GOUR EMIR

Like Genghis Khan, Tamerlane wanted to be buried soberly: " Just a stone and my name on it ", he had said, and his tomb had been prepared in a crypt in Shahrisabz, his hometown. But history decided otherwise.

In 1401, Muhamad Sultan, Tamerlane's favorite grandson, commissioned the construction of an architectural complex with four minarets, consisting of an inner courtyard bordered by four iwans, overlooked by a madrasa to the east and a khanaka to the west. The madrasa was dedicated to the education of the sons of noble families destined to work in the administration. The khanaka, residence of the dervishes, also housed a mosque (traces of the foundations). Admire the richly decorated portal, inscribed in Persian: "Built by the weak slave Mohamed, son of Mahmoud, from Isfahan".

In 1403, when the young Muhamad Sultan perished during a campaign in Persia, Tamerlane commissioned the construction of this mausoleum, the finest in the world, for the man in whom he had seen his successor. When the first dome was completed, Tamerlane deemed it too small, had it demolished and ordered the construction of a new, larger dome, which was completed in less than two weeks. Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo recounts how the workers toiled day and night, and describes Tamerlane himself coming to supervise the work, ill and in bed. In February 1405, Tamerlane died and his body, embalmed with musk and camphor, was temporarily and secretly buried in the khanaka next to his grandson.

It wasonly four years later, when the succession struggles had been settled, that the royal remains were returned to the mausoleum crypt. On this occasion, Tamerlan's spiritual master, Sheik Mir-Said-Bereke, was also buried. And later, other Timurids, including two of Tamerlane's sons, Shakhrukh and Miranshakh, as well as his grandson Ulugh Begh, who brought back from Mongolia the nephrite block covering Tamerlane's tomb and surrounding the mortuary slabs.

The building is grandiose. On the 32 m-high outer dome, a Sufi inscription reads: "Allah is the only God and Mohammed is his prophet." On this drum rests a dome 12.50 m high and 15 m in diameter, composed of sixty-four blue majolica ribs dotted with yellow and blue lozenges. The interior of the mausoleum is even more sumptuous: first, the translucent green of the onyx walls, once enhanced by gold and lazurite decorations, and then the blue and gold Koranic inscriptions above.