The reason for the selfie in front of the Ceramic History Museum was our new looks - Steven had shaved his head the night before and I had colored my hair so I'll have red hair for at least the next few posts before the sun lightens it!
We had passed by the Puppet Museum a couple of times already but stopped in this time to find out what it was all about. You may remember seeing photos of hand made, papier mache puppets in one of the posts on Khiva and also in the previous post as puppets are obviously tremendously popular in Uzbekistan.
We knew from our time in Khiva that puppets are a traditional Uzbek souvenir when they are dressed in national costumes. As a rule, Uzbek puppets represent literary characters.
The master puppet maker had made Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves!
Steven and I were almost in stitches as we watched the museum owner, i.e. the shop owner, make his puppet dance in time to a lovely Uzbek song!
Bukhara's Jewish Quarter was no more than a five minute walk from the Lyab-i-Hauz, the pool in the central square we visited our first day and again the day before. Legend has it that the Jews were given this area in exchange for the area around Lyab. Bukhara’s Jews traced their arrival in the city from the 14th century and they long played an important role in trade with people in the Russian Volga region. They once numbered 4,000, but, since Uzbekistan gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, many opted for a new life in Israel.
The synagogue was closed but, as it was a Friday and therefore the Jewish Sabbath, we planned to return later if possible.
Most of the buildings in the Jewish quarter were made from straw and mud construction.
The Museum of Bukharan Jewish History only comprised two rooms that we saw.
This man pushing his grandson were among the few people we saw wandering in the narrow lanes. One of the only things I was so glad to be rid of after we left Uzbekistan was always needing to be mindful of gutters running down the middle or sides of streets as was the case here.
Interesting doorways in the quarter:
We had planned to visit the Carpet Museum at the end of the day yesterday but a large group of tourists was entering at the same time so we put it off until today. I was glad we had delayed going as it wasn’t until I read our travel guide later that I discovered the origins of the Carpet Museum. The Magok-i-Attari Mosque was one of the earliest religious shrines in Bukhara and the site of a former, herb, spice and perfume or attar bazaar. Excavations in the adjacent depression – magok means ‘in a pit’ – revealed a
shrine to the local moon god, a Zoroastrian temple, a Buddhist monastery and an
Arab mosque, stacked on top of each other in layers of history.
Before the construction of the first synagogue Jews in Bukhara had shared a place in a mosque with Muslims. Some say that Bukharian Jews and Muslims worshipped alongside each other in the same place at the same time. Other sources insist that Jews worshipped after Muslims. The mosque is also notable for being one of the few surviving buildings in Bukhara from the time before the Mongol invasion.
The color red prevailed in Bukhara carpets because artisans during the Zoroastrian times considered fire sacred and transferred the fiery color onto carpets. I was surprised to learn that carpet weaving developed in Bukhara during the 6th and 7th centuries. By the end of the 19th century, tribes' motifs were woven in the carpets from the Bukhara emirate or region.
It was at the beginning of the 16th century under the reign of Ismail I that the capital was transferred to Tabriz and that carpet making spread to Azerbaijan and Turkey. Throughout Iran's history carpet weaving was of national importance.
How refreshing it was to learn so much in this museum as the norm in the other 'museums' had been a few displays with mostly a focus on selling souvenirs.
Just beyond the sunken museum and former mosque were more of the caravanserai or roadside inn ruins we'd first seen yesterday.
Our eventual destination was the Ark, the heart of ancient Bukhara, but it meant we 'had' to pass through the marvelous Tok-i-Tilpak Furushon market again! The carpet on the left is the best example of a traditional Bukhara carpet, not only for its intense red color but also because of the medallion shapes. We are lucky enough to have two almost identical Bukhara-style rugs at home, one each in our living and dining rooms, so having just been to the Carpet Museum, it was interesting to know more about their background although ours are from India and Afghanistan.
Zachary: I was so relieved to see more Russian medals and pins for sale on a mat on the sidewalk here because I know you wanted me to choose some for you after first seeing some in a shop by Chor Minor our first day. There were so many to choose from I wish you'd been there to give me some pointers as to which you preferred!
The man on the left was particularly helpful when he saw I was interested, giving me a stool to sit on so I could take a closer look at the pins from all over the former USSR and including the Moscow Olympics, etc. You know I paid too much when he threw some extras in for free! I hope you like them, sweetheart, as I had fun buying them for you.
The ice cream cone made out of the Uzbek staple crop of cotton was great advertising for a local shop as it was another very warm day in Bukhara!
What an incredible sight coming across the immense 2,000 year old Ark, the fortress around which Bukhara formed. It was so vast I couldn't even fit the entire complex in one shot! The Ark or Citadel in Bukhara dates from about the 5th century BC but the 'city within the city' was fortified, destroyed and rebuilt several times over the years and became home to Bukhara's emirs.
In addition to being a military structure, the Ark encompassed what was essentially a town that, during much of the fortress history, was inhabited by the various royal courts that held sway over the region surrounding Bukhara. The Ark was used as a fortress until it fell to Russia in 1920. The area in front of the baked brick walls was Registan Square, home to the city's slave market, parade ground and, "when a drumbeat pulsed from the depths of the Ark, its flogging and execution ground."
The imposing frontage made me think of the history and power that has come from this building in the past and, as we walked up the gateway, it didn't take a lot to imagine the fear and trembling of some of those visiting a long time ago.
It was interesting to see how much the Ark had been restored in the last 100 years. Only about a third of the original still remained.
After crossing the large Registan Square in front of the walls and walking up the steep ramparts and then a long ramp into the fortress we came to the Emir's viewing platform. It was presumably from there in June of 1842 that the notorious Emir Nasrullah watched in the square below the beheading of the two British spies, Captain Connolly and Colonel Stoddart, after they had been forced to dig their own graves. Their crimes: they'd failed to bring a present to the Sultan and were therefore accused of being disrespectful!
Just beyond the platform was the Juma or Friday Mosque with its striking interior.
The mosque, constructed in the late 17th century, was surrounded by a wooden canopy which was supported by a stone platform and wooden columns.
The mosque had windows decorated from the inside with wooden shutters and with clay lattices from the outside. The beautiful ceiling was adorned with geometric and vegetable designs.
A part of a 20th century Koran called Faith was decorated with gold embroidery.
An example of religious calligraphy from the late 19th century:
I pointed out to Steven the late 19th century manuscript from the mosque's mathematical collection as he was a math teacher in his 'previous life,' i.e. before retirement!
Several small rooms in the Ark were devoted to what were explained as "restored masterpieces to Bukharian culture." It was nice to read that a grant from the US Embassy in 2012 made it possible to restore and conserve some of the archaeological works.
Children's toys from the beginning of the 20th century:
Interior of an Uzbek house during the late 19th century:
This was listed as a 2nd century BC ossuary, i.e. a chest or final resting place of human skeletal remains, but it looked remarkably restored.
These ceramic lids from the 10th century again looked over restored in my opinion. It would have been fascinating to have seen pictures how items looked before and during the restoration process.
I felt the same when we saw the 9th and 10th century jugs and pots.
We also saw the large Coronation Square where Bukhara's governors were crowned. Apparently, no one dared to show their back to the Emir there under threat of execution!
The courtyard entrance way was very striking with the classic blue and white mosaic tiles we had become accustomed to seeing in the Silk Road cities of Khiva and Bukhara.
Local craftsmen had obviously figured the large space was ideal for selling suzanis, the embroidered cotton textiles Uzbekistan is so famous for!
Some people lined up to sit on the throne on which the Governors of Bukhara were crowned.
Other vendors sold stunning brass plates with a variety of intricate designs on them, another very common souvenir in Bukhara. We had seen some metal chasers, men who painstakingly pound out the designs with a sort of mallet and chisel, our first afternoon in the city and had admired the plates since. Though relatively small, the prices weren't but we did need to account for the hours of workmanship if we bought one. One of the men said the plates take two to three days to make, depending on the size and complexity of design and number of colors.
The Courtyard of Greetings was where from 300-400 people a day waited before greeting the Emir and Bukhara's governors in the Coronation Square.
Another small museum had an assortment of items. These glazed ceramic bowls from Bukhara were made in the 17th century.
I was surprised to read the tag that said these were early 20th century bronze machine guns as they didn't look like what I thought machine guns would.
From the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century, the Bukhara khanate, i.e. the political entity run by the khan, was visited by many foreign travelers, scholars and diplomats. They helped to open up Bukhara to Western civilization.
I wonder if the khan's horses used these gold embroidered "horse clothes."
One of the travel guides I had consulted indicated around the back of the Ark was the Zindon, the former city jail where important political prisoners were held, often for years at a time. We walked a good ways around the huge fortifications and didn't see it at all, however. Apparently if we had, that was where we would have seen the notorious Bug Pit where the British officers Connolly and Stoddart were held for months before being executed.
I was glad that we walked around the back as that part of the fortress looked as if it had been left in its original condition. The impregnable looking fortress was a very impressive structure even if the exhibits were less so except for the Juma Mosque and Coronation Square.
Directly across the street was Bolo Hauz Mosque where we'd heard the imam pray over loudspeakers while wandering around the Ark as it was a Friday, the Muslim holy day. It had been a long, long time since we'd seen so many men pray in a mosque. Here, they were gathered on the ground in front of the actual building although the entire area was considered the mosque. The few Muslim women we noticed were sitting quietly on benches well behind the men.
We sat for close to half an hour sitting on the edge of the hauz or pool that may have been used at one point for religious ablutions. Now it looked too dirty for any ritual cleaning.
It was a powerful and emotional time witnessing the ceremony and the men's faith as they stood at times, then knelt or lay prostrate with arms outstretched on prayer mats on the ground, always in unison with each other. Unlike church services, there was no talking or noise except for the imam and the sound of traffic whizzing by on the busy street.
Bukhara would have been a perfect place to rent bikes as the land is so flat and we saw locals riding bikes everywhere.
Though the mosque hadn't been on our list of sights to see then or any day in Bukhara, we were unexpectedly treated to its elegant colonnades and Friday prayers.
Next post: Where else can you read about the Old Testament Job, an Islamic scholar, a buried mausoleum and Jews in present-day Bukhara?!
Posted on October 27th, 2018, from Barcelona, Spain.
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