Rediscovering home
Last weekend, I took some walk with my friends around Samarkand. We went to Shakhi Zinda and Silk Road Samarkand. I decided to share some interesting aspects of my experience of my hometown.
1. It might seem that for locals and people visiting the city for 3rd or 4th time, the historical places are boring and have nothing to offer. I thought the same way until I started noticing small details that are present in almost every monument—scripts written in arabic calligraphy. Top edges of every wall, every door header are decorated with beautiful work of calligraphy. Once I heard that because drawing pictures of people or animals are not favoured in Islam, our ancestors immersed themselves in calligraphy as a form of art.
Most scripts are ayats from the Qur'an. And they are chosen very wisely. For example, the name "Shakhi Zinda" (The Living King) is derived from an ayat, which is also written on the gravestone of Qutham ibn Abbas raziyallahu anhu, who is known as Shakhi Zinda. Incidentally, the old door that brings into his tomb contains an ayat about the doors in Jannah.
After noticing this, I decided to rediscover the historical places for myself. When I have a full day to spare, I will take a tour to Registan and take photos of each script. Then, I will try to decode the meaning of them and understand the context of why they were put in the place they were.
Along the tour, I distinguished at least three styles of calligraphy, all of which I couldn't read. My friend who can read and understand arabic also had hard time understanding them.
Last weekend, I took some walk with my friends around Samarkand. We went to Shakhi Zinda and Silk Road Samarkand. I decided to share some interesting aspects of my experience of my hometown.
1. It might seem that for locals and people visiting the city for 3rd or 4th time, the historical places are boring and have nothing to offer. I thought the same way until I started noticing small details that are present in almost every monument—scripts written in arabic calligraphy. Top edges of every wall, every door header are decorated with beautiful work of calligraphy. Once I heard that because drawing pictures of people or animals are not favoured in Islam, our ancestors immersed themselves in calligraphy as a form of art.
Most scripts are ayats from the Qur'an. And they are chosen very wisely. For example, the name "Shakhi Zinda" (The Living King) is derived from an ayat, which is also written on the gravestone of Qutham ibn Abbas raziyallahu anhu, who is known as Shakhi Zinda. Incidentally, the old door that brings into his tomb contains an ayat about the doors in Jannah.
After noticing this, I decided to rediscover the historical places for myself. When I have a full day to spare, I will take a tour to Registan and take photos of each script. Then, I will try to decode the meaning of them and understand the context of why they were put in the place they were.
Along the tour, I distinguished at least three styles of calligraphy, all of which I couldn't read. My friend who can read and understand arabic also had hard time understanding them.