Kaakhka - Settlement Abiwerd
The medieval settlement of Abiwerd, located 8 km west of Kaakhka (Kaka) and 113 km southwest of Ashgabat. It is one of the most important cities in North Khorasan, mentioned repeatedly in written sources, especially since the time of the Arab conquerors.
The ancient scholar Makdisi wrote about Abiwerd that he liked Abiwerd more than Nisa because it has richer fertile land and a bazaar. In the Persian geographical work Hudul al-Alem, Baverd (Abiwerd) is described as “a place with numerous crops and arable land”.
In the XI century, when Seljuks and Ghaznevids were fighting over the possession of Khorasan, Abiwerd is mentioned several times by Abul-Fazl Bayhaqi as a settlement where the Ghaznevid Sultan Masud Togrulbek stayed.
Since the medieval city of Abiwerd is covered by a cultural layer of the late period of the XV-XVIII centuries, it is difficult to define the type and planning of the medieval city. Pottery from the ninth and twelfth centuries is often found during excavations in the town.
Among the numismatic material are coins of local coinage from a later period.Investigation of the ruins of Abiwerd revealed that there were craftsmen’s quarters in the south-eastern and north-western parts of the city, where remains of iron slag were found.
The investigation of the ruins of Abiwerd revealed that in the south-eastern and north-western parts of the city there were craftsmen’s quarters where remains of iron slag were found.
In the central part of the city, not far from the citadel, various metal tools (women’s jewellery, cowls, buckles, parts of harnesses, etc.) were found, testifying to the existence of coppersmith and jeweller workshops.
The Abiwerd settlement in Kaakhka had a single gate on the southwest side. Approximately in the middle of the fortress stood a mosque built in the early XV century, and near it was a square.
The development of Rabad took place mainly in the south and west; here were the most important crafts; here were apparently the most important bazaars where the exchange of urban craft products and products of settled agriculture and nomadic livestock took place.
At-Tabari gives an accurate account of the Arab conquest of the Korasanic cities of Abrshahr (Nishapur), Abiwerd, Nisa, Serakhs and Merv in 651. The haraj (tax revenue) for Abiwerd in the 9th century was 700,000 dirhams, almost double that of Serakhs.
This suggests that Abiwerd was a more densely populated area than Serakhs at that time. In the XI century, when Seljuks and Ghaznevids were fighting over the possession of Khorasan, Abiwerd is mentioned several times in the chronicles as a settlement where Togrulbek or the Ghaznevid Sultan Masud stayed.
Juwayni notes that Nisa and Abiwerd were destroyed at the same time during the Mongol invasion. Apparently Abiwerd was not rebuilt afterwards, for in the XIV century Hamdallah Qazvini wrote that “Abiwerd is a small town”.
The 15th century geographical work Hafiz-i-Abru lists towns and districts in Khorasan.According to him, there were several dozen villages, towns and a number of villages in the Abiwerd district.
Their shahristan was surrounded by a wall with round towers and a moat. A straight road connected the only city gate with the citadel gates. Almost in the middle was a monumental mosque with a portal dome, of which only a peshtaka of baked brick with a spiral staircase in the upper part survived until the XX century (hence the modern name of the settlement).
The decoration of this unique monument of northern Chorean architecture of the XII. The decoration of this unique monument of northern Chorean architecture of the XII century, made of moulded stones with blue glazed tiles and carved ornaments, is of a high artistic level – exceptionally rich in variety and complexity of ornamentation.
Most of the material collected on the surface of the hill dates from the 10th-7th centuries, but ceramic fragments from the 9th-10th centuries are also found here. The city wall has an almost rectangular shape and extends over 42 hectares.
The settlement of Abiwerd in Kaakhka is 10.5 hectares in size and is located in the middle of the north-eastern city wall. It has been preserved as a mighty bulwark with 20 towers and has an almost square ground plan with sides measuring 300 m by 350 m. The gate of the citadel was located in the south-western part.
Since the entire medieval city of Abiwerd is covered by a cultural layer from the late 15th and 18th centuries, it is difficult to determine the ground plan of an early medieval city.
Pottery from the IX. to XII. Century and coins of local coinage from later times are found there in large numbers. During the investigation of the ruins of Abiwerd, several craftsmen’s quarters were discovered.
We also found a dense network of old irrigation ditches and pottery pipes, which is clear evidence of the highly developed irrigation system in Abiwerd.
It is likely that the geographical location at the crossroads of trade routes connecting towns and areas on the northern slopes of the Kopetdag with Iran contributed to the development of the town.
Moreover, Abiwerd bordered the nomadic steppe to the north, which was an important market for crafts and raw materials. According to Makdisi, he liked Abiwerd better than Nisa, with better bazaars, and the land of Abiwerd is more fertile and rich.
The sprawling bath, where the main handicraft production and bazaars were located, developed in a southern and western direction. Abiwerd was first surveyed in 1928 by the Haveran expedition led by A. A. Semenov, who produced a plan of the old citadel, the remains of the city wall and the surface buildings.
In 1947, Abiwerd was visited by one of the STACE groups who carried out a reconnaissance work that traced the history of the formation of the urban organism from the early Middle Ages to the 19th century.
