Since �eCentral Asia�f is an inland area without facing any sea, its location is not easy to imagine for Japanese and Europeans. It would be more or less easier to capture when hearing that it is actually surrounded by countries as Russia in the north, China in the east, and Afghanistan in the south, used to be a territory of U.S.S.R., and currently consisting of five Islamic countries (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kirgizstan).

The most famed historical cities in Central Asia are Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva, all of which are now in Uzbekistan. They would be more familiar for recent Japanese in hearing that they are the cities along the Silk Road, which has come to be very popular through TV programs.

The area belonged to the Buddhist sphere in bygone days, as the city-name Bukhara was derived from Sanskrit �eBihara�f which indicated a Buddhist monastery. However, since the people were Islamized, Buddhist temples have entirely disappeared and what one can see now as religious architecture are mosques or mausoleums of Islam after the 8th century.

 
Pishtaq (Gate) and drum of the Kalan Mosque

When Mongol army under Genghis Khan made an expedition to the west in 1220, the cities in Central Asia were also exhaustively destroyed.
Timur (called Tamerlane in Europe), emerging 150 years later, established an enormous empire that spread from Central Asia to Turkey. Conversely to Genghis Khan, he made himself a great builder of cities and culture.
He fetched intellectuals, artists, and architects from countries he conquered to make them reside in his capital Samarkand, which he raised to the cultural center of the Islamic world, erecting the great mosque and madrasas, and encouraging learning and education.

However, a huge mosque or a mausoleum flaunting the rulers�f power makes an impression like a fortress full of intrepid mettle rather than a pious religious facility. In that sense, I felt Bukhara�fs religious buildings were more desirable than those of Samarkand.

Plan of Kalan Moaque, Bukhara (From "Samarkand Bukhara Khiva" Editions Flammarion, 2001)

Although the history of Bukhara seems to go back to the 1st century B.C.E., the framework of the existing city was established after the Islamization in the 8th century. It was in 794 that the Friday Mosque, in which whole inhabitants of the city could congregate for worship, was eventually erected in the present precinct after several times of renovations, having started as a wooden structure.
It is referred to as 'Kalan Mosque' in Tajik, which means 'Great Mosque.'
Though it was thoroughly reconstructed in 1127, Genghis Khan destroyed it 100 years later. For whatever reason, only its Minaret has escaped from the demolition, showing its archaic but graceful brick figure still now.

The present mosque itself was reconstructed in 1514. However, owing to the negation of religions during the Soviet age, it was converted into a warehouse in a devastated condition. Restoration work started in the 1970s, particularly after the independence of the country in the wake of the collapse of the U.S.S.R., and a little excessive restoration and reconstruction has been executed, giving itself an almost brand-new look like the other historical buildings in the country.
The gatehouse facing the front square was especially embellished so splendidly on its Iwan and Pishtaq above it by faience tiles that it has more or less cut down its antique appearance. However, when I went into the courtyard through the gate, I gasped when looking at its splendid beauty.

Courtyard of Kalan Mosque

It can be said the restoration was a complete success, normously recovering fine views efrom a dilapidated state seen in old photographs. The mosque still was not decorated excessively like the gatehouse, the reason of which might be that the whole design of this mosque was originally so simple in composition with nerely restrained plain ornamentation.
What shines solely in a brilliant color is the main dome rising on the worship hall�fs Pishtaq; while the other parts are principally composed of geometric patterns of bricks, only butt ends of which are burnt in blue, and partly embellished with calligraphies from Kur�fan�fs passages.
Those patterns are therefore quite large in a close view, inseparable from the structure itself. As the dominant tone over the whole is the brick color, it is far from garish.

The plan of the Kalan Mosque is the Four-Iwan-type of Persia, with a single tree in the foreground of the courtyard and the 19th century�fs octagonal kiosk (fountain for people�fs ablutions) in the background. The surrounding galleries with uniform arcades are punctuated by four Iwans standing loftily in the center of each side. This yard space, which limits elements of colors and shapes to the fewest, seems to have a sacred atmosphere as if to invite deep meditation.

 
Bird�fs-eye view and top of Kalan Minaret

One goes to the Kalan Minaret by a small bridge from the roof of the mosque and goes up a spiral staircase to the top balcony. Looking down at the entire mosque from there, one can discern the whole building covered by small domes of as many as 288 in geometrical repetitions.
The consistent implementation of a simple principle, that creates a forceful spirituality in Islamic architecture, I thought it anew.

(In "Chugai Nippo" 2004)