Saints and Tombs of Samarkand

al-Hakim al-Samarqandi (Abu'l-Qasim Ishaq b. Muhammad)

al-Hakim · al-Qadi

al-Ḥakīm al-Samarqandī (Abu’l-Qāsem Esḥāq b. Moḥammad b. Esmāʿīl b. Ebrāhīm b. Zayd Samarqandī) was a Hanafite scholar and Sufi of Transoxania who served for many years as judge (qāżī) of Samarqand. He is best known as the author of al-Sawād al-aʿẓam , which became the official creed under the Samanids. The source does not give his year of birth. He studied in Balkh under the prominent Hanafite scholar Moḥammad b. Ḵozayma Qallās (d. 314/926). Also in Balkh he became a disciple of the Sufi Abū Bakr Moḥammad b. ʿOmar Warrāq, whose sayings he later transmitted and for whom he expressed the highest admiration (Solamī, Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfīya ). Since Warrāq died in 280/893, Esḥāq must have been born not later than about 260/874. Samʿānī names among his teachers one ʿAbdallāh b. Sahl Zāhed; the source notes that he may be identical with ʿAbdallāh b. Sahl Rāzī, a disciple and transmitter of the Sufi Ḥātem Aṣamm (d. 237/851-52). In Samarqand he evidently met the leading Hanafite scholar Abū Naṣr ʿĪāżī (d. before 279/892), since he reported on ʿĪāżī’s controversies with his opponents. He is described as learned in theology (kalām), jurisprudence and Koranic exegesis, and as familiar with the spiritual knowledge and the ways of the mystics. He was judge of Samarqand for a long time and was praised for his conduct in that office. He died in Samarqand on 10 Muḥarram 342 (27 May 953). His Circle of Influence — The source writes that al-Sawād al-aʿẓam was widely taught as the official creed under the Samanids and remained popular long after the fall of the dynasty. In the introduction to its Persian translation the translator relates that the Samanid amir Esmāʿīl b. Aḥmad (279-95/892-907) gathered the scholars of Samarqand, Bukhara and Transoxania and ordered them to expound the Sunnite doctrine against what he saw as the spread of heresies; the scholars turned to Esḥāq and asked him to compose a creed in Arabic, which won the formal approval of the amir and of all the scholars. The Persian version was prepared by an anonymous translator at the order of the Samanid Nūḥ b. Manṣūr (366-87/976-97). As the language of this early Persian version became archaic, it was revised into a more modern Persian in 795/1393 by the Naqšbandī Ḵᵛāja Moḥammad Pārsā; a Turkish translation by ʿAynī Efendi Bolḡārī was printed at Būlāq in 1258/1842. His Poetry and Sufi Line — The source does not mention any poetry; his line is Sufi and scholarly. His epithet Ḥakīm, then common among Sufis in eastern Iran, refers to the gnostic wisdom of the mystics; according to Samʿānī he received it because of the many widely known wise sayings ( ḥekam ) and sermons recorded of him. Some of these sayings are quoted by Maḥmūd b. ʿOṯmān ( Ferdaws al-moršedīya ) and by Abū Naṣr Ṭāher b. Moḥammad Ḵānaqāhī ( Gozīda dar aḵlāq va taṣawwof ). Kalābāḏī also lists him among those who wrote on the way of the Sufis ( al-Taʿarrof ). As summarised by the source, al-Sawād al-aʿẓam strongly emphasizes the duty to obey and support the ruler, just or oppressive, and to act in solidarity with the Muslim community ( jamāʿa ); it expressly repudiates the doctrines of the Moʿtazela, the Shiʿa (called Rāfeża in the text), the Karrāmīya and the Jahmīya. It upholds the Hanafite definition of faith as excluding works against the Shafeʿite and traditionalist position; on human free will and predestination it seeks an intermediate position between the Qadarīya and the Jabrīya. While it does not accept the Karrāmī asceticism prohibiting economic gain ( kasb ), it supports belief in the miracles of the saints and ranks the saints below the prophets. His Works — al-Sawād al-aʿẓam : a Hanafite creed. According to the source the extant Arabic and Persian versions do not reproduce the original text; they contain references to scholars of the 4th/10th century and vary substantially in content and arrangement; as it was widely taught as the official creed, its transmitters must have felt free to make changes and additions. The Arabic text has been printed repeatedly. A short Resāla fi’l-īmān ascribed to Esḥāq has also been published at the end of the Istanbul edition of al-Sawād al-aʿẓam (1304/1886-87); it upholds the Hanafite position that faith does not include acts and does not increase or decrease, against the Moʿtazilite and Kharijite positions. If he is identical with the Ḥakīm Qāżī mentioned by Ebn Qoṭlūboḡā, he is also the author of a work of jurisprudence, Moḵtaṣar fi’l-ḥayż , and of a commentary on it. His Tomb and Complex — He was buried in the Jākardīza cemetery of Samarqand, near the tomb of Imam Māturīdī. The source records that his tomb was still known in the 9th/15th century.

Mir Sayyid Baraka

Mir · Sayyid

Teacher and close companion of Timur. He is the only person buried in the Gur-i Amir mausoleum in Samarkand who was not a member of the dynasty.

Shaykh Nur al-Din Basir (Qutb-i Chahardahum)

Shaykh · Qutb-i Chahardahum

Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn Baṣīr is a shaykh whose grave is in Samarkand. The non-DİA sources consulted say very little about his life: the article on Burhān al-Dīn Sāgharchī in the Dānešnāme-ye Jahān-e Eslām (DJI) mentions him only in connection with the location of his grave and gives the year of his death as 646. These sources give no information about his teachers, his Sufi lineage or his works. According to the DJI, Burhān al-Dīn Sāgharchī, whom Ibn Baṭṭūṭa met in Khitāy and who became the leader of the Muslims in China, was buried at his own request beside the grave of Nūr al-Dīn Baṣīr. The article bases this on the Qandiyya , a treatise on Sāgharchī's life, and on Abū Ṭāhir Samarqandī's Samariyya , which describes the shrines of Samarkand. His Tomb and Complex — The DJI places the grave of Nūr al-Dīn Baṣīr in Samarkand near the southern wall of the citadel (arg); Sāgharchī's grave lies beside it, and according to the Samariyya Amīr Tīmūr restored the dome of Sāgharchī's tomb. ICOMOS's evaluation of Samarkand (No 603rev) writes that the Rukhabad mausoleum, south-west of Registan Square, was intended for the burial of Burhān al-Dīn Sāgharchī. The tomb record that the atlas ties to Nūr al-Dīn Baṣīr, however, stands at a point that does not fit this description; details are given under the Multiple Views.

Fakhr al-Islam Abu'l-Usr al-Bazdawi

Fakhr al-Islam

Fakhr al-Islām Abu'l-ʿUsr ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Mūsā al-Nasafī al-Bazdawī was one of the great Ḥanafī jurists of Transoxiana in the 5th century AH. Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī records his nisba as "Bazda", while al-Samʿānī and Abū Ṭāhir Samarqandī give it as "Pazdawī". His distinctive and best-known title is "Fakhr al-Islām". He was called "Abu'l-ʿUsr" (father of difficulty) because his writings are hard to understand, whereas his brother Muḥammad, whose works were easy to follow, was known as "Abu'l-Yusr" (father of ease). The two brothers are together called "al-Ṣadrayn al-Bazdawiyyayn". His date of birth is not known with certainty; biographers place it around 400. The sources do not name his teachers explicitly. His father, Abu'l-Ḥasan Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn, was a Ḥanafī jurist and theologian who had learned law and theology from his own grandfather ʿAbd al-Karīm, who in turn had learned them from Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333). Because al-Bazdawī transmitted hadith from his father and followed his theological line, the author of the DJI article considers it possible that his father was his principal teacher. It is also not unlikely that he benefited from the qāḍī Abū Zayd ʿAbd Allāh (ʿUbayd Allāh) b. ʿUmar al-Dabūsī (d. 430 or 432), on whose work on legal theory he wrote a commentary. He studied for a time in Bukhara but spent most of his life in Samarkand, where he served as qāḍī and teacher and became the religious leader of the Ḥanafīs; the sources call him "shaykh al-Ḥanafiyya", "ustādh al-aʾimma" and "imam of the school in Transoxiana". Biographers praise him as "the master of a ṭarīqa within the school of Abū Ḥanīfa"; some take ṭarīqa here to mean his method in legal theory, others (Ibn Khaldūn) his style in disputation. Some works also report his debates with Shāfiʿī scholars of his time: Abū Ṭāhir Samarqandī mentions his discussions with a Shāfiʿī scholar and with al-Ghazālī, and ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Bukhārī his disputation with Imām al-Ḥaramayn al-Juwaynī in Bukhara. In creed he followed, like the other Ḥanafīs, the theological path of Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī. Although he did not spread this theology as directly as his brother Abu'l-Yusr, he made use of it within the rules of legal theory. In the introduction to his Uṣūl he ascribes to Abū Ḥanīfa Māturīdī principles such as the eternity of God's attributes, the decree of good and evil by God, the coexistence of the servant's capacity with the act, the creation of human acts by God, that a grave sin does not make a person an unbeliever, and the vision of God in the hereafter; he explicitly distances himself and the Ḥanafī scholars from the Muʿtazila, and in many places objects to the Muʿtazila and at times to the Ashʿarīs. He died in the town of Kiss near Samarkand. Most reliable biographical dictionaries give the date of his death as Thursday, 5 Rajab 482; the other reports are given under the Multiple Views. He was buried in the Chākardīza quarter of Samarkand. His Circle of Influence — Al-Samʿānī says that the only person who transmitted al-Bazdawī's hadith to him was the well-known preacher of Samarkand, Abu'l-Maʿālī Muḥammad b. Naṣr b. Manṣūr al-Madīnī. Najm al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar al-Nasafī (d. 537), a student of Abu'l-Yusr, and Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Zālī al-Balkhī were also among those who transmitted hadith from him. His main influence, however, came through his book on legal theory: he was regarded as the foremost representative of the "method of the jurists" in Ḥanafī legal theory, and his book was commented upon for centuries. His Works — Biographers attribute many books to him: in exegesis, Kashf al-astār ; in hadith, a commentary on al-Bukhārī's al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ ; in law, Ghināʾ al-fuqahāʾ and al-Mabsūṭ ; commentaries on al-Jāmiʿ al-kabīr , al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaghīr and Ziyādāt al-ziyādāt of Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī; al-Amālī ; in theology, a commentary on al-Fiqh al-akbar attributed to Abū Ḥanīfa and Kitāb al-Muyassar ; and in legal theory, a commentary on al-Dabūsī's Taqwīm al-adilla and Kanz al-wuṣūl ilā maʿrifat al-uṣūl , known as Uṣūl al-Bazdawī . Al-Bazdawī's fame rests mainly on Uṣūl al-Bazdawī . The book is written in a concise and difficult style; even so, it is more orderly and better divided than earlier works and even contemporary ones such as the Uṣūl of al-Sarakhsī; Ibn Khaldūn calls it "mustawʿib" (comprehensive). The DJI sees its value in two points. The first is the "method of the jurists" (ṭarīqat al-fuqahāʾ), followed by most Ḥanafīs, which gathers similar legal cases and derives the principles of legal theory from them; this method differs from the "method of the theologians", which bases the principles on rational argument and theological views. The second is the book's place in the tradition of dialectic and disputation: al-Bazdawī opposes Shāfiʿī and Muʿtazilī views on questions such as whether a prohibition invalidates the act, the implied meaning of a name and of a qualification, whether capacity precedes the act, whether every mujtahid is correct, and whether good and evil are known absolutely by reason. According to Ibn Khaldūn he had a method of his own in disputation that relied only on scriptural proofs such as the revealed text and consensus, and this method was called "ṭarīqat al-Bazdawī". The best-known and most extensive commentary on the Uṣūl is Kashf al-asrār by ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Bukhārī, which has been printed many times. Akmal al-Dīn al-Bābartī's al-Taqrīr , al-Maḥbūbī's Tanqīḥ al-uṣūl and Qāsim b. Quṭlūbughā's verification of its hadiths are also among the known works devoted to it. Some later Ḥanafī jurists, in works such as Ibn al-Sāʿātī's al-Badīʿ and Ibn al-Humām's al-Taḥrīr , sought to combine al-Bazdawī's legal theory with Shāfiʿī works of legal theory such as the book of al-Āmidī. His Tomb and Complex — The DJI, relying on al-Qurashī, al-Nasafī's al-Qand and Ṭāshkubrīzāda, writes that al-Bazdawī was buried in the Chākardīza quarter of Samarkand. Abū Ṭāhir Samarqandī, however, records in the Samariyya that his grave, one of the known tombs of Samarkand in his own time, lay inside the city's citadel (arg), in the courtyard of the Vazīr mosque. The atlas entry is tied to the place of visitation at Chākardīza; the two reports are given side by side under the Multiple Views.

Najm al-Din Abu Hafs Umar al-Nasafi

Mufti al-Thaqalayn · Hafiz

According to DİA, al-Nasafi died in Samarkand on 12 Jumada I 537 (3 December 1142); DİA does not explicitly state the burial place (the Chakardiza attribution is an atlas note). Died 537 H/1142.

Khwaja Abdi Darun

Khwaja

A grave attributed to Khwaja Abdi Darun within the Abdi Darun complex (mausoleum, khanaqah, pool) in south-eastern Samarkand; the only source opened (UNESCO 603) names neither the complex nor the person, so the burial place could not be confirmed from a source.

Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani

Imam

Burhān al-Dīn Abu'l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Abī Bakr b. ʿAbd al-Jalīl al-Farghānī al-Marghīnānī is the author of the Hidāya , one of the most celebrated handbooks of Ḥanafī law, and is known after it as "Ṣāḥib al-Hidāya". His nisba is given in the sources sometimes as Farghānī and sometimes as Marghīnānī, because Marghīnān was one of the towns of Farghāna. The EI² article presents Marghīnān as both the native place and the scene of activity of two families of Ḥanafī jurists bearing that nisba, and lists Burhān al-Dīn as the most important member of the first of them. He was born in Marghīnān; the DJI gives his year of birth as 530, relying on al-Ziriklī alone (see the Multiple Views). He acquired his knowledge on his travels, then still the usual way of studying in Islam. He studied law with scholars such as Najm al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar al-Nasafī (d. 537/1142-3), al-Ṣadr al-Shahīd Ḥusām al-Dīn ʿUmar and ʿUthmān b. ʿAlī al-Baykandī, and read al-Tirmidhī's Sunan with his teacher in his native town. He then travelled to hear hadith, met great shaykhs and hadith scholars, and gathered his teachers in a mashyakha . By his own account he had failed to record the names of some of his teachers; al-Zarnūjī reports that he regretted this neglect. Al-Qurashī says that he copied this mashyakha and added useful notes to it. It is recorded that, especially after writing his works, he surpassed his teachers and peers, and that all of them acknowledged it. Among his contemporaries, Fakhr al-Dīn Qāḍīkhān (d. 592) and Zayn al-Dīn al-ʿAttābī (d. 586) praised his virtue and learning. The sources describe him as a great scholar, ḥāfiẓ, hadith scholar, exegete, man of letters and poet; they say he was strong in debate and that a large crowd wishing to learn law and hadith gathered around him. In his division of scholars into six ranks, al-Laknawī places him in the fourth rank, among the "aṣḥāb al-tarjīḥ" who are able to prefer one report over another. He died in Samarkand in 593; the sources consulted do not state where his grave is. His Circle of Influence — Shams al-Aʾimma Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Sattār al-Kardarī (559-642) and Nuʿmān b. Ibrāhīm al-Zarnūjī (d. 640) were among his leading students. Al-Zarnūjī quotes hadith from him in his Taʿlīm al-mutaʿallim ; according to al-Qurashī, al-Kardarī taught the Hidāya to the public. The commentaries in IRCICA's edition of the Samarkand epitaphs show that his influence continued in Samarkand: Maḥmūd b. al-Ḥusayn al-Usrūshanī, one of the city's leading scholars at the beginning of the 7th/13th century, was his student; according to the same edition, his son Abu'l-Fatḥ ʿAbd al-Qāhir was copying al-Muḥīṭ al-Burhānī in the ʿĀmiriyya madrasa in Samarkand between 660-663/1262-1265. His Works — The DJI lists his works as follows: Bidāyat al-mubtadī and its commentary al-Hidāya ; al-Tajnīs wa'l-mazīd ; a commentary on al-Shaybānī's al-Jāmiʿ al-kabīr ; Farāʾiḍ al-ʿUthmānī ; Kifāyat al-muntahī ; Mukhtārāt Majmūʿ al-nawāzil ; Manāsik al-ḥajj ; Muntaqā al-marfūʿ ; Nashr al-madhhab . Ṭāshkubrīzāda counts his best-known work, al-Hidāya , among the most important books of fatwā in the Ḥanafī school. By his own account he first wrote Bidāyat al-mubtadī , which brings together al-Qudūrī's Mukhtaṣar , al-Shaybānī's al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaghīr and some points he considered necessary; he then wrote a commentary on it called Kifāyat al-muntahī , and afterwards abridged this commentary and named it al-Hidāya . According to Kātib Çelebi and Sarkīs, the composition of the book took thirteen years. Al-Hidāya became a book to which jurists constantly referred, and many commentaries were written on it. Besides a commentary, al-Qurashī wrote al-ʿInāya , which traces the hadiths of the book, and Tahdhīb al-asmāʾ , which explains the names occurring in it, in order to remedy its errors and gaps. Iranica's article on the Hanafite madhab likewise notes that the works of the classical period were gradually replaced by later handbooks and commentaries, and writes that the most important of these was the celebrated Hidāya of Burhān al-Dīn Marghīnānī; according to the article, numerous commentaries were written on it in the following centuries, and it was translated by Charles Hamilton in 1791.

Ubaydullah Ahrar

The most influential Naqšbandī shaikh of 9th/15th-century Transoxania; known for his influence over the Timurid rulers and the figure under whose auspices the Naqšbandīya became supreme among the Sufi orders of Central Asia. The source stresses that surprisingly little is known of his career and that the sources are often contradictory or biased. He was born in 806/1404 at Bāḡestān in the welāyat of Tashkent, into a family of hereditary shaikhs with agricultural and commercial interests. He studied in a maktab and later in a madrasa in Samarkand, though this he left after two years, claiming that he had not even mastered two pages of Arabic grammar ( Rašaḥāt ). His works show him to have been by no means uneducated; he may have played down his book learning to emphasize the heaven-sent quality of his inspiration. Ḵᵛāja Aḥrār first appears in Samarkand at the age of twenty-two. Two years later he set off for Herat in search of a pīr; he found one instead in Čaḡānīān, in the person of Yaʿqūb Čarḵī , a Naqšbandī from Badaḵšān. He returned to Tashkent ca. 835/1431-32 to live on the family estates. His activities at this time are obscure, but he evidently aroused the opposition of the local ʿolamāʾ — the hagiographies are liberal with accusations of heterodoxy on both sides. The source notes that, since such accusations were a commonplace of the theological disputes of the time, there is no necessity to take them at face value. After the judicial murder of Oloḡ Beg, the Timurid Abū Saʿīd finally gained control of Samarkand in the summer of 855/1451 . The Rašaḥāt gives all the credit to Ḵᵛāja Aḥrār, who, on condition that Abū Saʿīd uphold the Šarīʿa, threw the weight of his following to his side. The source also records Ḵᵛāja Aḥrār's unsuccessful journey in 854/1450 to see Abū Saʿīd in Samarkand. By 858/1454 Ḵᵛāja Aḥrār was solidly established at Samarkand, organizing the defense of the town and reinforcing Abū Saʿīd's morale in the face of attack by Abu'l-Qāsem Bābor from Khorasan. His declaration that he was the mediator between the townspeople and the ruler on the occasion of the suppression of an uprising at Samarkand in 862/1458 shows the evolution of his political role, though his insistence on the maintenance of fixed strata of society, in which Sufis existed to inspire the love of God and the established order, shows his influence to have been essentially conservative. Following the execution of Gawhar Šād in 861/1457 , Abū Saʿīd made Herat his virtual capital, and Ḵᵛāja Aḥrār's influence remained restricted to Transoxania. He visited Herat, however, from 23 Ṣafar to 11 Rabīʿ I 865 (8–25 December 1460 ), when he persuaded Abū Saʿīd to lift the tamḡā and other “forbidden taxes” in Samarkand and Bukhara. During the rebellion of Moḥammad Jūkī b. ʿAbd-al-Laṭīf at Šāhroḵīya and the ensuing protracted siege of that fortress between 865/1461 and 868/1463 , Abū Saʿīd used both the šayḵ-al-Eslām of Samarkand, Borhān-al-Dīn, and Ḵᵛāja Aḥrār as diplomatic emissaries; Aḥrār was ultimately successful in imposing the condition that the rebels' lives be spared, though Moḥammad Jūkī was imprisoned at Herat and died there in 869/1464 . In the winter of 872/1467-68 Abū Saʿīd, having become totally dependent upon his advice, summoned Ḵᵛāja Aḥrār to discuss the possibility of a campaign in western Persia following the death of the Qara Qoyunlu ruler Jahānšāh. The decision was a disaster: Abū Saʿīd set out in early Šaʿbān 872 (late February 1468 ); his army was annihilated and he himself was killed. The Rašaḥāt reports that this bad advice brought Ḵᵛāja Aḥrār some unpopularity. Nevertheless, in the disorders following Abū Saʿīd's death he actively preached the restoration of order; in a letter to Sultan Maḥmūd Mīrzā, who besieged Samarkand in 1470 , he warned against further oppression of the people but offered his aid in the pacification of the town. His temporary eclipse and the triumph of the ʿolamāʾ came to an end under Abū Saʿīd's son and successor Sultan Aḥmad , who became even more dependent upon him than his father had been. Bābor observes that even in Transoxania power lay not so much in Ḵᵛāja Aḥrār's hands as in the begs'; yet he also testifies that Aḥrār's influence as a Sufi adviser was paramount. Thereafter he appears only infrequently on the political scene. He died in Rabīʿ I 895 (February 1490 ) and was buried in his funerary ḵānaqāh at Samarkand, in the suburb of Kafšīr . His Circle of Influence — As the successor of his master Yaʿqūb Čarḵī, it was under his auspices that the Naqšbandīya became supreme among the Sufi orders of Central Asia and began its expansion into other regions of the Muslim world. His pupil and successor Moḥammad Qāżī b. Borhān-al-Dīn wrote the Selselat al-ʿārefīn ca. 1504 ; the Rašaḥāt was composed in the same years. His sons at Samarkand, led by Ḵᵛāja Moḥammad Yaḥyā, supported the Timurids against the Uzbeks; Ḵᵛāja Yaḥyā was killed after the capture of Samarkand in 905/1500 , and from that time on the leadership of the Naqšbandī order belonged to the shaikhs of Bukhara. His second-generation successor Aḥmad Ḵᵛājagī Kāsānī, “Maḵdūm-e Aʿẓam,” founded a ḵānaqāh in Bukhara with the help of ʿObayd-Allāh Khan. His Poetry and Sufi Line — The recent publication of documents relating to his waqf endowments has cast new light on Ḵᵛāja Aḥrār's weight in 9th/15th-century Transoxania: the hagiographies indicate that the landholdings of Aḥrār and his immediate descendants lay not only in the welāyats of Qaršī, Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara but in the Andejān and Esfījāb/Sayrām areas too, and estimates based on taxes make it certain that they were vast. The appearance of mawlānās — a title used primarily by the higher ʿolamāʾ — among the donors testifies to the respect in which he was held even by those classes traditionally most opposed to the expansion of Sufi power. His preaching against the political quietism of his Sufi rivals ( Masmūʿāt ) and the priority he gave to the preservation of social order define his line. His Works — The source records five works: ① Majmūʿa-ye morāsalāt — autograph manuscript in the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences; ② Maktūbāt — non-autograph manuscripts in Tashkent, Dushanbe and Leningrad; ③ Resāla-ye wāledīya — a treatise on Sufi ethics, translated into Chaghatay by Ẓahīr-al-Dīn Bābor; ④ Resāla-ye ḥawrāʾīya — a possibly apocryphal commentary on the quatrains of the 11th-century Sufi Abū Saʿīd; ⑤ selected letters incorporated into the Šaraf-nāma , the enšāʾ anthology of ʿAbdallāh Morvārīd. His Tomb and Complex — He was buried in his funerary ḵānaqāh in the Samarkand suburb of Kafšīr. This probably remained in existence until the 11th/17th century, when a madrasa, begun in 1040/1630-31 and completed in 1045/1635-36 , was erected on the spot by the dīvānbegī Nāder Mīrzāʾī Ṭaḡāʾī. It houses the dated cenotaph of Ḵᵛāja Aḥrār.

Sheikh Burhan al-Din Sagarji

A mystic of the 8th century AH; the Ṣadr-e Jahān whom Ibn Baṭṭūṭa met in Ḵatā and who became the leader of the Muslims in China. His name is not mentioned in most biographical dictionaries; his father's name, his birthplace and the dates of his birth and death are unknown. According to the Qandīya , a treatise that recounts his life and miracles, his lineage goes back to ʿOmar b. al-Ḵaṭṭāb; the nisba “Sāḡarčī” derives from his having been for a time governor of the small town of Sāḡarč in the region of Samarkand. In Baghdad he went to Shaikh Nur-al-Dīn ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān Esfarāyenī (d. 717) and became one of his beloved disciples; the shaikh preferred him to his own successor ʿAlāʾ-al-Dawla Semnānī (659-736). He then stayed for a time in Mecca, and afterwards went to Ḵatā, that is, northern China. Ibn Baṭṭūṭa (703-779), who met him several times in Ḵatā, describes him as one of the great preachers, a generous and open-handed man who would sometimes borrow money and give it away to people. When the sultan of India heard of him, he sent him forty thousand dinars and invited him to Delhi. Borhān-al-Dīn paid his debts with the dinars and declined to go to India, saying that he did not wish to go to a king in whose presence scholars had to stand. He then went to China; by order of the Khan he became the leader of the Muslims there and received the title “Ṣadr-e Jahān”. His Circle of Influence — He is one of the shaikhs who granted permission to guide disciples to Mīr Sayyed ʿAlī Hamadānī and to Shaikh Nāṣer-al-Dīn ʿOmar b. Moḥammad b. ʿOmar b. Aḥmad al-Kabīrī. His Works — Five lines of a prayer ( monājāt ) by him have survived (Aḥmad Monzawī, Fehrest-e nosḵahā-ye ḵaṭṭī-e fārsī ). His Tomb and Complex — In accordance with his will he was buried in Samarkand , near the southern wall of the citadel (arg), beside the grave of Shaikh Nur-al-Dīn Baṣīr (d. 646) ( Qandīya ; Abū Ṭāher Samarqandī, Samarīya ). Amīr Tīmūr (736-807) restored the dome of his tomb. According to Abū Ṭāher Samarqandī, a copper vessel containing a single hair of the Prophet (peace be upon him) hangs from the ceiling of the tomb.

Qutham ibn Abbas (Shah-i-Zinda)

Qutham was one of the sons of al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, the uncle of the Messenger of God ﷺ. Ibn al-Athir's Usd al-ghaba introduces him as a Companion from the Banu Hashim and a cousin of the Prophet. The Shah-i Zinda ("the living king") complex, which spreads over the southern slope of the Afrasiyab ruins at Samarkand, takes its name from the grave attributed to him. His mother was Umm al-Fadl Lubaba bint al-Harith of the Hilal tribe; on the word of al-Kalbi, Ibn al-Athir names her as the first woman in Mecca to enter Islam after Khadija. A scene from his childhood is told by Abd Allah ibn Ja'far: while he was playing with Ubayd Allah and Qutham, the sons of al-Abbas, the Messenger of God passed by on a mount and had Abd Allah lifted up in front of him and Qutham behind him. The same report adds that al-Abbas loved Ubayd Allah more, yet the Messenger of God, without hesitation before his uncle, took Qutham up behind him. The sources record that he closely resembled the Messenger of God in appearance; Ibn Kathir counts him, in this respect, as the person who most resembled the Prophet. According to Ibn Hajar, citing al-Hakim, he was a foster brother of al-Husayn. Qutham was still young when the Messenger of God passed away; Ibn Hajar notes that Ibn Sa'd placed him among the Companions who were of tender age at the Prophet's death. Even so, his name is remembered together with the Prophet's burial. On the authority of Ali and Ibn Abbas, Ibn al-Athir writes that of those who went down into the grave, Qutham was the last to come out of it. When a group from Iraq asked Ali about this while he was performing the umra in the time of Umar (in one report quoted by Ibn Kathir, in the time of Uthman), Ali guessed that al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba had been presenting himself to them as the last person with the Messenger of God, and said that this person was Qutham ibn Abbas; Ibn al-Athir and Ibn Kathir both quote this report from the transmission of Imam Ahmad. When Ali became caliph he gave Qutham a governorship in the Hijaz; the sources differ on whether this post was in Mecca or in Medina (see Multiple Views). According to a report of al-Mada'ini recorded by Ibn Kathir, at the pilgrimage of the year 39 AH it was Qutham, as Ali's representative, who fell into dispute in Mecca with Yazid ibn Sakhbara al-Rahawi, the pilgrimage leader sent by Mu'awiya; the two sides came to terms by leaving the conduct of the pilgrimage to Shayba ibn Uthman. In the time of Mu'awiya he went east with Sa'id ibn Uthman ibn Affan, who had been made governor of Khurasan. Among the events of the year 56 AH, Ibn Kathir relates that Sa'id met the Turks at the Sughd of Samarkand and killed many of them, and he counts Qutham, with the qualification "as is said", among those martyred at Sa'id's side. Ibn al-Athir likewise writes that he went to Samarkand with Sa'id and died there a martyr. When the news of his death reached his brother Abd Allah ibn Abbas, Abd Allah said the words of return to God, made his camel kneel at the side of the road, prayed two rak'as in which he lengthened the sitting, and then, as he turned to his mount, recited the verse "Seek help through patience and prayer" (al-Baqara 2:45). Ibn al-Athir records that Qutham left no descendants. His Circle of Influence — According to Ibn Hajar, Qutham transmitted hadith from the Prophet and from his brother al-Fadl ibn Abbas. Ibn Hajar knows only Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i as transmitting from him, and judges another report found in Ibn Manda's book on the Companions to be very weak. Al-Nasa'i included Qutham's report in his al-Khasa'is . His Grave and Shah-i Zinda — According to Encyclopaedia Iranica's article SAMARQAND i (F. Grenet), Ibn Battuta, who was in Samarkand in 1333 (or 1335), found the complex around Qutham's grave splendidly built at a time when the city no longer had walls or gates; Grenet notes that this was then the only part of Afrasiyab still inhabited. In the traveller's own account, the people of Samarkand went out on the eves of Monday and Friday to visit the grave, the Tatars brought cattle, sheep and money as votive offerings, and this income was spent on hosting travellers and on the servants of the lodge. The dome over the grave rested on four piers, each flanked by two columns of green, black, white and red marble. The cenotaph was of ebony with silver-plated corners, and three silver lamps hung above it. Ibn Battuta adds that even in the days of their unbelief the Tatars did not disturb the place but sought blessing from it. The Samarkand nomination file prepared by Uzbekistan for the UNESCO World Heritage List states that the ensemble grew up around Qutham's grave no later than the XI century, and that a minaret near the grave and the remains of a madrasa built by the Qarakhanid ruler Tamghach (Tafgach) Khan Ibrahim have survived. According to the file, the inscription on the drum of the dome of Qutham's ziyaratkhana gives 735 (1334-35) as the year the building was completed; the tomb chamber (gurkhana), joined to the ziyaratkhana by a corridor, is separated from it by a carved wooden screen and holds at its centre a tiled gravestone in four tiers. Babur, for his part, describing Samarkand in his memoirs, says that Qutham ibn Abbas, one of the Companions, must have gone there and that his grave, known as Shah-i Zinda, lies outside the Iron Gate.

Abu Mansur al-Maturidi

The imam after whom the Maturidiyya , one of the two great schools of Sunni theology, is named; Qur'an commentator and Hanafi jurist. His full name is Abu Mansur Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Mahmud al-Maturidi al-Samarqandi . His followers called him by such titles as imam al-huda , 'alam al-huda , ra'is mashayikh Samarqand , imam al-mutakallimin and imam Ahl al-Sunna . Maturid, from which he takes his name, is an outer quarter of Samarqand, today within the borders of Uzbekistan; Barthold, who visited the city in 1920, describes it as a village to the north-west of the town. The sources contain very little on his life. His date of birth is not known with certainty; from the information that his teacher, the qadi of Rayy Muhammad b. Muqatil al-Razi, died in 248 (862), it is estimated that he was born about the middle of the first half of the III (IX) century and lived close to a hundred years. He lived in the age when the central authority of the Abbasids had weakened and the Samanids ruled Transoxiana. Of his family nothing is known beyond the names of his father and grandfather (Muhammad b. Mahmud). The source states that the language and style of his works point to an author whose mother tongue was not Arabic, that his sentence structures conform to Turkish grammar, and that, given the Turkish majority of the region in which he lived, he must be said to have been of Turkish origin. He belongs to the fourth, even the third, generation of Hanafi scholars. He studied under teachers such as Abu Bakr Ahmad b. Ishaq al-Juzjani, Nusayr b. Yahya al-Balkhi and the qadi of Nishapur Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Juzjani, and completed his education with Abu Nasr al-'Iyadi , who taught at the Dar al-Juzjaniyya and headed the scholars of Samarqand. Nothing is known of his schooling, his travels, whether he made the pilgrimage or held any official post. His view that whoever calls the manifestly tyrannical sultan of the day "just" falls into unbelief, and his censure of Abu al-Qasim al-Ka'bi for his relations with tyrannical statesmen, show that his relations with the politicians of his time were not good. He is known for his work in theology, exegesis, law and the history of sects. The titles of his books give the impression of long struggles against the ideas put forward by sects such as the Mu'tazila, the Qarmatians and the Rafida. The source records that he began to be active in this field before Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari, his contemporary, though no record exists of their meeting, and that together with his scholarly circle he played an important part in the stabilisation of Islamic thought in Transoxiana and in the spread of Islam and Hanafism among the Turks. That he was neglected for nearly two centuries even in his own homeland, and that, living far from the seat of the caliphate and at odds with political power, he did not enjoy state patronage as the Ash'aris did, are among the points the source notes. Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi and Ibn Fadl Allah al-'Umari record, without giving a date, that he died shortly after al-Ash'ari (d. 324/935-36); al-Qurashi, on the authority of two of his teachers, states that he died in 333 (944) , and scholars such as al-Firuzabadi, Ibn Qutlubugha, al-Kafawi, al-Zabidi and al-Laknawi adopt the same date. He was buried in the famous Chakardiza cemetery of Samarqand. His friend al-Hakim al-Samarqandi had an inscription to this effect placed on his gravestone: "This is the grave of one who devoted his whole life to knowledge, spent his strength in spreading and teaching it, whose works in the way of religion are remembered with praise, and who gathered the fruits of his life." His own remark that the kunya Abu Mansur may be given to a childless man in the hope of a son named Mansur may, according to the source, be a sign that he had no male offspring. His line continued through a daughter: the paternal grandmother of the qadi of Samarqand Abu al-Hasan 'Ali b. Hasan al-Maturidi (d. 511/1117) was his daughter's daughter; this qadi and his father were buried near the grave of their ancestor al-Maturidi. His Circle of Influence — Abu Ahmad al-'Iyadi, Abu al-Hasan 'Ali b. Sa'id al-Rustughfani and Abu Muhammad 'Abd al-Karim b. Musa al-Bazdawi studied law and theology under him. Ibn Yahya, the pupil of his pupil, describes him as "unique in his time in knowledge, understanding, mastery of the schools and piety." The same Ibn Yahya says that in his own day the Sunnis of Samarqand were known as Juzjaniyya and 'Iyadiyya and makes no mention of a Maturidiyya; the source takes this as a sign that in the second half of the IV (X) century the school was not yet attributed to him. Even Abu al-Yusr al-Bazdawi (d. 493/1100) found the Kitab al-Tawhid problematic in language and style and criticised some of its views. With Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi , who embraced him as the founder of a school and wrote the Tabsirat al-adilla , Maturidism took its place in history as a theological movement. According to Ibn Fadl Allah al-'Umari the name "Maturidiyya" was coined by Mu'tazili theologians angered by the strong support he gave to the Sunnis. Al-Taftazani records that the Ash'ariyya prevailed in Khurasan, Iraq and Syria and the Maturidiyya in Transoxiana, and that although they differed on questions such as takwin and the exception in faith, the scholars of the two groups did not accuse one another of heresy. Ash'arism spread among the Shafi'is and Malikis, Maturidism among the Hanafis. His Poetry and Sufi Line — He was not a poet; this section carries his scholarly and Sufi line. According to the theological section of the source, if one proceeds from the works that survive, al-Maturidi must be counted the founder of Sunni theology: the Kitab al-Tawhid is the first work to contain systematically the three foundations (divinity, prophethood, the hereafter) that form the main plan of later Sunni theological works. On the necessity of religion he holds reason and transmission to be two indispensable sources of knowledge; for reaching the reality of things and events he recognises three means, sense perception ( 'iyan ), report and inference, and he grants no epistemological value to unsystematic methods such as inspiration, lot-casting or judging from facial features. He criticises the Jabriyya, who deny man freedom of will, and the Mu'tazila, who limit the divine power; the section he devotes to predestination exceeds a quarter of the book. There are also records of his Sufi side: al-Nasafi's calling him qudwat al-fariqayn (leader of the two groups) evokes a leading position in both the outer and the inner sciences, and his explanations of the ways to piety bear a markedly Sufi character. At the same time he states plainly in the Kitab al-Tawhid that unveiling and inspiration cannot be sources of knowledge; as reported from his pupil al-Rustughfani, he rejected the view of those who held the saints superior to the prophets, and objected to those who frowned on enjoying the blessings of this world, saying that they were created for man. His Works — Of the thirteen works whose attribution to him is certain, Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi records the names of twelve. Exegesis: Ta'wilat al-Qur'an ( Ta'wilat Ahl al-Sunna ) — composed of his dictations to his pupils; rich also in theology, law and legal theory, some forty manuscripts are known. Theology: Kitab al-Tawhid (his only work printed in full), Kitab al-Maqalat , against al-Ka'bi the Radd Awa'il al-adilla , Radd Tahdhib al-jadal and Radd Wa'id al-fussaq , Bayan wahm al-Mu'tazila , Radd al-Usul al-khamsa (against Abu 'Umar al-Bahili), Radd Kitab al-Imama (against one of the Rafida), al-Radd 'ala al-Qaramita . Law: Ma'akhidh al-shara'i' fi usul al-fiqh , Kitab al-Jadal fi usul al-fiqh , al-Radd 'ala al-Qaramita on positive law, and Sharh al-Jami' al-saghir . The source notes that the Sharh al-Fiqh al-akbar attributed to him in fact belongs to Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi, and that the attribution of the Risala fi al-'aqa'id , the Persian Pandnama and similar treatises is also problematic. His Tomb and Complex — Barthold records that on his journey to Samarqand in 1920 he saw al-Maturidi's tomb in the Chakardiza cemetery. In the Soviet period the cemetery was opened to housing and the site of the tomb was left in the garden of a house; a group of Turkish scholars who visited the city in 1991 stated that there was no tomb there and that the grave had been concreted over and used as a courtyard. On the site of the grave, today in Gujduvan street in the Ikkinchi Sharq quarter of the central Siyab district of Samarqand, a new tomb completed in 2000 was built, with a complex around it. By decision of the Council of Ministers of Uzbekistan his 1130th birth anniversary was celebrated the same year with great events; on 17 November 2000 an international symposium was held on the occasion of the opening of the tomb.

Imam al-Bukhari

The great hadith scholar known for al-Jami' al-sahih , regarded as the most reliable book after the Qur'an (d. 256/870). His full name was Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad b. Isma'il b. Ibrahim al-Ju'fi al-Bukhari . He was born at Bukhara on Friday 13 Shawwal 194 (20 July 810). His great-great-grandfather Bardizbah was a Zoroastrian; because the latter's son al-Mughira became a Muslim through the governor of Bukhara, Yaman al-Ju'fi, al-Bukhari is also known by the nisba al-Ju'fi. His father Isma'il had learned hadith from scholars such as Malik b. Anas and 'Abd Allah b. al-Mubarak; he died while al-Bukhari was still a child, and some of his hadith books passed to his son. His mother is mentioned as a pious woman whose prayers were answered. Around the age of ten he began to learn hadith from Bukharan traditionists such as Muhammad b. Salam al-Bikandi and 'Abd Allah b. Muhammad al-Musnadi. At about eleven he drew attention by correcting some errors made by his teacher al-Dakhili while transmitting; by sixteen he had entirely memorized the books of Ibn al-Mubarak and Waki' b. al-Jarrah. At that time he went on pilgrimage with his mother and his brother Ahmad; while they returned home he stayed in Mecca and studied hadith with scholars such as Khallad b. Yahya and 'Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr al-Humaydi. Then he began to travel among the centres of learning: he went to Baghdad more than eight times, meeting Ahmad b. Hanbal on each visit; he went to Basra four or five times and to Balkh several times, where at the request of its people he dictated one hadith from each of the 1000 teachers from whom he had learned. He learned hadith from Abu Mushir in Damascus, stayed six years in the Hijaz, went to Hims, travelled many times to Kufa, and also studied in Medina, Merv and Egypt, which he visited twice. In Nishapur, which he visited first in 209 (824) and last in 250 (864), he taught hadith for five years. He says that the number of scholars from whom he wrote hadith was 1080; a treatise by Ibn Manda gives the names of 309 of his teachers from whom he transmits in al-Jami' al-sahih . From the hadiths gathered on his long journeys he built up a large library; he said that one night, staying awake, he reckoned up the hadiths he had written until then and found he had recorded 200,000 hadiths with continuous chains. The most famous example of the strength of his memory is the Baghdad test reported by Ibn 'Adi: the traditionists mixed up the chains and texts of 100 hadiths, gave them to ten men, and these asked al-Bukhari about them in turn. Al-Bukhari said that he knew none of the hadiths in the form in which they had been read, and then, beginning with the first questioner, told each of them the correct chain and text of the hadith he had asked about. He too suffered from the controversy, long continuing in the Islamic world, over whether the Qur'an is created. When he came to Nishapur the people and the traditionist Muhammad b. Yahya al-Dhuhli received him with great honour; but when he was asked whether the Qur'an is created, his answer caused a great dispute among those present. Faced with al-Dhuhli's influence in the city, he recited the verse "I commit my affair to God; surely God sees His servants" (al-Mu'min 40/44), said that he had not come to Nishapur for any gain, and left the city the next day. He went on to Merv and from there to Bukhara. He withheld his knowledge from no one who sought it, but kept away from men of state and regarded going to their palaces as demeaning to learning. When the governor of Khurasan, Khalid b. Ahmad al-Dhuhli, let him know that he wished to hear his works from him, he replied that he could not carry learning to other people's doors, and that if the governor wished he should come to the mosque where he taught or to his house; he also refused the governor's request to teach only his own children, on the ground that he could not reserve learning for particular people. Thereupon the governor had men close to him allege that he held views incompatible with the Sunna, and exiled him from his homeland. Al-Bukhari set out for Samarqand; while visiting relatives in the small town of Khartank , 3 miles from Samarqand, he fell ill and could not reach Samarqand. He died on the eve of the Feast of Breaking the Fast of the year 256 and was buried there the next day (Friday 1 September 870). All that is known of his family is that he had a son named Ahmad. He was of medium height, thin and slight of build; he spoke little, did not covet what others possessed and paid no attention to food and drink. Many of his actions are reported to show his generosity and his indifference to worldly goods: to those who advised him to collect through officials a debt long unpaid, he said, "If I ask them for help, they will ask me to give fatwas as it suits them; I cannot sell my religion for the world." Even of the narrators he criticized he spoke with great moderation and fairness, and used to say, "I hope that God Most High will not call me to account for backbiting." He loved archery. His Circle of Influence — His famous pupil al-Firabri says that 90,000 people heard al-Jami' al-sahih from al-Bukhari. His other best-known pupils are Imam Muslim , al-Tirmidhi , Abu Hatim, Abu Zur'a al-Razi, Muhammad b. Nasr al-Marwazi, Salih Jazara and Ibn Khuzayma. His teachers and contemporaries spoke of him with praise: Nu'aym b. Hammad and Ya'qub b. Ibrahim al-Dawraqi used to say, "Al-Bukhari is the jurist of this community"; Ishaq b. Rahawayh advised the traditionists, "Write hadith from this young man"; Imam Muslim told him, "I bear witness that there is none like you in the world"; and Ibn Khuzayma said he had seen no one under the vault of heaven who knew the hadiths of the Messenger of God better. Because he was the first to bring the sound hadiths together and because of his superiority in detecting subtle defects ( 'ilal ), he has been accepted as an undisputed authority in the science of hadith. In creed he is counted among the first Sunni scholars who contributed to the formation of the Ahl al-Sunna; his view that the recitation of the Qur'an is created paved the way for the later Sunni theological distinction between "verbal speech" ( kalam lafzi ) and "inner speech" ( kalam nafsi ), and his contemporaries Muslim and Ibn Qutayba adopted this view. His Poetry and Sufi Line — It is recorded that the moral verses found in some books reflect his taste for poetry. In his scholarly line he was, in general terms, attached to the creed of the Salaf, and he criticized the Jahmiyya, the Mu'tazila, the Khawarij and the Shi'a. While most hadith scholars regarded the discussion of doctrinal questions as innovation, he held such discussion necessary when beliefs contrary to the texts arose, so that the view conforming to the Qur'an and Sunna could be established and defended. For him the Qur'an is the speech of God and is not created, while reading and writing the Qur'an are acts of the servants and are created. On the attribute of bringing into being, on not declaring grave sinners unbelievers, and on faith and Islam being the same thing he followed Abu Hanifa; on faith increasing and decreasing he followed Ahmad b. Hanbal. He is also known as a great jurist; because the chapter headings in al-Jami' al-sahih reflect his legal views it has been said, "Al-Bukhari's jurisprudence is in his chapter headings." His Works — ① al-Jami' al-sahih : known popularly as Sahih al-Bukhari ; he said that he produced it in sixteen years, selecting from some 600,000 hadiths, and that before writing each hadith he performed the full ablution and prayed two cycles. He began writing it in Bukhara and continued in Mecca, Medina and Basra; hundreds of studies and commentaries have been written on it. ② al-Tarikh al-kabir : begun before he was twenty and, in his own words, "by the Prophet's grave on moonlit nights", it establishes the degree of reliability of nearly 13,000 narrators; he kept renewing and completing it until a late stage of his life. ③ al-Tarikh al-awsat and ④ al-Tarikh al-saghir : abridgements and summaries of the great history. ⑤ Kitab al-du'afa' al-saghir : it contains 418 narrators. ⑥ Kitab al-kuna . ⑦ al-Adab al-mufrad : it gathers hadiths on good character, 1322 hadiths in 644 chapters. ⑧ Khalq af'al al-'ibad : written to show that the servants' utterance of the Qur'an, like their other acts, is created. ⑨ Raf' al-yadayn fi al-salat and ⑩ Kitab al-qira'a khalf al-imam . The source also lists other works whose names appear in his writings and in the sources, such as al-'Aqida (al-Tawhid) , al-Tafsir al-kabir and Birr al-walidayn . His statement that he wrote all his books three times shows that he read them to his students and revised them each time.