Samarkand: towards the outskirts
Stone Qur'an stand of the Bibi-Khanym mosque, built in Samarkand between 1399 and 1404 by Timur after his conquest of India. The oversized Qur'an stand was placed first in the domed sanctuary and then moved to the centre of the courtyard. Its length is some 2.30 metres; while we do not have a Timurid Qur'an quite of that size, there is one whose page height is nearly 180 centimetres, that might in fact have been used here in the Bibi-Khanym.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers, Mon Jun 17, 2013