Day 10

THE PILGRIMAGE OF BAHOUDDIN NAKSHBAND

 

TODAY IS OUR LAST PRACTICE LESSON AND WE VISITED TO THIS PILGRIMAGE

The architectural ensemble of Bahouddin, located kilometers north-east of Bukhara, in the old village Qasr-i Arifan arose from the mazar of this sufi. He had been forming for five hundred years, but it is known very little about its early history.? The first buildings near the BahAt a distance of 12 km from Bukhara there is a memorial complex of the Islamic saint Baha-ud-Din Naqshband (also spelled Bakhautdin Nakshbandi), the famous Asian philosopher and Sufi. The complex is a Muslim shrine where pilgrims from all the parts of the Islamic world come. Once the village Kasri Orifon was located at the site of the complex. It was famous for its pagan holidays and ancient customs…

Baha-ud-Din Naqshband lived in 1318 - 1389. He founded a Sufi order, which was later named Naqshbandi (also spelled Naqshbandiyyah, Naksibendi, Naksbandi, Nakshbandi) after him. His teachings became a polestar for many Asian people of the time and still remains topical today. The principle Baha-ud-Din Naqshband followed all his life is quite simple: ‘let the heart be with God and the hands be with work.’ It is also reflected in the symbol of the order - a heart with the word Allah inside. Baha-ud-Din Naqshband was the spiritual adviser of the great Tamerlane and taught him to be modest, decent and kind.

The famous Sufi made 32 hajj pilgrimages to Mecca, and today his mausoleum is also a Central Asian ‘Mecca’. They believe that if one walks to the mausoleum from Bukhara three times, it will equal one hajj. Believers from many Muslim countries got together at the site to pray, asking forgiveness for their sins and asking for fulfillment of their wishes.

Baha-ud-din Naqshband Complex. Bukhara, UzbekistanAbdulaziz-Khan ordered to build a sepulcher over the grave of the saint and other structures around it in 1544. The construction of complex lasted almost four centuries. The main building has a rectangular inner yard with the sheikh’s mausoleum and a mosque built in the 19th c. A little further there was an iwan (a rectangular hall or space, usually vaulted, walled on three sides, with one end entirely open) with wooden pillars where the Shaybanids mausoleum was. The major domed building is the khanaka (also spelled khanqah, khaniqah, khanqa, khaneqa, khanegah or khaneqah; khanaka is a Sufi hospice and monastery) of Abdulaziz-Khan.

In the 1980s the whole complex was thoroughly restored. It consists of a madrasah, a minaret and two mosques. In the inner yard with a hauz pool stands the mausoleum of the saint. There is a lying trunk of a mulberry tree, which is believed to have been grown from Baha-ud-Din Naqshband’s staff. They say that if one crawls under the trunk with a wish made, it will certainly be fulfilled. There is also a necropolis, including sepulchers and tombs of some members of some past ruling dynasties.

The complex has a museum where you can find a lot of information on Baha-ud-Din Naqshband, his order and Sufism. There are Sufi clothes, books, cauldrons they used for cooking and many other interesting exhibits in the museum.

Almost everyone who has visited the complex usually notes the unique feeling of serenity and harmony he or she enjoyed there.

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 Bahauddin mazar appeared, probably soon after the death of the sufi. Their remains, covered by later buildings were found during the architectural and archeological investigations.

Soon to the west of Mazar the cemetery appeared where murids, followers and admirers of Naqshband were buried, later here its most prestigious part (Dakhma- yi Shahan) was seceded. In the first half of 16th century by the order of Shaybanid?? Abdullaziz-khan (1540-1550) hazira (enclosure for the burial) was built around the Bahauddin mazar, and in the north-west corner there is khanaka (abode) was built in 951/1545. The structuring on the complex was carried out within the next centuries. In Soviet times, the pilgrimage was manned here. Currently, the complex is the object of an active pilgrimage. The major restoration work was carried out by orders of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov in 1993, 2003, 2010.

Eponym of the complex and the sufi brotherhood of Bahauddin Muhammad b. Burhanuddin Muhammad al-Bukhari(1318-1389) an ? Naqshbandi (better known as the Khoja-yi buzurg and Shah-iNaqshband) is the largest representative? of Central Asian? Sufism of XIV century. He is seventh sheilh in the Naqshbandiyya leader?s chain of brotherhood. Spiritual founder (and the first in Silsila line) of nakshban diyya is Khoja is Yusuf al-Hamadani (d.1140), who trained al-Gijduvani ? the founder of the Khodjagan school.

At the architectural complex of Bahauddin the historical museum that bears the name of this popular mystic was open.It also includes the center for the Sufist study.