AISHA BIBI MAUSOLEUM

According to legend, the mausoleum was built by a Karakhanid Dynasty ruler for his beautiful fiancée Aisha-Bibi, a daughter of Sufi poet Khakim-Ata. Matching the legend, the mausoleum looks light, well-proportioned, and delicate. The mausoleum's architectural forms and decoration are reminiscent of fine lace. The whole building is covered with carved terracotta tiles using 60 different floral geometric patterns and stylized calligraphy.[1]Aisha Bibi is a direct stylistic descendant of Samanid Mausoleum in Bukhara.[2] Both use the same stylistic conventions of Pre-Mongol Central Asian architecture. These two mausoleums rank among the few surviving examples of pre-Mongol architecture in Central Asia. Aisha Bibi is park of larger complex. Ten meters away is a second mausoleum called Babaji Khatun ("wise queen"), and across the road is a sacred limestone cavern. Together with a garden area and parking lot they form the national monument. The complex is sited on a ridge overlooking the Taraz Oasis from the west. The entire Masoleum is covered with terracotta panels this helps create the illusion of masslessness typical in Islamic Architercure. The Terracotta decoration also uses light and shadow rather than color, a pre-Mongol style, Functionally, this type of decoration scatters the light so the viewer is not blinded as he might from a smooth light colored wall in full sun. The Columns on the corner are shaped after wooden columns used extensively in Soghdian pre-islamic architecture. There is a band of calligrahpy at the point of constriction in each column. In general they describe the beauty of Aisha Bibi and of love in general. One of the old distichs reads: "Autumn... Clouds... The Earth is beautiful". Russian archeologist V. V. Bartold was the first scientist to record and study the ruins in 1893. The Soviet Union built a protective glass shell to preserve the monument and used it for the education of students in Taraz and tourism. In 2002, the Republic of Kazakhstan paid Nishan Rameto to restore the Aisha Bibi and built the park infrastructure around it. Aisha Bibi is a national monument and is listed by UNESCO. Source: Kazakhstan, National Encyclopedia, Vol. 5.