Saints and Tombs of Bukhara

Imam Abu Bakr Ahmad b. Sa'd

Imam

Imam Abu Bakr Ahmad b. Saʿd , the scholar whom the Juybari shaikhs of Bukhara regarded as their progenitor; the necropolis of Char Bakr (Chor Bakr) near Bukhara grew up around his venerated tomb. The sources used here give no information on his life, education or scholarly activity. Iranica's article BUKHARA, drawing on Moʿin al-Foqaraʾ, gives his death as 360/970-71 ; the article ČĀR BAKR records the same year (for a different view see Multiple Views). His Circle of Influence — The first public role of the Juybari family was as caretakers of the Char Bakr shrine; the family traced its genealogy to Imam Abu Bakr and considered him its progenitor. In the 16th century the tomb was under the care of the influential Khwaja Muhammad Islam, a shaikh of the Khwajagan-Naqshbandi path and a supporter of the Shibanid ruler ʿAbd-Allah Khan ( 964-1006/1557-98 ). Known as "Khwaja-yi Juybari", Khwaja Muhammad Islam ( 1482-1563 ) is regarded, for his role in politics and in the social and economic life of Bukhara, as the real founder of the family; the name Juybari derives from the family residence in Juybar, a village just west of Bukhara. The family came to preeminence in the middle of the 16th century and remained a social, economic and political force in the city until the Soviet Revolution; its centre was the shrine and cemetery of Char Bakr, where most of its members were eventually interred. His Tomb and Complex — Char Bakr ("four Bakrs") lies near the village of Sumitan (Samtin), about 5 km outside the Shirgaran Gate of Bukhara; McChesney writes that Somitan, a sacred site of some antiquity, lies about six kilometres west of the walls of Bukhara. In 966/1558-59 ʿAbd-Allah Khan instructed that a complex including a mosque, a madrasa and a khanaqah be established there; it was completed by 976/1569 , and a tree-lined avenue was laid out from the Shirgaran Gate to the necropolis. The UNESCO record states that ʿAbd-Allah Khan built these structures for the Juybari shaikhs near the tomb of their ancestor in gratitude for their support and help at his accession. The complex stands on a platform with a central courtyard: the mosque and the khanaqah flank the courtyard, and they are connected by the madrasa, a long, narrow building with two tiers of arcades facing the courtyard on either side of a tall central portal. The fourth side of the courtyard is open. With their tiled pishtaqs and their domes on tall drums, the three structures loom impressively above the lower monuments of the necropolis; inside, systems of intersecting ribs divide the surfaces of the cupolas into small facets. Beyond this core lies a sprawling cemetery with family mausolea, small fenced courtyards, paths and many tombstones. A small minaret echoing the shape of the Kalan minaret in Bukhara was erected in the 20th century. According to the record submitted by Uzbekistan to UNESCO's Tentative List in 2008 , the ensemble comprises 25 structures: the khanaqah, the mosque, an ayvan with hujras, a gatehouse, a minaret and 20 small units consisting of domed burial courtyards and free-standing portals; together the memorial and the old cemetery occupy an area of 3 hectares. In many courtyards marble tombstones with epigraphic inscriptions and vegetal and geometric ornament stand over the graves, and many buildings are richly decorated with polychrome tiles. The record notes that some structures have lost their domes and that the ensemble has preserved 80 percent of its authenticity and integrity. McChesney counts the Char Bakr complex of madrasa, mosque and khanaqah among the largest institutions that survived thanks to the Juybari endowments. The Persian inscriptions of the necropolis have been published by Babajanov and Szuppe.

Abu Hafs al-Saghir (Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Hafs)

Son of Abu Hafs al-Kabir and a Hanafi scholar of Bukhara. According to Mu'in al-Fuqara, his grave adjoins his father's in the Tell-i Khwaja cemetery in Bukhara.

Yahya b. Ahmad al-Bakharzi (Abu'l-Mafakhir)

Abu'l-Mafakhir · Khwaja Yahya

Abu'l-Mafakhir Yahya Bakharzi , grandson of Sayf al-Din Bakharzi, founder of the Central Asian branch of the Kubrawiya; administrator of his grandfather's khanaqah at Fathabad near Bukhara and author of a book on Sufi norms of conduct, Awrad al-ahbab wa fusus al-adab . The source used here gives no dates of birth or death. His grandfather Sayf al-Din Bakharzi was one of the khalifas of Najm al-Din Kubra; born in 1190 at Bakharz, a small town in Quhistan, he came to Bukhara on Kubra's instruction to propagate the Kubrawi order and spent the remaining forty years of his life there. Sorqoqtani, the mother of the great khan Möngke, entrusted him with the supervision of a madrasa she had established in Bukhara and enabled him to establish a khanaqah at Fathabad in the environs of the city. Yahya was the son of Burhan al-Din, Sayf al-Din's middle son. At the request of Qutlugh Terken Khatun of the Qutlughkhanid dynasty, Sayf al-Din had sent Burhan al-Din to Kerman, and the khanaqah she established for him became a centre for the temporary expansion of the Kubrawiya in southern and southeastern Persia. When Burhan al-Din died in 1297 , he was succeeded at the Kerman khanaqah by his son, Abu'l-Mafakhir Yahya. After Sayf al-Din Bakharzi died in 1261 and was buried at the Fathabad khanaqah, its administration passed to his eldest son, Jalal al-Din Muhammad; but he was killed, a victim of intra-Mongol violence. Thereupon his nephew, Abu'l-Mafakhir Yahya, came back from Kerman to take charge. According to the source, this effectively brought to an end the activity of the Kubrawiya in Kerman; members of the Bakharzi family who remained in Kerman were locally celebrated there as "kings of Bukhara", but did not function as Sufi shaikhs. Under Yahya the Fathabad khanaqah prospered to an unprecedented degree: additional endowments were settled on it, and funds were set aside for the purchase and manumission of slaves who, converted to Islam, were to work on the khanaqah's lands. Ibn Battuta visited the khanaqah during Abu'l-Mafakhir's administration; he reports that he was received most hospitably and heard the resident dervishes sing poems in Persian and Turkish. The source states that the Fathabad khanaqah continued to flourish for at least a century after Sayf al-Din's death, and that the Bakharzi family lineage continued unbroken in Bukhara until at least the late 19th century, though apparently not as an initiatic tradition, even one of hereditary type. His Works — Abu'l-Mafakhir Yahya wrote the Awrad al-ahbab wa fusus al-adab , a book of Sufi norms of conduct and customs. Drawing in part on existing manuals of the same type, notably Ziya al-Din Abu'l-Najib Suhrawardi's Adab al-muridin , the work, according to the source, is valuable primarily for its anecdotes of the author's grandfather and for quatrains attributed to him and to other Kubrawi shaikhs. It was edited by Iraj Afshar (Tehran, 1979 ). His Tomb and Complex — The source used here gives no information on Yahya's grave; his grandfather Sayf al-Din Bakharzi was buried at the khanaqah of Fathabad near Bukhara.

al-Sabadhmuni (Abu Muhammad Abd Allah b. Muhammad al-Harithi)

According to DİA, Muʿīn al-Fuqarāʾ records that the grave of al-Sabadhmuni, the student of Abu Hafs al-Saghir, lies right beside the grave of Abu Hafs al-Kabir in the Tall-i Khwaja (Abu Hafs) cemetery of Bukhara. Died 340 H/952.

Khwaja Sa'd Juybari

Khwaja

Ḵᵛāja Saʿd was the head of the Juybāri family of Bukhara in the 16th century; the son of Ḵᵛāja Moḥammad Eslām, known as “Ḵᵛāja-ye Juybāri” and regarded as the family's “founder,” and his successor as head of the family. The family's 17th-century biographer, Moḥammad-Ṭāleb Juybāri, traces the Juybāris' Ḵᵛājagān-Naqšbandi affiliation from Moḥammad Eslām through Maḵdum-e Aʿẓam Aḥmad Kāsāni, Mawlānā Moḥammad Qāżi, ʿObayd-Allāh Aḥrār and Yaʿqub Čarḵi to Bahāʾ-al-Din Naqšband. The source notes that the family members appear to us today less as spiritual guides than as individuals whose economic power made them important mediators in Bukharan society, but that their 16th-century contemporaries accorded the head of the family the title of moršed . The Shibanid ruler ʿAbd-Allāh Khan (r. 1583-98) saw both Moḥammad Eslām and Ḵᵛāja Saʿd in this way. According to Moḥammad-Ṭāleb's Maṭlab al-ṭālebin , Ḵᵛāja Saʿd was already in his early thirties when his father died in 1563. Although he was one of Moḥammad Eslām's three sons, he became the unchallenged leader of the family for the quarter century after his father's death; according to the sources he had sole control of the family's wealth and had attained that position while his father was still alive. Already purchasing property during his father's lifetime, Ḵᵛāja Saʿd rapidly expanded the real estate holdings that Moḥammad Eslām had created. The source notes that he showed considerable talent for real estate and corporate management and was particularly successful in choosing the employees who managed his far-flung properties. Under him Juybāri properties extended throughout Transoxania (Bukhara, Samarqand, Karmina, Tashkent, Nasaf, Termeḏ, Qarakol, Šahr-e Sabz, the Waḵš valley), into Cisoxania (Andkhud, Balkh and Badakhshan) and into eastern Khorasan (Marv and Herat). The register compiled sometime after 1577, which records more than 400 land transactions, names in its title the properties of “Ḥażrat-e Ḵᵛāja Saʿd.” His grandson Moḥammad-Ṭāleb, under the heading of “Ḥażrat-e Išān” (Ḵᵛāja Saʿd), names the six department heads of the central administration and reports that seventy employees in all worked at the headquarters. His life is known largely from works written in the family's close circle: Ḥosayn al-Saraḵsi's Saʿdiya , written by 1580; Badr-al-Din Kašmiri's Rawżat al-reżwān , completed about ten years later; and the maqāmāt written for him by a close associate, Mir Pādšāh b. Amir Ḥaydar Balḵi Dawlatābādi. The Rawżat al-reżwān contains Ḵᵛāja Saʿd's correspondence with more than fifty political figures of his time and letters sent to him by ʿAbd-Allāh Khan; the source notes that these letters provide an important glimpse of the way in which the Juybāri shaykhs could employ the mediatory powers attributed to them. Ḵᵛāja Saʿd died in Ḏu'l-ḥejja 997/October 1589, when he was only in his late fifties; his sons were then in their early teens. He left three sons: the eldest, Tāj-al-Din Ḥasan (b. 1574); the second, ʿAbd-al-Raḥim (b. 1575); and ʿAbd-al-Karim, known as ʿAbdi Ḵᵛāja, whose birth date is unknown. The source notes some signs that rivalry developed among the sons after his death. His Circle of Influence — His sons Tāj-al-Din Ḥasan and ʿAbd-al-Raḥim were sent from Bukhara to Samarqand to supervise the expenditure of funds sent by the Mughal ruler Jahāngir for the repair of Timur's tomb in Samarqand (Moṭrebi Samarqandi). His grandson Moḥammad-Ṭāleb wrote the Maṭlab al-ṭālebin , devoted to the family, in 1663-64. The source records that after the generation of Ḵᵛāja Saʿd's grandchildren the information about the family becomes spottier, yet the family remained one of the wealthiest and most influential in Bukhara down to the 19th century. His Tomb and Complex — Iranica records that the centre of the Juybāri family was the shrine and cemetery of Čār Bakr, where most of its members were eventually interred; it does not separately state where Ḵᵛāja Saʿd was buried. According to the article ČĀR BAKR, the necropolis grew up near the village of Sumitan (Samtin), about 5 km outside the Šīrgarān Gate of Bukhara, around the venerated tomb of Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. Saʿd (d. 360/970), to whom the Juybāri shaykhs traced their genealogy. In the 16th century the tomb was in the care of Ḵᵛāja Moḥammad Eslām; in 966/1558-59 ʿAbd-Allāh Khan instructed that a complex including a mosque, a madrasa and a ḵānaqāh be established there. It was completed by 976/1569, and a tree-lined avenue was laid out from the Šīrgarān Gate to the necropolis. Beyond the core buildings stretches a sprawling cemetery containing family mausolea, small fenced courtyards, paths and many tombstones.

Khwaja Muhammad Islam Juybari

Khwaja

Ḵᵛāja Moḥammad Eslām Juybāri (Ḵᵛāja Moḥammad Eslām b. Ḵᵛāja Aḥmad; “Ḵᵛāja-ye Juybāri”) is the eponym of the Juybāris, the foremost family of Bukhara for more than five centuries, and the Naqšbandī shaikh who made the family a powerful force in the Bukharan oasis. He was one of the successors (ḵalīfas) of Maḵdūm-e Aʿẓam Sayyed Aḥmad Ḵᵛājagī Kāsānī. The source gives his life as 1482-1563. The name “Juybāri” derives from the family residence in Juybār, a village just west of Bukhara that was brought within the city walls in the late 16th century. The family’s first public role was as caretakers of the Čār Bakr shrine at Somitan, west of Bukhara, a sacred site of some antiquity. In the 16th century the tomb was in the care of Moḥammad Eslām. The source writes that only with him did the family emerge as a powerful force in the Bukharan oasis as a whole and in Uzbek-Chingizid politics, which made him, rather than one of his forebears, the “founder” of the Juybāri dynasty. Ḥāfeẓ-e Taniš’s Šaraf-nāma-ye šāhi places him at the centre of the struggle for Bukhara that ended with the dominance of the Jāni-Begid clan led by ʿAbd-Allāh b. Eskandar, and portrays him as mediator, facilitator and supporter; ʿAbd-Allāh captured Bukhara in late spring 1557. The Englishman Anthony Jenkinson, who arrived in Bukhara in December 1558, calls him the “Metropolitane” of the city (most likely his understanding of the title šayḵ-al-eslām) and writes that he was “more obeyed than the King.” For most of the period the Juybāris also held the office of šayḵ-al-eslām. According to the source, the original source of his wealth cannot now be ascertained; it has been suggested that it derived from the patronage he received as caretaker of the Čār Bakr shrine and as spiritual guide (moršed) to the mother of ʿAbd-al-ʿAziz Khan, who ruled at Bukhara (1540-50). The earliest known document recording a real estate purchase is dated 15 August 1544: two small houses in Juybār for 55 tangas. Less than a month later he bought the village of Qaṣr-e Luṭ in the tumān of Rud-e Šahr for three thousand tangas; the seller was Eskandar Solṭān of the Jāni-Begid clan, later (from 1561) khan. In the thirteen years from his first purchase to the taking of Bukhara he spent some twenty thousand tangas on forty-five properties, and from the conquest until 1563 nearly thirty-five thousand tangas on 137 properties. The source records that from his time onwards much of this wealth was devoted to public works such as mosques, madrasas, ḵānaqāhs, bridges, canals and caravanserais. His Ḵᵛājagān/Naqšbandī affiliation is traced by the family’s 17th-century biographer Moḥammad-Ṭāleb Juybāri from him to Bahāʾ-al-Din Naqšband through Maḵdūm-e Aʿẓam Aḥmad Kāsāni, Mawlānā Moḥammad Qāżi (d. 1515), ʿObayd-Allāh Aḥrār (d. 1490) and Yaʿqub Čarḵi (d. 1447), one of the three main successors of Bahāʾ-al-Din Naqšband (d. 1389). The Čār Bakr article presents him as “head of the Ḵᵛājagī order of Naqšbandī shaikhs.” The source gives his death as 14 October 1563 (971/1563 in the Dahbīdīya article). He left three sons; Ḵᵛāja Saʿd (d. Ḏu’l-ḥejja 997/October 1589), who was in his early thirties at his father’s death, became the unchallenged head of the family for the following quarter century. His Circle of Influence — The source writes that 16th-century contemporaries accorded the family head the title of moršed and that the family’s place in the Ḵᵛājagān selsela ensured that they were thought of as spiritually empowered figures. Neṯāri Boḵāri, a leading arbiter of literary taste, refers to him as his moršed ( Moḏakker-e aḥbāb ), and the Shibanid ruler ʿAbd-Allāh Khan saw him and his successor Ḵᵛāja Saʿd in the same way. Badr-al-Din Kašmiri’s Rawżat al-reżwān contains long sections of the correspondence of Moḥammad Eslām and Ḵᵛāja Saʿd with more than fifty political figures of their time. The hagiographical and biographical works devoted to the family in the 16th and 17th centuries include Ḥosayn al-Saraḵsi’s Saʿdiya , written by 1580, Kašmiri’s Rawżat al-reżwān , and Maṭlab al-ṭālebin , written in 1663-64 by his great-grandson Moḥammad-Ṭāleb. The family remained a social, economic and political force in Bukhara until the Soviet Revolution. His Tomb and Complex — The family’s centre was the shrine and cemetery of Čār Bakr; the source writes that most of its members were eventually interred there, but does not name Moḥammad Eslām’s grave. Čār Bakr, “four Bakrs,” is the family necropolis near the village of Sumitan (Samtin), about 5 km outside the Šīrgarān Gate of Bukhara, which grew up around the venerated tomb of Abū Bakr, to whom the Juybāri shaikhs traced their genealogy. In 966/1558-59 the Shibanid ʿAbd-Allāh Khan instructed that a complex including a mosque, a madrasa and a ḵānaqāh be established there; it was completed by 976/1569, and a tree-lined avenue was laid out from the Šīrgarān Gate to the necropolis. The complex stands on a platform with a central courtyard: the mosque and the ḵānaqāh flank the courtyard and are connected by the madrasa, a long, narrow structure with two tiers of arcades facing the courtyard; the fourth side is open. Its tiled portals and its domes on tall drums loom above the lower monuments of the necropolis; the most noteworthy features of the interiors are the systems of intersecting ribs that divide the cupolas into small facets. Beyond this core lies a sprawling cemetery with family mausolea, small fenced courtyards, paths and many tombstones; a small minaret echoing the Kalān minaret of Bukhara was added in the 20th century. The JUYBĀRIS article notes that the success of the family’s endowment policy is reflected in the survival of large institutions such as the Čār Bakr complex of madrasa, mosque and ḵānaqāh.

Mir-i Arab (Sayyid Mir Abdullah)

Sayyid · Mir · Shaykh

The Sufi shaikh who gave his name to the Mīr-e ʿArab Madrasa in Bukhara. The Encyclopaedia Iranica refers to him as " Sayyed Mīr ʿAbd-Allāh , the Sufi shaikh known as Mīr-e ʿArab". The source records that he came to Bukhara from Esfījāb (Sayram) sometime after 921/1515 ; it gives no information on his date of birth, education or initiation. His arrival in Bukhara coincides with the years in which the city, under the Shaibanids (905-1007/1500-98), went through a period of active building. The sources used here mention neither the date of his death nor his grave; that the grave lies in the madrasa rests on the atlas record. His Tomb and Complex — In 942/1535-36 Mīr-e ʿArab constructed the madrasa that bears his name across from the Masjed-e Kalān, the main congregational mosque of Bukhara. By 947/1539 the mosque itself had been completely rebuilt; the two buildings and the Menār-e Kalān thus formed a unified group known as Pā-ye Kalān . The ICOMOS evaluation prepared for the Historic Centre of Bukhara (602) on the UNESCO World Heritage List counts the Pā-ye Kalān group among the most celebrated buildings that came with the Shaibanids, and names the Mīr-e ʿArab madrasa among the more than forty important buildings and ensembles on which major conservation and restoration projects were carried out in the period 1920-1991.

Abu Hafs al-Kabir al-Bukhari

Khwaja · Imam

One of the founding scholars of the Hanafi tradition in Bukhara. He died in 217 AH/832. As reported by Mu'in al-Fuqara, his grave lies in the cemetery on the hill in Bukhara that bears his name (Tell-i Khwaja); his son Abu Hafs al-Saghir and al-Sabadhmuni lie right beside him. The cemetery is still one of the city's main places of visitation.

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Kalabadhi

Taj al-Islam

Bukharan traditionist and Sufi author; the author of al-Taʿarrof le-maḏhab ahl al-taṣawwof , one of the well-known compendia of Sufism. The source gives his full name as Abū Bakr Kalābāḏī Boḵārī Moḥammad b. Abī Esḥāq Ebrāhīm b. Yaʿqūb. Little is known about his life. He originated from Kalābāḏ , a quarter of Bukhara. Since he heard Hadith from Abu'l-Nāṣer Rašādī of Samarqand (d. 339/950-51), he was probably born not later than 320/932 . Ebn Abi'l-Wafāʾ describes him as a Hanafite theologian ( oṣūlī ) on account of the Hanafite tenor of the theological doctrine presented in his Ketāb al-taʿarrof ; ʿAbd-al-Ḥayy Laknavī (d. 1304/1886) states that he studied law under the prominent Bukharan Hanafite jurist Moḥammad b. Fażl Kamārī. Although this statement still lacks confirmation from earlier sources, it appears likely that he originally belonged to the Hanafite school. His basic training and interest, as is evident from his writings, lay in Hadith. He received Hadith from numerous scholars and himself mentions hearing traditions in Samarqand and Ray. Very likely he heard Hadith also in other towns of Transoxania and Khorasan, certainly in his home town Bukhara and perhaps in Marv and Saraḵs. Three men introduced him to Sufi thought: Esḥāq b. Moḥammad Ḥakīm Samarqandī (d. 342/953); Abu'l-Qāsem Fāres b. ʿĪsā Baḡdādī (Dīnavarī), a disciple of Jonayd and of Abu'l-ʿAbbās b. ʿAṭāʾ, who spent his later years in Nīšāpūr, Marv and Samarqand; and Moḥammad b. Aḥmad Fāresī, who also appears as a major informant in Solamī's Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfīya . The date of his death is variously given as 380/990 , 384/994 or 385/995 . His Circle of Influence — The Taʿarrof became popular and received several commentaries: a Persian translation and commentary entitled Nūr al-mobīn wa fażīḥat al-moddaʿīn by Esmāʿīl b. Moḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh Mostamlī Boḵārī (d. 434/1043); a commentary by ʿAbdallāh b. Moḥammad Haravī Anṣārī (d. 481/1086), which is not known to be extant; a still unpublished commentary by ʿAlī b. Esmāʿīl Tabrīzī Qūnavī (d. 729/1326); and an anonymous commentary preserved in manuscripts in several libraries. The work was translated into English by A. J. Arberry as The Doctrine of the Ṣūfīs (Cambridge, 1935). His Poetry and Sufi Line — The basic purpose of the Taʿarrof is both to explain Sufi doctrine and terminology to the uninitiated and to demonstrate the orthodoxy of the Sufis. Kalābāḏī casts the creed of the Sufis in terms of Transoxanian Hanafite and Ashʿarite theology; he shows the Sufi tenets to agree with either or both of the two school doctrines and to repudiate opposing Muʿtazilite positions. He evidently accepted the Transoxanian Hanafite and Ashʿarite doctrines as equally orthodox; in consonance with this view he maintains that the Sufis accept in law and ritual the consensus of the two factions, Hanafite and Shafeʿite, wherever possible and, where the jurists disagree, follow the stricter ruling. His Works — Only two of his works are known to be extant. The Ketāb al-taʿarrof le-maḏhab ahl al-taṣawwof begins with an examination of the origin and meaning of the term "Sufi", followed by lists of the famous Sufis, headed by ʿAlī and his descendants down to Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq, and of those who wrote on the sciences of allusion ( ʿolūm al-ešāra ) and on conduct ( moʿāmalāt ). The next section sets out the creed of the Sufis in detail; it is followed by a section on their states ( aḥwāl ), which climax in union with God. Quoting extensively the statements of the Sufis, Kalābāḏī explains their terminology and allusions; the final sections describe aspects of the personal conduct of the Sufis and illustrate the special graces and favors God has bestowed upon them. His second work, Baḥr al-fawāʾed fī maʿāni'l-aḵbār , is a commentary on 220 Hadiths selected by Kalābāḏī. The Hadiths are mostly of a parenetic or edifying nature; the commentary deals with the meaning of obscure or unusual expressions and with the doctrinal and ethical significance of the Hadiths, sometimes from a Sufi point of view. The work was completed in 375/985-86 and had not yet been edited when the article was written. His Tomb and Complex — He was buried in Bukhara, where his tomb was still known in the 11th/16th century. The source used here does not give the present location of the tomb.

Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari

Founder of the Naqshbandiyya order and the great Sufi who gave it his name. His full name is Khwaja Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Bukhari ; among his followers, especially in Turkey, he is known by the title Shah-i Naqshband . He was born in 718 (1318) near Bukhara, in the village of Qasr-i Hinduvan, later renamed Qasr-i Arifan . As a three-day-old infant he was accepted as a spiritual son by Baba Muhammad Sammasi , his grandfather's spiritual guide, who was then in the village; Sammasi charged his accompanying disciple Amir Kulal with the boy's Sufi training. No detailed information exists about these relationships. He remained with Amir Kulal for many years; his guide assigned him to carry ablution water to the lodge. In this period, while learning the rules and conduct of the path, a dream led him to attach himself to the spiritual presence of Abd al-Khaliq Ghujduvani , who had died about a century before his birth (617/1220), and he received the epithet Uwaysi ; his many years of benefiting from the spiritual presence of al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi are connected with this as well. It is related that one day, walking among the graves of Bukhara, he beheld in the world of meaning the Sufis reaching from Sammasi back to Ghujduvani; Ghujduvani counselled him to keep the commands and prohibitions of religion, to hold to strict rulings rather than dispensations, and to follow the way of the Prophet and his Companions. This event turned him from vocal to silent remembrance . His devoting himself thereafter to silent dhikr alone caused dispute among the dervishes, yet his respect for his shaykh did not change, and Amir Kulal defended him before his disciples. Amir Kulal then called Baha al-Din, who was carrying bricks for a mosque being built in Sukhar, Amir Kulal's native village, and told him that he had completed his wayfaring and could now benefit from all Turkish and Tajik shaykhs. He then joined the gatherings of Mawlana Arif Dikgarani, and later formed ties with two Turkish shaykhs of the Yasawiyya: his connection with Qusam Shaykh was brief, while with Khalil Ata he stayed twelve years. After this long period of discipleship he returned to his birthplace Qasr-i Hinduvan and began training disciples. Thereafter he left Bukhara three times, twice for the pilgrimage. On his second pilgrimage, in Herat, where he stayed three days, he visited Zayn al-Din al-Khwafi, founder of the Zayniyya; some time later he went to Herat again as the guest of the Kart ruler Mu'izz al-Din Husayn and explained to him his Sufi understanding and the principles of his order. The teachers of the madrasas respected him as much as the Sufis of his time, and he in turn honoured the scholars; he submitted his Sufi views to Mawlana Hamid al-Din, asking to be corrected if anything was mistaken. His refusal to accept sama and seclusion as ways of spiritual growth is closely tied to the importance he gave to silent dhikr. He held that attachment to a chain means nothing in itself and gave little value to miracles; his avoidance of a particular dress for his disciples and his dislike of sitting in the lodge are mentioned in the source as features recalling the Malamatiyya. He died in his native village on 3 Rabi al-Awwal 791 (2 March 1389). He had asked that this couplet be recited at his funeral: "We are great paupers in your lane, O king; from your beauty we beg something for God's sake." His Circle of Influence — His sayings have come down through the works of others, the most important being the Risala-yi Qudsiyya of his khalifa Khwaja Muhammad Parsa (d. 822/1420), one of the leading scholars of Bukhara. Khwaja Ala al-Din Attar emerged as chief successor, while his most important khalifa for the continuation of the chain was Mawlana Ya'qub Charkhi (d. 851/1447). Charkhi's disciple Ubaydullah Ahrar (d. 895/1490) made the order the most important in Central Asia and spread it across the Islamic world. The path, called tariq-i khwajagan since Yusuf al-Hamadani, became known from Baha al-Din onward as tariq-i Naqshbandi ; his insistence on silent dhikr determined the order's identity. The source also stresses that the Turkish influence on his spiritual growth through the Yasawiyya should not be overlooked. His Works — No work containing his Sufi views has survived. Most of the poems and treatises attributed to him can hardly be his; only the al-Awrad al-Baha'iyya , which bears his name, is said possibly to have been composed by him. His Tomb and Complex — In later years Qasr-i Arifan took his name ( Baveddin in the Bukharan pronunciation), and as the Naqshbandiyya spread a large complex grew up around his grave. At the end of the XIX. century the complex's monthly rental income amounted to thousands of rubles. The people of Bukhara called him "Khwaja-yi bala-gardan" (the khwaja who wards off calamity) and regarded him as the city's spiritual protector; his spiritual presence was an important factor in Bukhara becoming a centre of learning and sanctity for the Muslims of Central Asia.

Sayf al-Din Bakharzi

The founder of the Bâkharziyya branch of the Kubrawiyya; one of the best known shaykhs of Bukhara. He was called shaykh-i 'âlam , the master of the world, and the Mongols gave him the title ulu shaykh , the great shaykh. His full name was Sayf al-Dîn Sa'îd b. al-Mutahhar b. Sa'îd al-Bâkharzî . He was born at Bâkharz in 586 (1190). He travelled through centres of learning such as Bukhara, Baghdad, Nîshâpûr and Herat; at Herat he received Sufi training from Tâj al-Dîn Mahmûd al-Ushnuhî. He attached himself to Najm al-Dîn Kubrâ ; his shaykh sent him to Bukhara to guide others, and he settled in the quarter of Fathâbâd outside the city. There he preached and taught hadith. He died on 25 Dhu al-Qa'da of the year 659 (21 October 1261) in his lodge at Fathâbâd. His Circle of Influence — The Bâkharziyya branch of the Kubrawiyya arose from him. Amîr Berke , the brother of Batu Khan the ruler of the Golden Horde, became a Muslim at his urging and a disciple under his guidance; this is reckoned a turning point in the entry of the Mongol house into Islam. His lodge at Fathâbâd remained for a long time the centre of Sufism in the region. His successor Badr al-Dîn al-Samarqandî and his three sons Jalâl al-Dîn Muhammad, Burhân al-Dîn Ahmad and Muzhir al-Dîn Mutahhar carried on his way; Burhân al-Dîn Ahmad, who was sent to Kirmân, died in 696 (1297), and his grandson Yahyâ b. Ahmad al-Bâkharzî, who wrote works on the spiritual path, died in 736 (1335). His Works — The Sharh asmâ' al-husnâ , the Risâla-i 'Ishq , his quatrains and the Wasâyâ , a testament, belong to him. His Tomb and Complex — He lies at Fathâbâd near Bukhara, at the place of his lodge. His tomb and his lodge were visited for a long time both by the people and by officers of the state. When Ibn Battûta passed that way he found the complex under the administration of his grandson Shaykh Yahyâ and endowed with rich foundations; he was his guest and described his gatherings, in which the Qur'an was recited and poetry read in Persian and Turkish.

Arif Riwgari

A Bukharan master of the Ḵᵛājagān line; one of the four successors of ʿAbd-al-Ḵāleq Ḡojdovānī , regarded as the head of the Ḵᵛājagān, and the youngest of them. In the source his nisba also appears in the form “Rīvgarawī”. Like almost all the masters of the Ḵᵛājagān, he was born and lived in Bukhara. Ḡojdovānī's other three successors were Ḵᵛāja Aḥmad Ṣeddīq (d. 657), Ḵᵛāja Awlīā-ye Kabīr, known as Awlīā-ye Kalān (d. 627), and Ḵᵛāja Solaymān (Salmān) Karmīnī (d. 658). Three of these four trained successors of their own and so continued the chain of the Ḵᵛājagān. According to Faḵr-al-Dīn ʿAlī Ṣafī's Rašaḥāt and Moḥammad Yūsof Mojaddedī's Jawāher-e Naqšbandīya , he died in 657 . His Circle of Influence — ʿĀref Rīvgarī stands at the head of the chain of Ḵᵛājagān masters that leads to the Naqšbandīs. For this reason Naqšbandī hagiographers and compilers of biographical dictionaries paid particular attention to him and his successors and recorded notable information about them. His successor was Ḵᵛāja Maḥmūd Anjīr Faḡnawī , from the village of Anjīrfaḡnī in the Wābkanī district of Bukhara; from him the chain passed to ʿAlī Rāmītanī. His Works — A treatise entitled ʿĀref-nāma is attributed to him (Mojaddedī). For the hagiographical tradition about Ḡojdovānī and Rīvgarī the source refers to the Maqāmāt-e ʿAbd-al-Ḵāleq Ḡojdovānī wa ʿĀref Rīvgarī , published by Saʿīd Nafīsī.

Prophet Ayyub (Chashma-Ayub maqam)

A place of visitation in Bukhara attributed to the Prophet Job (Ayyub) ; its name comes from the Persian chashma (spring, source) and means "the Spring of Job". It is not a fixed grave but a maqam : the atlas records it as a structure attached to the memory of a prophet, not as his tomb. The building stands within the Historic Centre of Bukhara , inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1993. According to UNESCO's statement of value, the old town — with the exception of a few important vestiges from before the invasions of Genghis Khan in 1220 and Timur in 1370 — bears witness chiefly to the urbanism of the Shaybanid period from the 16th century onwards. Chashma Ayub is named among those early vestiges: the statement says that from the 11th-century Karakhanid period survive the Poi-Kalyan minaret along with most of the Magoki Attori mosque and the Chashma Ayub shrine. The Encyclopaedia Iranica article devoted to the monuments of Bukhara gives the Timurid phase of the building: in 781/1380 Timur built the Chashma-ye Ayyub mausoleum, a complex structure dominated by a tall, conical dome. The same article mentions it after the Chaghatayid mausoleums, at the head of Timurid building activity in Bukhara. The city in which the shrine stands was, according to UNESCO's criterion (vi), between the 9th and 16th centuries the largest centre of Muslim theology in the Near East, particularly for Sufism, with over two hundred mosques and more than a hundred madrasas. In the same historic centre stands the Samanid dynastic tomb, held to be the best surviving example of 10th-century architecture; UNESCO counts both buildings together among Bukhara's early monuments. The sources call the building a "shrine" and a "mausoleum"; they contain no statement that the Prophet Job is buried here. Popular narratives concerning the spring are not found in the sources used for this record and are therefore not reproduced.

Abdul Khaliq Ghijduwani

The Sufi who laid down the principles of the way of the Khwâjagân; one of the founding links of the Naqshbandî chain. He was born in the village of Ghujduwân , some thirty kilometres from Bukhara. His father was 'Abd al-Jamîl the Imam, who was obliged to migrate there from Malatya; his descent is traced to Imam Mâlik. At Bukhara he studied Qur'anic exegesis under Imam Sadr al-Dîn. It is reported that he learned the silent remembrance (dhikr-i khafî) from Khwâja Khidr. At about the age of twenty-two he joined the disciples of Yûsuf al-Hamadânî . He gathered the principles of the way into eight rules called the kalimât-i qudsiyya : hûsh dar dam (awareness in every breath), nazar bar qadam (turning the gaze to the foot), safar dar watan (the journey of casting off human traits), khalwat dar anjuman (solitude within the crowd), yâd kard (remembrance), bâz gasht (return), nigâh dâsht (guarding) and yâd dâsht (keeping awake). His Circle of Influence — He had four successors; through one of them, Khwâja 'Ârif-i Rîwgarî, the chain of the Khwâjagân continued and reached the Naqshbandiyya. The eight principles he laid down became in later centuries the common language of this way. His Works — The Risâla-i Sâhibiyya and the Wasâyâ , which gives moral counsel to disciples, are attributed to him. His Tomb and Complex — He is buried at Ghujduwân, where he was born.