Who owns the shrine? Competing meanings and authorities at a pilgrimage site in Khorezm

Central Asian Survey

Volumn 25, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 235-250

  Kehl Bodrogi, Krisztina ^a  

^a MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL CONFLICT; RELIGION;

ASIA; EURASIA; KHORAZM; UZBEKISTAN; WEST ASIA;

EID: 33847225950     PISSN: 02634937     EISSN: 14653354     Source Type: Trade Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/02634930601022526     Document Type: Article

References (66)

1. I am grateful to Ildikó Bellér-Hann, John Eidson and Jürgen Paul for their valuable comments on the first version of this article.
2. M. van Bruinessen, Religious Practices in the Turco-Iranian World: Continuity and Change. Unpublished manuscript, available at the personal homepage of the author: www.let.uu.nl/~martin.vanbruinessen. For the interrelation of 'scripturalist literalism' and the cult of the saints in Islam
3. see also S. Leder, 'Charismatic scriptualism. The Hanbali Maqdisis of Damascus', Der Islam, Vol 74, 1997, pp 279-304
4. A. Knysh, 'The cult of saints and Islamic reformism in early twentieth century Hadramawt', New Arabian Studies Vol 4, 1997, pp 139-167.
5. See, for instance, G. Snezarev [Snesarev], Remnants of Pre-Islamic Beliefs and Rituals among the Khorezm Uzbeks (Berlin: Reinhold Schletzer, 2003)
6. V. N. Basilov and K. Niiazklychev, 'Perezhitki shamanstvo u turkmen-chovdurov', Domusulmanskie verovaniia i obriady v crednei Azii (Moskva: Akademiia Nauk SSSR, 1975)
7. W. N. Basilow [Basilov], Das Schamanentum bei den Völkern Mittelasiens und Kasachstans (Berlin: Reinhold Schletzter, 1995)
8. O. A. Sukhareva, Islam v Uzbekistane (Tashkent: Izdatel'ctvo Akademii Nauk Uzbekskoi SSSR, 1960).
9. Y. Ro'i, Islam in the Soviet Union. From the Second World War to Gorbachev (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), pp 377-378.
10. See also M. E. Subtelny, 'The cult of holy places: Religious practices among Soviet Muslims', Middle East Journal, Vol 43, No 4, 1989, p 364.
11. Subtelney op cit, p 597.
12. For anti-religious literature explicitly dealing with holy sites see, for example, T. Saksonov, Mukaddas' joylar - Hurofot va bid'at o'chog'i (Taschkent: UdSSR 'Medicina', 1984)
13. Keramatly erler khakynda khakykat (Ashgabat: Ylym, 1986).
14. Ro'i op cit Ref 4, p 379.
15. B. Privratsky, Muslim Turkistan. Kazak Religion and Collective Memory (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001).
16. I. Pfluger-Schindlbeck, 'Beispiele religiöser Rückbesinnung aus dem postsowjetischen Aserbaidschan', Mitteilungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, Bd. 19, 1998, pp 97-106
17. I. Bellér-Hann, 'The micropolitics of a pilgrimage', G. Rasuly-Paleckek, J. Katsching (eds), Central Asia on Display. Proceedings of the VII. Conference of the European Society for Central Asian Studies (Wien: LIT Verlag, 2004), pp 325-339.
18. V. Turner, 'The center out there: Pilgrim's goal', History of Religions, Vol 12, No 3, 1973, pp 191-230.
19. B. Babadzhanov, 'The Ferghana-Valley: Source or victim of Islamic fundamentalism?' L. Jonson and M. Esenov (eds), Political Islam and Conflict in Russia and Central Asia (Swedish Institute of International Affairs, 1999), pp 112-123, p 114.
20. For the religious situation in Uzbekistan and the state's policy towards Islam in the last decade of the Soviet Union, see also U. Halbach, Islam; Nation und politische Öffentlichkeit in den zentralasiatischen (Unions-) Republiken (Köln: Berichte des Bundesinstituts für ostwissenschaftliche und internationale Studien 57, 1991)
21. and R. Hanks, 'Repression as reform: Islam in Uzbekistan during the early Glasnost period', Religion, State & Society, Vol 29, No 3, 2001, pp 227-239.
22. Hanks op cit pp 230-231.
23. I was told of several cases where, out of fear of the consequences, people did not attend the funeral even of their closest relatives if it was held according to Islamic prescriptions. Similarly, until the end of the 1980s, circumcision ceremonies (sunnat to'i) were often disguised as birthday parties (yash to'i) for children.
24. Ibid, p 231.
25. Hanks op cit pp 227, 235.
26. V. J. Schubel, 'Post-Soviet hagiography and the reconstruction of the Naqshbani tradition in contemporary Uzbekistan', E. Özdalga (ed), Naqshbandis in Western and Central Asia: Change and Continuity. Papers read at a conference held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 9-11 June, 1997 (Istanbul: Svenska Forskningsinstitute, 1999), p 76.
27. For the same phenomenon in independent Kazachstan and Turkmenistan see A. K. Muminov, 'Veneration of holy sites of the Mid-Sīrdar'ya Valley: continuity and transformation', M. Kemper, A. von Kügelgen, D. Yermakov (eds), Muslim Culture in Russia and Central Asia from the 18th to the early 20th centuries (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1996), p 367
28. and D. Tyson, 'Shrine pilgrimage in Turkmenistan as a means to understand Islam among the Turkmen', Central Asia Monitor, No 1, 1997, pp 15-33.
29. With the term 'popular' I refer in this article to non-canonical religious practices in general.
30. See for a general discussion of the issue A. Saktanber and A. Ozatas-Baykal, 'Uzbek women and the formation of national identity', A. Samiuddin, and R. Khanam (eds.), Muslim Feminism and Feminist Movement (Delhi: Global Vision Publishing House, 2002).
31. Schubel op cit p 74.
32. Leder op cit.
33. B. Babadzhanov, 'Debates over Islam in contemporary Uzbekistan: A view from within', S. A. Dudoignon (ed), Devout Societies vs Impious States? Transmitting Islamic Learning in Russia, Central Asia and China, through the Twentieth Century (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2004), p 53.
34. J. Bregel, An Historical Atlas of Central Asia (Leiden: Brill, 2003), p 66.
35. G. P. Snesarev, 'On some causes of the persistence of religio-customary survivals among the Khorezm Uzbeks (based on 1954-1956 field materials of the Uzbek detachment of the Khorezm archaeological and ethnographic expedition)', S. P. Dunn and E. Dunn (eds), Introduction to Soviet Ethnography (Berkeley: Highgate Road Social Science Research Station, 1974), pp 215-238, p 223.
36. O'lya is the local form of avliyo, derived from the plural of the Arabic wali meaning 'friend', 'benefactor', 'protector' and which in religious contexts corresponds to the English word saint.
37. The phenomenon that the gravesites of local saints are located in the cemeteries of the particular rural communities is also reported for Turkmenistan by Tyson (op cit) and for Azerbaidzhan by I. Pfluger-Schindlbeck op cit. 'Beispiele religiöser Rückbesinnung aus dem postsowjetischen A serbaidschan', Mitteilungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, Bd. 19, 1998, pp 97-106.
38. Among the miracles attributed to Islamic saints are the ability to be in different places at the same time, to transform oneself and others, to know the future, to cure the sick and the like.
39. Schubel op cit p 74.
40. Thus Durdyev quotes an account from the nineteenth century stressing that although the gravesites of holy men were highly revered by the Turkmens in Khorezm, they 'knew nothing about them but their names'. M. B. Durdyev, 'Die Geistlichkeit im System der gesellschaftlichen Institutionen der Turkmenen Ende des 19. bis Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts', Turkmenenforschung No 8, 1985, pp 84-106, p 93.
41. E. Olson, 'The use of religious symbol systems and ritual in Turkey: women's activities at Muslim saints' shrines', The Muslim World, Vol LXXXIV, No 2-3, 1994, pp 202-216, p 204.
42. Among the most valuable architectonic monuments in Khorezm are the mausoleum of Shaykh Muhtar Veli in Astana (fourteenth century), the mausoleum of the eighteenth century poet and wrestler Pakhlavan Mahmut in Khiva and that of the famous Yemeni saint Uwais al-Qarani, referred to by the Khorezmians simply as Sultan Buva ('Father Sultan'). The latter's shrine, which was erected in the early nineteenth century, is located in the middle of the Qaraqum desert in Qaraqalpaqistan, in the mountains named after the saint. For a list and description of most of the shrines in the region Khorezm see A. Rahmonov and S. Yusupov, Xorazmda 'muqaddas' joylar va ularning vuyuda kelish sirlari (Tashkent: Kizil Uzbekiston, 1963).
43. For trees as an important element of the shrines of Muslim saints see T. Canaan, Mohammedan Saints and Sanctuaries in Palestine (London: Luzac & Co., 1927), pp 30-38.
44. G. Snessarew [Snesarev], Unter dem Himmel von Choresm. Reise eines Ethnologen in Mittelasien (Leipzig: VEB Brockhaus, 1976), pp 21-22; 81-89.
45. Snessarew op cit, p 21.
46. The shaykhs are one of six o'vlat groups in Turkmenistan, each of which claims descent from the Prophet's family. While in the Uzbek parts of Khorezm the shaykhs have lost their former religious significance, they still enjoy high prestige and to a large degree also continue to practice group endogamy. For the o'vlat and their incorporation into the tribal structure of Turkmen society see Tyson op cit.
47. What worries the shaykhs in this situation most is that they cannot be buried next to their ancestors and are unable to fulfil the obligation to visit the latter's grave on Islamic holidays.
48. Thus, for example, 145 saints' tombs and shrines were reported for Khiva prior to 1917. D. Yaroshevski, 'Contest over the waqf in the Khorezm Republic', G. Bellingeri and G. Pedrini (eds.), Central Asia. A Decade of Reforms, Centuries of Memories (Firenze: Leo S. Olschki Editore, 2003), p 148. Today only little over a dozen are known, out of which no more than five or six are visited regularly.
49. Saintly graves do not necessarily contain the earthly remains of the venerated person. Such places are usually called qadamjay, a place which 'has been touched by a saint's feet'.
50. As visitors to the site explained, 'before he died, Ulli Pir promised the people to fulfil their wishes under the condition that they also pay respect to his servants' graves before coming to him'.
51. Jilli is the Khorexmian term for the Uzbek word jinli, meaning possessed by jinns (spirits).
52. Ibrahimov, S., 'Hamadoniy qabristani muqaddas mi?' Xorazm Haqiqati, 24 July 1985.
53. A. Sabdullaev, 'Xoja Yusuf Hamadonij', Horazm haqiqati, 11 February, 1994.
54. A. Sharifboy, 'Ziyarat - Iymon, E'tikod', Horazm haqiqati, 10 September 1994.
55. Potya is the dialect form of the Arabic fatiha which actually means the opening verse of the Qur'an.
56. Not to be confused with the holy group of the Shaykhs mentioned above.
57. Personal conversation, June 2003.
58. In 2004, the salary of a school teacher in Khorezm was 25-35 USD per month.
59. Personal communication, October 2004.
60. V. Turner, op cit.
61. (Binsbergen 1985: 232). W. M. van Binsbergen, M. J. Wim, 'The cult of the saints in north-western Tunisia', E. Gellner (ed), Islamic Dilemmas: Reformers, Nationalists and Industrialization. The Southern Shore of the Mediterranean (Berlin, New York, Amsterdam: Mouton Publishers) pp 199-240. Here: P 232.
62. Estimate of the author on grounds of personal observation in 2003 and 2004.
63. Information given by the imam.
64. Personal communication, September 2004.
65. V. Turner, The Ritual Process (Chicago: Aldine, 1969) p 131.
66. J. Eade and M. Sallnow (eds.), Contesting the Sacred. The Anthropology of Christian Pilgrimage (London and New York: Routledge, 1991), p 2.