Architecture

      The architectural heritage of Central Asia offers great diversity. The oldest period is characterised by the vestiges of mighty castles, houses, workshops, palaces, and temples decorated with mural paintings and sculptures. Of these edifices nothing remains today except pieces of walls, bases, and fragments of columns or capitals on which can be seen elements of old western or Hellenistic architecture. During the Middle Ages (6^th-8^th centuries) particular attention was given to the building of edifices dedicated to worship, palaces, and fortresses. The decoration of palaces and houses with paintings and sculptures was ample and so was sculpture on wood or on stucco, primary elements in architectural ornamentation that was to blossom during the following centuries. The medieval castles constituted one of the most characteristic forms of architecture in Central Asia. Their forms were simple and severe: over a vast terrace of beaten earth, bind walls were raised and sometimes decorated with engaged columns.

      Triumph of Islam

      Most of the monuments preserved until today, however, have come from a more recent period that coincides with the triumph of Islam. From this epoch until now, we have seen an increase in the construction of secular buildings (private houses, palaces, caravanserais, covered markets) as well as edifices dedicated to the cult (mosques, minarets, madrasahs, hospices for the dervishes) and some that have an intermediary place between civil and religious architecture (mausoleums). This general construction gave the medieval towns of Central Asia their peculiar aspect that we also find in Bukhara, Samarkand, and Khiva, where the mosques’ cupolas, the rectangular portals, the vertical lines, and minarets rise above the lower part of the town, with low-roofed houses and winding alleys. In the monumental architecture, kiln bricks began to be used: not only were they going to assure longer life to the construction, but they were going to play an important part as decorative material. The oldest brick monument is the Ismail Samanid Mausoleum in Bukhara, built between the 9^th and 10^th centuries. Its composition is extremely simple: a cube covered by a semi-spherical dome adorned with little corner cupolas.

      All the side façades are identical. The base, the central arches, the corner columns, and the arcade are striking. The same clearness is to be found in the inner arrangement: simple lines of the walls with arches above, in an octagonal tambour supporting the central dome. Inside and outside the mausoleum is decorated with an ornamental masonry of bricks. The decoration resulting from the varied disposition of fine square bricks, disks, and rosettes give importance to the principal architectural forms.

      Almshouse, Khanqah Faizabad, 16^th century. Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

      Ceiling decoration, saodat tea house, 1984. Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

      Main iwan vault, Mir-i Arab Madrasah, 17^th century. Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

      The art of decoration

      The Arab-Ata Mausoleum at Tim (Uzbekistan), dated 977, is the first type of funerary monument with portal and cupola. Its façade is emphasied by a monumental portal topped by a gracious blind arch. The principal ornamentation – brick masonry or sculpted stucco – is concentrated on the portal. Geometrical ornaments (ghirikh) begin to appear as well as the first epigraphic decorations, like the one on the façade. Central Asian people are particularly fond of ornaments. Geometrical and vegetal designs, abstract or epigraphic, cover practically everything – from the portals of the palaces to snuff-boxes. During the 10^th through the 12^th centuries, geometrical ornaments acquired a theoretical foundation, due to an astonishing impetus given in the East by mathematics and particularly by applied geometry.

      From the time Central Asia was drawn into the Muslim orbit, epigraphic ornament acquired an entirely new character. The inscriptions in Arabic – of religious moral inspiration – had a definite goal. Their aesthetic effect contributed to the expansion of the Islamic dogma. But in many cases (as in the Arab-Ata Mausoleum), these inscriptions also contain historical information (dates, names, sometimes the names of the builders). The calligraphers must have written the texts with great exactitude and care for the beauty of the Arabic writing, proportions, harmony, and rhythm. During the 10^th century the architectural decoration adopted a severe style, with Kufic lettering, and during the 11^th and 12^th centuries a more pleasant and complex lettering began to appear as well as other calligraphy with more fluid lines, the naskhi.

      Vault, Abdul Aziz Madrasa, 17^th century. Bukhara, Uzbekistan. (left) Pahlavan Mahmud Mausoleum (detail), 19^th century. Khiva, Uzbekistan. (right)

      During this period local architectural schools appeared and proved their originality even in the elaboration of traditional artistic themes. The variations in the handling of volumes and the diversity of decorative solutions gave each edifice an aspect of its own.

      It suffices to compare the groups of karakhan mausoleums of the 11^th and 12^th centuries at Uzgen, the Sanjar Mausoleum at Merv (mid-12^th century), the Fakhr al-Din al-Razi Mausoleum at Kunya-Urgench (12^th century), the coupled mausoleums Hodja-Machad at Saëd (12^th century), to feel all the artistic richness of the buildings of that period.

      Bolo-khauz Mosque, 18^th century. Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

      Main façade, Nadir Divan-Begi Madrasah, 17^th century. Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

      Portal, Turabek-Khanym Mausoleum. Kunya-Urgench, Turkmenistan.

      Tilya-Kori Madrasah, 17^th century. Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

      Predominance of religious art

      Mausoleums and mosques are present in all Muslim towns. The great mosques are particularly sumptuous. They are distinguished by their important dimensions, their portals, their large courtyards surrounded by a gallery having a portico with columns, the iwan, at its central point. The minaret stands near the outer angle.

      The architectural decoration of the monuments of the 11^th and 12^th centuries is of an astonishing variety. Different forms of bricks, sculptures on wood, stucco, baked clay are used as ornament. Carved in deep relief on two or three faces, the baked clay is a newly acquired technique of the builders of Central Asia in the architectural field.

      Muhammad Rahim Khan Madrasah, 19^th century. Khiva, Uzbekistan.

      Some remarkable examples are to be seen in the sculpture of the mausoleums of Uzgen, Kunya-Urgench, and Saëd.

      The ornament results from the bricks’ disposition, sculptured bricks, and potter’s clay are mingled in their aspect and colouring with construction materials so that only their decorative design appears.

      Among

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