Mausoleum of Imam al-Moturidi

Mausoleum of Imam al-Moturidi, Samarkand

Mausoleum of Abu Mansur Maturidi (Uzbek: Moturidiy yodgorlik majmui) is a mausoleum in Samarkand, located a kilometer southeast of the Registan Square and ensemble. The mausoleum was erected over the alleged grave of Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Maturidi (870–944), a famous Islamic theologian, a connoisseur of fiqh (Muslim jurisprudence) and an interpreter of the Koran (mufassir), the founder of maturidism.

He was buried in the Samarkand cemetery of Chokardiz, where, according to legend, more than 3,000 scholars-theologians were buried. The tombstone was destroyed in the 1940s. The mausoleum is located in the central part of Samarkand, on the territory of the so-called old city, between the streets of Vabkentskaya, Bukhara and Gizhduvanskaya, about a kilometer southeast of the square and the Registan ensemble.

In 2000, on the initiative of the First President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, on the occasion of the 1225th anniversary of the birth of Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Maturidy, an architectural complex was built on the site of the destroyed mausoleum, covering an area of 4 hectares, in the center of which is the scientist's mausoleum. On the territory of the complex, in addition to the mausoleum and the graves of scholars, theologians, a park of green spaces is laid out.

The height of the mausoleum is 12 meters, with a dome 15 meters. The building is crowned with a double dome, the exterior - ribbed - is decorated with blue majolica, the drum is decorated with 24 arches. The words of the scientist are carved on a white marble gravestone.

In the west of the mausoleum there is a low building with a dome, on the north side an elevation (sufa) with tombstones of the 9th-18th centuries is placed.

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