MAUSOLEE ISMAIL SAMANI

Nicknamed the «pearl of the Orient», the mausoleum of the Samanides has long been forgotten at the bottom of a cemetery. When the Shishkin archaeologist was born in 1930, on the occasion of the development of Samani Park, he was drowned in the middle of other graves buried under several feet of land, which earned him to be spared by the Mongolian tornado and through a thousand years of history. Today the necropolis disappeared, a park was built around the mausoleum, and a basin was dug to restore its original configuration. The Soviets admired the power of its architecture and wanted to make it a museum. The Uzbeks, however, worship the founder of one of the most prestigious Central Asian dynasties. It is even said that Ismail Samani, buried in the mausoleum, continued to reign for a long time on Bukhara from his grave. The sheikhs or imams came to see him and waited for his answer to make decisions about the city. The pearl of the East is a witness to Bukhara's golden age. Built in the early th century by Ismail Samani, for his father Akhmad, this dynastic tomb is the oldest Muslim mausoleum not only in Central Asia but perhaps in the world. Its precise dating would determine whether the tradition of building a mausoleum for Muslim dynasties was born here, or in Iraq, with the tomb of the caliph Al Mountasir. Its architecture retains a sogdienne influence but incorporates revolutionary construction techniques for the time. The mausoleum is designed as symbolic representation of the universe: a cube of just under 11 m beside the four identical facades, symbol of earth and stability, surmounted by a half-spherical dome which is the sogdienne representation of the universe. Above the door of the mausoleum is represented a circle in a square: the fire symbol of eternity. The decorative techniques made of bricks assembled by groups of four or five in different senses also constitute an innovation that will mark the following centuries. The mausoleum has 18 different combinations, including three dimensions. Its proportions and decorative motifs meet the dynamic square principle, an architectural discovery that gives the whole power and rarely ever harmony. According to the position of the sun, the pieces of bricks give the monument a different light and appearance, in spite of the sobriety of its shape. The manufacturers used baked brick, cemented with egg yolk and camel milk. This unusual material and its scholarly assembly allowed the monument to cross more than one millennium without suffering earthquakes. The pilgrims do three times the tower of the mausoleum by reciting prayers. Some tourists also, because it is said that if you wish to return to Bukhara… the wish is realized.