Hazrat-e Turkestan

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Coordinates: 43°17′N, 68°16′E

The Mazar of Shaikh Ahmad Yasavi in the town of Turkestan. Built by Timur in the 1390s.

Landsat satellite photo of Hazrat-e Turkestan

Hazrat-e Turkestan (modern name Türkistan, Kazakh: Түркістан), a city in the southern region of Kazakhstan near the Syr Darya river. It has a population of 85,600 and is situated 160 km (100 miles) north-west of Taraz (Aulie-Ata) on the Trans-Aral Railway between Ak-Mechet (Perovsk) to the north and Tashkent to the south ( 43°17′N, 68°16′E).

Türkistan has an archaeological record dating back to the 4th century. (For a brief description click here). To the Chinese it was known as Beitian. Later it was known as Yasi or Shavgar to the 16th century, it was an important trade centre.

The name Hazrat-e Turkestan literally means "the Saint (or Blessed One) of Turkestan" and refers to Khoja Ahmad Yasavi, the great Sufi Shaikh of Turkestan, who was born here at the turn of the 11th century AD, and is buried in the town. Under his aegis the city became the most important centre of learning for the peoples of the Kazakh steppes. In the 1390s Timur erected a magnificent domed Mazar or tomb over his grave, which is without doubt the most significant architectural monument to be found anywhere in Kazakhstan.

The city still attracts thousands of pilgrims. According to local tradition, three pilgrimages to Türkistan are said to be equivalent to one Hajj to Mecca, although this is not widely accepted elsewhere in the Muslim World. The Saint was held in such reverence that the city was even known as the Second Mecca of the East, and it is of enormous importance for Muslims in Kazakhstan.

Other important historical sites include a mediaeval bath-house and four other mausoleums, one to Tamerlaine's granddaughter and three to Kazakh Khans (rulers).

Throughout its history Türkistan has been a border town, lying as it does on the fringes of the settled Perso-Islamic oasis culture of Transoxiana to the south, and the world of the Turko-Mongol steppe nomads to the north. Accordingly at times it has been an important Kazakh political centre, and at others a frontier town under the control of the Uzbek Khanates further south.

When it fell to the Russians in 1863 it was under the suzerainty of the Khanate of Kokand. Türkistan was in the Syr-Darya Oblast of the Governor-Generalship of Russian Turkestan. When the Tsarist regime fell in 1917-18 it was briefly part of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic before being incorporated into the new Kazakh SSR in 1924.

Modern-day Türkistan has a population of 85,600 (1999 census), almost all of whom are ethnic Kazakhs. The population rose by 10% from 1989-99, making it the second-fastest growing town in Kazakhstan, after the new capital Astana.

Turkestan may be reached by train from Almaty, in a journey of nearly 20 hours. The road trip from the nearest airport at Shymkent takes some 2 hours.