Худжанд: Нури маърифат. 2007. 104 p.

The book by the Tajik researcher L. E. Ismoilov examines the peculiarities of religious life in the 16th century. Transoxiana, a region of Central Asia located between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, which covers most of Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, eastern Turkmenistan,and some southern Kazakhstan. ¹ The author took the lives of famous Muslim Sufis of the XVI century as the main sources for studying his topic.

In the first introductory chapter, L. E. Ismoilov gives a certain idea of the social life of Transoxiana. To a large extent, the content of the chapter is based on the classic source of that era - "Babur-nam" ("Notes of Babur"), the memoirs of Zahir ad-din Muhammad Babur (1483-1530) - the founder of the Mughal Empire and a direct descendant of Timur (1336-1405). This vivid document of the epoch, of course, deserves the closest attention, and the reader would have the right to expect a thoughtful analysis of Babur-nameh from the author, but L. E. Ismoilov confines himself to giving a relatively small number of examples describing the moral corruption and hypocrisy of Transoxiana society at that time (see, for example, pp. 7-8). However, at the very beginning of the chapter, the author rightly draws attention to

¹ Name of Transoxiana (Arabic) - "District", Europe. - Transoxiana-appeared during the Arab conquest of Central Asia in the VII-VIII centuries. and initially spread to the regions along the right bank of the Amu Darya.

the presence of a serious interethnic conflict between the Turkic nomads and the Iranian-speaking inhabitants of Transoxiana. When in 1500-1501. Babur took Samarkand for the second time, and the townspeople began to offer prayers of thanksgiving. "Our people and townspeople were filled with an extraordinary joy and excitement; they killed Uzbeks in the streets with stones and sticks," Babur noted (p.6).

The second chapter is devoted to the analysis of the social consciousness of Transoxiana in the XVI century. The author notes that "medieval social thinking considered selected elements of the environment sacred... Man of the sixteenth century tried to see in nature symbols and signs of divine creativity. Nature actively participated in the life of the spiritual man, especially in the life of the saints " (p. 12). Further, L. E. Ismoilov gives interesting examples of the sacralization of nature: "In addition to the sacredness of individual mountains, caves, springs, etc., it should be noted that various selective spaces in certain territories of Transoxiana were considered sacred. For example, Mahmud ibn Wali, describing the Samarkand village of Sughd, states that Muslim scholars consider it one of the paradisiacal regions " (pp. 13-14)^.2

The 16th century was a turbulent period in the history of Transoxiana. It seems that the author correctly emphasizes that " the harsh life of the era, continuous wars, a lot of hardships and adversities were a natural favorable ground for the spread of ascetic moods. Asceticism has literally become a defining element of people's worldview " (p. 18). However, by renouncing worldly wealth and bodily pleasures, Sufi teachers sought fame and an impeccable reputation. The author pays special attention to this element of their views: "According to their worldview principle, wealth is nothing, fame is everything. Fame will remain after death, but wealth will disappear. As Hafiz Tanysh (a 16th - century Central Asian Muslim scholar-M. R.) writes: "I need glory, for the body is mortal" (pp. 19-20).

The problem of the presence of evil in the world created by God has always been difficult for the believer's consciousness. The Sufis of Transoxiana also tried to solve it. According to L. E. Ismoilov, "Muslim mystics considered the existence of evil as an objective and necessary condition for the realization of good" (p. 21). It should be noted that in the sixteenth century this question had not only a theological but also a real historical dimension, which was expressed in the continuous wars between Sunni Central Asia and Shiite Iran, and in the question of the right or wrong path that constantly arose in the minds of Muslims. The author examines this story in detail in the second section of the chapter "The image of the infidel".

The third chapter of the book analyzes the thematic structure of hagiographic literature. First, it talks about the saint's interaction with the world of fauna. In the symbolic space of Sufis, animals and birds appear as certain symbols.

Of course, the author pays special attention to miracles (karamat) in the life of famous Sufis. Miracles have played and continue to play an important, probably key, role in Sufism, and not only in Central Asia. It is not surprising that the lives of Muslim teachers of the 16th century abound with stories about their miracle-working. The Tajik researcher analyzes this aspect of hagiographic literature with great knowledge.

A separate section of the third chapter is devoted to the analysis of the role of dreams and their interpretation in the lives of Muslim saints. As L. E. Ismoilov notes, " according to Sufi theorists, dreams were proof of the existence of a higher world. Often in a dream it happened to see the past, present and future. A righteous man sees more clearly than an unrighteous man " (pp. 37-38). The author considers this interesting phenomenon too briefly, which, in my opinion, is unjustified.

The fourth, central chapter of the book is devoted to specific biographies of Sufi teachers, made on the basis of a rich hagiographic literature. Identifying the common and special features in the lives of the saints, L. E. Ismoilov notes, " that in the manakibs (lives of the saints), we can see that: -M. R.) of the XVI-XVII centuries. the fact of eating meat by Sufis is usually condemned. This kind of food had some reprehensible quality" (p. 47). Obviously, this feature finds its direct parallel with the practice of Christian saints.

In Sufism, the concept of tariqa (Arabic. "the way") has a key fundamental meaning, but the way is understood in a spiritual sense, but the real wanderings and journeys of the Sufi-

² Mahmud ibn Wali is a famous 17th-century encyclopedic scholar from Balkh (20 km northwest of Mazar-i-Sharif, Northern Afghanistan). His main work "The Sea of Secrets concerning the virtues of the noble ones" was translated into Russian and published in 1977 in Tashkent.

evs played an equally significant role. It is this biographical aspect that the hagiographies consistently emphasize: "During the passage of tariqa, the murids (students) made numerous trips. They traveled considerable distances singly or in groups, following this route: Urgench-Khiva-Durun-Merv-Herat-Hubushan. Their travels were theoretically encouraged by the ideologues of Sufism, and practically-by the mentors themselves. For example, according to Abd al-Khaliq Gijduvani3, ^a Sufi should travel a lot and then he will be less interested in earthly life " (p. 48).

Often, at the end of his earthly journey, the Sufi master himself took care that the memory of him was well preserved. In this sense, he was a consistent optimist. The author describes the general features of this Sufi practice: "The saint looks at life with hope. Inner hope is always connected with order. So that the order will not be disturbed in the future, he leaves his descendants, close associates, and the surrounding population a deep memory of himself with his material remains, but above all with his omnipresent spiritual aura. He takes care in advance that his name remains on the tablets of history, and even during his lifetime instructs his murids to compose a manakib about him, of which he was the exacting and strict editor" (p. 73).

The last, fifth chapter of the book successfully complements the fourth, as it examines the image of the ideal ruler, as it was formed in the XVI century on the basis of the principles and practice of Sufism. The Sheibanid dynasty ruled in Transoxiana for the entire 16th century. The founder of the dynasty was Muhammad Shayban Khan (1451-1510). His vivid image as an ideal ruler was captured by the chronicler of that time and a follower of Sufism Fazlallah ibn Ruzbihon (1457-died between 1523 and 1533) in the " Notes of the Bukhara guest "(Moscow: Nauka, 1976). They depict Shayban Khan as the savior of the state and religion. When making important decisions, he consulted Muslim alims and Sufi teachers. This is exactly what Sheiban Khan did when he began his campaign against the Kazakh tribes in 1508. An interesting comment in this regard is given by L. E. Ismoilov: "The Kazakh tribes, judging by reliable historical sources, were Muslims, but there were elements of pagan beliefs in their cult rite. Let's say they worshipped the sun, worshipped it. Fazlallah ibn Ruzbihon, as an experienced jurist, needed to justify this "holy campaign" against the Kazakhs. He condemns the actions of the Kazakh tribes for two reasons: firstly, they are ignorant pagans, and secondly, the subjects of Islam were enslaved" (p. 77).

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that L. E. Ismoilov managed to write a work that gives a voluminous and memorable image of Central Asian Sufism. The book uses numerous sources that were not previously analyzed in this way. Its publication once again demonstrates the growing attention of the scientific community to Sufism as an important social and spiritual phenomenon in the history of Islam.

³ Abd al-Khaliq Gijduvani (d. 1180 or 1220 in Gijduvan, 50 km northeast of Bukhara) - founder of the Sufi teaching of tariqa-i Khwajagan (the way of Hajj/teachers) and spiritual authority for the founder of the Naqshbandiya Sufi brotherhood Bahauddin Naqshband (1318-1389).

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