The Mausoleum of Amir Timur
Samarkand, a city that is one of the pearls of Central Asia. The monumental and majestic architectural monuments of this city fascinate guests and residents with their splendor. However, undoubtedly, the main monument of Samarkand is the tomb of the great commander who bore the title of Sahibkiran, Amir Timur.
The history of the construction of this monument begins with the beloved grandson and heir to the throne of Amir Timur, Muhammad Sultan. It was Muhammad Sultan who was to lead the country after Amir Timur. The young prince decided to start building a madrasah and a mosque before one of the campaigns, however, he was not destined to finish it. Muhammad Sultan unexpectedly passed away in 1403, at the age of 27, after a campaign against the Ottoman Empire, where he was heading with his grandfather. The grief-stricken Amir Timur, upon his return to Samarkand, orders to destroy the madrasah and mosque that were built on the orders of his grandson, and instead erect a tomb that would amaze everyone with its splendor and be worthy of his beloved grandson. Next to the tomb, he orders to erect a madrasah and a khanaka (Sufi monastery) named after Muhammad Sultan. The best architect of Iran, Mahmoud Isfahani, was invited to Samarkand by Amir Timur to build the mausoleum. According to the architect's idea, the building was made in the Azeri style, which was characteristic of medieval buildings in the Persian part of present-day Azerbaijan.
In 1405, two years after the construction of the tomb began, Amir Timur died of pneumonia during a campaign in China. Despite the fact that Sahibkiran bequeathed to bury himself to Kesh, and to transfer the throne to his heir Pir Muhammad after his death, the ruler's will was never fulfilled. The funeral of Amir Timur was organized by his grandson Khalil Sultan, by whose order Tamerlane was buried in the tomb of his grandson, Muhammad Sultan, which was not yet completed. In addition, Khalil Sultan illegally occupied the throne, which was supposed to pass to Pir Muhammad.
The construction of the tomb was completed only during the reign of the grandson of Amir Timur, a great scientist, commander and famous astronomer – Mirzo Ulugbek. By his decision, the tomb became a family crypt, where, in addition to Muhammad Sultan and Amir Timur, the sons and grandsons of the great commander were buried: Shahrukh, Miran Shah, Mirzo Ulugbek himself, Abdullo Mirzo and Abdurakhman Mirzo. In addition to representatives of the Timurid dynasty, the spiritual mentor of Amir Timur, the great Sufi sheikh, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, Mir Sayyid Baraka, was also buried here. It was he who handed Timur the symbols of power, the drum and the banner when he came to power in 1370, and then predicted a great future for him. Mir Sayyid Baraka blessed and accompanied the great commander in all his campaigns, and sincerely grieved with him about the early death of Muhammad Sultan. And Amir Timur himself claimed that all the luck that was in his life came to him only thanks to his friend and mentor Mir Sayyid Baraka.
Grave of Muhammad Sultan, Amir Timur and Mir Sayyid Baraka were buried in the mausoleum, the mausoleum began to be called differently: the Mausoleum of Amir Timur, Gur-Emir (Grave of Amir), Gur Mir (Grave of Mir, in honor of Mir Sayyid Baraka).
Mirzo Ulugbek installed carved wooden doors in the mausoleum and brought a jade stone for the tombstone of his grandfather, on which the phrase was carved: “Anyone who violates my peace, in this life or in the next, will be subjected to suffering and will perish.”
According to legends, the words from this terrible prophecy came true twice.
For the first time this happened during the conquest of Samarkand by Nadir Shah, who, after plundering the city, decided to take with him a unique jade tombstone. Upon arrival in Iran, he installed it as a stepping stone to his throne, which he wanted to show his greatness. However, immediately after that, inexplicable events began to occur. The state of Nadir Shah was overcome by hunger and thirst, many heirs to the throne began to die from terrible diseases, and later the Shah himself weakened. On the advice of the elders, Nadir Shah immediately returns the tombstone back to Timur's tomb, however, on the way the jade is dropped and it splits into two parts. The craftsmen try to connect the parts of the stone and hide the cracks, but despite this, the split is still visible to visitors of Gur-Emir.
The second legend connects the beginning of the Second World War with the opening of the grave of Amir Timur, which was carried out on Stalin's orders on June 19, 1941, in order to discover unique artifacts in the tomb. During the excavations, anthropologists and archaeologists created a portrait of Timur, but no artifacts were found, and exactly three days later, on June 22, 1941, in the early morning, Germany attacked the USSR.
Undoubtedly, the entire Gur-Emir impresses visitors with its grandeur, but the most striking element of the architectural monument is its dome, whose height is 12.5 meters and diameter reaches 15 meters. The dome has 64 facets, which corresponds to the years lived by the Prophet Muhammad. The dome is decorated with tiled materials of dark blue, blue and white colors. The round drum of the dome is decorated with ornaments and inscriptions on a background of yellow terracotta facing bricks.
The doors leading to the mausoleum, made of wood and decorated with carvings, amaze with their beauty. Above the portal, which is made in the Peshtak style and is a rectangular elevation with a pointed arch, the name of the main architect of the project, Muhammad ibn Mahmoud Isfahani, is written among the ornaments. The entrance portal is decorated with stalactites (mukarnas), which are made in blue and white shades.
Inside the building is octagonal in shape, the floors and the lower part of its walls are covered with marble, among which there are inserts of green serpentine and friezes with carved inscriptions. The dome of the building imitates the starry sky with its decor. The windows of the mausoleum are decorated with openwork panjara lattices. All the tombstones in the tomb and the fence around them are made of marble. However, the crypt itself and the true tombstones of the rulers and the sheikh are located under the marble hall. The crypt, which is reached by an ancient staircase, is much smaller and without decoration, however, all the tombstones in the form of flat marble slabs are arranged in the same order and with the same proportions as in the upper hall.
The masterpiece of the Persian architect became a prototype for other historical monuments, which were made in his image by the descendants of Amir Timur in other cities. This is how the Humoyun Mausoleum in Delhi and the Taj Mahal in Agra arose. The Gur-Emir building has no analogues in the world, except for a copy in St. Petersburg, which was erected in 1913 with the participation of the Emir of Bukhara and exactly repeated the dome of the Emir's tomb.
The building of the Mausoleum of Amir Timur has been restored several times. First in the XVII century, the descendants of Tamerlane, the Baburids. Then, in the XX century, the floors and the dome of the building were restored. Later, restoration work was carried out on the initiative of Sharaf Rashidov. The largest restoration of the architectural monument was carried out in 1991 on the initiative of the President of independent Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov. It was then that two minarets of the building were rebuilt and restored according to preserved photographs and other historical documents.
Since 2014, the Gur-Emir Mausoleum has been included in the list of “Pearls of the Commonwealth” of the CIS countries.