Style and Shape of Bolgar-Tatar Sepulchral Monuments: unity and uniqueness

Abstract

The installing of sepulchral monuments is not an obligatory element of funeral culture in Islam. However, this phenomenon is widespread among the Tatar people. The tradition, which appeared in ancient times, still exists today. This article discusses the types of sepulchral structures and monuments. A large part of the paper is dedicated to the Bolgar-Tatar gravestones of the 13th– first third of the 20th century in Arabic script. Based on the analysis of the shape, ornament, and stylistic features of writing, a group of epitaphs is distinguished, united by certain parameters and a common area for the 13th–14th, 15th–16th, 17th–18th centuries. For the monuments of the 19th –20th centuries, the gravestone features are associated with the masters of stone carving. Further study of these monuments, including sepulchral structures – mausoleums, on the one hand, and the structure of the text, the language of epitaphs, on the other, will make it possible to identify the peculiarities of the funeral rite external side of certain regions, where Tatar people live.