Pahlavon Mahmud

The furrier's son who never lost

By tradition Pahlavon Mahmud was born in 1247 and died in 1325 or 1326; much of his story rests on legend. He is said to have been born to a family of furriers who had moved from Gurganj, the old capital of Khorezm, arriving in his father's cart at the gates of Khiva. He inherited the family workshop but won fame above all as a pahlavon, a champion wrestler, competing across what is now Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan and India without defeat. He was also known as a teacher who combined wrestling with spiritual training, and in Iran he is remembered as Pouriya-ye Vali.

Poet and Sufi

Pahlavon Mahmud wrote masnavis, qit'as, ghazals and quatrains in Persian; around a hundred rubais — by some counts nearly three hundred — are attributed to him, praising honesty, courage, humility and mastery of the self. Some are inscribed on the walls of his mausoleum. After his death the people of Khiva came to revere him as the city's patron saint: the Palvan-Yab canal that waters the oasis and Itchan Kala's eastern gate, Palvan Darvoza, bear his name. Across Khorezm and Uzbekistan the word pahlavon or polvon came to mean a strong and noble person.

The Pahlavon Mahmud Mausoleum

He was buried in the courtyard of his workshop, which soon became a shrine. A small tomb was built here in 1701, and in the 1810s, under the Qungrat ruler Muhammad Rahim Khan I, the present grand mausoleum rose over the grave; its blue-glazed dome is the largest in Khiva. It later became the burial place of the khans of Khiva, and its patterned majolica interior shows off the skill of Khorezmian craftsmen. It stands in Itchan Kala near the Islam Khoja Minaret and is still an active place of pilgrimage.