SHAH I ZINDA NECROPOLIS

The necropolis of the "Living King", Shah-i-Zinda, is an alleyway that climbs the Afrosyab hill and once led to the gates of the ancient city. An unusual street on the edge of which was built, in the ^11th century, the mausoleum of Qassim-ibn Abbas, Muslim missionary and cousin of the Prophet Mohammed, who arrived in Sogdiana in 676 with the first wave of Arab conquerors. Qassim-ibn Abbas was beheaded by the infidels while praying, and legend has it that he then took his head and descended into a well leading to paradise, where he presided over a "court of souls" surrounded by two assessors.

The legend echoes the Zoroastrian myth of the judges of the underworld: Solar Mithra, Srôsh and Rashn, and the pre-Islamic myth of the "Living King", which recounts how, after his death, King Afrosyab continued to reign in the realm of the dead. Arab conquerors and Islamic missionaries appropriated many Zoroastrian, Manichaean and Nestorian beliefs for the benefit of the heroes of the new religion.

In the ^11th and ^12th centuries, numerous tombs and mausoleums were built near the saint's tomb and the great mosque that adjoined it. When the ancient city of Samarkand was taken and destroyed by the Mongols, only the tomb of Qassim-ibn Abbas (also known as Kussam or Kutham) was spared. During the Timurid era, in the ^14th and ^15th centuries, noble families and members of Tamerlane's family built mausoleums near that of Qassim-ibn Abbas. In Islamic belief, proximity to a saint's tomb ensures protection in the afterlife. These new constructions gave the street its present configuration.

The entrance portal, or pishtak, is flanked by the first chortak, a small passageway surmounted by a dome supported by four arches (literally: " chortak "), where the following inscription can be read: "This majestic complex was built by Abd-al-Aziz khan, son of Ulugh Begh, son of Shakhrukh, son of Emir Timur in the year 838 of the Hegira" (1434-1435). In fact, it was Ulugh Begh who actually built it, on behalf of his infant son.

At the foot of the forty-step "Stairway to Paradise", or "Fishermen's Stairway", stands a mosque with iwan and finely sculpted colonnades, where believers come to listen to the imam's prayers. This is where Qassim-ibn Abbas is said to have been beheaded.

The staircase leads to the mausoleum of Kazy Zadeh Roumi, on the left, built between 1420 and 1435 for Ulugh Begh's tutor. Considered the Plato of his time, Kazy Zadeh Roumi was not actually buried here: the skeleton discovered in the mausoleum was that of a woman, perhaps Tamerlan's nurse. This is the largest building in the complex. The prayer hall and mausoleum are surmounted by two very high domes. The staircase was built in the ^18th century, on the site of the ancient walls surrounding Samarkand in pre-Mongol times. It leads up to the second chortak, built in the ^19th century on the site of the ancient Afrosyab wall.

The first mausoleum to the right of the second chortak is that of Emir Hussein, also known as Tuglu Tekin, son of a Turk named Kara Kutkul and a famous Turkish commander whom Tamerlane took as his model, while claiming descent from him. Tamerlane had the mausoleum built in 1376, even though Tuglu Tekin had died a martyr in the ^8th century.

Opposite it, the mausoleum of Emir Zade (son of the Emir) dates from 1386 and is believed to house the remains of an unknown son of Tamerlan. Just above, on the same side, the mausoleum of Shadi Mulk Aka (1372) was built on the orders of Tamerlane's sister, Tourkan Ata, to bury her daughter. The emperor, for whom his niece meant a great deal, had the following inscription engraved: "This is a tomb where a precious pearl was lost." This is the oldest mausoleum in the complex, and also the oldest building in Timurid Samarkand.

Opposite, in the mausoleum of Chirin Bika Aka (1385), lies Tamerlan's second sister, under a dome with a 16-sided base. The façade is decorated with dark-blue openwork mosaics. The interior decoration was created by an Azerbaijani artist. Surprisingly, the Arabic inscriptions on either side of the portal are not suras from the Koran, but the words of the Greek philosopher Socrates. They read: "Socrates said: people sadden in all circumstances."

On the same side, the octahedral mausoleum remains a mystery. Dating from the ^15th century, it is considered a mausoleum, but no human remains have been found. Another hypothesis is that it could be a minaret, but its vast rotunda architecture offers no evidence of this. Little is known about the next three mausoleums on the left-hand side of the alley. The third chortak opens onto the northern end and last part of the necropolis. On the left, the Tuman Aka mosque, dating from 1405, and the adjoining mausoleum, built in 1404, for Tuman Aka, Tamerlane's youngest wife. On a square base, the turquoise-blue dome rests on a high cylindrical drum. While the mosaics on the portal may recall the mausoleum of Chirin Bika Aka, the originality of the decoration lies in the use of the color violet, extremely rare at the time. The interior has been left deliberately white, which is also unusual, and decoration is limited to a few landscape frescoes under the dome. Above the finely carved wooden door, the inscription reads: "The tomb is a door that everyone passes through." Opposite the Tuman Aka mosque, the finely crafted elm-wood door, once embellished with gold, silver and ivory, is the work of the master Youssouf of Shiraz. Nicknamed the "Gate of Paradise", it has opened onto the kingdom of Qassim-ibn Abbas for over 600 years. Excavations on the right-hand side of the corridor have uncovered the remains of the wall of the former ^11th-century mosque, whose minaret can be seen above and to the right. It too dates from the ^11th century, making it the oldest monument in the complex, and the only one of its kind in Chah-i-Zinda. Beyond the "Gate of Paradise", the corridor leads to the Qassim-ibn Abbas mosque. The mihrab is decorated in mosaic, a technique used in Samarkand from the end of the ^14th century, with Central Asian craftsmen becoming virtuosos. The glazed earthenware mosaic pieces depict leaves, flower petals, thin branches or inscriptions, and are assembled without gaps. The next room is the ziaratkhana, or prayer room. Behind a wooden fence, in the gurkhana, is the tomb of Qassim-ibn Abbas, dating from the ^11th century and entirely decorated with majolica. The inscription reads: "He who has died following Allah is not dead: in truth, he is alive" Here, too, archaeologists have investigated and discovered an 18 m-deep well. The room's decorations may appear to be original, so faded are they. In fact, they were completely restored in 1995, but the humidity was such that all the work was ruined in the following months. An air-conditioning unit was installed in an attempt to remedy the problem, but one only has to look at the corners of the walls and floor to realize the vanity of the attempt. To spare what remains, we strongly advise against leaning on the walls, or even placing your fingers on them.

On leaving the saint's tomb, immediately to the right and opposite the Tuman Aka mausoleum is the Kutlug Aka mausoleum, built in 1360 and housing another of Tamerlan's wives. Its portal is decorated with chiselled and glazed terracotta.

Closing the northern end of the necropolis, the Khodja Akhmad mausoleum dates from 1350 and is the oldest mausoleum in Shah-i-Zinda after that of Qassim-ibn Abbas. Its portal was decorated with blue and white majolica by Samarkand craftsman Fakhr Ali.