Ishratkhona

Samarkand is one of the pearls of medieval architecture, most of the architectural heritage of which was built during the reign of the Timurid dynasty. One of these buildings is Ishratkhona – the most mysterious mausoleum of Samarkand, which has never been restored. There is no exact data about the origin of this mausoleum, it is shrouded in numerous legends, each of which tells its own amazing story.

Several legends associate Ishratkhona with the name of the great commander Amir Timur. One of the legends says that, riding around his possessions on a horse, the great ruler drove to the outskirts of Samarkand, where he saw incredible peach orchards. Among the trees he noticed a girl whose extraordinary beauty he was so impressed that he immediately made her a marriage proposal. The girl agreed, and the happy ruler joyfully ordered the construction of an Ishratkhona near the peach orchards, which translates as “The House of joy and amusements.”

According to another legend, the pleasure house almost took the life of the great Sahibkiran. One day, during one of the festive feasts that took place in Ishratkhona, the grandson of Amir Timur, Mirza Ulugbek, burst into the building. Everyone knew that the grandson of a famous ruler was always busier with sciences than military campaigns. The great scientist astronomer on the day of the feast by the stars calculated the threat to his grandfather's life and rode on horseback to Ishratkhona. Without hurrying his horse, he found himself in the building, and threatening with a sword dispersed all the guests, not understanding from which of them the threat to his grandfather came. Enraged Amir Timur, not understanding the motives of his grandson's behavior, got up from his seat and approached Mirzo Ulugbek. However, he did not have time to do anything, as a terrible earthquake began and the ceiling of the building collapsed exactly over the place where the great ruler had previously sat. After that, the building was never repaired, and Amir Temur no longer held feasts in Ishratkhona. 

In continuation of this legend, the following tells that during the reign of Amir Timur's great-grandson, Abu Seyid, a mausoleum was organized in the Ishratkhona building on the initiative of his wife Habiba Sultan Biki, in honor of her prematurely deceased daughter - Sahibi Dawlat Biki. Later, Habiba Sultan's father, Amir Jalal-ad-Din, built hujras (cells) for worshippers at the grave of his granddaughter. It so happened that after that Ishratkhona turned from a house of entertainment into a mausoleum where women and children from the Timurid dynasty were buried. However, the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad are not buried here, so this place is not sacred for followers of the Muslim religion. 

According to other legends, the building was called “Ashratkhona” at all – which means “10 rooms” in Arabic, but no documentary evidence of this has been found.

The mausoleum building, which was once majestic, has lost its former beauty today as it has suffered from numerous earthquakes and has never been restored. After one of the earthquakes in 1897, the dome of the building collapsed. After another, in 1903, the side three-span gallery, which was located on the sides of the main hall of the mausoleum and a small dome mounted on arches, collapsed.

The monument of architecture of the XV century, from which only fragments of facades have been preserved, is installed on a five-meter foundation. During the study of this foundation, it was found that fragments of kashin tiles, which decorated the mausoleum, were produced right at the construction place. The facade was made of polished brick, all the sides of the facade were decorated with drawings, and the arched frames gave elegance and lightness to the building. The walls inside the mausoleum were decorated with a mosaic pattern and painted in gold. Not typical for the architecture of buildings of that time were high-placed window openings (panjara) decorated with multicolored glass, which abounded in Ishrathona. 

But despite all the historical value of the monument, which has been repeatedly pointed out by scientists, Ishratkhona constantly became the object of vandalism. Thus, a detailed study revealed that the bricks and marble for the construction of the takharatkhana (ablution room) at the mausoleum of Khoja Abdi Darun were taken from Ishratkhona.

“A building under a turquoise dome”, so Ishratkhona was mentioned in documents from the XV century. To date, only fragments of the original beauty and splendor of the mausoleum have been preserved, but despite this, the building gathers numerous tourists around it.