User:TokhabayevaS/Aisha-Bibi (mausoleum)

Aisha-Bibi (Kaz. Aisha Bibi) is a XII century mausoleum, located in the village of Aisha-Bibi, Zhambyl district, Zhambyl region, 18 km from Taraz. It is an architectural monument of republican significance.

The base of the mausoleum is cubic. Massive columns are placed at its four corners. In the design used small niches, small columns, arches, lancet arches, terracotta tiles. The patterns of the mausoleum combine traditional types of ornamental art of the ancient tribes of Kazakhstan, including geometric, zoomorphic and solar motifs, rooted in the art of the Andronovo and Saka tribes.

Legends
On the construction of the mausoleum there is no reliable information. However, there is a Kazakh legend about Aisha-Bibi’s love for her fiance. There are 28 different versions of this legend. According to the most common - Aisha-Bibi was the daughter of the famous 11th century scholar and poet Khakim Suleyman Bakyrgani. After his death, she was brought up by Sheikh Aikhoja. Once the ruler of Taraz Karakhan Mohammed (in whose honor the mausoleum of Karakhan was erected in Taraz) asked for her hand, but her teacher did not give consent. Then she fraudulently went to Taraz. Unfortunately, her fiancé was never able to see her again, since she died on the bank of the river Asa from a snake bite hidden in a headdress. Grieving over the death of the girl, Karakhan erected a mausoleum of fabulous beauty at the place of her death. The fellow traveler Aisha-Bibi Babaji-Khatun became the guardian of the mausoleum and after death was buried 20 steps from Aisha-Bibi in the Mausoleum of Babaji-Khatun

According to another version, feeling the action of the snake's poison, Aisha ordered to immediately convey the news of this to Karakhan. He came to her without delay, with his healers and mullahs. Seeing the impotence of healers, Karakhan asked the mullah to perform the rite of marriage with the perishing bride. After the ceremony, taking the girl's hand, he shouted loudly three times to her: “Aisha, you have now become a bibi”, that is, his wife, married

Joseph-Antoine Castagne recorded the legend that one of the Samarkand khans was married to a Christian Chinese princess, identifying her with the name Khanim-Bibi, whose sister Aisha-Bibi visited her in Samarkand. On the way back, Aisha-Bibi died near the Asa River, where a real monument was erected "

According to Bayan Tuyakbayeva: “The reports about the death in 1034 of the daughter of the Talas ruler Bograkhan, who died on the way to Ghazna to her fiancé, Mauduud, Massoud’s heir, are interesting. A local legend agrees with this story, telling about the burial of a lady named Aisha-Bibi here, who went with her maid to her fiancé in a distant land and died on the way. ”

Study
The first researcher of the mausoleum in 1893 was the Russian archeologist Vasily Barthold, the mausoleum was later investigated in 1897 by Vasily Kallaur, in 1938-1939 by the expedition of the Institute of History and Culture of the Kazakh branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (led by Alexander Bernshtam), in 1953 by the expedition of the Academy Sciences of Kazakhstan. In 1953 and 1962, G. I. Patsevich and I. Zyabko conducted archaeological excavations on the monument, the researchers concluded that decorative slabs and bricks were made by the builders of the mausoleum on the spot.

Only the wall of the western facade and minor fragments of other parts of the mausoleum have survived to our time. In 2002, Nishan Rameto was hired to restore the architectural monument and the construction of the park around it; in 2002–2005, specialists of the Republican State Enterprise Kazrestavratsiya carried out restoration work to restore the original appearance of the monument

Architecture
The mausoleum is in its plan a centric, square structure measuring 7.6 × 7.6 m. The entrance is located on the east side. The corners of the mausoleum were decorated with three-quarter columns. In the center of the building there is a gravestone (3 x 1.4 m). The walls of the mausoleum with a thickness of 80 cm consist of three parts: the inner one is lined with baked brick, the outer one is made of slabs with carved pattern, and the space in the middle of the wall is covered with clay and fragments of defective tiles. Archa wooden beams are laid in the walls for a strong connection of walls and columns

Category:Mausoleums in Kazakhstan