Samanid Mausoleum

The tomb of Ismail Samani, founder of the Samanid state, is the earliest surviving building in Bukhara and one of the oldest brick mausoleums in the Islamic world. It was put up at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries: an almost perfect cube about eleven metres to a side, walls close to two metres thick, a hemispherical dome, four small domes at the corners and a light arcaded gallery along the top. The scheme of a dome on four arches repeats the pre-Islamic chartak, the square pavilion of Zoroastrian sanctuaries, so the building stands exactly at the junction of two traditions. All the decoration is made by the masonry itself: the fired brick is laid so that the walls read like basketwork and change their pattern as the sun moves; the corners are gathered into three-quarter columns, and small arched windows cut through the upper gallery. Several burials were found inside: besides Ismail, his father Ahmad ibn Asad lies here, and an inscription on a wooden beam identified his grandson, Nasr ibn Ahmad, as well. The building survived the invasion of Genghis Khan because by that time it had been buried in sand and built over by a cemetery. The mausoleum was excavated in the 1920s, and in 1937-1939 it was cleared of graves and restored; today it stands in the middle of a park laid out on the site of the former necropolis.

Address

Samanid Park, Bukhara

Opening hours

8:00-20:00

Prices

Free admission

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