Restoration or Ruination? The Politics of Timurid Architectural Heritage in Samarqand

IIAS Lunch Lecture by Elena Paskaleva based on fieldwork in Samarqand in 2013 and on archival photographic material kept at Cambridge University Library.

Some of the most controversial examples of modern treatment of historical sites can be found along the routes we call today the “Silk Road”. A western metaphor, coined in 1877, the Silk Road captures the allure of the East in a religious palimpsest of great empires and their cultural achievement. Down through the centuries, the town of Samarqand, an aspired oasis along the Kyzylkum desert in present day Uzbekistan, has been known for its dazzling architecture. The architectural monuments of the Timurid empire in Samarqand are renowned worldwide as masterpieces of Islamic material culture. Resulting from the need for a new discourse on national identity after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Amir Timur (also known as Tamerlane, d.1405) was branded the epitome of Uzbek nationalism. Timur’s powerful personality and megalomaniacal architectural ambitions fostering state legitimacy elevated his status as the father of the Uzbek nation in the post-Soviet period. Timurid architecture, as part of the country’s “golden heritage”, is used to boost the Uzbek population’s sense of belonging and pride throughout the construction of an ethno-national identity. Since Timurid monuments are not synonymous with any political party or platform, they are conveniently propagated as quintessential Islamic pilgrimage sites by the post-communist ruling elites. Dr Paskaleva's analysis treats their architectural restorations as a technique of governance and exercise of power used to influence the social acceptance of history. She will investigate the architectural and socio-political dimensions of the restorations in the first 20 years of Uzbek independence, from 1991 to 2011. In this period, several Timurid monuments were rebuilt from scratch and their epigraphic programme was designed anew. To reconstruct the restoration process, her research draws on previously unexamined photographic and archival sources, and on interviews with local architects.

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Next Lunch Lectures

1 AprilMasculinity, Autonomy, and Attachment in Buddhist Burma, by Ward Keeler (University of Texas, TX, USA)

15 April Restoration or Ruination? The Politics of Timurid Architectural Heritage in Samarqand, by Elena Paskaleva (Leiden University Institute for Area Studies)

20 MayThe Returns of Faith: Engaging Sri Lankan Catholicism in an Italian Parish, by Bernardo Brown (Cornell University, NY, USA)

3 JuneTracing Absence: Work of Hope and Mediation of Transgenerational Emotional Suffering, by Ana Dragojlovic (Australian National University, Australia)

17 JuneTBA.

About IIAS Lunch Lectures

Every third Tuesday of the month (and temporarily also every first Tuesday), one of the IIAS researchers will present his or her work-in-progress in an informal setting to colleagues and other interested attendees. IIAS organises these lunch lectures to give the research community the opportunity to freely discuss ongoing research and exchange thoughts and ideas. Lunch is provided by IIAS.