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Detail of a Wall in Ulugh Beg (Interior). Samarkand

1905
In the town center in Samarkand is the Registan complex, composed of three major examples of the madrasah (religious school). The oldest madrasah on Registan Square is named after the astronomer king Ulugh Beg (1393?–1449; grandson of Timur), who built it in 1417–20. During Ulugh Beg’s reign some 100 students attended this leading center of Islamic education. The ceramic panels shown here are from the courtyard niche of the great iwan arch. The delicate polychrome work includes faience tiles with intricate botanical figures. These are set within geometric patterns of monochrome tiles integrated with words in block Kufic script from the Kalima, or Islamic declaration of faith. The image is by Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944), who used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many parts of the empire. In 1911 he traveled to a region of Central Asia then known as Turkestan (present-day Uzbekistan and neighboring states), where he photographed many of the monuments of Samarkand’s Islamic architecture.

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5765.jpg
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acku Afghanistan
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1800x1669 / 718.8KB
Contained in galleries
UZBEKISTAN
1905<br />
In the town center in Samarkand is the Registan complex, composed of three major examples of the madrasah (religious school). The oldest madrasah on Registan Square is named after the astronomer king Ulugh Beg (1393?–1449; grandson of Timur), who built it in 1417–20. During Ulugh Beg’s reign some 100 students attended this leading center of Islamic education. The ceramic panels shown here are from the courtyard niche of the great iwan arch. The delicate polychrome work includes faience tiles with intricate botanical figures. These are set within geometric patterns of monochrome tiles integrated with words in block Kufic script from the Kalima, or Islamic declaration of faith. The image is by Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944), who used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many parts of the empire. In 1911 he traveled to a region of Central Asia then known as Turkestan (present-day Uzbekistan and neighboring states), where he photographed many of the monuments of Samarkand’s Islamic architecture.