Central Uzbekistan City Impressions: The Holy City of Bukhara
Bukhara is an ancient city rich with history that permeates the streets and alleyways of contemporary life. In the 6th C BCE it was part of the Achaemedian Empire, and then part of Alexander’s in the 4th BCE. In the 7th c CE, Bukar (Queen) Khadum governed the region for 15 yrs as regent for her son. She valiantly tried to fend off a the Arab invasion. She lost, which cost her her life and, within a few centuries, the city’s Zoroastrian, Buddhism, Nestorian Christian, Manichean, Judaism and Shamanic traditions. The holy city didn’t lose its sacred nature, however, and it soon became a major center for Islam. The first mosque in Central Asia was built in Bukhara in the 7th C. At first the Arabs didn’t kill the ‘pagans’ but they made financial incentives to get people to convert as they had in Khiva. Over time there were 200 madrasahs and 60 caravansarais (inns) in town.
The Caliphate Era (Arab rulers) began in the 8th C. There were 4 Caliphates in Central Asia and Umar took control Bukhara. He decided not to destroy the synagogues, as Jews were people of the Book, but he did refuse for new ones to be built. This law was still standing in the 17th C when it caused a vizier problems. Umar at least attempted to respect the other religions, while promoting Islam. At the beginning of the 9th C came the Abbasid (Iranian) Caliphate; then came the Samanids, the first native rulers since the Arab Invasion. Ismoil Samanid’s father was the first official to convert to Islam and he became the founder of the dynasty that bears his name.
Bukhara flourished under the Samanids. They were true believers in Islam but incorporated other traditions in the design and architecture of their buildings. Ismoil Samaniy’s Mausoleum (9th-10th C) was, for me, far and away the most impressive structure we saw amid many amazing ones. The local populace valued the structure so much that when the city was threatened by the Mongols in 1220 they covered the building with dirt, making it look like a mound. It wasn’t uncovered until 1937 by Russian archeologists. The Mausoleum was built for Ismoil’s father and the family, but given the political upheavals only Akhmed, the father, is buried there. His tomb is the only piece that has been reconstructed, the rest of the mausoleum is original. The walls are 2 m thick, and 18m high to the center of the cupola. The bricks were held together with mud, water, egg yolk, honey and camel’s milk and three unknown elements.
This mausoleum is called “the pearl of the East.” It combines a number of Oriental cultures: Zoroastrian, Islam, Chinese and Byzantine.
The shape of the outside structure refers to the Zoroastrian idea of the square as four corners of the earth and the sun by the cupola. The designs have the Chinese diamond with a square inside and a circle inside the square, which represents the triangle of mother, father, child. The niches at the top of the walls bridging to the cupola on the inside are Byzantine and there is even a Christian cross. What is even more amazing is that this mausoleum was designed by the fellow who destroyed a Zoroastrian temple in order to build a mosque.
Samaniy and his descendants actively promoted learning and built 5 madrasahs and 3 libraries. They were famous for their artists and scholars including Avicenna, and Al Horazm. Islamic scholarship flourished under their reign and the following Karakhanids. But then came the various marauders and revolving door rulers until Ghengis Khan wiped all of Central Asian culture off the map.
1220 Ghengis Khan came riding into town, and rode directly into the Great Mosque where he found everyone praying Namas. As they didn’t pay attention to him, the great conqueror, he simply slaughtered them, captured the city, and took captives for his battle against Samarkand. Soon thereafter he made his eldest son, Chingian, ruler of Khorasam. After the conquest, the Mongols kept coming back to Bukhara and some of their officials converted to Islam.
There were numerous revolts against the Mongols, including one by Korabe. In 1370 there was a movement of local emirs against the Mongolian yoke they had suffered for almost a century and a half. Timur is called the Great because he united all of Central Asia against the Mongols and kicked them out of most of the western part of region. To outsiders, he is a mass murderer and a horrible tyrant, but to the people of Uzbekistan and Tajikstan, he is THE hero. Statues of him are in all the major cities and in various poses, riding a horse, standing etc. but all showing him as the great conqueror. He came to power through his own sheer will, cunning and intelligence. He didn’t inherit the role, but earned it. He was ruthless in his quest for power, for example, he and his brother-in-law jointly won the battle against the Mongolian forces, but then they had a falling out and Timur killed his relative. He took all his brother-in-law’s property, including his wives, which were considered ‘property’. One wife, Bibi Khanym, became one of Timur’s favorites and more will be said about her and her husband in the section on Samarkand.
During Timur’s time numerous mosques and madrasahs were built throughout his empire, including in Bukhara. After the collapse of his dynasty, ca. 1507, the Shaybanids came to power. In 1752 Aschtorkhanids took over. The difference between them was that the Shaybanids could call themselves khans, but the Astorkhanids weren’t from Bukhara and therefore couldn’t call themselves by that title (they weren’t considered religious enough). Khan was a title inherited from the Mongol, Genghis Khan tradition; emir (or amir, its spelled both ways) was from the Iranian tradition.
The Shaybanids set the stage for the golden era of the city. Many of the structures that are visible today stem from their and the Aschtorkhanid periods. The city was not done with pillagers, however, and in 1814 an Iranian shakh came, briefly conquered, and hauled off all the most valuable artifacts from Bukhara and Samarkand to Iran, including the doors from the Palace in Samarkand. (Seems like Napoleon did the same thing in Europe, but at least we now can access the artifacts in the Louvre….) In 1865 Tsarist Russians came to Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara; they invaded and conquered Bukhara in three days. The Russian Red Army bombed the ark, the royal residence and seat of government, which is when Emir Ala Khan escaped to Afghanistan. His family was imprisoned by the Russians, then released into exile in Turkey. His descendants now live in the U.S., Turkey and Germany. In 1919 Bukhara was made a communist republic and in 1921 it officially part of Soviet Union. In 1930 when Stalin was engaged in Central Asian activities, he is reputed to have ordered the killing of most of the local population, especially those who had said anything against the regime or those who were considered intellectuals. Some were sent them into exile instead, often to Siberia, including all the poets and novelists. The stories differ on whether they were killed or exiled, but in either caste, they were never heard from again.
In 1930 in Tashkent daily 35 people were shot and dumped into a mass grave on site including the most famous Uzbeki poets of the era. It is now a memorial park and will be discussed in the Tashkent section. At the beginning of WWII there were a number of Uzbeki students studying in Germany; they were invited/enticed back, but then these desert people were promptly exiled to the frigid Russian northeast wilderness to subsist in Gulags. After the war the Uzbeks had little to support themselves and by the 1960s there was mass starvation due to a cotton fiasco; Moscow demanded increasingly more cotton production from all the cultivatable property including that which might produce food. There is more information on cotton mess in the UZ Impressions “Environmental Disasters” section.
In August 1991, the UZ president Karimov was visiting in India, but he came back quickly to secure his place and move the country towards independence. Soon after he took office as the President of the new Republic, he began reconstructing the major historical monuments. These buildings are now the greatest tourist attraction the country has and are the lifeblood of foreign currencies. They are also huge symbols of the greatness of the Uzbeki people in the past, which may well be designed to overcome the humiliation they suffered under the Soviets.
In 1997 the city of Bukhara celebrated its 2500 year anniversary making it about contemporary with Rome. There was no coincidence in this very political statement.
Perhaps the most famous gathering place in modern Bukhara is the Labi Hauz – pond. From the 17th C to 1930 there were lots of ponds and pools in Bukhara, but in 1930 Stalin’s officials ordered the destruction of most of them as the stagnant waters were breeding grounds for mosquitoes spreading disease. This one was able to survive as it is surrounded by a number of highly ornate and unusual buildings. The legend of its origin is that when the Vizier wanted to construct a pond on the site he was confined within the space he owned and needed to purchase the land on which a Jewish widow’s house was. She refused to sell. The Vizier went to the Emir for right of immanent domain, but the Emir upheld the Jewish woman’s rights. So the Vizier built a small pond next to her house and let the water ruin her foundation. Finally she had to sell, but not before she negotiated the land for the right to build a synagogue where Muslim and Jew could worship together. The old law about not building new synagogues was still in effect, so the compromise was that a new synagogue would in fact be built in the old city; Burkara residents of the Jewish faith continue to use it. The pond is 5 m deep, 42 m long and 36 m wide. There are three mulberry trees by the pond and they were all on the Jewish widow’s property. They are considered part of the city’s heritage and can’t be cut down. The pond now has a couple of cafes beside it, as well as the old Kanaka, an inn for Sufi dervishes who would stay there for free, the Kalaldash Madrasah, which means Good/Best Friend and has 130 cells for students - it was supposed to be the most impressive in Central Asia with inscriptions from the Koran and Hadith, and the Nodir Davon Begi Madrasah/Caravansarai, which was really the latter (an inn where one pays), but the ruler thought it was a medieval madrasah (religious school), so it was renamed and rebuilt as one. This madrasah has wonderfully ornate dragons and phoenixes by the top of the entrance. There is also a new bronze statue of the 11th C folklore hero Nasiriddin Effendi who through his cleverness deceived the rich out of their money and gave it to the poor.
Not far from the pond is the Magoki Attari Mosque, (named after the king who ruled the city in the 1st C CE). It was here that the first 7th C mosque was built over the Zoroastrian temple they destroyed. That mosque collapsed and was rebuilt in the Middle Ages. In the 14th C both Muslims and Jews could worship here, but after the 17th with the widow's new synagogue, Jews worshipped in the new building while Muslims continued to worship in the old. Fascinatingly, all this took place on the site where the early exchange of idols and currency took place for the Mohk (moon) temple. This was originally a goddess site, and at least one source I read suggested that the city’s reputation both as a sacred site and as a trading center came for the Mohk temple exchanges. Anahita, the fertility goddess, expected her votive figurines to be renewed each year. This was good business for the local craftsmen, much the way the Ephesians profited from their Artemis Temple. Anahita’s Temple was still active when the Arabs came and obliterated her and it. Today the site is unrecognizable as anything other than a series of walls. In today’s delightfully commercial world it’s a carpet and crafts museum.
Between Magoki Attari and Labi Hauz is the first of the three main gates, each with their own special trading products. The first, Toqi Sarrafon, was the banking, currency exchange center in keeping with the older traditions. It has four entrances to grab people from all sides. Just after one comes from the outside into the Labi Hauz complex is a hamams (bathhouse). In the 16th C there were more than 20. When one came from a long hot dusty trip, the first thing that was needed upon entering the holy city was a good soak and scrub. Three are left, but only two of them still accept customers, the other is now a museum.
The second gate is called Toqi Telpak Furushon, and it is the place where traditionally only men’s hats were sold. Again there are four entrances to attract people on their daily routes. In the 18th C, this was broadened to include mixed products and hats from other countries, incl. Korea. Some of the hat sellers today are 7+ generation traders at the gate.
The third gate is the Toqi Zargaron where jewelry was sold. As these traders were excellent strategists they recognized the importance of location. This gate lies directly on the route to both the synagogue and the mosque. It was on a path everyone would take and in passing would naturally look at the products on display. Location, location, location.
Bukhara’s unofficial fourth gate is actually a covered market with 10 doors opening to the different directions. Embroidery, carpets and silk were, and are, sold here.
Silk was often traded for salt. Silk production had come to the region when the Arabs invaded. Apparently Chinese traders were in Samarkand when the Mongols arrived. The Chinese had a long-standing prohibition on allowing any knowledge of their trade secrets for silk production out of the country, but the traders confessed in order to save their lives. In the 16th C, Abdullakhan, a powerful politician and trader, started a joint venture with China for silk production. His product was so successful that it drove the price of Chinese silk down and he made lots of money.
Bukhara was a major center of learning, i.e., primarily religious education, but also for the sciences. There are two major madrasahs that face each other One was for anyone (well, any boy) who could pass the entrance exam and the other only for the very wealthy.
The earlier of the two was constructed by Ulugbek, Timur’s scientist grandson in 1420. Ulugbek was a mathematician and astronomer. Originally it had four minarets, each with their own unique decorative styles. There is an 8-pt star indicating the 8 heavens and in the center the architect’s name on the entrance portal. The façade was reconstructed in the 16th C and now has intricate majolica designs with lots of stars. The inside courtyard is surrounded by the traditional two storied cells for students, generally 2 to a cell with the upstairs for sleeping and downstairs for studying. There are also classrooms and a mosque. Gypsum was used in Seljuk style for acoustical purposes in the classrooms. The inscription on the entrance reads: “Aspiration to knowledge is a duty of each Muslim man and woman.” Ulugbek was a truly remarkable man and is discussed in the Samarkand journal. (Of all the rulers etc. we have come across I like this guy!)
Across the street from Ulugbek’s madrasah is the one built by Abdulaziz Khan in the 17th C and was intended to outshine Ulugbek’s. This is also the one where only the wealthy could attend. There are beautifully fantastic birds flying towards the heavens on the entrance portal. The guidebook describes the design as “mosaic with characteristic motif of a blossoming bush in a vase makes external décor. Under dome stalactite systems, complex “sails” and various paintings decorate the interior.” (Monuments, 65) In the 15t C Ibn Halldun had said that the only real dervishes were those who wore sheepskins (hairshirts) next to their bodies for humbleness. The madrasah consequently has short doors so that one has to bend down when entering to promote humbleness.
Opposite from bowing is stretching the eyes to the heavens to see the top of the
Grand Mosque Kaylan minaret, which is 46 m in height with 105 steps up with a 9 m circumference base. There are 16 windows on top, where they were used for executions. The convicted would be put in a bag, carried up the stairs and tossed out the window. (Not a great way to fly.) The current one is built on the foundation of an 8th C minaret; in the 11th C that one collapsed and was subsequently rebuilt in the Khanate period.
The Grand Friday Mosque was rebuilt in the 16th C after the Mongol disaster by Abdulla Khan, son of Mohammad Shaybaney Khan. It was supposed to be one of the best, if not the best, in Central Asia. It now has a burial vault for the spiritual mentor of the Khan and 10 tombs in the accompanying madrasah. The complex was built with money from the slave trade. The Khan asked both Sunnis and Shiites to contribute to the building project, but the Shiites refused. So he rounded them all up and sold them. With this money he constructed the study site.
The inside was decorated with gypsum for acoustical purposes. The outside is majolica, not mosaics. The inclusion of green and yellow and orange in the design comes from Iranian art.
During the Soviet times, the mosque was used as a car and truck warehouse; then later as the place for the collection of agricultural taxes. In 1993 Arabian sheiks contributed the funds for reconstructing the entire complex. From 1995 until 2000 it was back in use as the Friday Mosque Now one can only do Namas (official prayers) in the right corner, otherwise it is a museum.
The Ark, the royal residence, originally covered an area of 4 hectares, only one of which survives. The surviving buildings include the mosque, the vizier’s residence, the coronation hall and the cells for ambassadors, the house of the Khan, the harem and the mint, the winter mosque and inner courtyard for his children. The Ark was built on a 20 m artificial hill for defensive purposes. It was only for the wealthy and the royal family, commoners lived outside. There were 11 gates in the walls that covered 250 hectares for the entire metropolitan area. Only a few of the 11 survive in various stages of reconstruction.
The walls were decorated with highly decorative mosaics. There is a wall inside in front of the entrance so that no one would look directly at the Khan’s face. One bowed and looked down on the way in & walked backwards looking down on the way out, never looking directly at the ruler.
Bukhara was a city of learning and of religion. The city is compact enough to walk around and get to know in just a couple of days. There are a few major paths through most of the major sites and those are easily negotiated in a day or so. It is also a fun city to get lost in the other alleyways, not part of the tourist route. The people are friendly and helpful and one can get a feel for the medieval center off in the back streets. Madrasahs were all over the place and many have been converted to other uses. Our hotel, for example was an old madrasah and I could imagine the boys and scholars discussing the Koran in the courtyard where I was working on the notes for this blog. Learning continues, just in different ways and forms.
Text references:
Bukhara guidebook: Almeev, Robert. Bukhara in legends and fact of history. (The rest I can’t read if it is there as it’s in Russian.)
Historical Monuments of Uzbekistan. Tashkent:SMI-Asia, 2011
