944
Abu Mansur al-Maturidi
Theologian, founder of the Maturidi school
A Samarkand theologian and jurist who founded Maturidism, one of the two main schools of Sunni theology. He is buried in the Chokardiza cemetery in the heart of the city.
© Dzilaqlil21, CC0
The imam from Maturid
His full name was Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud; the epithet al-Maturidi refers to Maturid, a village or quarter on the outskirts of Samarkand. His birth year is uncertain — around 853 is the date most often given — and medieval biographers record little beyond a list of his books. We know he studied with the city's Hanafi jurists, notably Abu Nasr al-Iyadi and Abu Bakr al-Juzjani, held no public office and lived as an ascetic.
He died in Samarkand in 944 (333 AH) and was buried in the Chokardiza cemetery, later famous as the resting place of generations of scholars.
Reason and revelation
Al-Maturidi fought the Mutazilites with their own weapon — rational argument. He defined faith as inner conviction confirmed by spoken profession, and stressed human free will and moral responsibility. The divine attributes described in the Quran, he taught, should be accepted 'without asking how' (bila kayf).
His key works are the Kitab al-Tawhid (Book of Divine Unity) and a Quran commentary, Ta'wilat Ahl al-Sunna. The school he founded became, alongside Asharism, one of the mainstreams of Sunni theology, followed by Hanafi Muslims from Central Asia to Turkey and South Asia.
The Chokardiza complex
Fifteenth-century writers describe his tomb as a venerated place of pilgrimage. Under Soviet rule burials were banned, the land was handed out for housing in 1947 and the gravestones were destroyed. In 2000, to mark his anniversary, a memorial complex of about four hectares was laid out roughly a kilometre south-east of the Registan. At its centre stands a domed mausoleum, 12 metres square and 15 metres high, its inner dome dressed with muqarnas and carved plaster screens.
