Jahangir Mausoleum

History

Jahangir Mirza (1356–1376) was Timur’s eldest son and first heir, and his death in 1376 at the age of twenty was a heavy blow to his father. According to Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi, Timur then built a special edifice in Kesh where his son and other princes were to be buried. The Jahangir Mausoleum is the only tomb of that vast complex, Dorus-Saodat, to have survived intact.

Timur later named Jahangir’s sons, Muhammad Sultan and Pir Muhammad, as heirs one after the other, but neither ever came to the throne.

Architecture

The building is instantly recognisable by its conical outer dome on a tall faceted drum. The form is rare in Mawarannahr and is linked by scholars to Khorezmian tradition; Timur is known to have used Khorezmian craftsmen in Shahrisabz. The portal and drum are decorated with glazed brick and tile, and inside the pendentives beneath the dome and fragments of inscriptions survive.

Next to the mausoleum you can see the excavated base of a huge arch, the main portal of Dorus-Saodat, whose span was only 1.7 m smaller than Ak-Saray’s.

Did you know?

In the 1370s Timur married Jahangir to Khanzada (Sevin Beg), a princess of the Sufi dynasty of Khorezm, a match meant to bind the Khorezmian dynasty to him. Their son Muhammad Sultan grew up to be one of his grandfather’s most trusted commanders.