Navruz
21 March, the spring equinox — a New Year welcomed with cauldrons of sumalak, green samsa, street festivities and neighbourhood clean-ups.
The pilgrimage tradition
© Thomas Taylor Hammond (1920-1993), CC BY-SA 4.0
Shah-i-Zinda, Hazrat Khizr, Khoja Daniyar and Imam al-Bukhari — Samarkand has long been a city of shrines, and pilgrimage has its own etiquette and legends.
A city of sacred places
For centuries Samarkand was one of the foremost pilgrimage centres for Central Asia’s Muslims. The Shah-i-Zinda ensemble grew up around the grave of Qusam ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad; legend has it that he never died but vanished alive, hence the name Shah-i-Zinda, ‘the Living King’. Tradition links the Khoja Daniyar mausoleum with the prophet Daniel, and Muslims, Jews and Christians alike come to pray there, while the Hazrat Khizr Mosque crowns a rise on the southern edge of ancient Afrasiyab.
The city and region also hold the mausoleums of Imam al-Maturidi, Khoja Ahror Vali and Khoja Abdi Darun, the Imam al-Bukhari memorial complex and the shrine of Makhdumi A’zam at Dahbed, drawing pilgrims from well beyond Uzbekistan.
Pilgrim etiquette
Dress modestly: no shorts for men, shoulders and knees covered for women, who also cover their hair inside mosques. Shoes come off before entering a mosque. Avoid taking photos or speaking loudly during prayers or while someone is reciting at a grave, and never walk in front of a person at prayer.
At a mausoleum, pilgrims recite a short prayer and pass their palms over their face. A popular legend attaches to the stairway of Shah-i-Zinda: count the steps on the way up and again on the way down, and if the numbers match, your sins are forgiven. Go early in the morning or towards evening, when it is cooler and quieter.
Traditions
Traditions
Mahalla and hashar
The neighbourhood community gathered around its guzar square, which shares weddings and funerals and keeps its streets in shape through hashar — the backbone of Samarkand life.
Hospitality and the dastarkhan
‘A guest ranks above your father’: in a Samarkand home the guest takes the seat of honour, and bread, tea, sweets and hot dishes reach the dastarkhan in turn.
Weddings (toʻy)
From matchmaking to the bride’s bow — an Uzbek wedding is a chain of rituals, and in Samarkand its story reaches back to the age of Timur.
Ramadan and the Eids
Iftar evenings in the month of fasting, the sweet table of Eid al-Fitr and the sacrifice of Eid al-Adha — festivals whose dates move each year with the lunar calendar.
The teahouse and the gap
Every mahalla’s teahouse is the daily club of its men, while the gap is a long-standing custom of friends taking turns to host one another.
