Turkestan - Hoja Ahmad Yasawi
The Mausoleum of Hoja Ahmad Yasawi, located in the south of Kazakhstan in the city of Turkestan, is an amazing complex of palaces and temples, a masterpiece of architecture built between 1385 and 1405. The Mausoleum of Hoja Ahmad Yasawi in Turkestan has been inscribed by UNESCO on the World Heritage List. It is a grandiose 12th century building dedicated to the famous East Turkestan poet and Sufi preacher Ahmad Yasawi. The word “Yassawi” means “of Yassi”. This was the ancient name of the city of Turkestan. The entire city centre is a Hazrat – Sultan historical and cultural reserve. Besides the mausoleum of Hoja Ahmad Yasawi, it includes a medieval bath, a mound where the great saint lived, the mausoleum of Amir Temur’s granddaughter Rabia Sultan Begim and other monuments. Miraculously, the underground meditation house of Kumshik-at has survived.
Hoja Ahmad Hazrati Sultan Yasawi – founder of Sufism, thinker, poet and preacher. Hoja Ahmad Hazrati Sultan Yasawi, a recognised leader of the Turkish branch of Sufism, was a thinker, mystical poet and religious preacher popular among local nomads. His father, Ibrahim ibn Mahmud, as Ahmad Yasawi noted in his 149 Hikmeten, was a religious, respected and famous sheikh of Isfijab (Sayram). Hoja Ahmad Yasawi was born in the town of Yassi (Turkestan). When he was 7 years old, he lost his father, whereupon his mother sent him to Arystan Baba.
Young Ahmad Yasawi started a new life in Yassi, where he arrived at the age of 17 after the death of his teacher. Since then he started writing poetry in Arabic, Chagatai, Persian and Turkish. He was interested in the poetry and literature of the East. Later he visited Bukhara where he studied with Yusuf Hamadani. After becoming a connoisseur of Sufism, Ahmad Yasawi returned to Yassi and continued the tradition founded by Arystan Baba. Here he founded the Yassavi Sufi Order.
Ahmad Yasawi calls for asceticism, renunciation of the outer world and patience, as this will ensure bliss in the hereafter. He calls for justice, honesty and kindness. It is thanks to him that the Turkish language was introduced into literature. The popular preachers called “Baba” spread the teachings of Yassavi in Turkestan, Azerbaijan, Asia Minor, the Volga region, Khorasan, etc.
Ahmad Yasawi determined the course of the development of the popular current in the new Islamic civilisation of the Turkic peoples. He succeeded in merging the new religious ideology with mass consciousness, Tengriism-shamanism and Zoroastrianism. The Yassavi movement played an important role in this process, as its sermons on justice, moral and spiritual purification and the perfection of man resonated in the souls of the Turkic peoples. Thanks to Ahmad Yasawi, Sufism as a philosophical system played a crucial role in the spiritual consciousness and worldview of the Turkic peoples. Before Yassavi, the Turkic peoples prayed to Tengri and after him they began to believe in Allah. With the help of Sufism, the Turkic peoples learned Eastern philosophy, the philosophy of world religion. Mansur, the son of Arystan Baba, became his follower. He was visited by a large number of believers and pilgrims. After 63 years, he spent the rest of his life in a dungeon. This Yassavi explained it thus, “I have reached the age of the Prophet, sixty-three years, that is enough for me, I need not live longer than the Prophet has allowed me.”
There are varying accounts of Ahmad Yasawi’s life expectancy. According to some sources, he lived to be 73, while others say he lived to be 85. Aymautov believes, based on the text of 149 Hikmet Yassavi, that he lived to be 125. In this case, his date of birth is 1041.
Ahmad Yasawi preached the ideas of Sufism and lived firmly in poverty himself. The moral authority of Ahmad Yasawi was high both among the people of the Syr-Darya steppe and far beyond its borders. After Ahmad Yasawi’s death, mysterious legends surrounded his name, and his tomb became a place of pilgrimage.
The history of the mausoleum
Folk legends tell that Amir Temur had great respect for the Shrine of Turkestan. On his instructions, more than two centuries after the death of Hoja Ahmad Yasawi, one of the outstanding monuments of world architecture, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, was built on the site of a small, obviously dilapidated tomb in Turkestan. The official history of Temur’s “Book of Victories” (“Zafar name”) links the building’s foundation to the events of late 1397, when Temur performed ceremonial ziyarat (worship) at the tomb of Ahmad Yasawi. According to the “Book of Victories”, during his stay in the city of Yassi, Amir Temur ordered that a grandiose structure worthy of the memory of Ahmad Yasawi be built here, on the outskirts of his property. It was to glorify Islam, promote its further spread and facilitate the rule over the vast region. In the 14th century, an architectural monument to Ahmad Yasawi was commissioned by Amir Temur. There is a local legend about this. When they started to build the walls of the mausoleum, a violent storm brought them down. After the second construction, the story repeated itself. Afterwards, an old man appeared to Amir Temur in a dream who advised him to first build the mazar of Arystan Baba, the teacher and mentor of Ahmad Yasawi. Amir Temur did so. He then proceeded with the plan. The custom whereby pilgrims had to spend a night at Otrar with Arystan Baba, where there were special hostels and a teahouse, and then come to Ahmad Yasawi, testifies to the importance of Arystan Baba. Amir Temur determined the main dimensions of the building itself: the diameter of the large dome was to be 30 gyaz (a unit of length equal to 60.6 cm). The dimensions of all other parts of the building were determined by this module (gyaz). The decree of Amir Temur also included recommendations on some decorative details of the building and its interior. A special charter (vaqf-nama) listed the aryks and the lands alienated to the monument. The income from these properties and donations from the faithful were to be used for the repair of the building and the upkeep of the servants. The well-preserved inscription above the entrance to the building reads, “This sacred site was built at the behest of Allah’s beloved ruler, Amir Temur Guragan…. – May Allah prolong his orders for centuries!” The orders of Amir Temur were strictly followed. Legend has it that when the mausoleum was built, workers from a brickyard (khumdan) in Sauran passed the stones for construction from hand to hand.
It is an architectural complex that combines the functions of a mausoleum, a mosque, a khanaka (a place for mass ceremonies – kazandik) and administrative and household spaces. Its dimensions are 46.5 by 62.5 metres. The outwardly symmetrical and compact floor plan includes up to 35 rooms connected by corridors, staircases and corridors that start from the corners of the kazandyk and divide the space into eight compartments – blocks. The division of the building into blocks testifies to the effort to ensure their independent occupation. The different weights of the structure were supported by the different depths of the construction. The vault structures are of great variety. Cross vault, sail, beam and cantilever cellular sub-dome structures are used here. Parallel arches connected by semi-circular arches are the germ of the idea of intersecting arches, which underwent their final development in the later phases of Central Asian architecture. The building is constructed of square fired bricks measuring 25x25x5 cm and 26x26x6 cm. Alabaster (ganch mortar) was used as a binder. The careful selection of the construction and the high quality of the material and workmanship ensure that the building will last for centuries. The majestic portal part of the monument with a deep and wide arched niche and its flanking pylons and minarets. Thanks to its considerable height (39 m) and the large span of the arch (18 m), it dominates the main volume of the building and emphasises the monumental character of its architectural appearance. The façade decoration, typical of Amir Temur’s era, is rich in geometric and vegetal ornaments with extensive epigraphic elements. The north façade stands out for its perfect proportions and the richness of its ornamentation. The three-quarter columns at the corners of the comparatively small portal are crowned by lyre-like capitals decorated with turquoise majolica and floral ornaments. The trunks of the columns are decorated with hexagonal majolica panels. Their pattern, which merges into one another, forms an uninterrupted design. Above the portal, on a high drum, rises the dome of kabirkhana – the tomb of Ahmad Yasawi. The flat side of this and the side facades (west and east) is covered with glazed bricks set on the edge. The geometric ornaments (gyri) are tiled with blue tiles and stand out clearly. The light openings, framed by thin rectangular frames, blend seamlessly into the composition of the façades.
