Saif ad-Din Bokharzi and Bayan-Quli Khan Mausoleums

History

Saif ad-Din Bokharzi, a disciple of Najm ad-Din Kubra, was a popular sheikh, poet and theologian. A large complex grew around his grave in the suburb of Fathabad: a khanqah filled a whole quarter, where the poor and the sick lived on bequests from wealthy benefactors. The Chagatai ruler Bayan-Quli Khan asked to be buried beside the sheikh, and his mausoleum went up in 1358; Bokharzi's own mausoleum was built in the late 14th century on the site of an older tomb.

The Bokharzi portal is thought to date from the 16th century. Large cracks opened in the building in the mid-20th century, and its walls and domes were braced with an iron frame.

Architecture

Bokharzi's mausoleum has two domes, over the tomb chamber and the prayer room. Its egg-shaped domes and arcaded portal are coated in white stucco. The tomb chamber once held a gravestone in a carved and painted 16th-century wooden case.

Bayan-Quli Khan's mausoleum is small but richly decorated: walls and dome are faced with carved terracotta under turquoise glaze, mixed with white, purple and blue tiles — a style typical of Transoxiana in the 1370s and 1380s. The khan's tombstone was removed and is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.