Timurid Architecture (15th Century)

This dynasty's architectural legacy is rooted in its history as an expansive empire that drew on formalistic centrally planned, highly symmetrical, Persian architectural structures and typologies, while integrating reinterpreted architectural elements, mostly decorative, from Central Asia.

The madrasa-khanqah complex evolves to articulate the empire's approach to force and statecraft that looked to Islam for its unifying and propagandistic powers. Specific architectural devices, such as the elaborate system of squinch-net vaulting, were developed in Herat under the patronage of Shah Rukh's wife Gawharshad and have persisted in subsequent architectural periods of the Safavids, Mughals and Ottomans.

Architecture of the Timurid period can be divided into four periods, distinguished by each timeframe's ruler: Under Timur(1370-1405): Timur reiterated the success of his conquest and overthrow of the Ilkhanids by transferring the seat of government to Kish, where he was born, and renaming the city Shahr-i Sabz (or the Green City). By moving the capital away from Samarqand, over the Zarafshan Mountains, Timur articulated his connection to the steppe.

He began his building program with the erection of his palace Aqsaray, or the White Palace (1379-96). Today, only a shattered portal remains of what had been a glorious palatial structure with a 22-meter wide iwan flanked by bastions built of brick and embellished with the finest tile decorations. The palace is said to have displayed expansive surfaces covered with brick mosaic and smaller wall surfaces inlaid with elaborate multicolored tile panels executed in the cuerda seca technique and signed by Muhammed Yusuf from Tabriz.

Along with his palace, Timur supported the construction of a tomb over the grave of Sufi Shaykh Ahmad Yasavi.

Once Timur had established rule, articulated his steppe origin, he moved his capital back to the more convenient and established capital Samarqand. Here he began a fairly ambitious building program with the mosque Bibi Khanum. The mosque follows the Persian four-iwan plan popular since the twelfth century, but integrates a design innovation, dome chambers beyond the lateral iwans. With this modification to the Persian four-iwan plan, Timur expresses his embrace of Persian notions of rule and organization but with the addition of characteristics from throughout his empire. His empire was to be vast and all encompassing. According to the contemporary chronicler Sharaf al-Din 'Ali Yazdi masons from Iran and India were used.

Mausoleum architecture was well developed under Timur's reign. After his death in 1405, he was buried in the Gur-i Amir in Samarqand rather than in his hometown Shahr-i Sabz, as originally planned. His son Shah Rukh arranged Timur's burial.

Under Shah Rukh and his wife Gawharshad (1405-47) Timur's conquest and establishment of the Timurid Empire was consolidated by his successor Shah Rukh. Shah Rukh looked to the Central Asian heartland of Khurasan and ruled his empire from Herat. With the empire consolidated he felt confident awarding rule over Transoxiana to his son Ulughbeg who was based in Samarqand; and Western Iran to his other son Ibrahim Sultan who ruled from Shiraz.

Architecturally speaking, the empire was unified in part through the madrasa system where education was used to introduce certain orthodox ideas about religion and governance and this new curriculum was articulated through architecture. The proliferation of the madrasa-khanqah complex under Shah Rukh's reign served to relate the learned class or Ulema and the Sufi contingent. For example, Ulughbeg in Samarqand commissioning of the royal madrasa and khanqah with their facades mirrored across the Registan (town square in Samarqand).

Shah Rukh and his wife Gawharshad were experimental patrons of architecture. They looked to the development of shrines to support Shi'ite communities; for example, through the patronage and restoration of the shrine of Imam Riza at Mashhad. For this construction and many that ensued they relied on the talents of architect Qavam al-Din Shirazi.

In Herat, Gawharshad ordered the erection of a large complex, designed by Qavam al-Din Shirazi. In this complex numerous architectural innovations are found. The mausoleum is the earliest example of the use of an elaborate system of squinch-net vaulting -- to compose a unified vertical composition. Squinch-net vaulting is the most important Timurid architectural innovation. And it appears to have evolved out of experiments with transverse vaulting over rectangular spaces. The spatial impact of this technique is the creation of open interior space through the minimization of supportive walls and piers.

Upon Shah Rukh's death in 1447, his son Ulughbeg took power but reigned for only two years before being murdered by his own son.

Under Sultan Husayn Bayqara and his confidant 'Alishir Nava'i (1470-1506)

Most remarkable of Timurid patrons, Husayn b. Mansur Bayqara (1470-1506) ruled Khurasan from Herat. In this period Herat was populated by the greatest of cultural minds and artistic spirits. The poet Abd al-Rahman Jami (1414-92) and the master of miniature painting Bihzad are but two examples of this time in Herat.

Together with his confidant Alishir Nava'i, Bayqara, is documented to have patronized 52 caravanserai; 20 mosques; 19 cisterns; 14 bridges; 10 khanqahs and related buildings; 9 baths; 5 soup kitchens; 4 madrasas; and one hospital.

Under the Timurids, rivals in western Iran -- the Qaraqoyunlu or Black Sheep (1380 - 1468) and the Aqqoyunlu or White Sheep (1378 - 1508)

While the Timurids dominated Eastern Iran and Khurasan, Western Iran was the domain of the Qaraqoyunlu and the Aqqoyunlu Turkomen Confederations who controlled lands from Eastern Anatolia to Northern Iraq through the fourteenth century. Although not active builders they did contribute a few buildings in principal centers such as Tabriz and Isfahan and Hisnkayfa. Timurid influence is very apparent in their architecture; for instance, with the bulbous dome and tile-work that decorates the tomb erected for Zayn al-Mirza at Hisnkayfa. Other examples of their approach to building include the Blue Mosque at their capital Tabriz, and the more resplendent Nasriyya Complex by Aqqoyunlu Uzun Hasan (1453-78). Under these rulers the region of Yazd continued to prosper.