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In 1404 Timur the Great ordered to build the mausoleum Guri-Emir (Tomb of Emir) for his loving grandson, Mukhammad Sultan. With time, the mausoleum became the family crypt of the Timurids dynasty. Majesty and lightness of architectural lines and shapes, richness of the multi-colored mosaic - all this makes the mausoleum a unique monument of Central Asian architecture. Next to Tamerlane, there are the graves of his sons Shakhrukh and Miranshakh and his grandsons Mukhammad-sultan and Ulugbek. There are two more Timurids tombs nearby: the Mausoleum Rukhabad, built for Sheikh Burhanuddin Sagharji in the 1380s and the modest-sized Mausoleum Ak-Saray built in 1470s for the last of Timurids.
One of the holy sites attracting a great number of pilgrims is the memorial and research complex of the Islamic scholar and theologian Imam Ismail al-Bukhari. For a millennium, the whole Muslim world has had deep respect for Imam-al-Bukhari. His works are considered to be an achievement of theological thought, which ranks the second after the holy Koran in its value. This collection contains 600,000 hadiths entitled "Al-Jami as -Sahih" or "Sincere Book". The scholar's grave is located in a village not far from Samarkand. His tomb is a holy place attracting Muslim pilgrims. The complex is built on his tomb and includes Mausoleum al-Bukhari, a mosque and a library.
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