Mausoleum of the Samanids (turn of the 9th–10th centuries)

The mausoleum stands in Samanid Park, on the site of an old cemetery not far from the Registan, and counts among Bukhara's oldest monuments. It is generally dated to the end of the tenth century and linked to Ismail Samani, founder of the dynasty that ruled from 875 to 999. There is evidence he built it for his father, Ahmad ibn Asad, but it later became the family tomb: Ismail himself lies here and, if the inscriptions by the entrance are to be believed, his grandson as well.

It is the oldest monument of Islamic architecture in all Central Asia — and a roofed structure, which Islam did not encourage. The first and the last mausoleum of its kind in Islamic history. The decoration carries the traditions of Zoroastrian fire temples, alongside devices that would later become classics of the Central Asian manner.

It is built largely of fired brick on a square plan. Almost undecorated columns stand at the four corners, carrying an arcade of ten arches a side. Small domes sit at the corners of the roof, shifted slightly inward from the columns, with the main dome at the centre.

The walls are laid in patterned brickwork, horizontal and vertical courses alternating, and this makes the building look different at different hours — the relief catches light at changing angles. The brick rings along the frieze run in a chain and strongly recall Sasanian pearls, the drilled beads carved into ganch plaster in the palaces of pre-Islamic Central Asia. In places the brick is laid as basketwork, which shows better than anything how skilled the builders were.

The mausoleum marks a new age after the Arab conquests: the old local traditions had not gone away, and building in fired brick proved a step forward. In Bukhara, look at it at different times of day — it really is a different building each time.