Chisht-i Sharif (also known as Khwaja Chisht, or, simply, Chisht) is located in modern Afghanistan, about 140 km east of Herat along the course of the Hari Rud. Two domed structures in brick [Figures 5.1 and 5.2], locally designated as gunbads or khānqāhs, are the sole vestiges attributable to the second half of the sixth/ twelfth century, when the region was controlled by the Ghurid/ Shansabanid confederation. The monuments are freestanding at about 20 m from each other and have sometimes been interpreted as two domed mausoleums due to their architectural layout and the presence of an extended graveyard in their surroundings. However, surveys and aerial photographs leave little doubt about their having been part of a larger complex, whose history and original plan remain conjectural. Marc Le Berre surveyed the site in 1952 and carefully described the two monuments, which he labelled as ‘structure A ‘ (the southwestern dome) and ‘structure B’ (the northeastern dome) – these designations will be adopted hereafter.

The present study concentrates on the more ruined and less investigated structure B [Figure 5.3], and, in particular, on its epigraphic programme. This is motivated by the emergence of previously unpublished inscriptions, documented through photographs taken by Josephine Powell (1919–2007) around 1960, but only recently digitised and made accessible. The monument has a rectangular plan (8.11 × 5.60 m), two archways on the south and north sides, and two blind walls on the east and west sides. A mihrab is set on the inner west wall, offset towards the south entrance, and another niche (possibly a second mihrab) is located on the exterior of the east wall [Figure 5.2]; moreover, Le Berre noted traces of a prolongation of the structure towards the north, east and west. The northern archway and the dome collapsed in the second half of the twentieth century.

The fragmentary nature of the inscriptions recorded both inside and outside structure B fosters the adoption of a broad comparative perspective. Such an approach can largely benefit from a renewal of studies on the history and architecture of the Ghurid sultanate (544–612/1149–1215). Recent literature has put the accent on the complex political organisation of the Shansabanid confederation, whose parallel branches ruled over different appanages of a large territory spanning from eastern Khurasan to northern India.