The Legend of the Balasagun Minaret
BALASAGUN-BURANA
An expansive valley, bordered by two mountain ranges, is filled with pure and fresh air. Through it, one can see nearby and distant estates, the reddish walls of buildings made of burnt brick, and among the green crowns of poplars and white mulberries, the domes of mosques once stood out as red spots.
The fate of Balasagun was fraught with difficulties. Once, in ancient times, fire worshippers from Sogdiana came to this blessed valley and founded a city. Over the centuries, new tribes passed through and renewed the population.
The city grew and changed rulers. Here, the Turkic kagans and the Karluk yagbu ruled. In those distant times, the city was called Suayb.
The founders of the great dynasty "from the house of Afrasiab," descendants of Bilga Kül Qadir-khan (i.e., the Karakhanids) conquered the city and made it their capital. From here, they ruled a vast Central Asian empire that included Transoxiana, Fergana, Semirechye, and Kashgaria. Numerous offspring of this dynasty, waging relentless wars against each other, tore the empire into parts—principalities. In 1069-1070, the great kaganate finally split into two parts: Transoxiana, located between the great rivers Amu and Syr, was inherited by Shamal Mulk ibn Ibrahim, a representative of the western branch of the Khakanids, while the eastern lands remained in the hands of the descendants of Yusuf Qadir-khan and were again effectively divided into two halves: one—the Kashgar part—was ruled by Tamgach Bogra-karakhan, and the other, with its capital in Balasagun, by Toghrul-karakhan.
The walls of the khan's residence rose proudly. The wide wrought-iron gates were tightly closed. Two sentinels stood guard.
Leaning on their spears, they usually conversed gravely with each other. Behind the palace walls, there was silence when the khan was not in the palace...
Next to the palace of the kagan stood the Main Mosque—the house of Allah. In it, like ordinary mortals, the rulers and members of the royal family prayed together with other believers. Here, during the Friday prayer, the khutbah was proclaimed in honor of the Baghdad caliph, and sometimes in honor of the ruling karakhan in Balasagun.
Above the mosque and the palace buildings rose the Great Minaret— the tallest structure in Balasagun.
Popular rumor states: "Once, a powerful Ruler named Arslan-khan was foretold by oracles that his only son would die from a black widow spider bite. The khan was frightened and believed. In hopes of saving his heir's life, Arslan-khan built a tower and placed the boy with his mother at the very top, so that no evil could penetrate their quarters... However, the oracle's predictions came true, for the black widow did bring death to Arslan-khan's son. The spider entered the tower, of course, accidentally, in a servant's basket, hiding among the berries."
"No," others said! "The only daughter died from the black widow's bite, but not Arslan-khan's son. At the top of the tower, Arslan-khan protected her not only from the spider but also from the gazes of pesky suitors. The khan saved his daughter from suitors but could not save her from the insect's bite. And when she died, he buried her in that tower where he had previously hidden her. And the 'tower' became a tomb for a person of royal blood."
But this is just rumor... And Muhammad Haidar-mirza, in the 16th century, that is, much later than the times when Balasagun flourished, wrote in his "Tarikh-i Rashidi": "...In the land of Chu, in one place, there are traces of a great city: its minarets, domes, and madrasahs have survived in some places. Since no one knows the name of this city, the Mongols call it Monara...". Many have argued for the identity of Burana with Monara. Among them was the Russian scholar and consul in Kashgar N. F. Petrovsky, as well as the renowned orientalist V. V. Bartold. The Burana minaret is known as one of the oldest structures of its kind that have survived in Central Asia to this day.
An interesting discovery was made by archaeologists in the southern part of the excavations near Burana. A stone statue was found, apparently brought from a Turkic burial site. It lay face down on a specially constructed pedestal of stone and clay. Surrounding the statue was a powerful ash pit with animal bones. The statue itself is a roughly processed quadrangular stone, on one side of which are the silhouette outlines of a head, face, and part of a torso with traces of rough chips. Clearly, the chips are intentional damage to the statue. It can be assumed that this statue was toppled and chipped at the moment the foundation of the minaret (or perhaps the mosque) of Burana was laid.
This finding seems to hint at the time of the minaret's construction. Ancient chroniclers reported frequent mass conversions of the Turkic people of Semirechye to Islam in the mid-10th century. During the sacrificial holiday, they slaughtered several thousand heads of livestock. It is very possible that the verified "balbal" at the site of the minaret's (or mosque's) foundation, along with the remnants of a feast in the form of animal bones and ash pits, is connected to the acceptance of Islam by the nomadic Turks, who symbolically ended the pagan cult. This fact resonates with well-known cases from medieval written sources, where Arabs, arriving in Central Asia, built mosques on the sites of pagan temples and Christian churches, burning idols and figurines in the process. The Turks themselves, who had already accepted Islam, reportedly destroyed Buddhist temples in cities during battles with "infidels," breaking and desecrating "idols," according to Mahmud Kashgari.
Legends and Myths
