MASJID FAQRUDDIIN:
BANAADIRI-UZBEK BLOOD TIES
(by Nuredin Hagi Scikei)
I will never be tired of saying that my research has the aim of waking up the Banaadiris so that they might safeguard their historical settlements from the thirst for destruction and from the envy of the Somalis, who did their best (without succeeding) to wipe out the Banaadiri civilization and people from the Horn of Africa. The Banaadiris don’t need any protectors, they have the strength and the power to stop the evil that has been causing bloodshed in their country for many years but they must never again split for trivial motives.
Everybody knows that the Yemenites invented Banaadir but everybody also knows that the Banaadiri civilization received its propelling thrust, as far as progress is concerned, by other Asiatic and African peoples . Up to now, only the contribution of the Iranians was certain but Masjid Faqruddiin brings us to a much more
remote country like Uzbekistan.
Masjid Faqruddiin was built in 1269 by a man named Hagi bin Muhammad bin Abdallah. The roof of the mosque is surmounted by a pointed dome and a pyramidal one, both on the same axis with the mihrab. These domes mark two paths from the outside: one is geometrical, and it is that which leads to the mihrab, the other is spiritual and marks the path of faith.
It took me time to understand which was the country from which the architect of the Faqruddiin Masjid was. One day, in Bologna, I helped an English tourist and his family, all of them from Chechnya, find a hotel in a difficult period. Walking around we had the chance of talking about a book I was reading and that I had in my hands, “Hadhrami traders, scholars and statesmen in the Indian Ocean” by U. Freitag and Clarence-Smith. When we were about to say goodbye, that Chechen-English gentleman told me “you should investigate the history of Central Asia as well. As far as I know, in past centuries, in Mogadishu the Yemenites were followed by some Uzbek and Chechen emigrants and by people from Baluchistan. Thus you Banaadiris are of Yemenite descent but also Uzbek, Chechen and Baluchi”. At the beginning I thought those were words spoken by a distinguished Muslim gentleman who, touched by the attention I had payed to him and to his family, wished me to feel part of his people. When I got back home it occurred to me that many Banaadiri women had some ancient “Bukhara jewels”. I’m embarassed to confess that this mythical city in Uzbekistan hadn’t ever meant much to me until I found out that the Chasmah Ayub mausoleum is there (the second figure).
The Chasmah Ayub mausoleum roof is decorated in a way very similar to that of the Faqruddiin Masjid! The Banaadiri architect-engineer of the Faqruddiin Masjid had most likely Uzbek origins. The architects that built the Faqruddiin Mosque and the Chasma Ayub mausoleum shared the same cultural background. How else could it be possible that two engineers created two works so similar one to the other even though they were so far apart, without having in common the same school of thought?
True, the domes of the Chasmah Ayub mausoleum were built in different periods from the XIV to the XVI centuries, but it is also true that the mausoleum was rebuilt between 1379 and 1385 on an older structure. Timur the cripple (better known as Tamerlane), the famous commander who reigned, from 1370 to 1405, on an immense empire going from China to Syria, ordered it.
Bukhara is one of the legendary cities which are along the “silk route”, and its origins date back to 2,500 years ago. It lived its best period under the Samanid dynasty in the X century. The worst period was in 1220, when the Mongolians shed blood on the land and filled the air with a deadly smell. Despite that, nowadays, with just 300,000 inhabitants, it still has 500 architectural monuments in different styles.
To make this hypothesis even more fascinating there is the fact that, in 604 H./1207-1208, the historian Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) wrote down in his Kitab al-’Ibar that many people fled from Tashkent (Uzbekistan), heading for Cairo, Baghdad and Mogadishu. Among these refugees there were men with high professional abilities. Thus Mogadishu became a refuge for skilled and literate men who fled Bukhara, Samarcanda or Persia, before the Mongols killed or enslaved them. Craftsmen migrating from those area, imported the Arab-Persian architectural and decorative traditions.
That is a further confirmation that the Banaadiris have blood ties also with Central Asia as well, and that the history of this people is much more intriguing than it is commonly thought.
The Banaadiri rulers by opening up their court and administration to all Muslims of spiritual repute, skill and talent, showed they had a strong political wisdom. But, if the credit for such enlightened philanthropy went to the rulers, the open-mindedness were the achievement of the educated Banaadiri community.
Everybody knows that the Yemenites invented Banaadir but everybody also knows that the Banaadiri civilization received its propelling thrust, as far as progress is concerned, by other Asiatic and African peoples . Up to now, only the contribution of the Iranians was certain but Masjid Faqruddiin brings us to a much more
remote country like Uzbekistan.Masjid Faqruddiin was built in 1269 by a man named Hagi bin Muhammad bin Abdallah. The roof of the mosque is surmounted by a pointed dome and a pyramidal one, both on the same axis with the mihrab. These domes mark two paths from the outside: one is geometrical, and it is that which leads to the mihrab, the other is spiritual and marks the path of faith.
It took me time to understand which was the country from which the architect of the Faqruddiin Masjid was. One day, in Bologna, I helped an English tourist and his family, all of them from Chechnya, find a hotel in a difficult period. Walking around we had the chance of talking about a book I was reading and that I had in my hands, “Hadhrami traders, scholars and statesmen in the Indian Ocean” by U. Freitag and Clarence-Smith. When we were about to say goodbye, that Chechen-English gentleman told me “you should investigate the history of Central Asia as well. As far as I know, in past centuries, in Mogadishu the Yemenites were followed by some Uzbek and Chechen emigrants and by people from Baluchistan. Thus you Banaadiris are of Yemenite descent but also Uzbek, Chechen and Baluchi”. At the beginning I thought those were words spoken by a distinguished Muslim gentleman who, touched by the attention I had payed to him and to his family, wished me to feel part of his people. When I got back home it occurred to me that many Banaadiri women had some ancient “Bukhara jewels”. I’m embarassed to confess that this mythical city in Uzbekistan hadn’t ever meant much to me until I found out that the Chasmah Ayub mausoleum is there (the second figure).
The Chasmah Ayub mausoleum roof is decorated in a way very similar to that of the Faqruddiin Masjid! The Banaadiri architect-engineer of the Faqruddiin Masjid had most likely Uzbek origins. The architects that built the Faqruddiin Mosque and the Chasma Ayub mausoleum shared the same cultural background. How else could it be possible that two engineers created two works so similar one to the other even though they were so far apart, without having in common the same school of thought?
True, the domes of the Chasmah Ayub mausoleum were built in different periods from the XIV to the XVI centuries, but it is also true that the mausoleum was rebuilt between 1379 and 1385 on an older structure. Timur the cripple (better known as Tamerlane), the famous commander who reigned, from 1370 to 1405, on an immense empire going from China to Syria, ordered it.
Bukhara is one of the legendary cities which are along the “silk route”, and its origins date back to 2,500 years ago. It lived its best period under the Samanid dynasty in the X century. The worst period was in 1220, when the Mongolians shed blood on the land and filled the air with a deadly smell. Despite that, nowadays, with just 300,000 inhabitants, it still has 500 architectural monuments in different styles.
To make this hypothesis even more fascinating there is the fact that, in 604 H./1207-1208, the historian Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) wrote down in his Kitab al-’Ibar that many people fled from Tashkent (Uzbekistan), heading for Cairo, Baghdad and Mogadishu. Among these refugees there were men with high professional abilities. Thus Mogadishu became a refuge for skilled and literate men who fled Bukhara, Samarcanda or Persia, before the Mongols killed or enslaved them. Craftsmen migrating from those area, imported the Arab-Persian architectural and decorative traditions.
That is a further confirmation that the Banaadiris have blood ties also with Central Asia as well, and that the history of this people is much more intriguing than it is commonly thought.
The Banaadiri rulers by opening up their court and administration to all Muslims of spiritual repute, skill and talent, showed they had a strong political wisdom. But, if the credit for such enlightened philanthropy went to the rulers, the open-mindedness were the achievement of the educated Banaadiri community.
Bibliography:
posted by Nurudin Hagi Scikei | 1:42 AM
1 Comments:
Dear Author,
Thanks for your efforts regarding the clarification of Gibilcad, but pls need to know the origins of these Gibilcad groups:-
1-Bandabow
2-Bagadi
3-Shanshi
4-Gameedle
5-Duruqba
6-Aba-jibil
Pls tell where, when, how, why and what is the couse of their migration to Somalia
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