Studies the surviving pre-Mongol monuments of Islamic architecture in Central Asia

This is a comprehensive study of the surviving monuments of the Qarakhanids - an important yet little-known medieval dynasty that ruled much of Central Asia between the late 10th and early 13th centuries. Based on extensive fieldwork and many hard-to-find Russian sources, the book places the surviving monuments into the wider cultural context of the region. Many photographs and new ground-plans are included, as well as detailed studies of individual monuments and the wider architectural aesthetic. These monuments serve as the link between the mostly lost Samanid architecture and the far larger and better-known monuments of the Timurids.

Key Features
¿ The first complete overview of the corpus of Qarakhanid monuments, with a detailed overview of the extant Soviet-era literature and a study of the inscriptions
¿ Includes archival images from Soviet-era publications showing the buildings prior to loss or reconstruction
¿ Integrates the monuments into the wider region, transcending the nationalist approach of much of the earlier scholarship
¿ Includes an easy-to-use gazetteer to facilitate finding the monuments
¿ Features extensive colour images of many previously unpublished details of the buildings
¿ Integrates the extant structures and the extensive but hard-to find archeological evidence
¿ Examines the links between architecture and smaller-scale material culture, especially the epigraphy seen on coins
¿ Includes detailed studies of the major Qarakhanid monuments including the Shah Fazl tomb in Safid Buland, the three tombs in Uzgend and the Kalan minaret in Bukhara

Richard P. McClary is Islamic Art and Architecture Lecturer at the University of York. He is the author of Rum Seljuq Architecture, 1170-1220: The Patronage of Sultans (Edinburgh University Press, 2017).