Ghazaniyya

The ruler of Persia between 1295 and 1304, Ghazan Khan built his own tomb within a new suburb he founded outside the walls of Tabriz. The tomb was part of the Ghazaniya complex of buildings situated within a large garden; according to accounts of the period the complex included a palace, monastery, two madrasas, an academy of philosophy, a hospital, library, observatory, pavilion and fountain. The tomb, begun in 1297, is reported to have been a tall twelve-sided domed tower with a decorative band depicting the signs of the zodiac.Although the tomb remained standing during the nineteenth century, albeit in damaged condition, by the time of Wilber's record in the late 1930's all that remained of the complex were piles of bricks and tile fragments. Sources:Blair, Sheila S. and Jonathan M. Bloom. The Art and Architecture of Islam. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1994Wilber, Donald N. The Architecture of Islamic Iran: The Il-Khanid Period, 124-126. New York: Greenwood Press, 1969. Masashi, Haneda. "Gazaniyya in Tabriz." In Proceedings of the International Conference on Urbanism in Islam (ICUIT) II, 284-299. Tokyo: Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan, 1989.