Maqbarah-i Amirzadah

Samarkand, Uzbekistan

The Amirzadeh Mausoleum is located within the Shah-i Zindah funerary complex; mausolea built between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries that form a string of spectacular tilework down the southern slope of the Afrasiyab hill, north of Samarkand.

An unknown amir built the so-called 'Amirzadeh' abutting the southern façade of the earlier Shad-i Mulk Aqa mausoleum. The simple square chamber supports a single shell dome with brick ribs. An elaborately decorated pishtaq on a socle faces the Shah-i Zindah corridor. The decorative scheme makes extensive use of underglaze painted tile with areas of relief, and also carved glazed terracotta, incised imitation brick mosaic, and haft-rangi tiles. An inscription on the façade provides the date 1386.

The southern exterior façade is articulated with two arched niches within rectangular frames. Each of the interior walls is articulated with three blind arches. A sixteen-sided drum resting on an octagon forms the interior zone of transition. The mausoleum contains eight graves.

Sources:

Brandenburg, Dietrich. Samarkand: Studien zur Islamischen Baukunst in Uzbekistan (Zentralasien), 53-55. Berlin: Bruno Hessling Verlag, 1972.

Golombek, Lisa, and Donald Wilber. The Timurid Architecture of Iran and Turan, 246. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.