Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
coral, East Africa, Kenya, Manda
Further reading:
M.C.Horton, 
Shanga: An Interim Report,
National
Museums of Kenya, Nairobi 1981.
—— ‘Early Muslim trading settlements on the East
African coast: new evidence from Shanga’, 
Antiquaries
Journal
67: 290–323, 1987.
Shahr-i Sabz
Town in Uzbekistan, Central Asia, which Timur tried to
make his capital in the fourteenth century.
The city or town forms a rectangular enclosure
surrounded by a wall approximately 4 km in
circumference and in places up to 5 m thick. The main
ruins at the site are the monumental entrance to
Timur’s palace (the Ak Saray, ‘White Palace’) and the
Dar al-Siyadat. Although incomplete it can be seen
that the entrance arch would have been more than 50
m high and 22 m wide, making it one of the largest
archways in the Islamic world. The interior of the iwan
and the towers flanking it are decorated with light
and dark blue-glazed bricks forming a geometric
carpet-like pattern which includes the names Allah,
Muhammad, Ali and Othman in large square
calligraphy. An archaeological analysis of the site has
shown that the portal would have been preceded by
a huge open space 70–80 m long which would have
emphasized the massive proportions of the building.
Inside the entrance, the palace would have comprised
a large courtyard with a central pool and audience
hall on the same axis as the entrance. The royal
cemetery known as the Dar al-Siyadat contained the
tomb of Jahangir (with a tall domed roof) and the tomb
intended for Timur himself (this had a conical roof
on a cruciform plan). Other buildings preserved at
the site include the baths and the bazar. The bazar
comprises four main streets which converge on a
central crossroads covered with a dome.