In search of Yasawi

Visit Uzbekistan Editor Megan Eaves explores the legacy of the famous Sufi mystic and poet, Ahmed Yasawi, on a cross-border trip in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, soon to be connected by a high-speed train. 

 Yasawi’s mausoleum

Arguably the most important figure in Central Asian Islam and a key contributor to regional literature was the Sufi mystic and poet Ahmed Yasawi. Born in Sayram (present-day southern Kazakhstan) in the 11th century, Yasawi lost his father when he was young and was raised by the spiritual master Arystan Bab. He later moved to Bukhara (Uzbekistan) and became the head murshid (religious teacher) of the Naqshbandi order of Sufism, a mystical arm of Sunni Islam. Eventually, Yasawi moved to the city of Turkistan (southern Kazakhstan), where he worked to spread Islam for the rest of his life.

Yasawi’s influence on Central Asian life and religion cannot be understated. He localised the Islamic tradition, which had been brought by the Persians and Arabs in the preceding centuries. He wrote Islamic poetry in the Turkic language for the first time and used folk poetry and storytelling techniques to make mystical Sufi concepts accessible to locals in Central Asia. Today, Yasawi is considered one of the most important saints in Central Asian Islam, as well as a treasured literary figure.

Yasawi died in 1166 in Turkistan. Today, numerous sites across Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan have become places of pilgrimage for Yasawi devotees. According to Axel and Balzhan Monse, the editors of Info Shymkent, an online magazine dedicated to the South Kazakhstan region, Kazakhs often make pilgrimages to Sayram, Arystan Bab and Turkistan.

A new high-speed rail line under construction between Tashkent and Turkistan will soon make a cross-border pilgrimage easier than ever.

Kazakhstan has also been hard at work transforming the city of Turkistan into a modern tourism destination with a brand new international airport, luxury hotels and a huge entertainment complex, along with recent restorations to the city’s most important site, Yasawi’s mausoleum.

Here we present some of the most famous pilgrimage sites dedicated to Yasawi and his disciples in a cross-border itinerary through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Turkistan, Kazakhstan

Arystan Bab Mausoleum

The starting place for any Yasawi pilgrimage is the city of Turkistan, Kazakhstan, where Yasawi and his spiritual teacher, Arystan Bab, are both entombed. Most pilgrims first make the trip to the Arystan Bab Mausoleum, located in the flat steppe 60km south of Turkistan. The simple, three-room structure consists of a small mosque with remarkable, carved-wood pillars, a library with several ancient manuscripts of the Quran and the mausoleum itself, containing Arystan Bab’s grave.

Arystan Bab Mausoleum

Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi

The most important Yasawi site, and one of the treasures of Kazakhstan, is Yasawi’s astonishingly beautiful tomb — the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi. After Yasawi’s death, Turkistan was renamed Yasi in homage to the spiritual master, and eventually, the city came under the control of the great leader Timur (Tamerlane). In 1389, Timur visited Turkistan and ordered new mausoleums be built for both Arystan Bab and Yasawi, with the latter’s tomb planned in the grand Timurid style of ganch construction with giant arched portals, ornate geometric ceramic designs and blue-tiled domes. The style, which became known as Timurid architecture, was perfected in the well-known Registan and huge madrasas built a few years later in Timur’s capital city, Samarkand (Uzbekistan).

Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi

Axel Monse of Info Shymkent says, “It’s interesting to mention is that Timur built the Arystan Bab Mausoleum before the Yasawi Mausoleum because of a construction issue in the foundation. In a dream, Timur received a message that the teacher [Arystan Bab] had to receive a mausoleum before his student, Yasawi.”

In 2003, the Yasawi Mausoleum was inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List, and today it is the largest mausoleum in Kazakhstan and one of the country’s most prized pieces of architectural heritage.

Taraz, Kazakhstan

Aisha Bibi Mausoleum

Aisha Bibi Mausoleum

One of Yasawi’s most prominent disciples was Suleiman Bakyrgani (Hakim Ata), who became an important Sufi teacher and poet in his own right. Bakyrgani had a daughter, Aisha Bibi, though he died when she was young and she was raised by one of her father’s students, ​​Sheikh Aikhodzha. There are many legends surrounding her life. The most famous story goes that Aisha Bibi fell in love with a regional governor named Karakhan, who asked her to marry him. But her stepfather wouldn’t allow the marriage, so she hatched a plan to outwit him and secretly go in search of her love. She staged a fake battle against the invading Kara-Khitai and instead rode towards Karakhan’s home in Taraz (Kazakhstan). Sadly, Aisha Bibi died of a snake bite along the way and never got to hold Karakhan in her arms.

Karakhan built a mausoleum to his love where she died, a short distance outside of Taraz, with ornate terracotta tiles and an unusual conical roof. Today, the mausoleum is a place of pilgrimage for newlyweds, who reenact Karakhan’s journey from Taraz to Aisha Bibi’s final resting place and ask the ill-fated lovers for a blessing on their marriage.

Sayram, Kazakhstan

Yasawi was born in 1103 in Ispidjab (modern-day Sayram, now a suburb of Shymkent), one of the oldest cities in Kazakhstan. Both of Yasawi’s parents died in Sayram, and their mausoleums are important pilgrimage sites for Yasawi devotees. 

Karashash-Ana Mausoleum

Yasawi’s mother, Aisha Bibi (for whom Bakyrgani’s daughter, above, was named) is commemorated in the simple, mud-brick Karashash-Ana Mausoleum in the centre of Sayram. Though the original grave was built here as early as the 12th century, it was destroyed, and the current structure replaced it in the 1800s.

Ibrahim Ata Mausoleum

Sheikh Ibrahim – Yasawi’s father – was himself a revered prophet of Islam. ‘Ata’ means ‘father’ in Kazakh, and his mausoleum is located on a small hill on the northeastern outskirts of  Sayram. The simple mudbrick walls are part of the medieval structure. This was believed to be one of the oldest domed structures in Kazakhstan, however, the original dome collapsed during an earthquake and was sensitively restored in the early 1900s.

Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Zangi Ata Mausoleum

Yasawi connections in Tashkent are a couple of generations removed from the great spiritual leader. Sufi teacher Zangi Ata considered Yasawi his pir (spiritual leader) and was a student of Suleiman Bakyrgani (recall his daughter, Aisha Bibi, who died of a snake bite), who was Yasawi’s student. Though also known as Sheikh Al-Hodge, he was commonly called ‘Zangi Ata’, which means ‘dark father’, purportedly a reference to his dark complexion.

Situated on the southwest outskirts of Tashkent, Zangi Ata’s tomb was constructed by Timur in the 1390s and bears striking similarities to Yasawi’s Mausoleum in Turkistan, as well as the many Timurid monuments in Samarkand, with stunning geometric tiled façade and ceramic domes the colour of the sky. The complex also contains gardens and a tiled minaret, as well as the tomb of Zangi Ata’s wife, a miniature version of a Timurid structure with tiling and a singular blue dome. Strikingly, it is situated within a larger cemetery, surrounded by smaller graves.

Khorezm & Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan

Suleiman Bakyrgani (Hakim Ata) Mausoleum

Yasawi’s most famous apprentice, Suleiman Bakyrgani (Hakim Ata), used simple poetic forms in the Turkic language to convey the ideas of Sufism to local people. He is considered one of the most important Sufi masters, and many legends and mysteries swirl about his life. He died in 1186 and his mausoleum is located in Khorezm, Karakalpakstan in western Uzbekistan. 

At the age of 13, Bakyrgani went to a madrasa (school) in Bukhara, which is where he became a pupil of Yasawi. One day, he went with a few other pupils to gather some firewood, but it started to rain. He was the only person who thought to cover the firewood with his jacket and so when the rain stopped, they were still able to light a fire. Legend says that, after that, the saint spirit Kadr Ata gave Bakyrgani the name ‘Hakim’ (smart, clever). Bakyrgani’s mausoleum, built in the 11th or 12th century, is located northwest of the city of Kungrad (Qoʻngʻirot) in Karakalpakstan. One legend says that after Bakyrgani completed his studies, he got married and had three children, including the youngest son, who was very talented. Bakyrgani became jealous of his son and the boy was transformed into a bird and flew away.

Allah was angry at Bakyrgani because of this and said that after his death, his grave would be underwater for 40 years. Four decades after Bakyrgani’s death, a Muslim teacher named Sayhjalil found his grave and restored it.

It is a testament to Bakyrgani’s significant influence on Central Asian Islam that, despite its remote location in rural Karakalpakstan, devotees still make pilgrimages to pay their respects to the great Sufi teacher.

Megan Eaves travelled to Kazakhstan as a guest of the Nursultan Nazarbayev Foundation (foundation.kz).