Gur-e Amir

The Gūr-i Amīr or Guri Amir (Uzbek: Amir Temur maqbarasi, Goʻri Amir, Persian: گورِ امیر) is a mausoleum of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (also known as Tamerlane) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It occupies an important place in the history of architecture of Turkestan as the precursor for and having influence on the later Mughal tombs, including the Bagh-e-Babur in Kabul, Humayun's Tomb in Delhi and the Taj Mahal in Agra, built by Timur's descendants, the Mughals, that shaped Indian culture with Central Asian influences. The mausoleum has been heavily restored over the course of its existence.

Background

Gur-e Amir means "Tomb of the King" in Persian. This architectural complex with its azure dome contains the tombs of Timur, his sons Shah Rukh and Miran Shah and grandsons Ulugh Beg and Muhammad Sultan. Also honoured with a place in the tomb is Timur's teacher Sayyid Baraka.

The earliest part of the complex was built at the end of the 14th century by the orders of Muhammad Sultan. Now, only the foundations of the madrasah and khanqah, the entrance portal, and a part of one of four minarets remains.

The construction of the mausoleum began in 1403 after the sudden death of Muhammad Sultan, Timur's heir apparent and his beloved grandson, for whom it was intended. Timur had built for himself a smaller tomb in Shahrisabz near his Ak-Saray Palace. However, when Timur died in 1405 on campaign on his military expedition to China, the passes to Shahrisabz were snowed in, and so he was buried here instead. Ulugh Beg, another grandson of Timur, completed the work. During his reign the mausoleum became the family crypt of the Timurid dynasty.

Architecture

The entrance portal to the Muhammad Sultan ensemble is richly decorated with carved bricks and various mosaics. All the extensions of Ulugh Beg's time are attributed to the architect Muhammad ibn Mahmud from Isfahan.

Outwardly, the Gur-e Amir Mausoleum is a one-cupola building. It is famous for its simplicity of construction and for its solemn monumentality of appearance. It is an octahedral building crowned by an azure fluted dome. The exterior decoration of the walls consists of the blue, light-blue and white tiles organized into geometrical and epigraphic ornaments against a background of terracotta bricks. The dome (diameter – 15 m (49.21 ft), height – 12.5 m (41.01 ft)) is of a bright blue color with deep rosettes and white spots. Heavy ribbed fluting gives an amazing expressiveness to the cupola.

During the reign of Ulugh Beg a doorway was made to provide an entrance into the mausoleum.

Inwardly, the mausoleum appears as a large, high chamber with deep niches at the sides and diverse decoration. The lower part of the walls covered are by onyx slabs composed as one panel. Each of these slabs is decorated with refined paintings. Above the panel there is a marble stalactite cornice. Large expanses of the walls are decorated with painted plaster; the arches and the internal dome are ornamented by high-relief papier-mâché cartouches, gilded and painted.

The ornate carved headstones in the inner room of the mausoleum merely indicate the location of the actual tombs in a crypt directly underneath the main chamber. Under Ulugh Beg's government a solid block of dark green jade was placed over the grave of Tamerlane. Formerly this stone had been used at a place of worship in the Chinese emperor's palace, then as the throne of Duwa (a descendant of Genghis Khan) in Chagatay Khanate. Next to Tamerlane's grave lie the marble tombstones of his sons Miran Shah and Shah Rukh and also of grandsons Muhammad Sultan and Ulugh Beg. Tamerlane's spiritual teacher Mir Said Baraka, also rests here.

History

Erected on the initiative and at the expense of Timur in 1404, this masterpiece of craftsmanship from the Timurid period occupies an important place in the history of Islamic architecture. The main architect of the mausoleum was Muhammad ibn Mahmud Isfahani, a native of the Iranian city of Isfahan.

Construction

In 1403, after a military campaign against the Ottoman Empire, Muhammad Sultan, Timur's heir to the throne, died. Returning to Samarkand in the fall of 1404, Timur ordered for him the construction of a mausoleum, which became the family crypt of the Gur-e-Amir. The mausoleum was built in the southeastern part of medieval Samarkand, near the madrasa and khanqah of Muhammad Sultan.

Timur died during a campaign in China. In January 1405, he arrived in the city of Otrar (its ruins are near the confluence of Arys into the Syr Darya), where he fell ill and died (18 February according to most historians, 15 February according to the tombstone of Timur). Timur's body was embalmed, placed in an ebony coffin upholstered in silver brocade, and contrary to the will of Timur, who willed to be buried in his native Shahrisabz, was taken to Samarkand on the initiative of his grandson Khalil-sultan. Tamerlane was buried in the Gur-e-Amir mausoleum, at that time still unfinished. The official mourning events were held on 18 March 1405 by Timur's grandson Khalil-Sultan (1405–1409), who seized the Samarkand throne against the will of his grandfather, who bequeathed the throne to his eldest grandson Pir Muhammad.

During Ulugh Beg's reign, the mausoleum became the Timurid family crypt; a doorway was made to provide an entrance to the mausoleum.