Place · Silk Road scholarly city · Uzbekistan
Bukhara
Also known as Bukhoro, Bukhārā
The Central Asian city of Bukhara in modern Uzbekistan on the Silk Road, 450 kilometres east of Samarkand — one of the great centres of Islamic scholarship from the 9-century Samanid period (875-999) through the 16-century Shaybanid khanate and beyond. Bukhara was the home of Imam al-Bukhari (810-870), compiler of the Sahih al-Bukhari (the most authoritative Sunni hadith collection), and a major Naqshbandi Sufi centre from the 14-century. Chishti tradition includes Bukhara among the Central Asian scholarly centres visited by Moinuddin Chishti (c.1143-1236) during his early travels, before his journey westward to Baghdad and Mecca and then eastward through Nishapur and Lahore to Ajmer. The Kalyan Minaret (1127), Po-i-Kalyan complex and Chashma Ayub are UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1993.
- Function
- Learning & scholarship
- Patron dynasty
- Samanid · Shaybanid · Soviet · Uzbekistan
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 39.775, 64.429
Connections (1)
- Life routeMuʿīnuddīn Chishtī
Bukhara, renowned for Islamic hadith scholarship (home of Imam al-Bukhari) and later Sufism, is traditionally included among the Central Asian cities visited by Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti during his early travels in the 1160s-1170s. His journey through the Central Asian intellectual centres — Samarkand, Bukhara and Nishapur — formed part of the wider Persianate scholarly and spiritual network that preceded his arrival in India via Lahore and Ajmer. The Bukhara-Samarkand-Nishapur-Herat axis of 12-century Khorasani Sufism supplied the intellectual background against which the Chishti order's distinctive emphasis on sama (devotional music), fakr (poverty) and service to the poor was later developed.
Sources
Chishti hagiographical tradition; standard reference on Central Asian Islamic cities.
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