Sayfiddin Boharziy Maqbarasi

Bukhara, Uzbekistan

A shrine located within the Fathabad Complex bears the name of Sayf al-Din Bakharzi, shaykh of the Kubravi Sufi order, who died in 1261. The extant shrine may be dated on stylistic grounds to the late fourteenth century, and it is probable that it replaced an earlier shrine located nearby. The two adjacent domed square rooms that comprise the structure were constructed in one building phase. The larger eastern chamber, with a central opening on each wall, constitutes a ziyarat khana. The western opening of this chamber accesses the smaller room, the mausoleum. The domes are both egg-shaped; the dome over the eastern chamber has, however, collapsed.

It is thought that the monumental eastern façade was an addition of the late fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. This façade features a tall pishtaq perforated at the top with an open arcade, flanked by three tiers of arches, which are in turn abutted by corner towers.

Plaster once covered all the interior surfaces. The muqarnas retain traces of low relief detail in plaster. A carved wooden sarcophagus that originally enclosed the tomb is now located in the Bukhara Museum.

Sources:

Golombek, L. and Wilber, D. eds. 1988. The Timurid Architecture of Iran and Turan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 225-226