Registan Complex, Samarkand

Timeline

1. c. 700–1220Samarkand · SamarkandSamarkand was long a Sogdian merchant capital and became a center of Islamic scholarship and handicrafts after the Arab conquest; the Registan area gradually took shape as an open sandy square for public gatherings.
2. c. 1220–1330Registan, Samarkand · SamarkandThe city was severely damaged after the Mongol capture of 1220, then gradually recovered under the Chagatai Khanate; the Registan continued to serve market, call-to-prayer, and public gathering functions, with mosques and shops appearing nearby.
3. 1331–1340Registan, Samarkand · SamarkandIn the 1330s Samarkand was an important city of the Chagatai Khanate, and the Registan square gathered caravans from Persia, India, and the steppe; Ibn Battuta described its prosperous market, and the square's buildings were mainly of traditional brick-and-wood construction, without the three iconic Timurid madrasas yet.
4. 1417–1660Registan, Samarkand · SamarkandTimur and his descendants built three grand madrasas on the square: Ulugh Beg (1417–1420), Sher-Dor (1619–1636), and Tilya-Kori (1646–1660), forming today's iconic three-sided blue-tiled complex.