Memorial Complex Imam al-Bukhari in Samarkand

Memorial Complex Imam al-Bukhari, Samarkand

Memorial complex of Imam Al-Bukhari gained worldwide fame in the Muslim world.

Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim is a well-known scholar-theologian of the X century in the Muslim world, the author of the most authoritative collection of hadiths, was born in 810 in the city of Bukhara.

He has been collecting hadith throughout his life. According to tradition, when creating his collection of Sahih al-Bukhari, Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari interviewed over a thousand people, recorded over 600 thousand hadiths of Muhammad, which he knew by heart, of which he subsequently selected 7300 of the most reliable in his opinion.

The imam visited the main cities of the Islamic world, such as Mecca, Medina, Basra, Kufa, Baghdad, Cairo, Nishapur and others. In these cities he met with many Islamic theologians. He spent 40 years of his life on these trips before returning to Bukhara. He gathers thousands of like-minded people and disciples around him and, in the name of Allah, that is, for free, teaches them the hadiths.

Such famous scholars in the Muslim world as Imam Muslim, Imam Termezi and others were his students. Due to the refusal to go to the palace to teach the hadiths of the sons of the ruler of Bukhara (according to him, "Not knowledge should go to the students, but the student should go to the knowledge"), Imam Bukhari was forced to leave the city within two days. Having not managed to get to Samarkand, in the village of Hartang, where his relatives and students lived, after a disease he dies a week later. It happened in the year 870. In this village (now Chelek district of Samarkand region) is one of the revered holy places in the Muslim world. Since the 9th century, believers have been making pilgrimages here.

Located 30 km from Samarkand, the Imam al-Bukhari complex is a magnificent building built using modern technologies, but at the same time preserving the entire eastern architecture. Earlier, in the XVI century, near the mausoleum of Imam al-Bukhari, a mosque was built and plane trees planted.

Entrance to the complex is through the entrance portal, equipped with carved gates. Commemorative plates with Arabic and Latin graphics on the construction of the complex are installed on both sides of the main entrance. On the central axis of the complex is the mausoleum of Ismail al-Bukhari in the form of a rectangular prism, square at the base, with an area of 9x9 m and a height of 17 m. The dome of the mausoleum is double, ribbed, decorated with blue tiles. The walls are decorated with mosaics, majolica, ganch, onyx and granite with floral and geometric ornaments. In the center is a tombstone of light green onyx.

On the left side of the courtyard there is a mosque, khanaka and a gallery of 786 square meters, where 1,500 believers can pray at the same time. On the right side there is a library and museum with rare copies of manuscript and lithographed books on Islamic theology, gifts from statesmen of various states, including part of Kiswa - covered from the Kaaba in Mecca. In the back of the courtyard is a training center for the study of hadithology. In the center of the courtyard is a pond house with ancient plane trees, next to which a source of healing water beats.

In 1998 at the initiative of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov here was built one of the most monumental Muslim complexes with a beautiful mausoleum and mosque, a unique wooden aivan, representing the work of talented masters of the whole country. And today in Uzbekistan and in many Muslim countries, the main teaching aids are the books of Muhammad ibn Ismail Bukhari - "Al-Sahih"- the second most important book after the Koran for Muslims. He also compiled comments on the Koran. The popularity of the theologian can be judged by the following fact: the writer and historian of the XIV century, Nuvayri eight times rewrote "Sahih al Bukhari", each copy of which he sold for 1000 dirhams. One of these copies, rewritten in Cairo, is preserved in the form of eight manuscript volumes. The library of the ensemble has many ancient religious books donated by faithful Muslims from many foreign countries.

"I am sent to perfect sacred morality," says one of his hadiths. All the architectural monuments of Samarkand, representing the priceless treasury of world culture, serve this most important goal.

Entrance fee: 2.5 USD

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