Tashkent. The Mausoleum of Kaffol Shoshiy

Tashkent. The Mausoleum of Kaffol Shoshiy.

The mausoleum was built in honor of imam Abubakr ibn Ali ibn Ismail Al Kaffol al Shoshiy. The first burial vault was not kept safe. Actual mausoleum was built in 1542 by Gulyam Husain, who was Khan's architect at that time. It is an asymmetric domed portal mausoleum - khanaka. Khanakas were erected to give pilgrims from distant lands a shelter in living cells - hujras. Mausoleums' complexes also often included mosque and an eating-room called oshkhana with a kitchen. There is a late burial place (sagana) on small yard south of the main building. The mausoleum is built of baked bricks. Proportions: 13.3 x 12.5 m., room: 6 x 6 m., the cupola: 16.4 m. high.

Near this mausoleum is located the house where Khodja Akhrori-vali lived, who was follower of Kaffol al Shoshiy. Khodja Akhrori-vali was also a follower of Bahovutdin Nakshbandy and he asserted that people of belief must not beg alms; they should live with their own labor. In his own life he followed Nakshbandy's motto - "Dil ba eru dast ba kor", which means: heart with the God, arms in labor. Khodja Akhror was both a Sufi master and a statesman. He was buried in Samarkand.