Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
Bursa, Byzantine architecture,
Diyarbakir, Edirne, Istanbul, Konyo, Seljuks,
Ottomans
Dormer Kumbet, Kayseri, Turkey
Dormer Kumbet, Kayseri, Turkey
Turkey

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Further reading:
K.A.Aru, 
Türk Hamamlari Etüdü,
Istanbul 1949.
Ö.Bakirer, 
Selçuklu Öncesi ve Selçuklu Dönemi Anadolu
Mimarisinde Tugla Kullani,
Ankara 1981.
G.Goodwin, 
A History of Ottoman Architecture,
London 1971.
R.Holod and A.Evin, 
Modern Turkish Architecture,
Philadelphia 1984.
F.Seton Lloyd and D.Storm Rice, 
Alanya (
Alaiyya),
London
1958.
S.Ögel, 
Anadolu Selçuklulari
nin Tas Tezyinati (Anatolian Seljuk
Stone Ornamentation),
Ankara 1987.
R.M.Riefstahl, 
Turkish Architecture in South Western Anatolia,
Cambridge, Mass. 1931.
M.Sözen, 
Anadolu Medreseleri Selçuklular ve Beylikler Devri,
vols. Istanbul 1970–2.
—— 
Anadolu
da Akkoyonulu Mimarisi (Anatolian Aqqounulu
Architecture)
Istanbul 1981.
M.Sözen and M.Tapan, 
50 Yilin Türk Mimarisi (50 Years of
Turkish Architecture),
Istanbul 1973.
B.Ünsal, 
Turkish Islamic Architecture in Seljuk and Ottoman
Times 1071–1923,
London 1973.
Turkmenistan
Former Soviet Central Asian Republic which lies to the
east of the Caspian Sea and to the north of Afghanistan
and Iran.
Geographically Turkmenistan is defined by the
Koppet Dag mountains along its southern border
Mausoleum Kounia Urgench, Turkmenistan © St John Simpson
Mausoleum, Kouria-Urgeuch, Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan

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with Iran and to the north by the Amu Darya (Oxus)
river which separates it from Uzbekistan. The Kara
Kum desert covers the central part of Turkmenistan
dividing the country into north and south. Before
the construction of the Kara Kum canal at the
beginning of this century habitation in southern
Turkmenistan was only possible at oases where
rivers from the Koppet Dag mountains disappeared
into the sands of the Kara Kum. The most famous of
these desert oases was the ancient city of Merv (qv)
fed by the Murghab river.
Mud brick is the principal construction material
although fired brick is used for monumental
architecture. To the north along the Amu Darya wood
is often used for columns and roofs.
Buildings of the early Islamic period, from the
eighth to eleventh centuries CE, are mostly found in
the area around Merv although there may also be
isolated buildings of the period in the Kara Kum
desert. Many buildings of the eleventh to thirteenth
century Seljuk period have survived in particular at
Serakhs on the border with Afghanistan, at Mestorian
in the south-west and at Urgench on the border with
Uzbekistan. These are mostly religious buildings
characterized by elaborate brick decoration,
epigraphic bands, the use of stucco, and the
combination of mud brick with fired brick. Buildings
of the later medieval period are more difficult to
identify, although the city of Bairam Ali near Merv
preserves the layout and walls of a fifteenth- to
sixteenth-century Timurid city. Probably the most
significant Islamic building of later periods is the
Great Mosque of Anau, destroyed by an earthquake
in 1948, most of which dates to the seventeenth
century. The mosque comprises a huge domed iwan
flanked by twin minarets and two smaller domed
chambers on either side of the courtyard. The façade
of the iwan was decorated with polychrome tiles
depicting dragons and elaborate decorative
brickwork.
After the Russian conquest in the nineteenth
century Islamic forms were used in buildings of
Russian design such as the Tsar’s hunting lodge at
Bairam Ali which employs domes, crenellations and
minaret-like pinnacles. This tradition was continued
into the Soviet period with buildings such as the
Academy of Sciences where the arcades are
decorated with pseudo-epigraphic brickwork.