During the 10th century, Samanids' capital, Bukhara, was a major political, trade and cultural center that patronized science, architecture, medicine, arts and literature.[1] Cultural and economic prosperity was fueled by Samanids' strategic positioning along the trade routes between Asia, Middle East, Russia and Europe. It is believed that the Mausoleum was built to emphasize the dynastic power of the Samani family and to link its history with their newly established capital.

There are various estimates by the researchers of when the Mausoleum was built. Some attribute it to the reign of Ismail Samani (r. 892–907 CE),[2][3] a founder of the dynasty (b. 849),[4] some reference Ismail's father, Ahmad,[5] who governed Samarkand. Others attribute the building to the reign of Ismail's grandson, Nasr II[5] who ruled (r. 914–943 CE).[6] The reason for this later attribution is the lintel with inscribed Kufic script with his name[7] found on the eastern side of the building during the restoration works in 1930s.

In 1930s, Soviet researchers discovered a copy of a 10th-century waqf document (copied around 1568)[6] that specified that Ismail Samani donated Bukhara's cemetery Naukanda[5] land for what appears to read as a funerary building for his father, Ahmad, confirming earlier assumptions of a dynastic nature of the monument.[6] Before the time of Genghis Khan's siege and sack of Bukhara in 1220, the mausoleum is believed to have been buried in mud and sand from flooding and landslides, remaining so for centuries.[4] Thus, when the Mongol armies reached Bukhara, the tomb was spared from their destruction, unlike most other buildings of that era. For the same reasons, the building was not known to the world until the early 20th century when archaeologists rediscovered it.[7]

Major exploratory research and excavations took place during 1926–1928 by a Soviet team of architects and researchers.[7] During 1937–1939, the Mausoleum was further studied and major restorations works took place under the leadership of B. N. Zasipkin.[7] Graves of three male bodies have been discovered. One of these is identified as Nasr II from the inscription on the lintel; the identity of the other two is not known.[5] During the Soviet era, some time after World War II, the cemetery that surrounded the Mausoleum was paved over, and an amusement park (still in operation) was built next to and around the building.

Within the city walls and in the immediate vicinity of the historical center of Bukhara there are architectural monuments of a thousand years old, the oldest of which is the Samanid mausoleum.[8]

The erection of memorial mausoleums at first categorically contradicted some of the norms of Islam, but this prohibition was first violated by the "permitted" construction of the first Muslim mausoleum Kubba as-Sulabiya over the tomb of the Arab caliph al-Muntasir (861-862), in which two other caliphs were later buried: al-Mu'tazz (866-869) and al-Muhtadi (869-870),[9] after which the erection of mausoleums began in all the Islamized countries of the Middle and Near East that were part of the Arab Caliphate.[10] The mausoleum of the Samanids, a dynasty of Transoxiana rulers, was no exception.

During the Middle Ages, this and other mausoleums that have not survived to this day were located within the large necropolis of the Samanid dynasty.[11] With the fall of the dynasty (999) the area of the necropolis was gradually reduced, the mausoleums were destroyed, and in the XVI-XVIII centuries on its territory began to build urban residential neighborhoods. In the early Middle Ages the area of the necropolis was called Naukanda, later Chahar-gumbazan (four domes),[12] and in the late Middle Ages Bahadur-biy, and the Samanid mausoleum was considered the mazar of Ismail Samani.[13]

The mausoleum was first explored in 1924 by the expedition of Moisei Yakovlevich Ginzburg. At the same time the plan of the building was taken. In 1925, the scientific secretary of the Bukhara Commission for the Protection of Monuments of Antiquity and Art Musa Saidjanov organized the restoration of the facing of the dome of the building.[14][15] During further archaeological research - excavations of Vasiliy Vyatkin, conducted in 1926-1928, it was found out that inside the necropolis there were several burials, including Ismail Samani himself.[16] At the same time it was found out that the necropolis building stands on the ruins of an even older one, probably somehow connected with the solar myths.[17][18] In 1928-1930, partial restoration of the mausoleum was carried out by P. S. Kasatkin and N. M. Bachinskiy.[19]

 Interior detail with squinch Exterior detail with pointed arches and spandrels Exterior brickwork with blind arcade