Mausoleum of Karashash-ana

The Karashash-ana mausoleum is a monument of architecture from the XII-XIX centuries that is included in the state list of republican significance historical and cultural monuments. It has been under state protection since 1982.

Location

It is located on a high place at the edge of an old cemetery within the Sayram residential area of Shymkent city.

Legends and records

The sacred tradition of the Karashash-ana mausoleum is based on stories that it was built on this site after the death of Khoja Akhmet Yassaui’s mother. According to written sources, the main basis is the “Treatise on the saints of Madinat al-Bayda and Ispidzhab” (late XVII – early XVIII centuries) and folklore of the XVIII–XX centuries. At that time the current name of the monument appeared – according to legends the dome’s apex is bound with a lock of black hair of Khoja Akhmet Yassaui’s mother, thus her nickname and the name of the mausoleum – “Karashash ana” arise. Her real name is Aisha bibi (Aisha wife). According to legends of the late XVII century she was the daughter of Sheikh Musa, one of the most famous disciples of Ibrahim, the father of Khoja Akhmet Yassaui. Late‑XVII‑century legends also state that she was the daughter, sister or niece of Sheikh Omar Bagistani, the “saint” of Tashkent in the late XIII century (Devin DiUis). In the data and legends Aisha bibi is portrayed as an educated and pious woman of the Karakhanid period. Visiting the Karashash ana mausoleum became the beginning of the pilgrimage tradition to the Khoja Akhmet Yassaui mausoleum in Turkestan.

Monument data

Data about the monument appear in M.E. Masson’s “Old Sayram”, a historical‑archaeological essay published in 1925, which initiated scientific research. After being forgotten for 40 years, the full dimensions of the mausoleum were taken and a brief historical reference and description with a drawing were prepared on the order of the Shymkent regional museum construction department and the regional department of architecture (T. Podnebésnaya). In 1983 the dimensions obtained for the restoration work were refined. At that time the mausoleum was entered into the collection of Kazakhstan’s historical and cultural monuments (N.N. Mukhamedieva). In the second half of the 1980s – early 2000s the Karashash ana mausoleum is considered in several publications for its compositional features and its genesis as a two‑portal mausoleum (B.A. Baitanaev, Yu.A. Yelgin). At the beginning of the 2000s, in connection with the study of written sources on the history of Sayram, the agiography of the Karashash ana mausoleum is also examined (Zh.M. Tulibaeva, Devin DiUis).

It is assumed that after Karashash ana died, or later at the place where she was buried, a memorial structure—a mausoleum or a mosque—was erected. However, what has reached us is not the first, nor even the second building. M.E. Masson, based on information collected from people who saw the construction of the building with their own eyes, states that the present mausoleum was built in 1851-1852. At this time South Kazakhstan fell under the control of the Kokand khans and became one of the provinces under Tashkent authority within the Kokand Khanate; during this period the construction of religious buildings revived. After South Kazakhstan was annexed to Russia, from the 1860s the mausoleum was restored several times, and its wall remnants show that the lower rows were built with a solution of lime mortar, while the upper parts were constructed using mud. During the Soviet period the dome changed its shape and was renovated several times. In 1996 the appearance of the monument was altered and it was covered with white flat metal.

Mausoleum type

The mausoleum is a one‑room structure with a portal‑dome, its later medieval appearance embodying all the principles of cult architecture—a rectangular‑plan burial chamber, a protruding portal, a cylindrical drum topped by a spherical‑cone dome.

The building (overall dimensions – 6.8 × 8.6 m, height – 7.25 m) is built of a stone foundation and a burnt‑brick superstructure. From the volumetric‑spatial composition, the rectangular‑plan main prismatic volume of the tomb is attached to the main volume of the portal (peshtek) that corresponds to the south and west facades of the shrine, and the spherical‑conical dome on a cylindrical drum installed on its octagonal part is clearly visible. The structural model is very simple: the transition of the circular dome base of the room with a rectangular plan is carried out by a simple four‑corner oblique method (the small interval of the closed space allows it).

The main composition of the monument is characterized by the unusual type of a one‑room portal‑dome shrine and the presence of two identical (slightly differing in width) portals placed at a corner. A door is made on the western part, and at the same place on the south peshtek a paneled lattice window is installed low, equal in size to the entrance of the shrine. This feature is related to the sacred content of the shrine: here the Sufi ritual of pilgrimage to the saint’s tomb, which had deepened into a pre‑Islamic cult of the Black Khanate, is manifested. The portals that give volume to the whole construction constitute the dominance of its ideological splendor. The portals that are close to a rectangle in shape usually have a slightly curved arch. They have no ornamentation. Their decorations are shallow curved and rectangular niches on the surface of the pilasters at the sides of the portals.

The interior walls and the dome are plastered. The light‑entering opening above the door is fixed with a lattice (panjar). Brick is laid over the sand on the floor.