Shoabdumalik ota maqbarasi

Shoabdumalik ota maqbarasi — Islamic religious center, Shoabdumalik ota maqbarasi and archaeological monument (named: Shoabdumalik-bobo, Shodmalik-ota) located about 40 km near the right bank of the Oxangaron river valley along the Ohangaron road from Tashkent.

Description of the tomb

Shoabdumalik ota maqbarasi is a bright example of harmonizing the historical construction traditions of modern Central Asian architecture with the most advanced technologies of today. The building, erected on a hill, is located on the busy highway leading from the capital to the Fergana valley, and the legendary historic segment of the Silk Road dazzles from a distance.

Tomb interior

The building’s first entrance hall is a prayer room surrounded by a high dome. Inside, along the dome base, there are examples of Eastern ornamental epigraphy.

The traditional “zanjirband” pattern’s three‑edge ganch carving technique, due to the harmony of colors, gives the decorative motifs a moving effect. The prayer room design is created with a blend of red and blue. On the sides of this prayer room there are three round Eastern columns — ayvons.

They have a traditional shape and consist of three parts: tahkursi (base), poyustun (column top) and salla (column head), smooth rounded contours that give a round eye shape, called kuzagi among the people. Their spherical sections have a flattened pumpkin shape and are referred to as shalgas. From the ayvon one can view the entire surrounding scenery.

The second part of the building, separating the building from the prayer room with a solid wall and decorated in the first building’s tokchaband style, is the kitchen, consisting of two‑ and three‑sectioned sag‘analar.

Shoabdumalik ota personality

Molik Abdulloh Ahmad Qulmuhammad ibn Qodir bini Korahoniy Iloqi, during the years 9 00, is considered a sacred pilgrim, followed the path of Yassaviy, and was engaged in the doctrine of Sufism.

People call him Shoabdumalik ota. He lived approximately at the end of the 12th century – beginning of the 13th century. Date of death – year 1203. He studied in Bukhara, learned the basics of Sufism and followed that path, based on the teachings of Yusuf Hamadani, mastered several Eastern languages well. He writes his works in Turkic and Persian languages. He taught philosophy and logic, and also knew mineralogy very well. Today his works have not been preserved. However the search for his wonderful library, which disappeared in the 1930s, is still ongoing. The Shoabdumalik ota mausoleum is a cultural heritage architectural monument of state significance. In the past a caravanserai, madrasa, library, and laboratories operated here.

Construction history

At the initiative of Zarifa Arabboyevna Eshmirzayeva, chairperson of the “Golden Heritage” fund of Tashkent region, an initiative was taken to erect a mausoleum at this site in order to immortalize the memory of Shoabdumalik ota. More than seven years were spent on the construction of this mausoleum. The author of the mausoleum project, Muhammad Foziliy, is the chief architect of the fund.

Written sources

In many written sources cited by Arab geographers, the main Iloq capital road is mentioned as leaving Nuket in a southeast direction. Slightly north of this road, about 15 kilometres southeast of the city of Nuravshon, at the foot of a mountain of one of the ranges, there is a tomb associated with the name Shaykh Shoabdumalik ota. According to the information presented in “Rashahat”, Abdulmalik’s grandfather was the grandfather of a famous Shaykh of Tashkent region, known as Zangi ota (died in 1258), and the son of Mansur, who was the son of the first disciple Hazrat Ahmad. Yassaviy (the famous 12th‑century Shaykh, whose mausoleum stands in Turkestan city). Thus, the legend that Shoabdumalik lived about 900 years ago is based on fact.