Art Museums We Loved In Europe & Asia – Samarkand

During our 55 years of International travel, Art Museums in Europe and Asia were major attractions for my wife and I. Such an attraction - itself a museum - is Samarkand. As a kid I loved reading about places with magical names like Uzbekistan, Tashkent and Samarkand. So when we planned our Silk Road trip, obviously we saw many pictures of where we were heading. But no picture can truly prepare you for the awe of coming face to face with the unbelievable blue and white tile workmanship in the buildings of Samarkand’s Registan Square.

Thought to be one of the world’s earliest inhabited city, Samarkand was the one stop I had marked with a big star on our Silk Road Tour. The trip began in Islamabad, Pakistan, then took us up into the Himalayas, across into China and then to a number of former Soviet States. However, Samarkand was the city I most looked forward to seeing, since in my teens it held great mystical fascination for me.

Departing the rug making city of Bukhara, the drive to Samarkand took 5 long hours through lands the Marco Polo family took months to cross on their way to the court of Kublai Khan in 1452. As our miles sped by I began to feel a chill of anticipation. To the teen in me, the name Samarkand still conjured up images from tales of Persia I had read wide-eyed, back then. Now we were about to see the real thing.

Some Samarkand history. Founded in 700 BC as Amarakand or Marakand, it is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, a major trading stop on the Silk Road. For years, it was headquarters for Timor’s horde’s who reconquered lands lost by Genghis Khan. Later, as noted in Marco Polo’s 1400’s diary as the site of the first paper mill in the area.

Uzbek poet, Alisher Navoi was responsible for the construction of that first mill writing that paper was the "wings that spread around the thoughts of wise men". Long a secret of the Chinese, paper-making was recorded first in 7^th century Samarkand. From there paper making spread through the Muslim world, reaching Baghdad 50 years later, then on to Christian Europe by the 14th C.

With so many firsts coming from Samarkand, no wonder after Mecca, Muslims considered it the next most blessed City in the Islam World.

Then in a magical moment there we were, in front of the Registan (Sand Place) with its three huge Madrasa, one more beautifully Blue and White Tiled than the next. The 15^th century Ulugh Beg Madrasa with its Lancet Arch is the one most often seen, since it faces the Entrance Square. Up close, its inlaid tile work was mind blowing. Work done on the initial Madrasah was the most striking, three levels high with 3 tiers of hand laid mini Tiles per level, creating an awesome wonder of intricate patterns.

A poem of hope dedicated to the Registan went like this:

“I am Registan, I am the heart of Samarkand,
I am a monument to wars and disasters of the past.
Descendant, listen to the words of wisdom: keep peace.
To live in peace and friendship is to be happy.
Remember this, wherever you go.”

To which I wishfully add: Amen, Amin, Amun, R’amen, Selah.

After two days of being totally awed by the wonders of the Registan, we explored more of the city. At our second site, the challenge was to climb a great number of steps over a sand hill, walking alongside a wall dated from the 1400’s. For good luck or to have a wish come true, you needed to count each step out loud as you climbed. For those who did the climb, the reward at the top was entrance into a High Holy Madrasah, which next to Mecca, is the 2^nd holiest site in The Islam world. Climbing the steps twice in a lifetime is equal to one trip to Mecca.

Standing in front of the Madrasah were the temple elders; women with white headscarves and men in traditional hats, many of fine Silk not unlike like those worn by a Jewish Shamus. If the world isn’t that different, how come many of us work hard to make it seem so?

The task of the elders was to collect “alms”. Paying a small fee permitted the taking of a photo after entering the large square prayer room with its floor covered with kneeling carpets. From the room we could hear boy’s voices learning their prayers. Not a single woman’s voice was heard except for those elders at the entrance.

After being stared out, and not with friendship, especially our woman in that sacred male room, we worked our way back down the stairs. Walking down, I imagined what it must be like on a High Holy Day, with hundreds of pilgrims trying to come up, with other hundreds trying to go down, all at the same time. What a mayhem that be. And for how many centuries?

Our third visit was to the excavated Ulugbek’s observatory which had originally been built in 1420. At that time, it had been a buildng three-story high, covered with beautiful glazed titles. In its main hall stood a giant instrument he called the Fakhri sextant, which had a radius of about 118 ft and an optical separability of 180" (seconds of arc). With it, Ulugbek observed the Moon, Sun and stars.

In year 1437 he compiled a chart of 994 stars, which is still consideredone of the greatest star catalogs ever devised. His sextant was able to orient with amazing exactness meridian lines from south to north.

What he learned about planets movement he did without the aid of any true optical instrument. Yet, Ulugbek was able to posit that the length of a “star” year was 365 days, 6 hours, 10 minutes and 8 seconds. Modern science shows he was off by less than 1 second. Though never having seen an ocean, he correctly numbered their latitude and longitude, as well as that of key European Cities. Today Ulugbek is considered one of History’s three most important astronomers.

From our hotel window, straight ahead was the building we were scheduled to visit on our final day, the Black tile and Gold leaf decorated tomb of Amir Timor who we call Tamerlane.

Born in 1336, Tamerlane was both a horrific leader and a benefactor of art. His mother was a descendent of Genghis Khan and he was considered the most influential Central Asian military leader of the middle ages. It was Timur who restored Khan’s former Mongol empire while putting Kahn to shame with his own brutality, as his invading horde re-conquered nation after nation. He is accused of slaying more than 1,000, 000 people. A pyramid of 70,000 skulls in Baghdad is attributed to him.

Modern writers have compared Tamarlane to Hitler and to Hussain. But, art historians praise his benevolence, pointing to the support he gave to art projects throughout his captured lands. His crowning glory in that respect, however, was the crypt we visited, the one he built for his own final resting place. Unfortunately 500 years had deteriorated the tomb. When we were there restoration was well underway. Since then I have seen pictures of its outstanding restored exterior. It’s difficult to imagine what additional riches could have been used in its interior. Gold already was everywhere you looked and the tile work, even in hard to match corners, was nothing short of amazing.

On our last night in Samarkand we were invited to see a unique theatre performance staged in the heart of the Registan. In Persian costume, performers staged a three act opera/play, beginning with a strong voiced young man calling to all from a Madrasah balcony, amidst gorgeous inlaid stone surroundings. Had any performer ever had a more awesome set?

His call brought on stage (a raised carpeted platform in the center of the atrium court), a procession of silk robed young women.

The strong voiced boy now down from his perch, became the play’s hero. Joining the ladies, they all participated a bit of flirting at the instigation of the boy’s meddling father and the equally meddling mother of one of the girls. Surprise! Boy finds girl, everyone is ecstatic. A perfect Act 1.

Act 2.  Each parent bargained so hard to set a marriage deal favoring their family that each stalked off dragging their children with them. Boy loses girl. (Is this an Uzbek Romeo & Juliet?)

Between Act 2 & 3 acrobats dove through flaming hoops, puppets staged a Punch & Judy rip off. Then we were invited to dance with the cast while musicians wailed. A bizarre Bazaar.

Reseated, we watched Act 3, where not only did boy get girl, girl got child which brought the entire cast into ecstasy for a perfectly happy ending. A bit corny, “Yes.” But had we ever before sat in such splendor and enjoyed such good fun?

Next day we repeated our previous 5 hour drive in reverse, this time to an airport for the flight back to Islamabad where our trip had begun. The drive provided time to relive Samarkand in mind while making detailed diary notes of places where we had been and the experience we had just realized. Samarkand lived up to all I expected of it and more. It truly is a city of magic, in the magnificence of its centuries old tile art buildings and all else we had seen. For a traveler with a sense of adventure, Samarkand – actually, the entire Silk Road - is a trip to consider. 

Next week we visit Florence, Italy, also almost more art museum than city, with many of its buildings laid out centuries earlier by the great artists of the day. Of its 70 museums, man featuring great art which we’d seen before,  we wanted to see again and, of course, to again marvel at the singular magnificence of David.