The khan's tilework
In turquoise, blue, white and purple.
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Two mausoleums stand close together in Fathabad, east of medieval Bukhara: the twin-domed tomb of the Kubrawi Sufi master Sayf al-Din Bokharzi (1190–1261) and the smaller tomb, clad in rare 14th-century carved and glazed terracotta, of Bayan-Quli, a Chagatai khan killed in 1358. A disciple of Najm al-Din Kubra, Bokharzi headed a Sufi lodge in Bukhara for some forty years, honoured as Shaykh al-Alam, sheikh of the world; chronicles relate that Berke, later khan of the Golden Horde, embraced Islam at his hands. His grave became one of Bukhara's great shrines. Bayan-Quli, a puppet khan raised by the emir Qazaghan in 1348, was killed after his patron's murder and buried near the sheikh. Bokharzi's present tomb is late 14th-century; its towered portal is probably later. Its domed burial chamber and memorial hall are plain and white-plastered. The khan's tomb, built soon after his death, has a domed hall about 6 m square and a small burial chamber. Its carved terracotta of arabesques, geometric patterns and inscriptions, glazed turquoise, deep blue, white and purple, survives best in the hall and foreshadows the tiled tombs of Samarkand's Shah-i-Zinda. Some tiles removed in the late 19th century are in London's Victoria and Albert Museum and in Hamburg. The tombs lie about 2 km east of Lyabi-Hauz in a straight line: about 10 minutes by taxi, or a walk of 30 minutes or more. Allow 30 to 60 minutes and dress modestly. Chor Minor is 1.7 km away on the way back, and the Bahauddin Naqshband Complex about 9 km north-east.
In turquoise, blue, white and purple.
Laid out around the tombs after independence.
Over tomb and memorial hall.
Fathabad area, about 2 km east of Lyabi-Hauz, Bukhara
The patterns and lettering were carved deep into the terracotta, and coloured glazes were laid over them ahead of a last firing. The Victoria and Albert Museum says Central Asian workshops used this method only briefly, from about 1350 into the early 15th century.
A medieval chronicle relates that Berke first sent the sheikh a paiza, a tablet of protection; the sheikh told the envoy to hang it on a donkey and turn the animal loose in the steppe, and he would accept it only if it kept the flies off. Berke then came to Bukhara himself, waited three days at his door and embraced Islam at his hands.
