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Turbes, meaning "tombs covered by domes" in Arabic and "a building with a dome shaped roof" in Persian, are mausoleums built for important people such as sultans and emirs. Tehese type of buildings were inspired by the art of tents of the Turks in the land of Turkomans and then applied in architecture. Prior to Islam, the dead would first be washed and then would be wropped up in a shroud despite the different burial traditions they had. The corpse would be mummified and put into a coffin and kept in the tents until the following spring or autumn. The tradition of burial resulted in the emergence of mausoleums.
The turbes, the first examples of which were built using bricks or stone, were later built only with cut stone. Howver, there is also a great number of turbes built with using both stones and bricks. Turbes could be built as individual buildings or they also colud be built in the mosque and medresse complexes.
Turbes usually have two storeys. The lower floor, access to which is gained by a flight of stairs, forms the base of the turbe. This is the cell like tomb room where the mummified corpse is put into a sarcophagus or buried. In this room, used for visiting or worshipping, can be a mihrap niche as well as a symbolic sarcophagus. Its impressive door, in the direction of east, west or north, is reached by one or two filghts of stairs.
Alongwith polygonal and cylindered turbes, which sometimes have different internal and external plans, there are also examples of square planned ones. Howaver, the square planned examples emerged after the 13th century. Their ceilings are domed whereas they have conical or pyramidal roofs.
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