Uzbekistan: a land multifarious geniuses. SUFI ALLAYAR (Part 3)

Do not make calumny your close friend! Do not throw yourself into the fire! Avoid making jokes! Be sweet in your tongue! Be devout to the religion, it raises you up to the highest level in the society. Do not be a man of black heart!”

Perhaps the following lines are also a product of the deeply suffering father:

or

One more thing is to be considered. There is a book (its author has not been defined yet) that was written in 983, devoted to the ruler of Gurgan province (in Northern Balkh) and titled as “Hududu-l-alam min al-Mashriq ila-l-Maghrib” (Borders of the World from East to West). It contained several parts and in one part titled¹ as “About Maveraunnahr and its cities”, the author writes about Sogd province of Maveraunnahr. It says: “Sogd is the richest and the most developed settlement in the eastern area. It has lots of running streams of water, many trees grow there and the climate is wonderful. The inhabitants of this settlement are generous, hospitable and kind in their attitude to each other”. The author mentions Samarkand, Kushaniya, Dabusia and Rabinjan among the most civilized cities of Maveraunnahr. In a historian V.V. Bartold’s research works, Rabinjan or Kushaniya are mentioned as an old name of modern. Kattakurgan. However, during the reign of kings of Khoresm these cities were turned into ruins, their names were forgotten and wiped off from the pages of history. According to legends, modern Kattakurgan was re-established in the 17th century by Sufi Allayar and his close relatives.

As a city, Kattakurgan is mentioned in the historical sources of the last quarter of the 17th century. (See Naiafleafaneay Taeandii, ni’oaai-riee (a reference book), 1912, part. 10). In the Madrasah quarter of the settlement, alt first, an Arch was erected. It was settled by Farhad Ataliq (Sufi Avllayar’s brother) and his family together with servants. Then other irelatives moved there and Farhad Ataliq was elected a ruler of the settlement. Later this Arch became the main headquarter of the beks (headmen). They widened it and surrounded it with thick walls and called it a horde… . They say that the founders of the town were the officials and brothers of the Emir of Bukhara Sufi Allayar, Farhod Ataliq, Allahnazarbi, etc.

The main purpose of mentioning this information is to understand the meaning of the above-mentioned advice and instructions given by a father to his son. It should be noted that having come back from Bukhara to Kattakurgan, Sufi Allayar lived in Sufi Guzar of the town and created a number of manuals and textbooks in the fields of philosophy and didactics. This quarter is even now called “Sufi Guzar”. There is a mosque with its cells for students, his study room, a piece of green stone and a memorial plaque in Guzar.

There is another place of pilgrimage in Chunkaymish village. Sufi Allayar’s son Siddiq Muhammad and daughter were buried there. There is also a mosque related to Sufi Allayar’s name.

During his visit to Samarkand in the 60s of the 20th century, poet Gafur Gulam addressed the scholars of Samarkand at one of the meetings in Abi-Rahmat and said: “Please, try to write something about Sufi Allayar. If he had not been so great, poet Babarahim Mashrab, our beloved poet, would not have come here three times to visit Sufi Allayar”. It is well known that Babarahim Mashrab met Sufi Allayar twice in Kattakurgan and once in Kabadiyan. His first meeting took place in Kattakurgan when he was coming back from Bukhara and stayed at one of the peasants of the village. Having heard about his stay, Sufi Allayar started his way to see him. When Mashrab visited Kattakurgan a third time, Sufi Allayar was in Kabadiyan. Mashrab wrote in one of his verses the following lines about this event: