Woodcarving

From the patterned doors of Gur-e-Amir and Rukhobod to the pillars of neighbourhood houses, Samarkand’s carvers have cut geometry and arabesque into wood for centuries.

Doors and columns

Woodcarving has a long history in Central Asia, but wood is perishable and few early pieces survive. Among the oldest in Samarkand are the 11th–12th-century carved elements of the Qusam ibn Abbas mausoleum at Shah-i-Zinda, decorated with birds and fantastic beasts. The carving on the doors of the Rukhobod and Gur-e-Amir mausoleums is counted among the finest Timurid woodwork.

Carvers used elm, walnut, mulberry, apricot, plane and juniper. Traditionally the timber was soaked in a pool for six months to a year and then dried in the shade. The design is transferred from a paper stencil, the akhta, and cut with chisels, using techniques known as pargari and baghdadi.

The Samarkand hand

Distinct schools developed in Tashkent, Khiva, Kokand, Fergana and Bukhara. Samarkand favours girih — geometric interlace — and its carvers traditionally varnished both the ground and the relief, whereas Khiva’s masters left the wood unpainted. In the 20th century folk masters such as N. Nazrullayev of Samarkand carried the tradition on.

Carvers today make doors, columns, screens and ceilings for new mosques, teahouses and homes, and craft shops sell carved lauh book-stands (traditionally for the Qur’an), caskets and small chests. Walking through the old mahallas, look at the gates — many of them are carved.