Gallery
Description
Property Name: Turabek Khanum Mausoleum
Inventory No: 993-322-1
Date of infill of the inventory form: 2008-02-08
Country (State party): Turkmenistan
Province: Dashoguz
Town:
Geographic coordinates: 42° 18′ 40″ N
59° 8′ 13″ E
Historic Period: 14th century, 2nd half
Year of Construction: 1370
Style: Sufi
Original Use: Mausoleum
Current Use: Mausoleum
Architect: Unknown
Significance
The memory of the short-lived dynasty of Sufi still survives in the most original family shrine. Built less than fifty years after the nearby tomb of Najm-ad-Dm Kubra, this unique tomb has an ambitious plan which transforms the traditional massive shape into an elegant ensemble with lighter buttressing. Although a high pishtaq was already a common feature in Khurasan, here the added vestibule opens the way to the main part of the shrine. Seen from the outside, the overall width of the vestibule is the same as one of the eight facets of the shrine itself. Because of this extra space, the main dome stands in¬dependently, with its high drum framed by terracotta panels. Most of the turquoise dome has gone. The triumphant tile-mosaic inside the dome (about 9 m in diameter) surpasses any geometric expanding decoration previously created in that medium, including work in Yazd. Molded terracotta patterns, glazed in shades of turquoise, fill the arched panels inside the drum.
Selection Criteria
ii. to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design
iii. to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared
State of Preservation
Conservation started in the 1980s. Works done between 1983 and 1993 included the restoration of the walls of the mausoleum, including the wall base. Decorative wooden screen walls “panjaras” were restored in the openings, the floor tiles were repaired, the collapsed northern portal was reconstructed, missing carved wooden doors were replaced, the spiral staircase was restored and landscaping work around the monument was implemented.
References
Michell, George. ed. 1978. Architecture of the Islamic World; Its History and Social Meaning. London: Thanes & Hudson.