Aisha Bibi Mausoleum

“Autumn … heavy Clouds … the Earth is perfect…” for more than one thousand years these words written in a specific ligature of the Arabian alphabet have decorated a figured column of the famous Aisha Bibi Mausoleum. What did an unknown poet of old times want to say? For many centuries this place has been visited by thousands of people. And each of them tried to answer such a simple questions. There were a lot of different versions of a legend about a beautiful girl Aisha by name. Some of them are still alive now. They have been passed from one generation to another since ancient times. According to many people’s opinion the most authentic of them is considered this sad story.

The young governor of Taraz, his name was Karakhan Muhammad fell in love with a beautiful girl named Aisha. She was a daughter of a Moslem sacred man, Zengy Baba by name. The girl fell in love with him to. On coming back to Taraz Karakhan missed the girl. The girl decided to see her darling by all means. She asked for her parents’ blessing to go. It was impossible for the girl to do such things on those days. The angry parents forbid their daughter to go to Karakhan. But nothing could stop the brave girl. At night she left home quietly with the nurse’s assistance. The aim of their way was Taraz. They stopped to have a short rest on the bank of the river. But a venomous snake bit Aisha. She died. Mourning his love, Karakhan buried her on the hill.

The most talented masters and foreman invited by him built a wonderful Mausoleum above the tomb. There was no equal one to this Mausoleum in all of Central Asia. This tender and sad legend has no less exciting and sad sequel. Having buried her girl, the nurse Babadzha Khatun remained Aisha’s tomb keeper up to the end of the days. As a sign to recognize her fidelity she was ranked to be a sacred person. She was buried near her girl’s grave and above the tomb a Mausoleum was built too.

Aisha Bibi Mausoleum amazes everybody with its great skill and rich fantastic art. The decorative furniture of the tomb and its proportions are really unique. The old age of this ancient monument is a great and mysterious secret. There are a lot of ancient buildings and monuments in the world. Time could not destroy them, because they were built from strong building materials –marble or stone. Aisha Bibi Mausoleum was constructed form burnt bricks. But in spite of the time the building still stands. Even now this mystery stirs people’s interest. Probably, not only the strength of the building material, but also strong people’s faith protects this unique monument. Sometimes it seems one can hear light, gentle sounds of music inside, as if hundreds of strings have come to life at this moment. It lasts no more than 15 seconds. They say that these are the sounds of the souls of the people who created clay ornaments. They are about seventy in number. Exactly as many were a number of masters of different nationalities constructing this monument. That is why these ornaments are unique and not similar to one another.

In all seasons of the year, in spite of their age, people hurry here believing earnestly in their recovery both spiritually and bodily. This is a place where everyone meditates, makes plans and gains again a sense of life. That is the main sacrament of this holy place.