Shah-i- Zinda is located on the southern outskirts of Afrasiab .There is a group of mausoleums called " Shah-i- Zinda ". The name is associated with the tomb of Kusama , the son of Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. Kusama came to Samarkand with Arab conquerors in 676 year for preaching Islam. Kusama’s tomb became the subject of worship of Muslims. According to legend, Kusama , picking up a severed head , went into a deep well , leading to an underground garden, and where he continues his being up to now . That’s why it got the name " The Living King " ( Shah-i- Zinda ).
On Kusama’s headstone is a quote from the Quran : "And don’t think those who are slain in Allah's way dead . No,they are alive! " We can assume that in this quotation is the solution of the buried person’s nickname " Shah-i- Zinda ", because according to history Kusama died in the struggle for Islam.
There are remains of housing under a burial tomb.
Over a long period of time there was a view that it is lower burial revered local population , and the cult of the grave was later moved to a Muslim saint .
In the first half of the IX and XI centuries . the necropolis was built up residential houses. At the end of XI century there appeared the first mausoleums . None of them has not been preserved to ourdays. One of the earliest is the tomb of Kusama . In XII century the respectable people were buried there.
In the XIII century due to gains of Afrasiab was abandoned by its inhabitants , the rebirth of the necropolis was a century later. And its most intense construction unfolds at Temur and Ulugbek’s time . Temur set a new headstone over the grave of Kusama - the best in the artistic sense throughout Central Asia.
Currently, most of the structures on the necropolis belong to the XIV century .
The architectural ensemble of the Shah-i- Zinda , including several mosques and mausoleums , is a genuine museum of glazed decorations XIV - XV centuries . Here is a painted majolica , carved terracotta irrigation , type-setting and a large mosaic of glazed bricks. Shah-i- Zinda is the first among the architectural monuments of Samarkand by its elegance , subtlety and variety of patterns and forms.
