather than meeting in the centre of the dome, the ribs intersect one another off-center, leaving

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7518-690: The Fatimid Caliphate rose to power in Ifriqiya, where it built a new fortified capital at Mahdia . In 970, the Fatimids moved their center of power to Egypt and founded another capital, Cairo . Fatimid architecture in Egypt followed Tulunid techniques and used similar materials, but also developed its own features. The first Fatimid congregational mosque in Cairo was al-Azhar Mosque , founded at

7697-818: The Ferghana valley by the Ferghanans; southern Khorasan by Khorasanians; and the Pamir mountains and environs by the Saka and other early Iranian peoples. All these groups were of Iranian ethnicity and spoke dialects of Middle Iranian and New Persian . In the words of Negmatov, "they were the basis for the emergence and gradual consolidation of what became an Eastern Persian-Tajik ethnic identity." Ferghana, Samarkand, and Bukhara were starting to be linguistically Persianized in originally Khwarazmian and Sogdian areas during Samanid rule. The Persian language spread and led to

7876-569: The Ghassanids , who were clients of the Byzantines and protected their eastern borders. These two Arab dynasties were significant patrons of architecture in their respective regions. Their architecture is not well understood due to the scarcity of identifiable remains today, but they borrowed and adapted the architecture of their Byzantine and Sasanian suzerains . Some of their buildings are known from archeology or historical texts, such as

8055-593: The Great Mosque of Kairouan (originally founded by Uqba ibn Nafi in 670) and the Zaytuna Mosque of Tunis in much of their current forms, as well as for building numerous other structures in the region. In Egypt, Ahmad ibn Tulun established a short-lived dynasty, the Tulunids , and built himself a new capital ( Al-Qata'i ) and a new congregational mosque, known as the Ibn Tulun Mosque , which

8234-602: The Gunbad-i Qabus (1006–1007) in northeastern Iran, and the Duvazdah Imam Mausoleum (1037–1038) in Yazd . From the 12th century onward its usage became common across the Islamic world and different local styles developed over time. In addition to serving as squinches and pendentives , muqarnas was also employed to decorate cornices , portals, mihrabs, windows, arches, and entire domes. Balconies are

8413-663: The Kaaba structure of the Great Mosque of Mecca in Saudi Arabia , while heavy fortress-like corner buttresses are derived from Sogdian traditions of Central Asia. The synthetic style of the tomb is reflective of the 9th and 10th centuries – a time when the region still had large populations of Zoroastrians in their early stages of conversion to Islam. Elaborate baked brick decoration is unique in its level of detail and rhythmic patterns and combines multi-cultural decorative motifs (Sogdian, Sassanian, Persian, Arabic, Antique). However,

8592-577: The Levant since the classical and Nabatean period. They were mainly used to cover houses and cisterns. The architectural form of covering diaphragm arches with barrel vaults, however, was likely newly introduced from Iranian architecture , as similar vaulting was not known in Bilad al-Sham before the arrival of the Umayyads. However, this form was well known in Iran from early Parthian times, as exemplified in

8771-550: The Muhtajid ruler Abu 'Ali Chaghani , who refused to relinquish his post as governor of Khorasan to Ibrahim ibn Simjur . Abu 'Ali Chaghani then rebelled, and was joined by several prominent figures such as Abu Mansur Muhammad , whom he appointed as his commander-in-chief. In 947, he installed Nuh's uncle Ibrahim ibn Ahmad as amir in Bukhara. Abu 'Ali Chaghani then returned to his domains in Chaghaniyan . Ibrahim, however,

8950-588: The Nestorian church there into a mosque. The same year, he conducted a campaign to gather slaves, taking ten to fifteen thousand captives. The Samanid slave trade was the main trade income of the Samanid Empire, forming the base of economy of the state. In 900, Ismail sent an army under Muhammad ibn Harun al-Sarakhsi against Muhammad ibn Zayd , the Zaydi ruler of Tabaristan and Gorgan . The invasion

9129-627: The Roman -style basilica with an adjacent courtyard surrounded by colonnades , like Trajan's Forum in Rome. The Roman type of building has developed out of the Greek agora . In Islamic architecture, the hypostyle hall is the main feature of the hypostyle mosque. One of the earliest hypostyle mosques is the Tarikhaneh Mosque in Iran, dating back to the eighth century. Some scholars refer to

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9308-418: The Simjurid general Simjur al-Dawati . Later in 930, a Dailamite military leader, Makan ibn Kaki , seized Tabaristan and Gurgan, and even took possession of Nishapur in western Khorasan. He was, however, forced to withdraw back to Tabaristan one year later, due to the threat that Samanids posed. Makan then returned to Tabaristan, where he was defeated by the Ziyarid ruler Mardavij , who managed to conquer

9487-536: The Taj Mahal ( Agra ), and at Humayun's Tomb ( New Delhi ), in India; the Shalimar Gardens ( Lahore , Pakistan ) or at the Alhambra and Generalife in Granada , Spain . As a common feature, Islamic architecture makes use of specific ornamental forms , including mathematically complicated, elaborate geometric patterns, floral motifs like the arabesque , and elaborate calligraphic inscriptions. The geometric or floral, interlaced forms, taken together, constitute an infinitely repeated pattern that extends beyond

9666-414: The USSR . During the 10th century, Samanids' capital, Bukhara , was a major political, trade and cultural center that patronized science, architecture, medicine, arts and literature. Cultural and economic prosperity was fueled by Samanids' strategic positioning along the trade routes between Asia, Middle East, Russia and Europe. It is believed that the Mausoleum was built to emphasize the dynastic power of

9845-651: The architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam . It encompasses both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day. The Islamic world encompasses a wide geographic area historically ranging from western Africa and Europe to eastern Asia. Certain commonalities are shared by Islamic architectural styles across all these regions, but over time different regions developed their own styles according to local materials and techniques, local dynasties and patrons, different regional centers of artistic production, and sometimes different religious affiliations . Early Islamic architecture

10024-447: The de facto rule of the Buyid dynasty , northern Iran was ruled by the Bawandids and Ziyarids , and the northeastern regions of Khurasan and Transoxiana were ruled by the Samanids . It is around this period that many of the distinctive features of subsequent Iranian and Central Asian architecture first emerged, including the use of baked brick for both construction and decoration, the use of glazed tile for surface decoration, and

10203-617: The hypostyle format. In other cities, especially in Syria, new mosques were established by converting or occupying parts of existing churches in existing cities, as for example in Damascus and Hama . These early mosques had no minaret , although small shelters may have been constructed on the roofs to protect the muezzin while issuing the call to prayer . The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) combined elements of Byzantine architecture and Sasanian architecture , but Umayyad architecture introduced new combinations of these styles. The reuse of elements from classical Roman and Byzantine art

10382-411: The mihrab evolved to become the usual focus of architectural decoration in the building. The details of its shape and materials varied from region to region. In congregational mosques, the mihrab was usually flanked by a minbar (pulpit), and some historical mosques also included a nearby maqsura (a protected space for the ruler during prayers). The minaret is a tower that traditionally accompanies

10561-405: The oneness of God (e.g. Qur'an 112 ), and the role of Muhammad as the "Seal of the Prophets", which have been interpreted as an attempt to announce the rejection of the Christian concept of the Holy Trinity and to proclaim the triumph of Islam over Christianity and Judaism. Additionally, foundation inscriptions on buildings commonly indicate its founder or patron, the date of its construction,

10740-480: The qibla wall (the wall standing in the direction of prayer) of a mosque or other prayer space. It symbolized and indicated the direction of the qibla to worshippers. It also acquired ritual and ceremonial importance over time, and its shape was even used as a symbol on some coinage. The very first mosques did not have mihrabs; the first known concave mihrab niche was the one added to the Prophet's Mosque in Medina by Caliph al-Walid I in 706 or 707. In later mosques

10919-429: The 15th century, major Timurid monuments like the Gur-i Amir Mausoleum and the Bibi Khanum Mosque (both completed around 1404) were notable in their use of large double-shelled domes. These domes were composed of an inner shell which was visible from the interior and a larger outer shell, visible from the exterior and often of a slightly different shape. The Gur-i Amir Mausoleum's dome, the oldest one to have survived to

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11098-404: The 9th century, which is now a major archeological site that has provided numerous insights into the evolution of Islamic art and architecture during this time. During the Abbasid Caliphate's golden years in the 8th and 9th centuries, its great power and unity allowed architectural fashions and innovations to spread quickly to other areas of the Islamic world under its influence. Features from

11277-417: The Afrighid dynasty was forced into submission. Before Ismail Samani's major victory against the Saffarids, he had made various expeditions in Transoxiana; in 892, he put an end to the Principality of Ushrusana by seizing all of its lands. During the same period, he put an end to the Bukhar Khudas in Bukhara. In 893, Ismail Samani invaded the territories of the Karluk Turks , taking Talas and converting

11456-468: The Byzantine/Roman worlds to the later Arab Islamic dynasties who established their political centers in the same regions. When the early Arab-Muslim conquests spread out from the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century and advanced across the Middle East and North Africa, new garrison cities were established in the conquered territories, such as Fustat in Egypt and Kufa in present-day Iraq. The central congregational mosques of these cities were built in

11635-477: The Great Mosque of Damascus feature a hypostyle hall in this fashion, with a dome above the space in front of the mihrab , and both were influential in the design of later mosques elsewhere. The Dome of the Rock and the Umayyad Mosque are also notable for their extensive program of mosaic decoration that drew on late Antique motifs and craftsmanship. However, mosaic decoration eventually fell out of fashion in Islamic architecture. The Abbasid architecture of

11814-428: The Iranian tradition. The design of the Tomb of Humayun (completed around 1571–72), including its double-shelled dome, suggests that its architects were familiar with Timurid monuments in Samarqand. The central dome of the Taj Mahal likewise features a bulbous profile and a double-shelled construction. The Great Mosque of Córdoba in Al-Andalus was initially built with a system of double-arched arcades supporting

11993-429: The Islamic West of Al-Andalus and the Maghreb. At around 1000 AD, the Bab al-Mardum Mosque in Toledo was constructed with a similar, eight-ribbed dome, surrounded by eight other ribbed domes of varying design. Similar domes are also seen in the mosque building of the Aljafería of Zaragoza . The architectural form of the ribbed dome was further developed in the Maghreb: the central dome of the Great Mosque of Tlemcen ,

12172-400: The Islamic architecture and is significant as an example of early Islamic architecture in the Central Asia and worldwide. Its unknown creators harmoniously combined references to the prior regional traditions and deployed innovative structural elements, such as squinches , as well as new for the time features that are considered customary for the Islamic architecture worldwide. Samanid Mausoleum

12351-422: The Islamic world has led to multiple scholarly theories about their origin and spread, with one current theory proposing that they originated in one region at least a century earlier and then spread from there. Some of the earliest surviving examples preserved in situ are tripartite squinches used as transitional elements for domes and semi-domes, such as at the Arab-Ata Mausoleum (977–978) in Tim ( Uzbekistan ),

12530-403: The Lakhmid palaces of Khawarnaq and al-Sadir in al-Hira, a Ghassanid church with mosaic decoration at Nitil (near Madaba ), and a Ghassanid audience hall incorporated into the later Umayyad rural residence at ar-Rusafa . The culture and architecture of the Lakhmids and Ghassanids probably played a subsequent role in transmitting and filtering the architectural traditions of the Sasanian and

12709-444: The Parthian buildings of Aššur . The earliest known example for barrel vaults resting on diaphragm arches from Umayyad architecture is known from Qasr Harane in Syria. During the early period, the diaphragm arches are built from coarsely cut limestone slabs, without using supporting falsework , which were connected by gypsum mortar . Later-period vaults were erected using pre-formed lateral ribs modelled from gypsum, which served as

12888-414: The Rock, its layout did not frequently serve as a model for major Islamic monuments after it. In hypostyle mosques, the Umayyads introduced the tradition of making the "nave" or aisle in front of the mihrab wider than the others, dividing the prayer room along its central axis. This innovation was probably inspired by the layout of existing Christian basilicas in the region. Both the al-Aqsa Mosque and

13067-616: The Samani family and to link its history with their newly established capital. There are various estimates by the researchers of when the Mausoleum was built. Some attribute it to the reign of Ismail Samani ( r.  892–907 CE ), a founder of the dynasty ( b. 849), some reference Ismail's father, Ahmad , who governed Samarkand . Others attribute the building to the reign of Ismail's grandson, Nasr II who ruled ( r.  914–943 CE ). The reason for this later attribution

13246-506: The Samanid Empire, its distance from Baghdad allowed the Samanids to be a crucial element in the renaissance of New Persian language and culture. This Persianate culture variant was the first to use a language besides Arabic in Islamic culture. Although the Zoroastrian population had previously been suppressed by the Abbasid Caliphate, according to Al-Masudi, the Samanid empire still had fire-temples that were still being venerated by

13425-431: The Samanid Mausoleum décor and design patterns executed in wood from the 8th century Penjikent . Repeated patterns create calculated harmony and a sense of infinity, important for a funerary structure. Patterns of great variety, executed in baked brick include basketweave , checkerboard , " dog tooth " ornament (on spandrels and the main dome), borders of rosettes , floral ornaments, ribbons, and bands of pearls. There

13604-476: The Samanid era, but American art historian Arthur Upham Pope called it "one of the finest in Persia ". Perfectly symmetrical, compact in its size, yet monumental in its structure, the mausoleum not only combined multi-cultural building and decorative traditions, such as Sogdian , Sassanian , Persian and even classical and Byzantine architecture , but incorporated features customary for Islamic architecture –

13783-550: The Samanid rulers in positions of governance) were fully in charge of the government. By this time, the Samanid family only held nominal power; similar to how the Buyids held de facto power over the Abbasid Caliphate around the same time. Alp Tigin , nominal vassal of the Samanids, conquered Ghazna in 962 from the Lawik dynasty. The fifth of these commanders was Sebüktigin, who governed Ḡazna for twenty years till 387 AH/997 CE with

13962-494: The Samanid state under one ruler, thus effectively putting an end to the feudal system used by the Samanids. It was also under him that the Samanids became independent of Abbasid authority. However, by 945, the government was under the de facto control of the Turkic military slave faction, and the Samanid family's authority had become purely symbolic. The Samanid Empire is part of the Iranian Intermezzo , which saw

14141-461: The Samanid state was modelled after the Abbasid system, which in turn was modelled after the Sasanian system. The ruler of the state was the amir , and the provinces were governed by appointed governors or local vassal rulers. The administrative, political and economic affairs were administered by the divan , and the Samanid bureaucracy used Arabic in its diplomatic discourses. The economy

14320-620: The Samanids claimed to be descended from the House of Mihran of Bahram Chobin . It has been claimed that the House of Saman belonged to the Oghuz Turks , although the veracity is unlikely. Originally a Zoroastrian, Saman Khuda converted to Islam during the governorship of Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri in Khorasan , and named his oldest son as Asad ibn Saman in the governor's honour. In 819,

14499-539: The Samanids returned to Bukhara. In 999, Nasr b. Ali, a nephew of Harun, returned and took possession of Bukhara, meeting little resistance. The Samanid domains were split up between the Ghaznavids , who gained Khorasan and Afghanistan , and the Karakhanids , who received Transoxiana ; the Oxus River thus became the boundary between the two rival empires. Isma'il Muntasir was the youngest son of Nuh II—he

14678-531: The Samanids. In the 9th and 10th centuries, intellectual life in Transoxiana and Khorasan reached a high level. In the words of N.N. Negmatov, "It was inevitable that the local Samanid dynasty, seeking support among its literate classes, should cultivate and promote local cultural traditions, literacy and literature." The main Samanid towns – Bukhara , Samarkand , Balkh , Merv , Nishapur , Khujand , Bunjikath , Hulbuk , Termez and others, became

14857-589: The Selimiye Mosque, which came after many spatial and structural experiments in previous works, is Sinan's masterpiece and the pinnacle of Ottoman domed architecture. It optimizes the domed space, making all elements of the building subordinate to it. Ottoman sources boasted that its dome surpassed that of the Hagia Sophia for the first time. Gardens and water have for many centuries played an essential role in Islamic culture, and are often compared to

15036-559: The Tahirids' authority had significantly weakened after suffering several defeats to Saffarid ruler Ya'qub al-Saffar. Hence, causing the Tahirids to lose their grip over the Samanids, who became more or less independent. Nasr I, used this opportunity to strengthen his authority by sending his brother Ismail to Bukhara , which was in an unstable condition after suffering from raids by the Afrighid dynasty of Khwarazm . When Ismail reached

15215-574: The archaeological excavations at Pasargadae . The gardens of Chehel Sotoun ( Isfahan ), Fin Garden ( Kashan ), Eram Garden ( Shiraz ), Shazdeh Garden ( Mahan ), Dowlatabad Garden ( Yazd ), Abbasabad Garden ( Abbasabad ), Akbarieh Garden ( South Khorasan Province ), Pahlevanpour Garden , all in Iran , form part of the UNESCO World Heritage . Large Paradise gardens are also found at

15394-475: The area of the necropolis was gradually reduced, the mausoleums were destroyed, and in the XVI-XVIII centuries on its territory began to build urban residential neighborhoods. In the early Middle Ages the area of the necropolis was called Naukanda, later Chahar-gumbazan (four domes), and in the late Middle Ages Bahadur-biy, and the Samanid mausoleum was considered the mazar of Ismail Samani . The mausoleum

15573-413: The beginning. It consisted of a simple courtyard structure built in unbaked brick, with a rectangular, almost square, floor plan measuring about 53 by 56 meters. A shaded portico supported by palm trunks stood on the north side of the courtyard, in the direction of prayer (the qibla ), which was initially towards Jerusalem . When the qibla was changed to face towards Mecca in 624, a similar portico

15752-424: The building (in contrast, most of chahar taq structures had no windows). A large semi-circular Dome, about 23 ft (7 meters) in diameter crowns the structure and it is similar to the Buddhist domes in the area. Four mini domes placed in the corners of the roof are more decorative in nature. Overall, the mausoleum's builders achieved an elegant hierarchy of diminishing proportions and vertical perspective through

15931-420: The building and its harmonious hierarchy. The base of the building is heavy which is accentuated by a wider foundation; four heavy built in three-quarter corner columns, classical in design, contribute to its fortress-like appearance. The top of the building is lightened up through an elegant arcade gallery, placed below the cornice , that have many arched openings to reduce overall weight and to let light inside

16110-444: The building architects went beyond simply appropriating existing traditions in building structure and decoration; they introduced new features symbolic for the monumental dynastic architecture. In its structure, Mausoleum's unknown architects used squinches, containing four interior arches and an octagonal structure, that allowed to redistribute the weight of the circular dome over a square base, an alternative to pendentives . Overall,

16289-496: The building is constructed in a form of a small, slightly tapering cube, with each side approximately 31 feet (9.4 m) long. There are four identically designed facades which gently slope inwards with increasing height. Wall thickness of approximately 6 feet (1.8 m) at the base of the building assured structural solidity and survival through the ages. Each side has an entrance portal adorned with pointed arches. Many researches note well-studied, almost mathematical, proportions of

16468-426: The building. In the dome of the Hagia Sophia, the ribs and shell of the dome unite in a central medallion at the apex of the dome, the upper ends of the ribs being integrated into the shell; shell and ribs form one single structural entity. The structural transition below the dome is achieved by four pendentives and the domed space is extended by two semi-domes. This design, along with early Ottoman designs, served as

16647-434: The building. Large bricks formed large bands throughout the building for structural stability, smaller bricks were used for decoration, usually in blocks of two to five bricks. Baked brick was a known material in the region, yet such extensive and creative use is considered unprecedented. Local builders mostly used unbaked brick, stucco and wood as these materials were cheaper, but not as strong as baked brick. The Mausoleum uses

16826-697: The center of the city. A few cities were founded during the early Islamic Umayyad Caliphate , the outlines of which were based on the Ancient Roman concept of the ideal city . An example of a city planned according to such concepts was excavated at Anjar in Lebanon . Donald Whitcomb argues that the early Muslim conquests initiated a conscious attempt to recreate specific morphological features characteristic of earlier western and southwestern Arabian cities. Samanid Empire The Samanid Empire ( Persian : سامانیان , romanized :  Sāmāniyān )

17005-479: The central space to be occupied by a smaller cupola. For the domes in front of the mihrab, the ribs form an eight-pointed star and an octagonal cupola in the centre. For the dome over the Capilla de Villaviciosa , the ribs leave a central square space between them, with an octagonal cupola added over this. The ribbed domes of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba served as models for later mosque buildings in

17184-510: The city of Jerash , the Gerasa of Antiquity, have revealed how the Umayyads have transformed the city plan. The antique concept of the architecture of a metropolis is based on a structure of main and smaller roads running through the entire city, and dividing it into quarters. The streets are oriented towards public buildings like a palace, temple, or a public square. Two main roads, ( cardo and decumanus ) cross each other at right angles in

17363-509: The city to protect it from their attacks. He died in 841/2—his two brothers Yahya and Ahmad, were then appointed as the joint rulers of the city by the Tahirid governor of Khorasan. After Yahya died in 855, Ahmad took control over Châch, thus becoming the ruler of most of Transoxiana. He died in 864/5; his son Nasr I received Farghana and Samarkand, while his other son Ya'qub received Châch (areas around modern Tashkent/Chachkent). Meanwhile,

17542-430: The city, he was warmly received by its inhabitants, who saw him as one who could restore order. After not so long, disagreement over where to distribute tax money caused a conflict between the brothers. Ismail was eventually victorious in the dynastic struggle and took control of the Samanid state. However, Nasr had been the one who had been invested with Transoxiana, and the Abbasid caliphs continued to recognize him as

17721-499: The cloud, how it cries like a grieving man Another prominent poet was Shahid Balkhi , born in the village of Jakhudanak near Balkh. Not much is known about his life, but he is mentioned as being one of the best poets in the court of Nasr II, and one of the best scholars of the age. He was also a student of Rudaki, and had close relations with him. He died in 936, a few years before Rudaki's death. His death saddened Rudaki, who afterwards wrote an emotional elegy about him. Daqiqi, who

17900-519: The commander of his army, and sent him on an expedition against the Saffarid ruler Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar in Sistan . After facing defeat in battle near Pushang in 857, he fled to Nishapur , only to be captured by Ya'qub al-Saffar and sent to Sistan as a hostage. In 839/40, Nuh seized Isfijab from the nomadic pagan Turks living in the steppe. Consequently, he had a wall constructed around

18079-523: The creation of a Persianate culture and identity that brought Iranian speech and traditions into the fold of the Islamic world . This later contributed to the formation of the Turko-Persian culture. The Samanids promoted the arts, giving rise to the advancement of science and literature, and thus attracted scholars such as Rudaki , Ferdowsi , and Avicenna . While under Samanid control, Bukhara

18258-488: The defences of Bukhara and Samarkand went unused. However, this later had consequences; at the end of the dynasty, the walls—earlier strong, but now falling apart—were greatly missed by the Samanids, who were constantly under attack by the Karakhanids and other enemies. Ismail died in November 907, and was succeeded by his son Ahmad Samani (r. 907–914). Not long after his accession, Ahmad invaded Sistan; by 911, Sistan

18437-484: The development of muqarnas from squinches . Hypostyle mosques continued to be built and there is also evidence of multi-domed mosques, though most were modified or rebuilt in later eras. The Jameh Mosque of Na'in , one of the oldest surviving congregational mosques in Iran, contains some of the best-preserved features from this period, including decorative brickwork, Kufic inscriptions, and rich stucco decoration featuring vine scrolls and acanthus leaves that draw from

18616-461: The development of Persian and Central Asian architecture, which was revived after the Arab conquest of the region. Many researches noted that the structure is made similar to the open, four-arched, often square in shape, Zoroastrian fire temples from Sassanian Iran, commonly known as chahar taq in Persian – a reference to Samanids claim of Sassanian descent. The building's shape is cuboid, like

18795-469: The diminishing size of the domes (one large and four small), columns (placed in the corners, portals and gallery) and arches (portals and gallery). Typical for Islamic architecture in general, there is an overlap and ambiguity between the structural and decorative features within the building – bricks being structure and décor, both equally important. Builders used baked brick of various rectangular and square sizes for both structural and decorative elements of

18974-673: The dome of the Tomb of Ahmed Sanjar in Merv , until they finally disappeared completely behind the double shell of a stucco dome, as seen in the dome of Ālī Qāpū in Isfahan. The use of domes in South Asia started with the establishment of Delhi sultanate in 1204 CE. Unlike Ottoman domes, and even more so than Persian domes, domes in South Asia tend to be more bulbous . Many monumental Mughal domes were also double-shelled and derived from

19153-531: The earlier styles of Samarra. Another important architectural trend to arise in the 10th to 11th centuries is the development of mausolea, which took on monumental forms for the first time. One type of mausoleum was the tomb tower, such as the Gunbad-i-Qabus (circa 1006–7), while the other main type was the domed square, such as the Tomb of the Samanids in Bukhara (before 943). In the 10th century,

19332-519: The earlier vegetal motifs of late antique traditions into more abstract and stylized forms, as exemplified by the so-called "beveled" style. These decorative techniques quickly spread to other regions where stucco decoration played a prominent role. Abbasid mosques all followed the courtyard plan with hypostyle halls. The earliest was the mosque that Caliph al-Mansur built in Baghdad (since destroyed). The Great Mosque of Samarra built by al-Mutawakkil measured 256 by 139 metres (840 by 456 ft), had

19511-463: The early hypostyle mosque with courtyard as the "Arab plan" or "Arab-type" mosque. Such mosques were constructed mostly under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties; subsequently, however, the simplicity of this type of plan limited the opportunities for further development, and as a result, these mosques gradually fell out of popularity in some regions. In Islamic buildings, vaulting follows two distinct architectural styles: While Umayyad architecture in

19690-634: The erection of mausoleums began in all the Islamized countries of the Middle and Near East that were part of the Arab Caliphate. The mausoleum of the Samanids, a dynasty of Transoxiana rulers, was no exception. During the Middle Ages, this and other mausoleums that have not survived to this day were located within the large necropolis of the Samanid dynasty. With the fall of the dynasty (999)

19869-404: The expansion by al-Hakam II (r. 961–976) introducing important aesthetic innovations such as interlacing arches and ribbed domes, which were imitated and elaborated in later monuments in the region. The construction of Madinat al-Zahra , a new capital and monumental palace-city in the 10th century, also created an important complex of royal architecture and patronage. Smaller monuments such as

20048-489: The extinction of Eastern Iranian languages like Bactrian and Khwarezmian with only a tiny amount of Sogdian -descended Yaghnobi speakers remaining among the now Persian-speaking Tajik population of Central Asia. This was due to the fact that the Arab-Islamic army which invaded Central Asia at the time also included some Persians who later governed the region like the Samanids. Persian was rooted into Central Asia by

20227-722: The fall of the Samanid Empire. He later completed a second version of the Shahnameh in 1010, which he presented to the Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud. However, his work was not as appreciated by the Ghaznavids as it had been by the Samanids. Under the Samanid Empire, the Zarafshan valley, Kashka Darya and Usrushana were populated by Sogdians ; Tukharistan by the Bactrians; Khwarezm by the Khwarazmians;

20406-562: The first time in Umayyad architecture, later to evolve to its most advanced form in al-Andalus ( Iberian Peninsula ). The Dome of the Rock has a centralized floor plan with an octagonal layout. This was most likely modeled on earlier Byzantine martyria in the region that had a similar form, such as the Church of the Kathisma . Despite the religious and historical importance of the Dome of

20585-463: The flat timberwork ceiling. The columns of the arcades are connected by horseshoe arches which support brick pillars, which are in turn interconnected by semicircular arches. This arcade system was copied during the mosque's subsequent expansions, but the expansion by al-Hakam II after 961 also introduced a series of ornate ribbed domes. Three domes span the vaults in front of the mihrab wall while another one covers an area now known by its Spanish name,

20764-520: The formation of Islam under the leadership of Muhammad in early 7th-century Arabia . The first mosque was a structure built by Muhammad in Medina in 622, right after his Hijrah (migration) from Mecca , which corresponds to the site of the present-day Mosque of the Prophet ( al-Masjid an-Nabawi ). It is usually described as his house, but may have been designed to serve as a community center from

20943-464: The formation of early Islamic society's visual culture. The Umayyads were the first to add the mihrab to mosque design, a concave niche in the qibla wall of the mosque. The first mihrab reportedly appeared at Muhammad's mosque in Medina when it was rebuilt by al-Walid I in 707. It seems to have represented the place where the Prophet stood when leading prayer. This almost immediately became

21122-423: The garden into four sections of equal size: One of the hallmarks of Persian gardens is the four-part garden laid out with axial paths that intersect at the garden's centre. This highly structured geometrical scheme, called the chahar bagh, became a powerful metaphor for the organization and domestication of the landscape, itself a symbol of political territory. A Charbagh from Achaemenid time has been identified in

21301-792: The garden of Paradise . The comparison originates from the Achaemenid Empire . In his dialogue " Oeconomicus ", Xenophon has Socrates relate the story of the Spartan general Lysander 's visit to the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger , who shows the Greek his "Paradise at Sardis". The classical form of the Persian Paradise garden , or the charbagh , comprises a rectangular irrigated space with elevated pathways, which divide

21480-462: The governor of Greater Khorasan, Ghassan ibn Abbad, rewarded the four sons of Asad ibn Saman for their aid against the rebel Rafi ibn al-Layth . Nuh ibn Asad received Samarkand ; Ahmad ibn Asad received Farghana ; Yahya ibn Asad received Tashkent , and Ilyas ibn Asad received Herat . Ilyas died in 856, and his son Ibrahim ibn Ilyas became his successor. The Tahirid governor of Khorasan, Muhammad ibn Tahir , subsequently appointed him as

21659-473: The heir of the Saffarids. In the spring of 900, Amr clashed with Ismail near Balkh , but was defeated and taken into captivity. Ismail thereafter sent him to Baghdad, where he was executed. Ismail was thereafter recognized as the ruler of all of Khorasan and Transoxiana by the caliph. Furthermore, he also received the investiture over Tabaristan , Ray and Isfahan . It was also during this period that

21838-456: The inscription on the lintel; the identity of the other two is not known. During the Soviet era, some time after World War II , the cemetery that surrounded the Mausoleum was paved over, and an amusement park (still in operation) was built next to and around the building. Within the city walls and in the immediate vicinity of the historical center of Bukhara there are architectural monuments of

22017-518: The kings of this realm are Persian kings." The Samanid dynasty was founded by Saman Khuda , his descendants became rulers of the Samanid Empire. He was a dehqan of Iranian origin from the village of Saman in Balkh province , in present-day northern Afghanistan. The earliest appearance of the Samanid family appears to be in Greater Khorasan rather than Transoxiana . In some sources,

22196-483: The largest and most prominent being the Hagia Sophia . The brickwork-and-mortar ribs and the spherical shell of the central dome of the Hagia Sophia were built simultaneously, as a self-supporting structure without any wooden centring . In the early Byzantine church of Hagia Irene , the ribs of the dome vault are fully integrated into the shell, similar to Western Roman domes, and thus are not visible from within

22375-544: The late Umayyad period, such as vaulting, carved stucco , and painted wall decoration, were continued and elaborated in the Abbasid period. The four-centred arch , a more sophisticated form of the pointed arch , is first attested during the Abbasid period in monuments at Samarra, such as the Qasr al-Ashiq palace, and became widely used in some regions at later periods. Samarra also saw the appearance of new decorative styles, particularly in stucco and plasterwork, which rendered

22554-599: The main models for the early mosques built elsewhere. Scholars generally agree that aside from Muhammad's mosque/house, the architecture of the Arabian Peninsula seems to have had only a limited role in the formulation of later Islamic architecture. Prior to the start of the Arab-Muslim conquests of the 7th century, the two major powers in the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean world were

22733-570: The major cultural centres under the state. Scholars, poets, artists and other men of education from many Muslim countries assembled in the Samanid capital of Bukhara, where a rich soil was created for the prosper of creative thought, thus making it one of the most distinguished cultural centres of the Eastern world. An outstanding library known as Siwān al-Hikma ("Storehouse of Wisdom") was put together in Bukhara, known for its various types of books. Due to extensive excavations at Nishapur , Iran, in

22912-466: The mausoleum. However, until the early 20th century, a superstition persisted that if you wrote a plea for mercy and placed it at the foot of the grave, your request would be granted, and the response, if made by a righteous person with genuine faith, could be received in written form. 39°46′37″N 64°24′02″E  /  39.77694°N 64.40056°E  / 39.77694; 64.40056 Islamic architecture Islamic architecture comprises

23091-508: The mid-twentieth century, Samanid pottery is well-represented in Islamic art collections around the world. These ceramics are largely made from earthenware and feature either calligraphic inscriptions of Arabic proverbs, or colorful figural decorations. The Arabic proverbs often speak to the values of "Adab" culture—hospitality, generosity, and modesty. In commending the Samanids, the epic Persian poet Ferdowsi says of them: کجا آن بزرگان ساسانیان ز بهرامیان تا به سامانیان "Where have all

23270-649: The model for subsequent development. Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan attempted to solve the structural issues of the Hagia Sophia dome by constructing a system of centrally symmetric pillars with flanking semi-domes, as exemplified by the design of the Süleymaniye Mosque (four pillars with two flanking shield walls and two semi-domes, 1550–1557) and the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne (eight pillars with four diagonal semi-domes, 1568–1574). The design of

23449-666: The name of the reigning sovereign, and other information. These decorative motifs are expressed in a range of mediums, including stone carving , brickwork, carved stucco , tilework, paint, glass mosaics, marble or stone paneling, and stained glass windows. Capitals, the upper part or crowing feature of a column, serve as a transition piece and are often decoratively carved. They range greatly in design and shape in Islamic Architecture. Early Islamic buildings in Iran featured "Persian" type capitals which included designs of bulls heads, while Mediterranean structures displayed

23628-477: The needs of the new Islamic society and Islamic facilities were inserted into the existing urban fabric after the conquest. In the case of Damascus and Aleppo, for example, the cities were largely of Roman-Byzantine heritage and their topography changed slowly. The Islamic presence was signaled at first only by the presence of a mosque (and, in Damascus, the royal palace). This transformation, which resulted in what

23807-407: The orientation of the building itself. Mosques and religious structures are built to have one side aligned with this direction, usually marked by a visual feature called a mihrab . The layout of some Muslim cities may have also been influenced by this orientation. In practice, however, the qibla alignments of mosques built in different periods and locations do not all point to the same place. This

23986-477: The origins of the minaret are uncertain, it is believed that the first true minarets appeared in this period. Several of the Abbasid mosques built in the early ninth century had minaret towers which stood at the northern ends of the building, opposite the central mihrab . Among the most famous of these is the Malwiyya minaret, a stand-alone tower with a "spiral" form built for the Great Mosque of Samarra. After

24165-896: The overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750 by the Abbasids, a new branch of the Umayyad dynasty succeeded in taking control of Al-Andalus in 756, creating the Emirate of Córdoba and reaching the apogee of its power during the Caliphate of Córdoba in the 10th century. The Great Mosque of Córdoba , built in 785–786, marks the earliest major monument of Moorish architecture in the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus). This style of architecture established in Al-Andalus

24344-521: The people of Bukhara as Hazrat Sultan , continued to rule the country even after his death. People seemed to genuinely believe in this legend because long after his death, they would still lower written requests through an opening on the southern side of the mausoleum, hoping to receive a response on the following day. Supposedly, the response would appear on the northern side of the mausoleum. According to another legend, Ismail Samani later relinquished his rule after two visitors attempted to deceive him in

24523-598: The powerful vizier Badr al-Jamali (r. 1073–1094), the city walls were rebuilt in stone along with several monumental gates, three of which have survived to the present-day: Bab al-Futuh , Bab al-Nasr , and Bab Zuweila ). In the architecture of the Muslim world courtyards are found in secular and religious structures. A hypostyle , i.e., an open hall supported by columns, is considered to be derived from architectural traditions of Achaemenid period Persian assembly halls ( apadana ). This type of building originated from

24702-536: The present Zoroastrian population. Despite the fact that the Samanids professed Sunni Islam, however, they were much more tolerant towards its Zoroastrian population than the previous empires. Through zealous missionary work as many as 30,000 tents of Turks came to profess Islam and later under the Ghaznavids more than 55,000 under the Hanafi school of thought. The mass conversion of the Turks to Islam eventually led to

24881-531: The present day, features an exterior ribbed profile with a band of muqarnas around its drum. However, domes of this shape and style were likely constructed earlier, as evidenced by the Sultaniyya Mausoleum in Cairo, which was built earlier in the 1350s and appears to have copied this same design from the Iranian tradition. The "non-radial rib vault", an architectural form of ribbed vaults with

25060-621: The region, and Isma'il decided it necessary to flee again. In 1003 Isma'il came back to Transoxiana, where he requested and received assistance from the Oghuz Turks of the Zarafshan valley. They defeated the Karakhanids in several battles, even when Nasr Khan was involved. For various reasons, however, Isma'il came to feel that he could not rely on the Oghuz to restore him, so he went back to Khorasan. He tried to gain Mahmud's support for

25239-463: The region. In 935, Nasr II re-established Samanid control in Gurgan and made Mardavij's successor Vushmgir his vassal. However, in 939 he declared independence, but was defeated the following year at Iskhabad . In 943 several Samanid army officers, angry at Nasr's support of Isma'ili missionaries, formed a conspiracy to murder him. Nasr's son Nuh I , however, learned of the conspiracy. He went to

25418-483: The residents were organized according to tribal origins. Rather than maintaining their original purpose to serve as a military base, many amṣār developed into urbanized administrative and commercial centers. In particular, this happened in the case of the Iraqi cities of Kufa and Basra (which became known as al-miṣrān , "the two forts" ), as well as Fustat and Kairouan in North Africa. Basic facilities like

25597-451: The rest of the building. They are found in many types of buildings including mosques, madrasas, palaces, and caravanserais. A common layout is the four-iwan plan . The related Persian term, pishtaq , means the entrance portal (sometimes an iwan) projecting from the façade of a building, often decorated with calligraphy bands, glazed tilework , and geometric designs . Because of its long history of building and re-building, spanning

25776-427: The restoration works began. Prior to renovations, most of the damage was located at the gallery level. Some time during the 20th century, metal screens were installed within the portals to restrict access to the building. It is not known if the original portals had any screens installed. The fact that the religious law of orthodox Sunni Islam strictly prohibits the construction of mausoleums over burial places stresses

25955-536: The rightful ruler. Because of this, Ismail continued to recognize his brother as well, but Nasr was completely powerless, a situation that would continue until his death in August 892. Following Nasr's death, Ismail moved the capital of the Samanid dynasty from Samarkand to Bukhara. A few months later the Saffarid emir, Ya'qub al-Saffar, also died and was succeeded by his brother Amr ibn al-Layth , who saw himself as

26134-493: The same time as the city (970), which became the spiritual center for the Ismaili Shi'a branch of Islam. Other notable monuments include the large Mosque of al-Hakim (founded in 990 under al-'Aziz but completed around 1013 under al-Hakim ), the small Aqmar Mosque (1125) with its richly-decorated street façade, and the domed Mashhad of Sayyida Ruqayya (1133), notable for its mihrab of elaborately-carved stucco. Under

26313-525: The significance of the Samanid mausoleum, which is the oldest surviving monument of Islamic architecture in Central Asia and the sole monument that survived from the era of the Samanid dynasty. The Samanid Mausoleum might be one of the earliest departures from that religious restriction in the history of Islamic architecture. The building is regarded as one of the oldest monuments in the Bukhara region. Samanid Mausoleum appears in virtually every survey on

26492-477: The state affairs. Jaihani was not only an experienced administrator, but also a prominent geographer and greatly educated man. Almost right after Nasr II had ascended the throne, several revolts erupted, the most dangerous one being under his paternal grand-uncle, Ishaq ibn Ahmad, who seized Samarkand and began minting coins there, while his son Abu Salih Mansur seized Nishapur and several cities in Khorasan. Ishaq

26671-399: The time from the Abbasids to the Qajar dynasty , and its excellent state of conservation, the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan provides an overview over the experiments Islamic architects conducted with complicated vaulting structures. The system of squinches , which is a construction filling in the upper angles of a square room so as to form a base to receive an octagonal or spherical dome,

26850-536: The title (as it appears from his tomb inscription ) of al-ḥājeb al-ajall (most noble commander). He would later be the founder of an independent dynasty based in Ghazna, following the decline of the Samanid Empire in the 990s. The power of the Samanids began to crumble in the latter half of the 10th century. In 962, one of the ghulams , Alp Tigin , commander of the army in Khorasan, seized Ghazna and established himself there. His successors, however, including Sebük Tigin , continued to rule as Samanid "governors". With

27029-412: The visible material world. Figural motifs, such as animals, humans, and imaginary creatures, have a rich tradition in Islamic art, though they generally more stylized than naturalistic. However, because of the religious taboo on figural representations , non-figural decoration remained more dominant overall and figural motifs were generally excluded from religious buildings entirely. The importance of

27208-431: The weakened Samanids facing rising challenges from the Karakhanids for control of Transoxiana , Sebük later took control of all the provinces south of the Oxus and established the Ghaznavid Empire . In 992, a Karakhanid , Harun Bughra Khan, grandson of the paramount tribal chief of the Karluk confederation Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan , captured Bukhara , the Samanid capital. Harun died shortly afterwards, however, and

27387-405: The west continues Syrian traditions of the sixth and seventh century, eastern Islamic architecture was mainly influenced by Sasanian styles and forms. In their vaulting structures, Umayyad period buildings show a mixture of ancient Roman and Persian architectural traditions. Diaphragm arches with lintelled ceilings made of wood or stone beams, or, alternatively, with barrel vaults, were known in

27566-421: The world until the early 20th century when archaeologists rediscovered it. Major exploratory research and excavations took place during 1926–1928 by a Soviet team of architects and researchers. During 1937–1939, the Mausoleum was further studied and major restorations works took place under the leadership of B. N. Zasipkin. Graves of three male bodies have been discovered. One of these is identified as Nasr II from

27745-449: The written word in Islam ensured that epigraphic or calligraphic decoration played a prominent role in architecture. Epigraphic decoration can also indicate further political or religious messages through the selection of a textual program of inscriptions. For example, the calligraphic inscriptions adorning the Dome of the Rock include quotations from the Qur'an that reference the miracle of Jesus and his human nature (e.g. Quran 19 :33–35),

27924-417: Was a Persianate Sunni Muslim empire, ruled by a dynasty of Iranian dehqan origin. The empire was centred in Khorasan and Transoxiana , at its greatest extent encompassing northeastern Iran and Central Asia , from 819 to 999. Four brothers— Nuh , Ahmad , Yahya , and Ilyas —founded the Samanid state. Each of them ruled territories under Abbasid suzerainty. In 892, Ismail Samani (892–907) united

28103-448: Was a large amount of growth in literature, mostly in poetry. It was during the Samanid period that Persian literature appeared in Transoxiana and was formally recognized. The advancement of an Islamic New Persian literature thus started in Transoxiana and Khorasan instead of Fars , the homeland of the Persians. The best known poets of the Samanid period were Rudaki (d. 941), Daqiqi (d. 977) and Ferdowsi (d. 1020). Although Persian

28282-451: Was a native of Tus , began his career at the court of the Muhtajid ruler Abu'l Muzaffar ibn Muhammad in Chaghaniyan , and was later invited to the Samanid court. Under the Samanids, a special interest arose in ancient Iranian legends and heroic traditions, thus inspiring Daqiqi to write the Shahnameh ("The Book of Kings"), a long epic poem based on the history of the Iranians. However, by his death in 977, he had only managed to complete

28461-405: Was a rival to Baghdad in its glory. Scholars note that the Samanids revived Persian language and culture more than the Buyids and the Saffarids while continuing to use Arabic for sciences as well as religious studies. They considered themselves to be descendants of the Sasanian Empire . In a famous edict, Samanid authorities declared that "here, in this region, the language is Persian, and

28640-423: Was added on the south side, facing towards that city. Muhammad and his family lived in separate rooms attached to the mosque, and Muhammad himself was buried in one of these rooms upon his death in 632. Over the rest of the 7th century and in the 8th century the mosque was repeatedly expanded to include a large flat-roofed prayer hall supported by columns (a hypostyle hall) with a central courtyard. It became one of

28819-404: Was already known in Sasanian architecture. The spherical triangles of the squinches were split up into further subdivisions or systems of niches, resulting in a complex interplay of supporting structures forming an ornamental spatial pattern which hides the weight of the structure. The tradition of double-shelled brick domes in Iran has been traced back to the 11th century. At the beginning of

28998-431: Was also largely shared with the architecture of western North Africa (the Maghreb ), from which later empires in the region would also emerge and contribute to its artistic evolution. The original Great Mosque of Cordoba was noted for its unique hypostyle hall with rows of double-tiered, two-coloured, arches, which were repeated and maintained in later extensions of the building. The mosque was expanded multiple times, with

29177-427: Was completed in 879. It was strongly influenced by Abbasid architecture in Samarra and remains one of the most notable and best-preserved examples of 9th-century architecture from the Abbasid Caliphate. In Iran and Central Asia, a number of other local and regional dynasties held sway prior to the arrival of the Seljuks in the 11th century. By the 10th century, central Iran and the Abbasid heartland of Iraq were under

29356-521: Was eventually defeated and captured, while Abu Salih Mansur died of natural causes in 915. Some time later Nasr II once again had to deal with rebels; in 919, the governor of Khorasan, Husayn ibn Ali Marvarrudhi, rebelled against Samanid authority. Nasr responded by sending an army under Ahmad ibn Sahl to suppress the rebellion, which the latter managed to accomplish. After a few weeks, however, Ahmad shortly rebelled himself at Nishapur, made incursions into Gorgan, and then fortified himself in Merv to avoid

29535-428: Was first explored in 1924 by the expedition of Moisei Yakovlevich Ginzburg . At the same time the plan of the building was taken. In 1925, the scientific secretary of the Bukhara Commission for the Protection of Monuments of Antiquity and Art Musa Saidjanov organized the restoration of the facing of the dome of the building. During further archaeological research - excavations of Vasiliy Vyatkin, conducted in 1926-1928, it

29714-399: Was found out that inside the necropolis there were several burials, including Ismail Samani himself. At the same time it was found out that the necropolis building stands on the ruins of an even older one, probably somehow connected with the solar myths . In 1928-1930, partial restoration of the mausoleum was carried out by P. S. Kasatkin and N. M. Bachinskiy. The monument marks a new era in

29893-444: Was imprisoned by the Karakhanids after their conquest of Bukhara in 999. Some time later, Isma'il managed to escape to Khwarazm, where he gained support. Driving the Karakhanids out of Bukhara, he then moved on to and captured Samarkand. The approach of the Karakhanid army, however, forced Isma'il to give up all of his possessions, following which he travelled to Khorasan, where he captured Nishapur. Mahmud's army, however, made its way to

30072-793: Was influenced by Roman , Byzantine , Iranian , and Mesopotamian architecture and all other lands which the early Muslim conquests conquered in the seventh and eighth centuries. Later it developed distinct characteristics in the form of buildings and in the decoration of surfaces with Islamic calligraphy , arabesques , and geometric motifs . New architectural elements like minarets , muqarnas , and multifoil arches were invented. Common or important types of buildings in Islamic architecture include mosques , madrasas , tombs , palaces , hammams (public baths), Sufi hospices (e.g. khanqahs or zawiyas ), fountains and sabils , commercial buildings (e.g. caravanserais and bazaars ), and military fortifications . The Islamic era began with

30251-405: Was managed by the mustawfi , diplomatic correspondence and important state papers by the diwanal-rasa'il , and the royal guard and military affairs by the sahib al-shurta . The main responsibility of both governors and local rulers was to collect taxes and support the Samanid ruler with troops if needed. The most important province in the Samanid Empire was Khorasan, which was initially given to

30430-400: Was more an astronomical calculation, rather than a mathematical one. Early mosques were constructed according to either the calculations of what direction qibla was approximately, or with the mihrab facing south, as that was the direction that Muhammad was facing when he prayed in Medina, which is a city directly north of Mecca. The mihrab is a niche or alcove, typically concave, set into

30609-407: Was nearly killed. Following this, he sought the hospitality of an Arab tribe near Merv . Their chief, however, killed Isma'il in 1005. His death marked the defeat of the last attempt to restore the Samanid state. Descendants of the Samanid family continued to live in Transoxiana where they were well regarded, but their power was relatively broken. Along with several other states, the Samanid Empire

30788-468: Was part of the Iranian Intermezzo , or "Persian renaissance". This period has been described as having a key importance in the formation of the Islamic civilization, both politically and culturally. In political terms, it saw an effective break up of the Abbasid power and the rise of several successor states such as the Samanids and Buyids while in cultural terms, it witnessed the rise of new Persian as an administrative and literary language. The system of

30967-399: Was spread deep into the heartlands of Central Asia by the Samanids. Following the first complete translation of the Qur'an into Persian in the 9th century, populations under the Samanid empire began accepting Islam in significant numbers. The arabization of the Samanids was clearly minimal compared to the almost entirely arabized Tahirids. Despite Arabic literature and science flourishing in

31146-508: Was still widely evident because political power and patronage was centered in Syria, a former Roman/Byzantine province. Some former Ghassanid structures also appear to have been reused and modified during this period. However, a significant amount of experimentation occurred as Umayyad patrons recruited craftsmen from across the empire and architects were allowed, or even encouraged, to mix elements from different artistic traditions and to disregard traditional conventions and restraints. Partly as

31325-410: Was successful; Muhammad ibn Zayd was killed and Tabaristan was conquered by the Samanids. However, Muhammad ibn Harun shortly revolted, forcing Ismail himself to invade the region the following year. Muhammad ibn Harun thereafter fled to Daylam , while Ismail reconquered Tabaristan and Gorgan. In 901, Amr Saffari was defeated at the battle of Balkh by the Samanids, which reduced the Saffarid dynasty to

31504-449: Was the following year murdered by some of his slaves in a tent near Bukhara. During his reign, Ahmad is also said to have replaced the language of the court from Persian to Arabic , which made him unpopular among his subjects, and forced him to change it back to Persian. After Ahmad's death, his eight-year-old son Nasr II (r. 914–943) succeeded him. Due to Nasr's youth, his prime minister Abu 'Abd-Allah al-Jaihani took care over most of

31683-469: Was the most-favored language, Arabic continued to enjoy a high status and was still popular among the members of the Samanid family. For example, al-Tha'alibi wrote an Arabic anthology named Yatimat al-Dahr ("The Unique Pearl"). The fourth section of the anthology included a detailed account of the poets that lived under the Samanids. It also states that the poets of Khwarazm mostly wrote in Arabic. The acknowledged founder of Persian classical poetry, and

31862-411: Was under complete Samanid control, and Ahmad's cousin Abu Salih Mansur was appointed as its governor. Meanwhile, an Alid named Hasan al-Utrush was slowly re-establishing Zaydi over Tabaristan. In 913, Ahmad sent an army under Muhammad ibn Sa'luk to deal with him. Although the Samanid army was much larger, Hasan managed to emerge victorious. Ahmad, before he could plan another expedition to Tabaristan,

32041-522: Was unpopular with the people of Bukhara, and Nuh soon retaliated by retaking the city and blinding Ibrahim and two brothers. When Abu Ali Chaghani received the news of the re-capture of Bukhara, he once again marched towards it, but was defeated by an army sent by Nuh and withdrew back to Chaghaniyan. After some time, he left the region and tried to obtain support from other Samanid vassals. Meanwhile, Nuh had Chaghaniyan ravaged and its capital sacked. Another battle shortly ensued between Abu 'Ali Chaghani and

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