Mosques And Shrines

The focus of Kashgar’s Old City is a great congergational place of prayer known as the Idkah Mosque. Today this faces on to an open plaza, now a recreational site crowded with men playing snooker but in the past the site of Kashgar’s principal market, the stalls of which are now consigned to the sides and rear of thewalled compound. Dating back to the fifteenth century, the Idkah Mosque was substantially remodelled in 1838; it has been further restored in recent years. The mosque is entered from the east through a yellow-brick gateway flanked by a pair of tapering, squatly proportioned circular minarets, more than 10 metres high. The gateway gives access to a peaceful garden courtyard, planted with poplars lining a crossing of two pathways, beyond which is the prayer hall, some 160 metres long, where several hundreds of worshippers gather each Friday. Lines of slender wooden pillars support a flat roof. Its ceiling is divided into bays decoratd with diverse geometric designs of Middle Eastern origin, as well as more characteristic Chinese floral motifs, all painted in vivid blues, greens, yellows and pinks. The central bays of the prayer hall are partly enclosed by masonry wals, since this part of the mosque is reserved for winter usage; a prayer niche is set into the back wall.

Lesser neighbourhood prayer halls are gound throughout the city, many of them raised up above the level of the surrondings streets. Though smaller than the Idkah Mosque, they also have columned prayer halls, divided into ipen areas for the summer season and closed areas apropriate for winter. One of the finest is the Orda-ishki Mosque, built in 1875 by Yaqub Beg of Khoqand. The ornate plasterwork of the prominent prayer niche in is rear wall has now been refashioned. The nearby Khaluq Madrasa, dating back to the seventeenth century, consists of a rectangular courtyard surrounded by arcades with doorways leading to vaulted chambers, once used by theological student. The complex is now in sadly incomplete condition.

Of equal religious significance are the saintly tombs, or mazars, built on the outskirts of Kashgar. The most important is the Apa Khoja complex, 5 kilometers north-east of the city. This is the burial place of the Khoja Khan, who died in 1694 , and his various family members, all of whom were members of the Naqshbandi Sufi sect. Local people believe that the remains of the celebrated Ipar Han, the Kashgar-born ‘Frgrant Concubine’ of the Qing emperor, were buried here after she was carried back to Kashgar following her death in Beijing in 1788. The famous portrait of her by Giuseppe Castiglioe known also as Lang Shining(c,1760), an Italian Jesuit priest at woman in battle gear. Legends say that the bier inside the mausoleum was the very one that carried her back to Kashgar. Recent historical evidence, however, suggests that Ipar Han was probably buried on a royal site on the outskins of northern Beijing. In 1930 Gunnar Jarring reported powerfull signs of the links between Islam and shamanism when he shot a now famous photograph showing the many Marco Polo sheep horns stacked at the entrance to the tomb.

Apa Khoja’s mausoleum, the largest funerary structure in Xinjiang and a popular pilgrimage centre, comprises a cubical chamber topped by a dome a more than 25 metres high. The outer walls of the tomb are enlivened by bright blue and white ceramic tiles, while gree tiles clad the corner circular towers and dome. The building stands in the middle of an extensive walled cemetrry, crowded with mud-brick domed graves. Among the subsidiary structure of the Apa Khoja complex id a madarasa, with a wooden columned hall and a mansonry domed chamber. The complex aslo includes a mosque with an extensive prayer hall with carved wooden columns and brackets carrying a flat ceiling; the side wings consist of arcaded domed chambers. The ceiling panels over the central bays of the prayer hall have geometric designs as well as painted scenes of local landscapes. Both the prayer hall and side chamber open on to a garden courtyard planted with poplars. The complex is entered through an arched portal flanked by minaret-like towers topped by lanterns. The panel over the doorway has a calligraphic inscription composed of brilliant blue and white tiles.

On the southern perimeter of Kashgar is the Mazar of Yusup Has Hajip, an intellectual and poet who lived in Kashgar in the eleventh century. Virtually rebuilt in the 1980s, this complex consists of a masonary domed mausoleum standing in a walled compound, entered through a monumental arched portal. The tomb itself is entiriely clad in blue and white tiles of recent manufacture which also extend on to the corner circular towers. A more authentic ancient tomb is the Arslan Mazar to the east of the city, reputedly housing the remains of an eleven-century Qarakhanid ruler but unlikely to predate the fifteenth century. The cuboid brick structure, complete with dome, is devoid of any decoration, but the arched entryway on the south is topped with a geometric plaster screen.

The mazar of another figure of this dynasty is located at Etachi, just ouside Artush, about 40 kilometers north of Kashgar. Supposedly the last resting place of Sutuq Bughra, the first Qarakhanid khan to be converted to Islam, the tomb is similarly cuboid in appearance, with a prominent frontal arched portal, all built in brick. Corner circular towers have domical lanterns picked out in diip blue tiles; similarly coloured tiles also clad the dome. ‘Sutuq’ means ‘merchant’, an apt name for this famous resident of the renowned commercial town of Artush.

About 55 kolometers south of Kashgar, near the village of Opal, is the mazar of Mahmud Kashgari. Returnig from Baghdad to die in Kashgar in 1105, this celebrated literary figure has now attained the status of saint, with the result that his tomb has become a pilgrimage destination view of the meeting of the Tiehshan and Pamir ranges, considered to be a particularly sacred landscape. At the base of the flight of steps that ascends the hill are a natural spring and a tree draped in votive threads; on the other side of the hill stretches a vast cemetory. The walled compound in which the mahmud’s tomb stands is entered through a cubical domed structure adorned with monochrome brickwork in relief patterens. The tomb itself its is fronted by a line of carved and painted columns, between which are geometric wooden screens that asmit light to the tomb chamber; in the middle is the mahmud’s huge whitewashed plastered grave. The traditional type of flat-roofed, timber chamber contrasts with four lesser rear rooms of the complex, built of masonry and topped by domes.

Additional exampls of Islamic architecture are to be found in and around the city of Yarkand. The oldest is the Azna Mosque, dating back to the fifteenth century and built in an obviously Middle Eastern manner. Entered through an imposing arched portal, the mosque consists of a courtyard with trees and a well, surrounded on all sides by arcades. In the middle of the west side is another arched portal. This gives access to the main prayer hall, roofed with a lofty brick dome.

Other mosques in Yarkand conform more to Central Asian schemes. They include the Jami Masjid in the middle of the city, which has a central enclosed area for winter prayer in the middle, flanked by open colonnades with slender wooden columns at either side. The mosque faces on to a royal cemetery. Apart from a somewhat incongruous modern wooden mausoleum of Sultan Saidhan, one of Yarkand’s sixteenth-century khans, the cemetery is dotted with a number of tile-clad, domed tombs dating from the nineteenth century. Many of these are linked to the representatives of Qing emperors who governed Yarkand at this time. The most popular of these funerary monuments is the Tomb of Seven Sultans. Somewhat severely plain externally, this builing is of interest for seven large graves sheltered by a wooden ceiling. Another , mch venerated saintly tomb is that of Khoja Muhammad Serip, tutor to Sultan Saidkhan of the kingdom of Yarkand. Here an entrance vestibule decorated with brightly toned murals leads to a chamber roofed with a lofty brick dome. This accommodates the grave of the saint, now almost totally abscured by a dense cluster of cloth banners.