Medieval Monuments of Central Asia

Dr Richard Piran McClary is a Senior Lecturer in Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of York. He received his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in 2015. He has lectured extensively on a range of subjects related to medieval Islamic art and architecture, and has conducted fieldwork in India, Iran, Turkey, Central Asia and across the Middle East. He is a specialist in the architecture and ceramics of the medieval Iranian world, and the history of the Islamic art market. He has published three monographs; Mina’i Ware: A Reassessment and Comprehensive Study of Iranian Polychrome Overglaze Wares through Sherds (EUP, 2024), Medieval Monuments of Central Asia. Qarakhanid Architecture of the 11th and 12th Centuries (EUP, 2020), and Rum Seljuq Architecture 1170-1220. The Patronage of Sultans (EUP, 2017). He has edited Stucco in the Islamic World: Studies of Architectural Ornament from Spain to India (EUP, 2025), and co-edited a volume with Andrew Peacock, entitled Turkish History and Culture in India. Identity, Art and Transregional Connections (Brill, 2020). He has also published articles in numerous journals, including: Muqarnas, Iran, Persica, Anatolian Studies, the International Journal of Islamic Architecture, and the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. He has served as a trustee and the Research Director for the British Institute of Persian Studies, and is managing editor of the Journal of Islamic Art and Architecture.

In his volume, McClary aims to provide as detailed a study as possible of all of the surviving monuments in the Qarakhanid corpus. The book achieves its goal in many ways, especially to document and introduce a dynamic, diverse and innovative architectural repertoire of this medieval dynasty. The volume offers a visually engaging journey through the former Qarakhanid domains, detailing some major monuments located distantly from Balasagun and Uzgend in Kyrgyzstan to Taraz, Kazakhstan and, finally, to Bukhara and Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

• List of FiguresSeries Editor’s ForwardPrefaceAcknowledgments Note on Transliteration INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 Antecedent Structures in the RegionCHAPTER 2 The Earliest Intact Tomb: Shah Fazl at Safid BulandCHAPTER 3 The Development of a Style: Three Tombs at Uzgend CHAPTER 4 Bukhara: A Study of Three StructuresCHAPTER 5 Minarets of the QarakhanidsCHAPTER 6 The Qarakhanid Aesthetic: Structural Methods and DecorationCHAPTER 7 Epigraphic Styles: The Numismatic and Architectural Evidence CHAPTER 8 Urban Developments under the Qarakhanids: The Archaeological and Textual EvidenceCONCLUSION BibliographyGazetteerIndex