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A view of the Mausoleum
of Khwaja Ahmed Yasavi in Türkistan, Kazakhstan.
Mausoleum
of Khwaja Ahmed Yasavi
Mazar of Khwaja Ahmed Yasawi
is an unfinished mausoleum in the city of Türkistan (or Hazrat-e Turkestan),
South Kazakhstan. In 2002, it became the first Kazakh patrimony to be recognized
by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The
present structure was commissioned in 1389 by Tamerlane to replace a smaller 12th-century
mausoleum of a famous Sufi master, khwaja Ahmed Yasavi (1103–66). Master
builders from Persia erected a 39-meter-high rectangular building in ganch, i.e.,
fired brick mixed with mortar and clay, and crowned it with the largest dome ever
built in Central Asia. This double dome, decorated with green and golden tiles,
measures 18.2 meters in diameter and 28 meters in height. The
master architect (mimar) of the structure is reportedly Khwaja Hosein Shirazi.(ref.,
p.140) The
building, one of the largest for its time, was left unfinished when Tamerlane
died in 1405. As subsequent rulers paid little attention to it, the mausoleum
has come down to us as one of the best preserved of all Timurid constructions. Ahmed
Yesevi (also spelled Ahmad Yasawi), born in Sayram (now in Kazakhstan), died 1166,
Yasi, Turkestan, Turkic[1] poet and Sufi (Muslim mystic), an early mystic who
exerted a powerful influence on the development of mystical orders throughout
the Turkic-speaking world. Very
little is known about his life, but legends indicate that his father Ibrahim died
when the boy was young and his family moved to Yasi. There he became a disciple
of Arslan Baba. After the death of the latter Ahmed Yesevi moved to Bukhara and
followed his studies with the well known Yusuf Hamadhani[2] (d. 1140). Later
he made the city of Yasi into the major centre of learning for the Kazakh steppes,
then retired to a life of contemplation aged 63. He dug himself an underground
cell where he spent the rest of his life. A
mausoleum was later built on the site of his grave by Timur the Great in the city
(today called Türkistan).
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