Ayshah Bibi

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The restored mausoleum of Aisha Bibi

The Aisha-Bibi is an 11th or 12th-century mausoleum for an Uyghur noble woman located in the village of Aisha Bibi, 18 km west of Taraz, on the Silk Road. It has become famous as a monument to love and faithfulness.

[edit] The site

According to a legend, the mausoleum was built by one of the rulers belonging to the Karakhanid dynasty on the grave site of his beautiful fiancée Aisha-Bibi, who was a daughter of Sufi poet Khakim-Ata.

Perfectly matching the legend, the mausoleum looks unbelievably light, well-proportioned and delicate. The mausoleum’s architectural forms and decoration are reminiscent of fine lace. The whole building is covered with carved terracotta tiles using 60 different floral geometric patterns and stylized calligraphy.

The inscriptions tell of the beauty of Aisha Bibi and speak of love in general. One of the old distichs from a corner tower reads: "Autumn... Clouds... The Earth is beautiful". Women pray for children and a happy family here to the present day. Wedding Parties also venerate this mausoleum together with KaraKhan Mausoleum to have their union blessed by the dead lovers.

Aisha Bibi is a direct stylistic descendant of Samanid Mausoleum in Bukhara. Both use the same sytlistic conventions of Pre-Mongol Central Asian architecture. Just ten meters away from the Aisha Bibi is a second mausoleum called Babaji Khatun ("wise queen"), and across the road is a sacred limestone cavern. These two mausoleums rank among the few surviving examples of pre-Mongol architecture in Central Asia.

[edit] Legend of Aisha Bibi

Mausoleum of Bibi Khanum adjacent to Aisha Bibi

There was just an hour to go for 16-year-old beauty Aisha-bibi to meet with her lover. But a tragedy cut the girl’s life short … There are 28 variations of the legend of Aisha-Bibi. According to the most popular and saddest version, Aisha-Bibi was the daughter of well-known in 11th century scholar and poet Khakim-Ata Suleiman Bakyrgani. After her father's death, Aisha was brought up by Sheikh Aikhodzha (Zangi-Ata). When the governor of Taraz Karakhan Mukhammed (for whom Karakhan Mausoleum in Taraz was built) asked for the young beauty's hand, her stepfather rejected the suitor, because Karakhan was not a descendant of the prophet (sayyid), as Aisha was. She then outwitted her hard-hearted stepfather by pretending to lead an army for jihad against the idolaters (Kara-Khitans). Secretly however, she rode towards Taraz. Unfortunately, Karakhan never met his young bride; she died of snakebite at Assa River. Mourning the death of the girl, Karakhan erected the mausoleum of fairytale beauty at this place. A friend and fellow traveler of Aisha named Babadzhi-Khatun became the custodian of the grave. When she died, she was buried within 20 steps from Aisha, and a mausoleum was erected over her as well. Today nobody can say what color her eyes were, but we know she loved and was loved. All legends follow the same general plot: A girl disobeys her parents out of love for her a noble in Taraz and dies by entering a body of water near the city. The Legend empasizes the belief in Central Asia of obedience to elders as the highest value.