User:Aziza2001/Arystan-Bab

Arystan-Bab (Arslan Bab) is a Central Asian saint. According to one version, a descendant of Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hanafi, uncle and first teacher of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi. According to another version, the long-lived, associate of the prophet Muhammad, who fulfilled the instructions (amanat) of the prophet in relation to Yasavi. The mausoleum in the Turkestan region of Kazakhstan is a place of pilgrimage.

Image evolution
Scientists believe that Arystan Bab is a half-legendary figure of Kazakh mythology. His original cult was associated with water sources and the forces of nature. In its subsequent development, it went through four stages.

First stage
. At first, the image experienced the influence of the Kakhtanite (South Arabian) tradition. In the resulting version of the myth, Arslan Bab was a tribe of the Prophet Hud, was of enormous height and lived for 340 years. He knew the basics of 33 religions and eventually chose Islam.

Second stage
The period of influence of the Shiite sect of the Kaysanites made Arslan Bab a descendant of Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hanafi (636-701), the son of Imam Ali, and endowed him with the title "women" (which means a person with extraordinary knowledge). For example, this version is followed by Molla Musa Sairami, author of the treatise “The History of the Lords of Kashgaria” and a direct descendant of Arslan Bab. According to the genealogy compiled by him, the saint is at the same time the uncle of his pupil Khoja Ahmed Yasavi.

Third stage
The Samarkand theologian Najmuddin an-Nasafi (1067-1042) reports that in the 11th century there lived in Farab an associate of the prophet named Yahya ibn Nastur al-Rumi. He was more than 340 years old, he transmitted 14 Hadith directly from Muhammad. In accordance with a popular legend, Arslan Bab personally received from the hands of the prophet a rags and one date with an indication (amanat) to transfer them to Hodja Ahmed, son of Shaykh Ibrahim, who is to be born in Sairam.

Forth stage
At the final stage, Arslan Bab becomes a mentor to Khoja Ahmed Yasawi (1103–1166), the founder of the influential Sufi tariqa Yasaviya. According to one version, the saint was the eldest of the sheikhs of the city of Yasa and became the first teacher for young Ahmed, who subsequently continued his education at Yusuf Hamadani in Bukhara.

Memory
He was buried in the eponymous mausoleum in the city of Otrar (now the village of Shaulder, Turkestan region of Kazakhstan). Visiting the mausoleum and spending the night at the grave of Arslan Bab is one of the main stages in pilgrimage (ziyarat) to the mausoleum of Ahmed Yasawi in the city of Turkestan. There are two more holy places named after him: one in the Bazar-Korgon district of the Jalal-Abad oblast of Kyrgyzstan (in 2003 a genealogy document issued to the direct descendants of Arslan Bab was discovered there), and the other in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya.