Tours over architectural places of interest of Samarkand.

«Memory is the treasure house of the mind wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved»

Thomas Fuller.

Night-time tour in Samarkand.

At the beginning of the XV century, the upper group of Shahi – Zinda was enriched by the new female mausoleum, which received the name of the youngest wife of Amir-Temur - Tuman-aka. The building has elongated form.
Double dome, internal - constructive and external - decorative, lays on the high drum. The interior is characterized by light ganch with fine stylized ornament in bluish – dark blue palette with a plenty of gilding.
Tuman-aka mausoleum was built as separate structure simultaneously with memorial mosque, having dome ceiling on crossed vaults and bright mosaic mihrab. The southern wall of Tuman-aka mausoleum was used as the northern wall of the mosque.
Hudjra to the south from the mosque was earlier connected with it by means of the aperture and was attached to Emir Burunduk mausoleum. Above the entrance to hudjra there is an inscription informing that the mosque was established by Tuman-aka, the daughter of fair emir Musa.
On the mausoleum, there is a date of construction (1405 - 1406), alongside with the name of the master - calligrapher from Tabriz. Tuman-aka was from the Chinggisids and was born in the family of Kazan-khan’s son, Amir Musa, the brother of Sarai Mulk-Khanum. In 1378, she married Amir Temur.
Their marriage gave them a daughter. In Shahi-Zinda necropolis, the name of Tuman-aka is connected with the mausoleum, mosque, hudjra and upper chortak. Besides that, the name of Tuman-aka was given to khanaka and tim on Registan.
On the death of Temur, she became a wife of Sheikh Nur ad-Din, governing in Sygnak. When Sheikh Nur ad-Din was killed, Tuman-aka was taken by Shahruh to Herat. She died in Khurasan and was buried in ancestral village of Qusayy.

Authority:
Alexey Arapov. Samarkand. Masterpieces of Central Asia. Tashkent, San’at. 

Photos by
Alexander Petrov.