Chor-Bakr Necropolis

History

The complex grew up over the grave of Abu Bakr Sa'd, who died in AH 360 (970–971). Chor-Bakr means 'four Bakrs', after four sheikhs descended from the Prophet — Abu Bakr Sa'd, Abu Bakr Fazl, Abu Bakr Muhammad and Abu Bakr Tarkhan. It later became the burial ground of the Juybari sheikhs, a family that underpinned the khans' power.

In 1559 the Shaybanid Abdullah Khan II built an ensemble of mosque, madrasa, khanqah and a large walled courtyard here. More tombs were added over the following centuries; the minaret was built in 1890 by Mirzo Hoji Juybori on the foundations of an earlier one. The madrasa was restored in 1950, 1971 and 1999.

What to see

At the centre the mosque, khanqah and madrasa stand side by side, with walled burial courts and 'streets' of family mausoleums stretching behind them — the reason foreigners call it the City of the Dead. The mosque portal carries verses from Surah al-Isra.

The courts of Sa'dulla Khoja, Akobir Khoja, Nasriddin Khoja, Ataulla Khoja and other Juybari khojas survive, many of them faced with polychrome tiles.