Bukhara renewal
Thus, despite numerous ravages, which
frequently included citizens being driven away and
tremendous fires, Bukhara was coming to its revival,
step by step. This was fostered by the significance
of the city. It was potentially one of the largest
centers of trade, crafts and culture, situated traditionally
on the crossroads of the Great Silk Road routes; moreover,
it was a spiritual and religious center, the Eastern
Mecca of the Islamic world, which was definitely important
during that time. Thus Bukhara remained a significant
economic and political center and the second capital
of Maverannakhr even under the power of Mongols.
Construction of significant architectural monuments
was renewed. Among those surviving are the two well-known
mausoleums erected in Bukhara's eastern suburb in
the Fatkhabad locality, beyond the Karshi Gates. The
first of these two is a large building with a tall
portal facing eastward with two big domes surmounting
the rooms of ziarat-khana and gur-khana. It was built
on the tomb of the famous sheikh who belonged to the
Kubraviya Sufi fellowship, Sayf ad-Din Bakharzi, who
died in 1261. On the basis of most recent archaeological
research, this structure can be dated in the late
fourteenth or early fifteenth century. According to
a vakl document given to Yakhya, a grandson of Sayf
ad-Din Bakharzi, from 1 August 1326, there was a tomb
of a sheikh along the western side of the square named
after the sheikh; a khauz (pool) in the middle of
the square; a khanako consisting of cells for Sufis
and single poor men; therefore, it can be concluded
that there was a monument preceding this later one
on the same site. Ibn Batuta also indicated the presence
of this building.
He recounted: «The cloister we stayed in is
attributed to this sheikh and it is very large, and
possesses much property, so that pilgrims live on
incomes this cloister receives due to its property."30
The architectural monument contained a wooden tombstone
upon the sheikh's grave, with sophisticated carving
and polychromatic painting performed in blue and red
dyes and gilding, exhibited now in the museum of Bukhara.
Indeed, this tombstone, made around the time when
the sheikh lived, is the most eminent sample of woodenware
design art among the surviving artifacts of Central
Asia from that time.
Not far and westward from the Sayf ad-Din Bakharzi
Mausoleum there is a smaller building — the
tomb of the Chingizid Bayan Kuli-khan, who died in
1358. He wished to be buried near the tomb of his
sheikh. The close positioning of the mausoleums points
not merely to Bayan Kuli-khan's being myurid (disciple)
of the sheikh, but represents the Islami-zation, Turkification,
and settling process of the Mongolian tribes. Bayan
Kuli-khan was a figure-head khan during the reign
of emir Ka-zagan. His mausoleum has a small portal
and structure that is rectangular in layout and divided
into two unequal sections: ziaratkhana, the frontal
domed section is the larger section while gurkhana,
the westernmost, is the smaller one. The interior
and exterior of the mausoleum are faced with embossed,
carved and glazed majolica, which is laid out elaborately
and elegantly. The mausoleum is a typical architectural
monument of that times.
Another architectural monument of that time worth
mentioning is the Boboi-Poroduz Mausoleum situated
200 meters south-east from the Sallya-khona Gates
in Bukhara. The person after whom the mausoleum named
is believed to be the patron of all craftsmen who
used needles in their work: golden brocade seamstresses,
tailors, shoemakers, tape-weavers, etc. Regrettably,
this mausoleum was rebuilt in the nineteenth-twentieth
centuries using modern materials, which hampers dating
the foundations. But on the basis of samples of carved
unglazed architectural terracotta unearthed during
excavations it can be dated to the second quarter
of the fourteenth century.
According to early fifteenth century sources there
were also mausoleums of sheikh Sirodjidolin Khivati
(patron of sweet-makers) and sheikh Makhmud Sanbu-Sapaz
(patron of cake-makers) within the mazar (cemetery)
that is nearby. By the early twentieth century it
was discovered that Boboi Mamoti's Mausoleum (the
old man who made felt carpets) was also in this place.
This data points out once again that in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, besides the canonization
of ecclesiastical and secular persons, the canonization
of deceased pirs (patrons) of various crafts was also
practiced. Consequently, the second quarter of the
fourteenth century can be defined as a period of reviving
crafts and economic activity and of reinforcement
of the guild organizations in the city.
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