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220 nineties, the Mussalla stood in fairly good condition and, only during the political scare following the "Panjdeh Incident" did Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, under the advice of British engineers, pull it down for strategic reasons. Recently one of the remaining minarets also fell to the ground. Between the Madressah and the Mussalla is a domed building. This is the tomb of Gohar Shad, the gifted Queen of Shah Rukh. The melon-shaped ribbed dome of the tomb is covered with tiles of wonderful turquoise-blue. If one sees it at sunset under the slanting rays of the sun, it is rather difficult to forget it. There are still enough tiles left on the minarets to give an idea of the techniques of those palmy days. It is a kind of cloisonne work, the partition being of white marble with scrolls of text from the Quran filled up with coloured tiles. If, after seeing the Mussallah, the visitor could take a look at some of the paintings of Bihzad, he might begin to understand what the Herat of Hussain Baiqara was like. In the course of a few generations, the race of Tamerlane had lost the savage energy of its founder, and devoted themselves zealously to the advancement of arts and crafts. So powerful was the impetus derived from the Timurids that it lasted through a greater portion of the sixteenth century, and influenced Persia under the Saffavids, and India under the Mughals. Babur, who visited Herat shortly before the crumbling of the Timurid Empire under the onslaught of the Uzbek Shaibani Khan, has described in vivid terms the court of Sultan Hussain Baiqra. This description might best be summarised by paraphrasing the famous saying of Talleyran: "He who has not lived in the Herat of Hussain Baiqra, does not know the joy of life". India must not forget that the best that the great Emperors of the House of Timur have