Legends about the "Burana Tower"
The term minaret, widely used in European contexts, originates from the Arabic word minar (a place where something is lit — a lantern, lighthouse) or miiara (a watchtower, pillar, minaret of a mosque). In the latter sense, in local pronunciation among Tajiks and Uzbeks, it is meiaré, and among some Turkic ethnic groups in Central Asia, it is men ar. Among the local population living in the former northern Kyrgyz region of Jeni-Su (Semirechye), and in contemporary scientific literature, this word is used in the form of burana, which undoubtedly reflects a linguistic peculiarity of the Kyrgyz language. In this form, the term has become a geographical name for an unnamed medieval settlement located in the southeastern part of the Chui Valley, at the foot of the Kyrgyz Ala-Too ridge (or Ala-Tau, formerly known as the Alexandrovsky ridge), 11 km southwest of Tokmak. It has also become a proper name for the ruins of a large medieval minaret located within this settlement and for the river flowing around the settlement from the east, which is a left tributary of the Chu River.
In some works by Arab authors from the 9th to 10th centuries, who wrote about Central Asia, there are many names of various settlements and even significant cities that existed at that time in Semirechye. After the 10th century, the information from Muslim writers about the Chui Valley becomes more vague, with names of places given without precise indications of their mutual locations or distances between them. Their existence was mainly interrupted shortly after the Mongol conquest, largely due to the change in population, and the former names of numerous deserted ruins became firmly forgotten. At present, it is often difficult to establish which archaeological object corresponds to a particular name that has reached us in written sources. The desire to obtain answers to the arising questions — who created, when, and for what purpose a particular monument of antiquity was built — has given rise to many legends among the people.
This also applies to the Burana settlement with the remnants of its enormous minaret. As early as 1860, M. I. Venyukov, traveling through the Central Asian outskirts of Russia, wrote that even at that time, the Kyrgyz (Kara-Kyrgyz) honored certain monuments of the peoples who had previously inhabited their lands. In particular, he briefly noted that the high "pillar" near Tokmak, supposedly made of raw brick, was especially revered by the Kyrgyz. According to legend, inside it died a certain khan's daughter, placed there by her father, who desperately tried to protect his child from a foretold demise from the bite of "fangs or other insects."
Later, based on the words of the Kyrgyz and Russian old-timers settled in Tokmak, several authors recorded the content of this legend in various versions. According to one of them, in ancient times (without specifying the time), a local khan was foretold that his beloved daughter would perish upon reaching the bloom of girlhood from the bite of the black poisonous spider, the karakurt (Lethrodoctes tredacimguttatus), which was found in large numbers in the Tokmak area. To create an environment for his daughter that would exclude the possibility of the prophecy being fulfilled, the father ordered the construction of a tower for her from burnt bricks, in which she spent her days and nights without escape in the uppermost room. As a precaution, from the very entrance to the minaret to the top of the internal staircase, servants were stationed, passing everything necessary to the khan's daughter after thorough checks. But the inevitable could not be avoided by any measures. At the foretold time, the girl was struck by two minor deadly stings from the poisonous jaws of the karakurt, accidentally brought in a basket with bunches of black grapes. In other versions, the tower was built by the khan for his only surviving heir — his beloved younger son. However, he too perished (following his older brothers) from the bite of the karakurt, which was carelessly brought into the upper room of the minaret by a negligent maid on a large plate of fruits.
Similar plots are widespread in Persia, the Caucasus, and westward — up to the shores of the Sea of Marmara (for example, in the legend of the Mandra castle near the Bosporus), while in Central Asia, such legends are associated with several archaeological monuments located in hard-to-reach mountainous areas.
Historically (in terms of reflecting in the Kyrgyz legend the time of the construction of the Burana minaret), the mention of the builder of the tower named Arslan-khan is of some interest. This was noted by V. V. Barthold in the last century as a typical nickname for some rulers from the Karakhanid dynasty. At that time, the Russian consul in Kashgar, N. F. Petrovsky, pointed out that in this case, we are unlikely to have an accurate echo of a past event, since among the Kyrgyz and Kazakhs, the names Kyzyl-Arslan-khan and Sattuk Bogra-khan are so popular that they are attributed with the construction of several buildings in various parts of northern Central Asia and Kashgar.
The earliest dated mention of the ruins of medieval cities in the valley of the Chu River or Chui still seems to be the information from "Tarikh-i Rashidi," relating to the 16th century. The information about the ruins of the city of Monora belongs to the author of this work — Muhammad Haydar Mirza Guragani, who saw the ruins of this monument of antiquity. V. V. Velyaminov-Zernov noted the information he provided on this matter in the middle of the last century. In a note to the second volume of his major work "Research on the Kasimov Kings and Princes," he provided texts from "Tarikh-i Rashidi" in Persian and Chagatai.
The first was given from a manuscript of St. Petersburg University, written with errors in 1843. The text in the Chagatai language is based on an incomplete manuscript adaptation of Muhammad Haydar Guragani's work in the Kashgar dialect, made by Muhammad Sadik Kashgari in the 18th century. In addition, the academician provided a Russian translation of the information about the Burana settlement. Later, in 1897, V. V. Barthold provided a Russian translation of the same passage from the Persian text, correcting minor inaccuracies made by V. V. Velyaminov-Zernov. There is an English edition: The Tarikh-i Rashidi of Mirza Muhammad Haidar, Duglat- A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia. —An English version, edited, with commentary, titles, and map by N. Elias, H. M. Consul-General for Khorasan and Sistan. The translation by E. Denison Ross. London, 1895.
The bibliographic rarity of the listed editions and the significant interest of the information contained in them about the Burana settlement, along with the small number of authentic manuscript copies, makes it worthwhile to provide the corresponding unique text about the archaeological object we are studying.
First Mentions of the Area and the Burana Settlement in Literature
“In (the district of) Chu (or Juu; in the English text often distorted as Juz. —M. M.) there is a place with traces of an abandoned city. Its minarets, domed structures, and madrasahs have been preserved in some places. Since no one knows the name of that city, the Mongols called it 'Munora.' In addition, there is a domed structure (evidently, a domed mausoleum. — M. M.) and (probably within it. — M. M.) a stone slab, on which is inscribed in naskh script: 'This is the grave of the most glorious imam and the unchangeable, most perfect sheikh, who embraced both contemplative and practical sciences, a knowledgeable one in both the branches and foundations of legal studies, Imam Muhammad-faqih of Balasagun. May the tree of his communion with God never cease to bloom on his grave, and may the eyes of the worthy be eternally turned towards him! He passed away in the year 711 of the hijra (1311/12 AD). This was written by the blacksmith Omar-khodja.' Chui is one of the regions of Mogolistan, stretching for a month’s journey. There were many cities like this (there).”
When bringing this information to light at the time of the release of the second volume of his "Research on the Kasimov Kings and Princes" at the end of 1864, despite his considerable erudition at that time regarding the issues of the Kokand possessions, V. V. Velyaminov-Zernov could not correlate the description of the Munora settlement with any Central Asian ruins. Apparently, he was not aware not only of the Burana settlement but also of the ruins of cities in the Chu River valley in general. This can be judged by his own words at the end of the note he provided: “Regarding the ruins found within the current Kokand Khanate in places adjacent to Turkestan, see my article 'Information about the Kokand Khanate' in the 'Bulletin of the Russian Geographical Society,' 1856, vol. XVIII. Research and materials, p. 140 (p. 164).” However, there are no mentions of archaeological ruins in the Chu River area there.
If in the first half of the 19th century, oral fragmentary data about Burana reached the Russians, this was hardly reflected in literature. Essentially, the exception is a brief report by Voronin and Nifantiev that a jug with a copper coin was somehow found near Tokmak at the ruins of an ancient tower called Munara. This can be explained by the location of the mentioned site: a more lively trade route between then-Russia and the possessions of the Kokand Khanate (as well as various routes through the Chu River valley) usually lay west of Tokmak. In essence, a turning point in this regard was the active military actions between the mentioned states, which began in 1860, when on August 26, Russian troops first entered the fortification of Tokmak, and on September 4, the Kokand fortress of Pishpek was taken. Although soon after that the Russians temporarily left the occupied territory and retreated to Kastek, already in 1861, the aforementioned work by M. I. Venyukov appeared, which mentioned the Burana tower and the legend associated with it that circulated among the Kyrgyz.
In 1860, during the battle with the Russians at Uzun-Agach on October 21, Tyurya Khoja, the son of Ziyaaddin Khoja Andijani, participated on the side of the Kokand forces. In his work on the history of the Kokand Khanate, completed in 1289 AH (1864/5 AD), he described the campaign to Uzun-Agach, mentioning a large city that had been destroyed in ancient times in the Chui district, among the ruins of which a high ancient minaret had survived. The impression from the sight of the tower even distracted the author for a time from the sequential narration of events.
By 1862, the Chui Valley had finally become part of Russia. Soon, from 1864, the Russian fortification of Tokmak temporarily became the district center. In it, besides a permanent garrison, several dozen families of Russian peasant settlers were settled. At the same time, a gradual influx of settled Uzbek population began. The former fortification (or as the settlers called it — "settlement") quickly began to grow into a small town. This circumstance initially posed a certain threat to the ruins of the Burana settlement. The growing demand for building materials began to be intensively satisfied by the newcomers at the expense of ancient burnt bricks, which were collected not only from the surface of the settlement but were also obtained by dismantling the remaining remnants of medieval structures that still existed at that time. The bricks from the settlement were mainly used for laying stoves, creating room drainage in the floor (khanyk), and other household needs.
Among the monuments of local antiquity, the inhabitants of old Tokmak were attracted by various pagan burials, among which the locals distinguished "santashi," "yugantashi," and "mugtashi." Interest in them intensified whenever news reached about new finds by the Kyrgyz in the excavated ancient graves of items made of gold and silver. However, even at that time, the few amateur local historians acknowledged the remarkable Burana minaret. They advocated for its preservation as they witnessed the lower parts of this monument gradually being dismantled. It should be noted that some artists played a positive registration role at that time. As established based on archival data by V. D. Goryacheva, during the military actions of 1863-1864, a participant in the then campaigns, Uspensky, included in his album of drawings an image of the still-standing small minaret near the ruins of the enormous Burana tower. In 1869, the Burana tower was sketched by the outstanding Russian artist V. V. Vereshchagin.
The absence of not only proper protection for numerous historical monuments in Semirechye but even preliminary studies of them from a historical aspect caused a growing protest among the progressive Tashkent public. When it became known that a special Swedish archaeological expedition intended to visit the city of Tashkent and some areas of the Turkestan region at the end of 1876, these sentiments were expressed in the local press, where local antiquity enthusiasts were accused of indifference to the monuments of Jetysu.
Practically, some administrative orders carried out as part of the preparatory measures for the IV Archaeological Congress in Russia at the end of summer 1877 brought significantly more benefit. At the beginning of that year, the Turkestan governor-general K. P. von Kaufman proposed to the military governor of the Semirechye region to deliver materials related to the archaeology of Jetysu and Kulja to Tashkent. He, in turn, addressed the same to his subordinates. The unpreparedness of officials to carry out such tasks, the meager stock of previously accumulated relevant materials, and a number of other objective reasons complicated the execution of the received assignment, which required a description of the remaining "archaeological" objects (architectural monuments, burial mounds, rock inscriptions, and images) on the surface. In addition, it was proposed to record folk legends about them and collect archaeological finds. Despite the indicated difficulties, it was possible to obtain some descriptions, plans, photographs, and sketches. At the same time, a special map of the territory under the jurisdiction of the Semirechye governor was compiled, indicating the locations of all registered objects.
Among the noted monuments of antiquity was the ancient Burana settlement located "15 versts" from Tokmak, named "Turtqala," as well as the tower located on it. Legends about the latter were recorded from local Sart and Kyrgyz. Plans and sketches were not presented.
The information received from the Turkestan governor-general about Burana was read by V. D. Smirnov at a meeting of the Department of Eastern Antiquities of the IV Archaeological Congress in Russia, which took place in Kazan on August 8, 1877. Several remarks were made regarding the legends about the "Burana Tower." However, the report itself was not published.