Item code: 139/UZ-1
The Kalyan
minaret is a minaret of the Po-i-Kalyan mosque complex
in Bukhara, Uzbekistan and
one of the most prominent landmarks in the city.
Ali-Shir Nava'i
Year
|
1994
|
Obverse
|
Uzbekistani coat of arms;
national ornaments; stylised birds; top of the Kalyan (Kalian) Minaret -
Po-i-Kalyan.
|
Reverse
|
Alisher Navoi Rotunda
Monument in Tashkent.
|
Size
|
142 x 69 mm
|
Watermark
|
On wide white space on right side of the note there is a local
watermark with picture of the Coat of Arms of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
|
Obverse Description
Kalyan
minaret
The
minaret, designed by Bako, was built by the Qarakhanid ruler Mohammad
Arslan Khan in 1127 to summon Muslims to prayer
five times a day. An earlier tower collapsed before completion. It is made in
the form of a circular-pillar baked brick tower,
narrowing upwards. It is 45.6 metres (149.61 ft) high (48 metres including
the point), of 9 metres (29.53 ft) diameter at the bottom and 6 metres
(19.69 ft) overhead.
 |
The minaret in 1909
|
The body of the minaret is topped by
a rotunda with 16 arched fenestrations, from which the muezzins summoned the Muslims in the city to prayer. There is a
brick spiral staircase that twists up inside around the pillar to the rotunda.
Once the minaret was believed to have had another round section above the
rotunda, but now only the cone-shaped top remains. The tower base has narrow
ornamental strings belted across it made of bricks which are placed in both
straight and diagonal fashion. The
frieze is covered with a blue glaze with inscriptions.
In
times of war, warriors used the minaret as a watchtower to lookout for enemies.
About a hundred
years after its construction, the tower so impressed Genghis Khan that he ordered it to be spared when all
around was destroyed by his men. It
is also known as the Tower of Death, because until as recently as the early
twentieth century criminals were executed by being thrown from the top. Fitzroy Maclean, who made a surreptitious visit to the
city in 1938, says in his memoir Eastern Approaches, "For centuries before 1870, and
again in the troubled years between 1917 and 1920, men were cast down to their
death from the delicately ornamented gallery which crowns it."
Reverse Description
Ali-Shir Nava'i
 |
Ali-Shir
Nava'i's portrait in Isfana, Kyrgyzstan
|
Ali-Shir
Nava'i (9
February 1441 – 3 January 1501), also known as Nizām-al-Din ʿAlī-Shīr Herawī was a Turkic poet, writer, politician, linguist, mystic,
and painter. He
was the greatest representative of Chagatai literature.
Nava'i
believed that the Turkic language was superior to Persian for literary purposes, and defended this belief in his
work called Muhakamat al-Lughatayn. He emphasized his belief in the richness, precision, and
malleability of Turkic vocabulary as opposed to Persian.
Because
of his distinguished Chagatai language poetry, Nava'i is
considered by many throughout the Turkic-speaking world to be the founder of
early Turkic literature. Many places and institutions in Central Asia are named
after him.
Ali-Shir
Nava'i was born in 1441 in Herat,
which is now in north-western Afghanistan. During Ali-Shir's lifetime, Herat was ruled by the Timurid Empire and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual
centres in the Muslim world. Ali-Shir
belonged to the Chagatai amir (or Mīr in Persian) class of the Timurid elite. Ali-Shir's father, Ghiyāth ud-Din Kichkina (The
Little), served as a high-ranking officer in the palace of Shāhrukh Mirzā,
a ruler of Khorasan. His mother served as a prince's governess in the palace.
Ghiyāth ud-Din Kichkina served as governor of Sabzawar at one time. He died while Ali-Shir
was young, and another ruler of
Khorasan, Babur Ibn-Baysunkur, adopted guardianship of the young man.
Ali-Shir
was a schoolmate of Husayn Bayqarah who would later become the sultan of
Khorasan. Ali-Shir's family was forced to flee Herat in 1447 after the death
of Shāhrukh created an unstable political situation. His family returned to
Khorasan after order was restored in the 1450s. In 1456, Ali-Shir and
Bayqarah went to Mashhad with Ibn-Baysunkur. The following year Ibn-Baysunkur died
and Ali-Shir and Bayqarah parted ways. While Bayqarah tried to
establish political power, Ali-Shir
pursued his studies in Mashhad,
Herat, and Samarkand. After
the death of Abu Sa'id Mirza in 1469, Husayn Bayqarah seized power in Herat.
Consequently, Ali-Shir left Samarkand to join his service. Bayqarah ruled
Khorasan almost uninterruptedly for forty years. Ali-Shir remained
in the service of Bayqarah until his death on 3 January 1501. He was buried in
Herat.
Ali-Shir
Nava'i led an ascetic lifestyle, "never
marrying or having concubines or children."
Ali-sher Navoi Rotunda Monument in Tashkent
The architectural and sculptural composition of Ali
Shir Nawai Monument, placed in the National Park of Tashkent.
Monument is made by blue on the background of light-blue sky merging in the
middle into lilac.
The monument was erected in 1968, on Prospect Navoi in Tashkent,
before the "Youth Theatre of Uzbekistan". Later, it was moved to the
National Park, named by Navoi.
Sculptors - Ryabichev D., K. Salakhitdinov, architect - F. Tursunov.
Monument to Ali-sher Navoi is
situated in the center of a large national park of the same name, stretching
behind the "Palace of Friendship of Peoples".
The interior of the dome of the Rotunda is made in oriental style.
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