Turkestan

Turkestan, once known as Yasi, is a city of the Syr Darya region renowned throughout the Turkic-speaking world for the shrine of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi. The twelfth-century Sufi master taught in Turkic, and the poetry associated with his name helped carry Islamic teaching across the steppe. Pilgrims came to his tomb, making the city a meeting place of devotion, learning and trade for the peoples of the surrounding steppe region.

At the end of the fourteenth century Timur ordered a vast mausoleum to replace the earlier shrine. Its central hall, great dome and elaborate brick and tile work made it one of the most ambitious buildings of his reign. The monument remained unfinished at Timur's death in 1405, but its design became an important model for Timurid architecture. In the sixteenth century the ruler of Bukhara, Abdullah Khan, repaired its entrance arch.

From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries Turkestan served as a residence and capital of the Kazakh khans, as well as a centre of crafts and commerce. The tomb of Yasawi lent the city a sacred prestige that endured through contests over the Syr Darya towns. Khans and other prominent figures were buried near the saint, linking the memory of their rule to a place revered across the steppe.