What instructions were written on the mosaic panel and door of the Gur-E-Amir mausoleum?

The architecture of the mausoleum is simple: it is an octangle with a cylindrical drum on which a ribbed sphero-conical dome is mounted, lined with coloured bricks. The interior of the main hall was covered with luxurious ornamental and epigraphic paintings. Mosaic plates located outside above the entrances to the mausoleum were also decorated with inscriptions.

The tile presented in the book-album was located above the side door. On its blue cobalt background are two Arabic inscriptions. 

The first one is written in white letters in the Thuluth script: “Tomb of the Sultan of the World, Amir Timur Guragan. May Allah accept his faithfulness and allow him to enter paradise. By order of the Sultan…”; then the text abruptly ended. 

The second inscription in yellow Kufic letters is illegible. It had a decorative purpose, because by the 15th century this script was almost forgotten: 

“There is no God, except… there is no strength, no power, except that from Allah… that Allah wishes” (N. I. Veselovsky’s translation).

In 1905, the plate was broken off by robbers and taken to Constantinople, where it was purchased for the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin. And only after several years of diplomatic correspondence, shortly before the First World War, the tile was bought by the government of the Russian Empire. The inscriptions on the mosaic panels were similar to those that were carved on the entrance doors of the mausoleum. The presented double-leaf door used to be located in the centre of the northern facade of the Gur-e-Amir Mausoleum. It is made of walnut, which was highly appreciated by craftsmen for its hardness, texture, beautiful colour and at the same time its pliability in carving. The carved ornament covers the front side of the leaves, as well as the interior and exterior edges of the door frame stiles, facing the passage. On the middle leaf panels there is a vase with a lush bunch of flowers against a lacy floral background. The top part of the picture is completed by a stylized lotus flower.

The carving of the door is multifaceted, which is also characteristic of other extant masterpieces of this type of art of the Timurid era.

You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "Collection of the State Hermitage Mavarannakhr Art 8th – 15th centuries" (XV volume) from the series "Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections".

The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.