Ulugh Beg with ladies of his harem and retainers after a falcon hunt (image source: Washington,
Freer Gallery of Art,
F1946.26).
The Timurid ruler and patron of mathematics and astronomy Ulugh Beg was
born in Sulṭāniyya on 19 Jumādā I
796 AH [= 23 March 1394]. He was a son of Shāhrukh
Mīrzā (1377-1447) and a grandson of Tīmūr (1336-1405).
After Ulugh Beg’s surrender ʿAbd al-Laṭif granted his father permission to undertake a pilgrimage to Mecca, but similtaneously
had – unknown to Ulugh Beg – a sharia court decide on his fate. When the court issued a fatwa ordering his death assassins were sent
after Ulugh Beg and his party and killed him not far from Samarkand. The death of Ulugh Beg, as recorded on the headstone of his tomb in the
Gūr-i Amīr, was on 10 Ramaḍān 853 AH
[= 27 October 1449] although some sources claim that his assassination occurred two days earlier, on 8 Ramaḍān.
A few days after Ulugh Beg’s death, ʿAbd al-Laṭif also had his younger brother ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz killed but he spared
the life of his uncle ʿAbdullāh Mīrzā (1433(?)-1451)
whom he had imprisoned. ʿAbd al-Laṭif survived his father a little
more than six months as he in turn was killed on 26 Rabīʿ I
854 AH [= 8 May 1450] by amirs who had remained loyal to Ulugh Beg and set ʿAbdullāh Mīrzā on the throne.
Biographical Sources on Ulugh Beg
Blanc, Édouard, “Notes de voyage en Asie centrale: Samarkande”, Revue des deux Mondes, 115 [= LXIIIe Année,
Troisième periode] (1893), 796-838 [Internet Archive link]
– includes a description of the tomb of Ulug Beg in the Gūr-i Amīr in Samarkand.
Suter, Heinrich, Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1900 [= Abhandlungen zur
Geschichte der mathematischen Wissenschaften mit Einschluss ihrer Anwendungen, 10 = supplement to Zeitschrift für Mathematik
und Physik, 45]), pp. 173-175 & 178-179 [nrs. 429-430 & 438]
[MENAdoc link].
Suter, Heinrich, “Nachträge und Berichtigungen zu “Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke”,
Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der mathematischen Wissenschaften mit Einschluss ihrer Anwendungen, 14 [= supplement to Zeitschrift
für Mathematik und Physik], 1902), 155-185 [cf. pp. 178 [nr. 430] & 179 [nr. 438]]
[MENAdoc link].
Bouvat, Lucien, “Ulugh Beg”, in: Enzyklopaedie des Islam: Geographisches, ethnographisches und biographisches Wörterbuch
der muhammedanischen Völker (Leiden/Leipzig: E.J. Brill/Otto Harrassowitz, 1934), vol. IV, p. 1077-1079
[Internet Archive link].
Brockelmann, Carl, Geschichte der arabischen Literatur: Erster Supplementband (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1937),
vol. II, p. 212-???
[addenda in II. Supplementband, 298-???].
Brockelmann, Carl, Geschichte der arabischen Literatur: Zweite den Supplementbänden angepasste Auflage (Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1943), vol. 1,
pp. 253-254.
Storey, Charles Ambrose, Persian Literature: A Bio-Bibliographical Survey. Volume II. Part I (A. Mathematics. B. Weights and Measures.
C. Astronomy and Astrology. D. Geography) (London: Luzac & Company, Ltd., 1958), pp. 66-72 [nr. 104].
Pugačenkova, G.A., “Portret Ulugbeka: K probleme miniatûrnoy živopisi timuridskogo Samarkanda [A Portret of Ulughbeg (On the
Problem of Timurid Samarkand)]”, Narody Azii i Afriki: Istoriâ, Èkonomika, Kul’tura, (1969), nr. 6, 97-103 & 253
[local pdf link].
Kary-Niâzov, Tašmuhamed Niâzovič, “Ulugh Beg”, in: C.C. Gillespie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976), vol. XIII, pp. 535-537.
Roemer, Hans Robert, “The Successors of Tīmūr”, in: P. Jackson & L. Lockhart (eds.), The Cambridge History
of Iran: Volume 6. The Timurid and Safavid Periods (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 98-146.
Ashrafi, M.M., “Where was the Portrait of Ulugh Beg Painted?”, Iranian Studies: Soviet and North American Studies on Central Asia,
21 (1988), 24-30 [JSTOR link].
Manz, Beatrice Forbes, “Ulugh Beg”, in: The Encyclopaedia of Islam: New Edition (Leiden: Brill, 2000), vol. X,
pp. 812-814 [Internet Archive link].
Soucek, Svat, A History of Inner Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 127-131.
Bregel’, Jurij Ènochovič, An Historical Atlas of Central Asia (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003 [= Handbook of Oriental
Studies: Section Eight (Central Asia), vol. 9]), pp. 44-45 & 82-83 [maps 22 & 41].
Rosenfel’d, Boris A. & İhsanoğlu, Ekmeleddin, Mathematicians, Astronomers, and other Scholars of Islamic Civilization
and their Works (7th-19th c.) (Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture, 2003 [= Series of Studies
and Sources on History of Science, nr. 11]), pp. 277-279 [§ 816].
Rosenfel’d, Boris A., “A Supplement to Mathematicians, Astronomers, and other Scholars of Islamic Civilisation and their Works
(7th-19th c.)”, Suhayl: International Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilisation,
4 (2004), 87-139 [cf. 105-106 [§ 816]] [Suhayl link].
Rosenfel’d, Boris A., “A Second Supplement to Mathematicians, Astronomers, and other Scholars of Islamic Civilisation and their Works
(7th-19th c.)”, Suhayl: International Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilisation,
6 (2006), 9-79 [cf. 20 [§ 816]] [Suhayl link].
Manz, Beatrice Forbes, Power, Politics and Religion in Timurid Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007) – comprehensive
study on the reign of Ulugh Beg’s father Shāhrukh Mīrzā.
Van Dalen, Benno, “Ulugh Beg: Muḥammad Taraghāy ibn Shāhrukh ibn Tīmūr”, in: Th. Hockey (ed.), The
Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (New York: Springer, 2007); vol. 2, p. 1157-1159.
Manz, Beatrice Forbes, “Temür and the Early Timurids to c. 1450”, in: N. di Cosmo, A.J. Frank &
P.B. Golden (eds.), The Cambridge History of Inner Asia: The Chinggisid Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009),
pp. 182-198.
Aydüz, Salim, “Semerkant Rasathânesi”, in: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi
(Ankara: Diyanet, 201?), vol. 36, pp. 486-487
[DIA link].
Unat, Yavuz, “Uluğ Bey”, in: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi (Ankara: Diyanet,
201?), vol. 42, pp. 127-129
[DIA link].
Beksaç, A. Engin, “Uluğ Bey Medresesi”, in: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi (Ankara:
Diyanet, 201?), vol. 42, pp. 129-130
[DIA link].
Unat, Yavuz, “Zîc-i Uluğ Bey”, in: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi (Ankara: Diyanet,
201?), vol. 44, pp. 400-401
[DIA link].
Van Dalen, Benno, “Ulugh Beg: Muḥammad Taraghāy ibn Shāhrukh ibn Tīmūr”, in: Th. Hockey (ed.), The
Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers: New Edition (New York: Springer, 2014); vol. 4, pp. 2191-2195.
Floor plan of the Gūr-i Amīr (scale bars in sažén’ and metres [1 sažén’ = 7 fut = 2.1336 m]). The uppermost
tomb
is that of Ulugh Beg.
Ulugh Beg is interred in the magnificent Timurid mausoleum in Samarkand which is known as the Gūr-i Amīr. The foundations of the building was laid in 1403 for Tīmūr’s grandson and presumptive heir
Muḥammad Sulṭān ibn Jahāngīr (before 1375-1403).
The tomb slabs of the Timurid rulers in the Gūr-i Amīr in Samarkand.
Bibliographical Sources on the Gūr-i Amīr
Blanc, Édouard, “Inscriptions des principaux sarcophages du mausolée de Tamerlan à Samarkande (partie 1)”,
Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 40 (1896), 272-273
[Persée link] – no further parts published.
Blochet, Edgard, “Les inscriptions de Samarkand. I. Le Goûr-i-Mîr, ou tombeau de Tamerlan: Épitaphes de Tîmoûr et
de plusieurs princes tîmoûrides”, Revue Archéologique, Troisième Série, 30 (1897), 67-77
[JSTOR link] & 202-231
[JSTOR link] – transcription, with a French translation, of the texts
on the headstones of the Timurid rulers in the Gūr-i Amīr. Based on the photographs and plaster copies made in 1890/91 and 1895 by
Édouard Blanc (1858-1923).
Commission Impériale Archéologique, Les mosquées de Samarcande: Fascicule I. Gour-Emir (St. Petersburg:
Expédition pour la Confection des Papiers d’État, 1905) [Internet Archive link] – bi-lingual edition (Russian/French).
von Schubert-Soldern-Prag, Zdenko, “Das Grab Timurs in Samarkand”, Orientalisches Archiv: Illustrierte Zeitschrift für
Kunst, Kulturgeschichte und Völkerkunde der Länder des Ostens, 1 (1910/11), 131-139
[Internet Archive link].
Østrup, Johannes, “Verdenserobrerens Grav (Samarkand)”, Vor Tid: Tidsskrift for Videnskab og Kritik, 1 (1914/15),
nr. 2, 88-94 [not seen] – based on a plaster copy of the inscriptions on the tomb of
Timur made in 1914 by the Danish orientalist Arthur Emanuel
Christensen (1875-1945).
Herzfeld, Ernst, “Alongoa”, Der Islam: Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur des islamischen Orients, 6 (1916),
317-327 [Internet Archive link].
Semënov, Aleksandr Aleksandrovič, “Nadpis’ na nadgrobii psevdo-Sejid Omara v Gur-i Èmire v Samarkande [Epitaph of
pseudo-Sayyid ‘Omar in the Gūr-e Amīr in Samarqand]”, Epigrafika Vostoka, 1 (1947), 23-26
[local pdf link].
Semënov, Aleksandr Aleksandrovič, “Nadpisi na nadgrobiâh Timura i ego potomkov v Gur-i Èmire [Inscriptions on the Tombs
of Timur and of his Descendants in the Gur-e Amir]”, Epigrafika Vostoka, 2 (1948), 49-62
[local pdf link] & 3 (1949), 45-54 [local pdf
link].
Masson, Mikhail Evgen’evič, “Tretij kusok nefritovogo namogil’nika Timura [The Third Piece of the Jade Tombstone of
Timur]”, Epigrafika Vostoka, 2 (1948), 63-75 [local pdf link] .
Grabar, Oleg, “Epigrafika Vostoka (Oriental Epigraphy)”, Ars Orientalis, 2 (1957), 547-560 – reprinted in ???
– English summaries of the above-listed papers published by A.A. Semenov and M.E. Masson.
Brandenburg, Dietrich, Samarkand: Studien zur islamischen Baukunst in Uzbekistan (Zentralasien) (Berlin: Bruno Hessling Verlag, 1972),
pp. 102-141.
Shaw, Charles, “The Gur-i Amir Mausoleum and the Soviet Politics of Preservation”, Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation,
History, Theory, and Criticism, 8 (2011), nr. 1, 42-63 [JSTOR link / Project MUSE link].
Study of the Tombs of the Timurid Rulers
Opening of the tombs of the Timurid rulers in June 1941.
Between 16 and 24 June 1941 the tombs in the Gūr-i Amīr were opened by a team of Soviet archaeologists led by Tašmuhamed
Niâzovič Kary-Niâzov (1897-1970) and the remains of the Timurid rulers were removed for scientific study in Tashkent. After the
anthropological studies had been completed the bodies were reburied on ?? November 1942 according
to the proper Islamic rituals.
Ulugh Beg’s head was found buried next to his body, confirming historical reports that he had been beheaded. From a physiognomical
study of the skull by the anthropologists Lev Vasil’evič
Ošanin (1884-1962) and Mikhail Mikhaylovič
Gerasimov (1907-1970) the latter made a facial reconstruction which has been often used in modern representations of Ulugh Beg.
Gerasimov, Mikhail Mikhaylovič, “Portret Tamerlana (Opyt skul’pturnogo vosproizvedeniâ na kraniologičeskoj
osnove)”, Kratkie soobŝeniâ o dokladah i polevyh issledovaniâh Instituta istorii material’noj kul’tury,
17 (1947), 14-21 [local pdf link].
Gerasimov, Mikhail Mikhaylovič, Osnovy vosstanovleniâ lica po čerepu
[“???”] (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe
Izdatl’stvo “Sovetskaâ Nauka”, 1949), pp. 151-177 [NNR link / local pdf link].
German translation by Helga Menzel-Tettenborn, Ich suchte Gesichter: Schädel erhalten ihr Antlitz zurück. Wissenschaft
auf neuen Wegen (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann Verlag, 1968), pp. 154-187.
English translation [from the German] by Alan Houghton Brodrick, The Face Finder (London: Hutchinson, 1971),
pp. 129-156.
Kary-Niâzov, Tašmuhamed Niâzovič, Astronomičeskaâ škola Ulugbeka [“The Astronomical School of
Ulugh Beg”] (Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1950), pp. 289-295 [local pdf link].
Zezenkova, V.Â., “Materialy k paleoantropologii Uzbekistana i Turkmenii [“Material on the Palaeoanthropology of Uzbekistan
and Turkmenia”]”, in: Lev Vasil’evič Ošanin & V.Â. Zezenkova, Voprosy ètnogeneza narodov
Srednej Azii v svete dannyh antropologii: Sbornik statej [Ethnogenetic Problems of the Nationalities of Central Asia in the Light of
Anthropological Data (Collected Papers)] (Tashkent: Izdatl’stvo Akademiia Nauk Uzbekskoi SSR, 1953), pp. 97-112 [cf. 107-110]
[local pdf link].
Ošanin, Lev Vasil’evič, Antropologičeskij sostav naseleniâ Srednej Azii i ètnogenez ee narodov
[“Anthropological Composition of the Population of Central Asia and the Ethnogenesis of its Peoples”] (Tashkent:
???, 1957-59 [= Trudy Sredne-Aziatskogo Gosudarstvennoge Universiteta imeni
V.I. Lenina, Novaâ seriâ, v. 96-98 = Istoričeskie nauki, kn. 16-18]).
English translation by Vladimir M. Maurin: Anthropological Composition of the Population of Central Asia, and the Ethnogenesis
of its Peoples (Cambridge [MA]: Peabody Museum, 1964 [= Russian Translation Series of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology, vol. II]), 3 parts [cf. part 2, pp. 38-39].
Šiškin, Vasilij Afanas’evič, “Guri-Mir”, in: Arheologiâ i antropologiâ (Tashkent:
???, 1964 [= Naučnye Trudy Taškentskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta,
Novaja serija, 232], pp. 3-73 [local pdf link].
Ošanin, Lev Vasil’evič, “Antropologičeskoe issledovanie skeletov Timura i timuridov
[???]”, in: Arheologiâ i antropologiâ (Tashkent:
???, 1964 [= Naučnye Trudy Taškentskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta,
Novaja serija, 232 (1964), pp. 74-189 [local pdf link].
Zezenkova, V.Â., “Čerepa Timura i timuridov (XV v.) [???]”, in:
Arheologiâ i antropologiâ (Tashkent: ???, 1964 [= Naučnye Trudy
Taškentskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta, Novaja serija, 232 (1964), pp. 190-196
[local pdf link].
Ulugh Beg in Films and Documentaries
Poster for the Soviet feature film Zvezda Ulugbeka (1964).
Poster for the Iranian drama-documentary series Nardebām-e Āsemān (The Ladder of the Sky) (2009).
Poster for the Uzbek/English drama-documentary The Man Who
Unlocked the Universe (2017).
Zvezda Ulugbeka [“The Star of Ulugh Beg”] (1964): Soviet feature film made by the Uzbek director
Latif Abidovich Faiziyev (1929-1994). Historical drama including
interior and exterior views of Samarkand Observatory [IMDb link].
