Abdulkhaliq Gijduvani Complex

History

Khoja Abdulkhaliq ibn Abduljalil Gijduvani founded the Khwajagan order, an independent school of Sufism in Central Asia, and is the first of Bukhara's 'seven saints'; he was also called Khojai Jahan. The 900th anniversary of his birth was celebrated widely in 2003. Tradition says that in his lifetime this was a chillakhona, a place for forty-day retreats in the hottest season, and his grave later became a pilgrimage site.

Mindful of the shrine's popularity, Ulugh Beg had a madrasa built opposite the grave, completed in AH 836 (1432/33). It was the third and last of his madrasas, smaller and simpler than those in Bukhara and Samarkand. The madrasa and mosque were repaired in 1583 under Abdullah Khan II.

The complex

The complex comprises Gijduvani's mausoleum, the Ulugh Beg Madrasa, a mosque and a pool. Verses 1–7 of Surah al-Alaq were written in thuluth across the madrasa portal; most of the inscription has crumbled, and parts of it were deciphered and restored in 1946. The sheikh's stone tombstone carries verse 11 of Surah al-Mujadila on its sides. The mosque was rebuilt in 2003.

The two-storey fired-brick madrasa is also known as the Fayziya. It stood on the caravan road linking Bukhara and Samarkand.