In pre-Soviet Central Asia , saint veneration played a crucial role in Muslim religious life. Far from being restricted to the uneducated masses or to the countryside, saintly shrines were also to be found in urban areas, often in the immediate neighbourhood of mosques and madrasas, places for Islamic high education. For large parts of the religious establishment, saint veneration did not represent a contradiction to the prophetic tradition but was seen as part of Islam. The intermingling of mosque and shrine was seriously disturbed when Central Asia came under Soviet rule. While the state granted - although a very limited - space for the public observance of canonical rites in the mosques, it provided no legal framework for “popular” religiosity. Shrine veneration and related practices were a particular target of anti-religious propaganda. Most shrines were closed down and the official Islamic establishment was mobilised to condemn the visiting of shrines as un-Islamic and superstition. Starting in the province Khorezm in northwest Uzbekistan , this project deals with the question of how the changes the disintegration of the Soviet Union brought about in the religious and political field have affected people’s everyday religious life and the ways in which they define and express themselves as Muslims in a given locality. Particular attention is given to shrine pilgrimage, healing practices and various forms of domestic rituals.

The region Khorezm is situated on both sides of the lower basin of the Amu-Darya. Since national delimitation under the Soviets, it is divided between the now independent states of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan , and the Autonomous Republic Karakalpakistan within the borders of Uzbekistan . The Uzbek part of Khorezm, where the major part of fieldwork is curried out, has the administrative status of a province (viloyat) with Urganch as its capital.

The inhabitants of the province are predominantly Uzbeks. A small Turkmen minority lives in the area near the Turkmen border. Nearly 80 percent of the province’s population is rural, earning a living from irrigation-based agriculture, which is still under strict state control. Since independence, a large part of the population has experienced economic decline and a loss of social security. Moreover, Khorezm faces serious ecological problems due to high water and soil salination. The dialect spoken in Khorezm belongs to the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages.

The province of Khorezm

The 18th century mausoleum of Pahlavan Mahmud in Khiva, Khorezm province (Photo: Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi, 2003)

The new pilgrimage site of Gachirmas Baba in Karakalpakistan with mosque and shrine (Photo: Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi, 2004)

When Uzbekistan gained independence in 1991 and Islam began to acquire renewed significance, shrine pilgrimage too witnessed a strong revival. Decayed and abandoned holy sites were restored and even new shrines established. On certain days of the week, the larger shrines are now visited by a huge number of pilgrims, most of them coming in the hope to benefit from the healing powers attributed to the site. In other cases, pilgrimage is undertaken in order to fulfil a vow and to make offerings or simply to receive divine grace (savap), as visiting the tombs of saints is seen as an act of piety, if not a religious duty. And for local politicians, to visit shrines and host sacrificial meals has now become a prestigious act by the means of which they attempt to gain popularity.

Since independence, the state’s attitude towards shrines and shrine pilgrimage has changed as well. Like other aspects of popular Islam, they are now officially valued as integral parts of the nation’s cultural heritage. With considerable financial support from the state, the gravesites of famous Islamic saints who are now celebrated as national heroes were renovated or reconstructed. In Khorezm, this nationalisation of the sacred can be best observed at the Ulli Pir complex, where the (symbolic) graves of three Muslim saints are venerated. Following the directive of the district government, the site, which consisted of simple clay sarcophagi, has been turned into a large pilgrimage complex including a domed mausoleum, a mosque, a kitchen section and lounges for pilgrims, a guesthouse, a World War II memorial and a museum endowed with state symbols.

Attaching secular and national symbols to a holy place, the state demonstrates its claim to have a say in the definition of the meaning of the site and thus of Islam as a whole. Contrary to the Soviet Union , the new Uzbek state prefers a reading of Islam, which legitimates religious customs and habits (urf va odat). This attitude has much to do with the conviction that “popular” Islam is less of a potential political threat than scripturalist variants of the faith. Following independence, the major shrines were handed over into the responsibility of the state-controlled Muslim Board of Uzbekistan. Thus they became incorporated into the structure of official Islam, the local representatives of which do not interfere much with the pilgrims’ beliefs and practices.