This is a comprehensive study of the surviving monuments of the Qarakhanids – an important yet little-known medieval dynasty that ruled much of Central Asia between the late 10th and early 13th centuries. Based on extensive fieldwork and many hard-to-find Russian sources, the book places the surviving monuments into the wider cultural context of the region. Many photographs and new ground-plans are included, as well as detailed studies of individual monuments and the wider architectural aesthetic. These monuments serve as the link between the mostly lost Samanid architecture and the far larger and better-known monuments of the Timurids.

In his volume, McClary aims to provide as detailed a study as possible of all of the surviving monuments in the Qarakhanid corpus. The book achieves its goal in many ways, especially to document and introduce a dynamic, diverse and innovative architectural repertoire of this medieval dynasty. The volume offers a visually engaging journey through the former Qarakhanid domains, detailing some major monuments located distantly from Balasagun and Uzgend in Kyrgyzstan to Taraz, Kazakhstan and, finally, to Bukhara and Samarkand in Uzbekistan. -- Dilrabo Tosheva, The University of Queensland * Central Asian Survey, 2020 *
An engaging study of a corpus of buildings from a little-known region that combines a close reading of the individual buildings and their materials, technique and decoration with a deep knowledge of the sources.　 A model of architectural analysis, it shows how a regional style can flourish despite political turmoil. * Sheila Blair, Boston College *

Dr Richard Piran McClary is a Senior Lecturer in Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of York. He received his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in 2015. He has lectured extensively on a range of subjects related to medieval Islamic art and architecture, and has conducted fieldwork in India, Iran, Turkey, Central Asia and across the Middle East. He is a specialist in the architecture and ceramics of the medieval Iranian world, and the history of the Islamic art market. He has published three monographs; Mina’i Ware: A Reassessment and Comprehensive Study of Iranian Polychrome Overglaze Wares through Sherds (EUP, 2024), Medieval Monuments of Central Asia. Qarakhanid Architecture of the 11th and 12th Centuries (EUP, 2020), and Rum Seljuq Architecture 1170-1220. The Patronage of Sultans (EUP, 2017). He has edited Stucco in the Islamic World: Studies of Architectural Ornament from Spain to India (EUP, 2025), and co-edited a volume with Andrew Peacock, entitled Turkish History and Culture in India. Identity, Art and Transregional Connections (Brill, 2020). He has also published articles in numerous journals, including: Muqarnas, Iran, Persica, Anatolian Studies, the International Journal of Islamic Architecture, and the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. He has served as a trustee and the Research Director for the British Institute of Persian Studies, and is managing editor of the Journal of Islamic Art and Architecture.