We return to some of sites we arrived at too late to visit on
our first day, but not without doing some ‘old’ book shopping. I end up leaving
more money than I had planned to in a small shop in an alcove of the Abdul Aziz
Khan Medressa, to buy 19th century hand-written versions of the Quran,
a Ferdosi poetry book and a little red booklet with passages from Omar al
Khayyam’s Rubaiyat. Beautifully decorated leather covers and the Quran written
on very fine silk paper. I’m thrilled to have made these findsJ.
Next to the Kalon (Great) Minaret stand the beautiful 16th
century Kalon Mosque and Mir-i-Arab Medrassa. We can’t access the latter, but
are able to look into the courtyard of the building, which still operates as a
religious school. The mosque has an enormous courtyard, which can take 10,000
people. I am fascinated by the beautiful tilework and ‘mihrab’ (the prayer
niche facing Mecca).
On the square in front of the mosque, we are roped into a photo
session with a group of engineering students and their professor. Uzbeks like
to have their photo taken with tourists and in our case even more so. My friend
Sejal is of Indian origin and Uzbeks love Bollywood movies. People stop her to
ask whether she comes from ‘Hindustan’ and then proceed to recite a list of all
the Bollywood stars they love. I suspect they think she’s a movie star….
We make a quick stop at the Hoja Zayniddin Mosque, one of the
oldest in Bukhara and spend a few minutes gazing at the beautiful mosaics of
this small mosque.
Our next destination is the mausoleum of Ismail Samani dating
back to the 10th century. The style of the building is very
different from anything else we’ve seen this far. The thick terracotta walled
square building is not ornately decorated in colours and tiles, but earth
coloured with carved geometrical motifs, which are reminiscent of more ancient
cults such as the Zoroastrian. Its interior, housing the tomb of the founder of
the Samanid dynasty, is dark and mystical, with the perforated windows letting
in feeble shafts of light.
It’s the warmest day of the holiday and the cool interlude
comes at the right time.
On the way to the mausoleum we jumped into what we thought
was a taxi. The driver turned out not to have a clue about where he was taking
us to and was accompanied by a gold-toothed (quite common in Uzbekistan) sleazy
friend who decided to welcome me by kissing my hand… We got out of there fast!
The vodka vapours were hanging in the air, as they were at the decaying mosque
we visited next, where the merry caretaker seemed to have had half a bottle of
the stuff at breakfast. Not the last time we will ‘sniff’ vodka vapours around
us…
At 2.30 we meet our guide, Zinnat, in the main Lyabi Haiz
square. Zinnat is an interesting mix of Persian, Azeri and Tajik. The Persian
and Tajik influence is very strong in Bukhara and Samarkand (Tajik is spoken
more widely than Uzbek). Following a policy of ‘divide and rule’, the Soviet
Socialist Republics created in the late 1920s are a mixture of ethnicities and
languages, to avoid too strong a feeling of nationalism forming in any of the
Soviet –Stans.
Zinnat takes us on a journey of discovery through the streets of the Old Jewish Quarter in Bukhara. Until the early 1990s 10,000 Jews lived in Bukhara, having come from Shiraz in Persia in the 15th century. Even though they controlled much of the commerce in Bukhara they didn’t lead an easy life in the crammed streets of the old town, and when the Iron Curtain came down they left for a better future in Israel, Germany and Queens New York. There are only 40 families left today.
It’s an area of town that is being modernised at a rapid pace, but with Zinnat’s help we are lucky enough to find some of the little gems that are still hidden behind the high mud brick walls.
Zinnat takes us on a journey of discovery through the streets of the Old Jewish Quarter in Bukhara. Until the early 1990s 10,000 Jews lived in Bukhara, having come from Shiraz in Persia in the 15th century. Even though they controlled much of the commerce in Bukhara they didn’t lead an easy life in the crammed streets of the old town, and when the Iron Curtain came down they left for a better future in Israel, Germany and Queens New York. There are only 40 families left today.
It’s an area of town that is being modernised at a rapid pace, but with Zinnat’s help we are lucky enough to find some of the little gems that are still hidden behind the high mud brick walls.
We knock on a thick, wonderfully engraved wooden door and
enter the courtyard of a house that belonged to a rich Jewish merchant family.
At the centre of the courtyard are two Tandurs (yes, very similar to the Indian
Tandoor clay oven), probably used to bake bread. There are a summer and a
winter room, alternatively used by the family depending on the season. Through
the front ‘aivan’ (portal) we enter the summer room, with its high beamed
ceilings and walls decorated in a mixture
of oriental blue and 19th century French style floral designs. The
small arches of the wall niches are adorned by white muqqarna (stalactite like
alabaster decorations similar to those found in many mosques) and filled with
vases, china, small ‘samovars’ and pots. A feast for the eyes…
We re-enter the hustle and bustle of the old town streets
and visit two synagogues, one at the far end of town. A 90-year old toothless
rabbi appears from nowhere with his young granddaughter and is very happy to
show us the holy site under his responsibility. On the walls at the entrance to
the small synagogue there are some interesting posters with photos of meetings
of the New York and Canada Bukhara Jewish Community. Strange to think that they
once all lived in the warren of lanes of Bukhara’s old city.
Zinnat takes us to the small, decaying Turki Jandi Mausoleum.
We push the unhinged door open to take a peek at the tombs in the mausoleum. In
the courtyard we find a pole topped by a tuft of horsehair (a symbol of
‘sufism’) and the hand of Fatima (representing the 5 pillars of Islam) at the
tip of the pole. Zinnat runs in after us, stating that now we have entered, we
will have to say a prayer with her. For five minutes we sit in silence and
enjoy the beauty of the little mausoleum as Zinnat recites verses from the Quran.
We end this special day at the Faysulla Khojaev House museum, a beautiful villa
not dissimilar in layout and decorations to the Jewish merchant home we had
visited earlier, but on a far larger scale. Faysulla betrayed the local emir to
the Bolsheviks in the early 1920s, to become a leading figure in Soviet Bukhara
until Stalin decided he didn’t like him and had him ‘eliminated’.
On the way back to the hotel we stop to talk to a group of 8
to 10-year old children enthusiastic about the chance to practice their
English. One little boy belts off to get his English textbook from home and
starts firing questions off at us on his return. We all have a good laugh.
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