Rukhabad complex

The Rukhabad complex in central Samarkand is an ensemble built around the mausoleum of Burhan ad-Din Sagarji, a Sufi preacher and theologian of the Timurid era, whose family and descendants are also buried on the site. Tradition holds that Timur himself ordered the tomb built, around 1380, to honor the scholar after his death. Unlike the grand portal-fronted mausoleums typical of Timurid Samarkand, Rukhabad is deliberately modest, entered through three plain doorways from the north, south and west, with its fired-brick interior finished in carved alabaster rather than tilework; its name, meaning roughly abode of the spirit, reflects this Sufi emphasis on humility over display. Local legend holds that a box containing hairs of the Prophet Muhammad was once kept beneath its dome. The surrounding ensemble also takes in a mosque and a madrasa, together registered as an object of tangible cultural heritage of Uzbekistan.