Image Details

Courtesy of MAFOUZ

On the citadel of the Afrasiab plateau, conservators work on the remains of a painting dating to the rule of the Karakhanids, a Turkish dynasty that came to power at the turn of the 11th century A.D. Karakhanid painting, characterized by a wide range of themes, is extremely intricate and sophisticated. Curiously, however, the buildings whose walls these paintings decorated were just flimsy pavilions. Perhaps this indicates that the Karakhanids, who valued beauty and elegance so very highly, were content to live from day to day, entirely immersed in the present.