Ahmad Sanjar
The majority of secular funerary architecture did not survive the Seljuk period, however, the tomb of Ahmad Sanjar remained intact and went on to influence future domed building. The doubled-domed Seljuk style of the Tomb of Ahmad Sanjar proved a lasting influence on the domed architecture of the Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid periods that followed. The Tomb of Ahmad Sanjar deviated from traditional Seljuk funerary towers of its day by moving “towards squatter proportions with a new emphasis on interior space.” This influence that realized later building guided by monumentalizing interior spaces is evidenced by later buildings such as the octagonal-square Dome of Soltaniyeh. The tomb is the first example of a mosque-mausoleum amalgam known to history and this architectural combination would go on to become widespread in the tradition of Islamic buildings and complexes. The influence of Ahmad Sanjar’s mausoleum is evidenced by multiple architectural additions at the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan, including two of its domes. The architect of the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan’s north-eastern squared-dome “utilized these standard forms to create a work of art” while the southern dome mimicked the Tomb of Ahmad Sanjar’s use of a hexadecagon that surrounds the outer dome. Similarly, internal stiffener implements applied at the Sultaniyya Mausoleum in Cairo demonstrate the influence of Seljuk building techniques. When the Ilkhanid ruler Ghāzān Khān visited Merv and witnessed the Tomb of Ahmad Sanjar he was so awe-struck that he sought to both cite and outdo Ahmad Sanjar’s tomb with the building of his own funerary complex at Shamb. Other Islamic funerary architecture that derived influence from the Seljuk style of the Tomb of Ahmad Sanjar include examples such as the Sultan Bakht Aqa mausoleum, the Mir-chaqmaq mosque and the Sultani madrasa.