The Uzbek Architecture of Afghanistan1

Cahiers d’Asie centrale 8 | 2000 La Mémoire et ses supports en Asie centrale The Uzbek Architecture of Afghanistan Bernard O’Kane Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/asiecentrale/600 ISSN: 2075-5325 Publisher Éditions De Boccard Printed version Date of publication: 1 September 2000 Number of pages: 123-160 ISBN: 2-7449-0135-0 ISSN: 1270-9247 Electronic reference Bernard O’Kane, « The Uzbek Architecture of Afghanistan », Cahiers d’Asie centrale [Online], 8 | 2000, Online since 05 February 2010, connection on 19 April 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ asiecentrale/600 © Tous droits réservés Fig. 1 – Mazar-i Sharif, tombs to the south of the shrine, exterior (photo: 1930s, Robert Byron, courtesy the Conway Library, the Courtauld Institute of Art) Fig. 2 – Mazar-i Sharif, tomb of Kistan Qara Soltan (second half of the 16th century), east fa ade (photo: 1930s, Robert Byron, courtesy the Conway Library, the Courtauld Institute of Art) 123 The Uzbek Architecture of Afghanistan1 Bernard O’$ane (Le Caire) We are fortunate that an extensive account of the patronage of the Uzbeks in Afghanistan has been incorporated by Robert McChesney into his pioneering work Waqf in Central Asia2. .owever, it is arguable that the standing remains (including those now destroyed but documented in photographs) have not recei- ved the attention they deserve. It is a measure of the underestima- tion of Uzbek architecture in the 0alkh region that several buil- dings which have been ascribed to their predecessors, the Timurids, are more probably the work of various Uzbek dynas- ties. Chief among these is the maz+r (shrine) of Khwa1a Abu 2asr 3arsa at 0alkh, the others being the maz+r of Khwa1a 4Akkasha at 0alkh and two mausoleums at Mazar-i Sharif which were destroyed after the 1530s. The .istorical Setting The word Uzbek today is conventionally used in two senses, firstly to refer to the political system of the khans of Transoxiana of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, and secondly to refer to the tribal groups who provided the amirial power for these ruling khans. The khans derived their legitimacy from their descent from Chingis Khan3. In addition to the khans and the Uzbek amirs, the third ma1or power group within the state, and one especially rele- vant to the patronage of architecture, was the uluma and sheykhs. CA.IERS D:ASIE CE2TRALE 2< 8, 2000 12, Bernard O’$ane The state was based upon the appanage system, the four ma1or ones being the regions of 0ukhara, Samarqand, Tashkent and 0alkh. 0alkh was briefly brought under Uzbek control by the founder of the dynasty, Mohammad Shibani Khan, in 1505, but only after 1526, when the Shibanid Kistan Qara Soltan began his eighteen year governorship of the town, did Uzbek rule become lasting. Kistan Qara Soltan chose to be buried at the nearby 4Alid shrine (the maz+r-i sharif) upon his death in 1544, a move clearly in keeping with the impression of permanent Uzbek control over the region. Another long governorship of 3ir Mohammad b. Aani 0eg (1546-67) cemented the stability of the appanage, even if we know nothing of any patronage undertaken by this governor. 4Abd AllCh Khan was the nephew of 3ir Mohammad, and his campaign to end the internal Uzbek feuding that had broken out since the death of 4Obeyd AllCh in 1540 was launched from 0alkh. .owever, after 3ir Mohammad:s death in 1567 4Abd AllCh opened hostilities against the 0alkh appanage and ended by capturing it in 1573. .e made a pilgrimage to Mazar-i Sharif at the same time. 4Abd AllCh succeeded his father Iskandar in 1582 as Khan of 0ukhara, and promptly gave his son 4Abd al-Mo:men the governorship of 0alkh. In 1588-5 4Abd al-Mo:men and his father captured .erat after an arduous eleventh month siege4E during the next eight years, most of the cities of Khorasan fell to 4Abd al-Mo:men:s campai- gns. The booty that would have accrued from these conquests would obviously have been more than sufficient to finance his substantial building ventures in 0alkh and Mazar-i Sharif. .owever, these successful military ventures and his ambitions led to strained relations with his father and his father:s amirs. As a result, when 4Abd al-Mo:men succeeded his father in 1558 his reign las- ted a mere six months before he was assassinated at the hands of those amirs who feared for their lives. .is death sparked another round of internal fighting, with a different Chingisid branch, the Toqay-Timurid Khans5, emerging as the victors. The first Toqay-Timurid governor of 0alkh, Fali Mohammad (1601-6, ruling subsequently as Khan 1606-12), orde- red a number of improvements to the shrine, including a chah+r- b+.h surrounding it and a new tree-shaded road leading to it from 0alkh, but no traces of these remain6. The 0zbe1 Architecture of Af.hanistan 122 From the point of view of patronage, the last governor of importance for this study is Sobhan Qoli, who had an exceptio- nally long rule of thirty years at 0alkh (1651-81) during which his brother 4Abd al-:Aziz ruled as Khan at 0ukhara. Although the prosperity of Central Asia declined with that of the silk route in this period7, there were sufficient funds available for the erection of large madrasas by both Sobhan Qoli and 4Abd al-:Aziz Khan. Sobhan Qoli:s reign was marked by good relations with the uluma and Sufi communities, exemplified by the foundation ceremony of his madrasa in 0alkh (see below) where in a show of humility he handed bricks and mortar to various religious dignitaries8. Mazar-i Sharif The shrine of the shah-i mard+n, as the supposed tomb of 4Ali is called locally, is the reason for the existence of the town, which in the past century has supplanted 0alkh in importance. The main shrine building consists of a dome chamber and a preceding vaul- ted oratory. As McChesney has shown, this oratory was not part of the original Timurid construction, as had been previously sug- gested5, but can be equated with the 3+mi’-ye âst+na (shrine congregational mosque) which Mahmud b. Amir Fali says was built by 4Abd al-Mo:men10. Mahmud b. Amir Fali also writes that the tomb of Kistan Qara Soltan was located on the south side of the shrine11. This can probably be identified as one of two mausoleums that used to exist, until the 1530s at least, to the southeast and southwest of the shrine at Mazar (Fig. 1). One of them is illustrated in detail by 2iedermayer12, the other by him from afar13. 0ut fortunately extensive photographic documentation of them is present in the 0yron and Schroeder archives. The best evidence for the identification of these comes from C. E. Hate, who mentions a couple of mausoleums near the shrine. .e continuesI J the eastern building apparently contains tombs only of ladies of royal descentE but unfortunately the stones mostly either have either no name or no date, and the only real legible inscriptions are those to the memory of Kansh, daughter of Kilich Kara Soltan, dated A.D. 1543, and Sharifah Soltan, dated A.D. 1615. The tombstones in the western buil- 124 Bernard O’$ane ding are mostly similarly defaced, but among them are the names of Khan Kara Soltan, A.D. 1543E Kara Soltan, son of Aani 0eg, A.D. 1545E Kilich Kara Soltan, son of Kastin Kara Soltan, A.D. 1555E and Ibrahim MuKammad 0ahadur, son of Siun1 0ahadur, dated A.D. 1601. L According to Mahmud b. Amir Fali the .onbad of Kistan Qara Soltan b. Aani 0eg Khan was indeed ad1acent to the south side of the shrine14. In the T+ri1h-i 5az+r-i Sharif the tomb of Kistan Qara Soltan is called the Monbad-i Kabud, and Kistan Qara Sol- tan:s wife Tursun 0egum is credited with having first built it for herself15. The tombstones in the western mausoleum would seem to indicate that it may well have been the tomb of Kistan Qara Sol- tan. Kilich Qara Soltan was certainly the son of Kistan Qara Sol- tan, and is mentioned in .afiz Tanish as having been active up to 555N155216E Ibrahim MuKammad 0ahadur b. Suyunch 0ahadur is probably a misreading for MuKammad Ibrahim b. Suyunch17. 3er- haps Kara Soltan b. Aani 0eg should be identified with Kistan Qara Soltan, although the date of his death should be 1547 and not 1545. If the tomb was first built by Kistan Qara Soltan:s wife Tursun 0egum it would not be surprising to find him interred there after his death, as was the case in .erat, for example, with Mawhar Shad and her husband Shah Rukh18. 0oth mausoleums also were trans- formed into dynastic ones by numerous later burials. The identity of the other mausoleum is unclear – one would have thought that, as it is as substantial as the tomb of Kistan Qara Soltan, Mahmud b. Amir Fali would also have mentioned it in his description of the shrine surroundings in 1634-515. Its location does seems to correspond with the 7aẓira (i.e. an open tomb with a low walled surround20) of Ayum 0ibi, one of the wives of 2azr Mohammad – he mentions the tomb of Kistan Qara Soltan after it, and then mentions that both were on the southern side of the tomb, the first (i.e. that of Ayum 0ibi) on the right of the Khiya- ban, the second on the left. .owever, the mausoleum is obviously a .onbad and not 1ust a 7aẓira, and, assuming Hate is right, it contained much earlier women:s tombs, including one daughter of Kistan Qara Soltan.

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