Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi
Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yesevi | |
---|---|
General information | |
Type | Mausoleum |
Architectural style | Timurid |
Location | Turkistan, Kazakhstan |
Coordinates | 43°17′52″N 68°16′15″E / 43.29778°N 68.27083°E |
Construction started | 14th century |
Asia-Pacific |
The Mausoleum of Khawaja Ahmed Yasawi (
Despite its incomplete state, the mausoleum has survived as one of the best-preserved of all
The religious structure continues to draw pilgrims from across Central Asia and has come to epitomize the Kazakh national identity.[3][5][6] It has been protected as a national monument, while UNESCO recognized it as the country's first site of patrimony, declaring it a World Heritage Site in 2003.[7]
Location
The Mausoleum of Khawaja Ahmed Yasawi is situated in the north-eastern part of the modern-day town of Turkestan (formerly known as Hazrat-e Turkestan),[3][5] an ancient centre of caravan trade known earlier as Khazret and later as Yasi,[8] in the southern part of Kazakhstan. The structure is within the vicinity of a historic citadel,[9] which is now an archaeological site.[3]
Remains of medieval structures such as other mausoleums, mosques and bath houses characterize the archaeological area.[3] To the north of the Mausoleum of Khawaja Ahmed Yasawi, a reconstructed section of the citadel wall from the 1970s separates the historical area from the developments of the modern town.[3]
History
Khawaja Ahmed Yasawi
Khoja Ahmed Yasawi (Khawaja or Khwaja (Persian: خواجه pronounced khâje) corresponds to "master", whence Arabic: خواجة khawājah), also spelled as Khawajah Akhmet Yassawi, was the 12th-century head of a regional school of Sufism, a mystic movement in
New mausoleum
The town of Yasi was largely spared during the
The new mausoleum was begun in 1389.[3] Timur imported builders from cities which he laid waste during his campaigns, including mosaic-workers from Shiraz and stonemasons and stucco-workers from Isfahan.[1] The master builders were led by Khwaja Hosein Shirazi from Iran.[15] Tradition holds that Timur himself participated in the design of the structure,[1][14] where he introduced experimental spatial arrangements, types of vaults and domes. These innovations were later implemented in the religious edifices of other cities.[3] However, the mausoleum was left unfinished, when Timur died in 1405.[3]
Decline and preservation
When the Timurid Empire disintegrated, control of the immediate territory passed on to the Kazakh Khanate, which made Yasi, then renamed Turkestan, its capital in the 16th century.[6][16] The khans (Turkic for "ruler") sought to strengthen the political and religious importance of Turkestan to unify the nomadic tribes within the young state.[16] Hence, as the khanate's political center, ceremonies for the elevation of the khans to the throne and missions from neighboring states were received in Turkestan.[6] The Kazakh nobility also held their most important meetings to decide state-related matters in the capital.[16]
The town, situated on the border of the nomadic and settled cultures,[6] flourished as the khanate's largest trade and craft center.[16] Fortifications were erected to safeguard this commercial role,[6] including the 19th-century construction of defensive walls around the unfinished mausoleum,[3] which became an important landmark and pilgrimage center of the town. In the succeeding centuries, Turkestan and its historic monuments became connected with the idea of the Kazakh state system.[16][17] Political struggles and the shift in overland trade in favor of maritime routes soon led to the town's decline, before it finally passed on to the Russian Empire in 1864.[3]
The town was eventually deserted; a new town center was developed west of the area, built around a new
Architecture
The unfinished state of the Mausoleum of Khawaja Ahmed Yasawi, especially at the entrance portal and sections of the interior,[14] allow for the better architectural scrutiny of how the monument was designed and constructed.[3] The structure is rectangular in plan, measuring 45.8 × 62.7 m (150.3 × 205.7 ft), and is 38.7 m (127.0 ft) high. It is oriented from the south-east to the north-west.[3]
The primary material used for the building is
Legacy
Birth of Timurid architecture
The construction of the mausoleum provided important advances in building technology, displaying unsurpassed records of all kinds in terms of its vaulted constructions and artistic innovations.[3] The achievements derived from the mausoleum's erection, together with the Timurids’ patronage of music, calligraphy, Persian miniature painting, literature, and various scientific pursuits,[1] gave birth to a distinct Islamic artistic style, to be known as Timurid.[4]
The spacious structure employed a radially symmetrical plan for spatial arrangement. The visual balance created by the precise construction became a characteristic aesthetic feature of Timurid buildings—one which would famously be adopted by the
The double dome technique executed in the mausoleum made possible the huge domes of the Timurid era.[20] The dome is created by employing a squinch, or corner bracketing, that allows for the transition from a square, octagonal or 16-sided base to a dome top.[20] Indeed, the mausoleum's main dome remains the largest existing brick dome in Central Asia.
The use of glazed tiles, mosaics, patterned brickwork, and Islamic calligraphy was also influential.[20] Advances in pottery techniques allowed for the mass production of glazed tiles used for various decorative functions.[1] Among the techniques devised for tile decoration are:[21]
- Banna’i technique: the "builder's technique," consists of revetment of glazed bricks set within unglazed ones to form geometric patterns
- Haftrangi: a technique that permits the creation of multi-colored patterns on the same tile before firing without letting the colors mix
- Faience: a patterned arrangement of closely fitted small pieces of tiles which have surface glaze of different colors
The employment of tiles and muqarnas bear strong influence from Iran, where many of Timur's architects were from.[1] The covered surfaces create visual effects based on how the observer would view the building, and "read" the calligraphic messages.[20]
Timurid tile work did not merely embellish a building as an 'applied' decoration. Rather, in the hands of the architect it was viewed as an intrinsic element of its conception, as a perfect object. Most tile patterns were based on a complex system of proportions and measurements or girih. Skilled artisans permutated the girih system and produced highly sophisticated and fractal 'quasi-crystalline' wall patterns. Historians also narrate how building settings combined with theatrical props such as silk curtains, awnings, vertical screens and lamps reflecting in giant mirrors to produce memorable spaces.
— Dr. Manu P. Sobti, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee[20]
The tile work was also used to obscure the structural joints of the building.[20] The use of turquoise and azure-blue as the prominent color of choice for many structures were meant to contrast with the bright sunlight of the Central Asian desert.[20]
The mausoleum's construction at a time when many other Central Asian settlements had been experiencing building sprees under Timur's political ideology[3] allowed for the exchange of ideas and techniques across the empire. Master builders and laborers from the conquered cities congregated to build projects. The employment of Persian architects in leading the major construction activities resulted in the introduction of Persian elements in the Timurid style. This and the Timurids’ general patronage of the arts have made them the greatest patrons of Iranian culture.[22]
The landmark architectural and artistic solutions realized in the erection of the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi were immediately utilized in other building endeavors, such as contemporary works in Samarkand,
- Bibi-Khanum Mosque: the world's largest mosque when it was completed in 1404;[24] it displays Timur's concern for monumental effect and theatrical arrangement
- Gur-i-Amir Mausoleum: the burial place of Timur; it contains a double shell dome for the achievement of a vertical effect
- Shah-i Zinda Complex: a funerary complex presenting the pinnacle of every tile technique known to the Timurids
- Registan: considered the pinnacle of Timurid architecture;[24] a broad plaza fronted by the towering edifices of three madrassas (Islamic schools), even if none of them were commissioned by Timur himself and were built in a later period by Ulug Beg and Governor Yalangtush.
The mausoleum is thus seen as a prototype,[3] marking the beginning of a new architectural style,[4] which culminated in the monuments of Samarkand,[1] but was also continuously developed as in the case of India's Mughal Architecture. Indeed, the Timurids’ outstanding achievement in architecture is encapsulated in an Arab proverb from one of Timur's buildings, "If you want to know about us, observe our buildings."[1][23] It is also for this reason that UNESCO has recognized the mausoleum as a World Heritage Site in 2003,[7] following the same international recognition for the sites of Samarkand, Humayun's Tomb and Taj Mahal.
Religious and cultural importance
The larger mausoleum which Timurid ordered further enhanced the shrine's religious importance. During the Kazakh Khanate, prominent personalities chose to be buried within the immediate vicinity of the monument.[3][14] Among these are Abulkhair, Rabi'i Sultan-Begim, Zholbarys-khan, Esim-khan, Ondan-sultan (the son of Shygai-khan), Ablai Khan, Kaz dauysty Kazbek-bi.[6] The mausoleum's holy reputation also reached foreign lands. In the early 16th century, Ubaydullah Khan, the successor to Muhammad Shaybani Kahn of the neighboring Uzbek Khanate, stopped at the mausoleum before his battle against Babur, who would later become the founder of the Mughal Empire. He swore that if he were to emerge victorious, his rule would fully follow the sharia law.[25]
Despite the public closure of the monument during the Soviet era, the mausoleum has continued to draw pilgrims once the order was lifted. Up to contemporary times, the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi has remained an object of pilgrimage for Kazakh Muslims.[5][23] Hence, the town of Turkestan became the second Mecca for the Muslims of Central Asia.[5][6] Indeed, the mausoleum's importance to the town is attested by Turkestan's former name, Hazrat-e Turkestan, which literally means "Saint of Turkestan," a direct reference to Yasawi.
As the capital of the preceding Kazakh Khanate, which saw the emergence of the distinct Kazakh nationality,[6][16] Turkestan remains the cultural heart of modern Kazakhstan. Being the burial site for the Sufi theologian and the khanate's Kazakh nobility, the mausoleum has further enhanced the town's prestige.[1] The continuance of the Kazakh nation and Central Asian Islamic faith in modern times are testaments to the historical and cultural importance of Turkestan, with the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi at its center.[11] Perceived as one of the greatest mausoleums of the Islamic world, it has survived and remains a significant monument both to faith and architectural achievement in the region.
See also
- History of Kazakhstan
- Islamic architecture
- List of World Heritage Sites in Kazakhstan
- Persian architecture
- History of Persian domes
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Dickens, Mark. "Timurid architecture in samarkand" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
- ^ ISBN 0-231-11954-2.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag "ICOMOS Evaluation of Mausoleum of Khawaja Ahmed Yasawi World Heritage Nomination" (PDF). World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
- ^ ISBN 0-85229-605-3.
- ^ a b c d "Turkestan Kazakhstan city". Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Geopolitical importance of Turkestan in Historical Retrospect". Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ^ a b "Mausoleum of Khawaja Ahmed Yasawi". World Heritage Center. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
- ISBN 0-85229-605-3.
- ^ "Archaeological monuments of Turkistan". Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ^ "Encyclopædia Britannica (2007): Related Articles to "Ahmed Yesevi, or Ahmad Yasawi, or Ahmed Yasavi (Turkish author)", accessed March 18, 2007". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
- ^ a b c d "Khodja Akhmed Yasawi: Life and Philosophical heritage". Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ^ a b "History of the town of Yasy - Turkestan". Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ^ "Yasavi (Shrine of Ahmed Yasavi), ArchNet Dictionary of Islamic Architecture". Archnet.org. Archived from the original on 2006-05-26. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Architectural complex of Khodja Akhmed Yasawi". Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ^
Bozorg-nia, Zohreh (2004). Mimaran-i Iran. p. 140. ISBN 964-7483-39-2.
- ^ a b c d e f "Turkestan - the capital of the Kazakh Khanship". Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ^ "History of Turkistan in the medieval manuscripts and written sources". Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ISBN 0-231-11954-2.
- ^ a b c "Daytrip to Turkestan". Archived from the original on 2009-08-04. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ^ a b c d e f g Saxena, Manjari (2009-08-20). "The holy shines through the glazed walls". Gulf News. Archived from the original on 2009-08-28. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
- ^ a b "Religious Architecture of the Timurids". Retrieved 2009-09-14.
- ^ "Islamic art and architecture". History.com Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
- ^ a b c "The timurids as builders". Archived from the original on 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
- ^ a b Stratton, Mark (2006-07-09). "Uzbekistan: On the bloody trail of Tamerlane". The Independent. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
- ISBN 978-0-520-24927-1.