Uzbekistan is promoting itself as an attractive tourist destination largely for its historic classical Persian-Islamic architecture, as a result numerous notable historic monuments have undergone aggressive restoration/ redecoration in recent years.

In my last visit to Samarqand I observed and analyzed some of these restorations and found many to be of shoddy quality, particularly in the areas of tile work (both haft-rang and mu’araq) and not befitting of the monuments they adorn. Take for example these two photos of a corner mu’araq ornament commonly found at the right and left flanks of Timurid iwans. The example on the left belonging to Gawharshad Mosque in Mashhad, Iran, has masterfully produced restoration mosaics, here the cuts of each mosaic piece perfectly correspond to each piece’s shape, so that you can hardly see them as separate pieces. The colors of the mosaics are lively and vibrant. The example on the left belongs to Guri Amir in Samarqand, Uzbekistan, and is unfortunately a different story. Here the cuts of each mosaic piece does not correspond to the shape of each element, and as a result you see excessive grout lines in the mosaic composition (grout lines are supposed to be barely visible in Persian mosaics), mosaic elements which should only be one carefully cut piece are often 5 or 6 pieces here. Most alarming here is that the composition has been divided into three horizontal segments with a thick grout line between each segment, effectively breaking the harmony of the corner piece.

In other areas of Guri Amir, I found incompatible mixing of mosaics and haftrang tiles, such as the tombs main calligraphic inscription along the main facade. It is generally not suitable to use haft-rang tiles in a Timurid monument as the haft-rang style had not been invented or used in that period.

During the Soviet era, restorations done to Central Asia’s medieval monuments were generally of high quality and were modest in their restoration towards ornaments, but when they did it, they used high quality proper techniques and materials for producing mosaic, brick, and plaster ornaments. It’s unfortunate to see such low quality workmanship being used on these precious historical monuments in this era. I would advise whatever bodies manage these historical monuments to properly restore areas which have poor quality ornaments and take advantage of the commonalities between Iran and Uzbekistan’s traditional architecture. Iran has many capable masters and companies that are able to produce quality mosaics and teach others this art.