Northwest of Termez, very close to the city of Shirabad, there is the Mausoleum of Khoja Abu Isa Muhammad Al-Tirmidhi, an outstanding figure in the history of Islam. He travelled across the Islamic world for 30 years, compiling hadiths into one book. His tomb is not as impressive as one would expect from the burial place of a leading Muslim hadith scholar. However, this is the place where a lot of Muslims gather on a regular basis in order to pay their respect to Imam Al-Tirmidhi.
The architectural complex of mausoleum of Hakim Al-Tirmidhi is located near the northwest of the citadel of Termez, which was created for centuries. This practically deserted place in the westernmost part of Old Termez is the very tomb of the IX century scholar, the founder of the dervish order “Hakimia” Abu Abdullah Muhammad Bini Ali Hakim Al-Tirmidhi, revered as the spiritual patron of the ancient city.
According to the Egyptian book of Sheikh Abdulfattoh Barak, Al-Tirmidhi lived a long life and died at the age of 115 in Termez in 932. The Imam was buried in the medieval citadel of Termez. After a while, a mausoleum was erected over the grave of the scholar and very soon it became one of the most popular places of pilgrimage. Not only local Muslims but also residents of other Islamic countries come to worship at the famous hadith scholar’s grave.
In the XIX century, it was decided to erect a four-domed clay brick building on the site of the temple. The grave was found in the mausoleum, the three-tiered carved white marble tombstone of which was artfully engraved with “Sagana”. At the end of the tombstone the epitaph was inscribed: “In the name of the person to whom praise is due. This is Sheikh, Imam, scholar, righteous man Abu Abdullah Muhammad Bini Ali Hakim Al-Tirmidhi, may Allah have mercy on him. He was the greatest among the Sayyid, possessed eloquence, wrote well-known works and expressed meaningful thoughts. He was a friend of Abu Abdullah Bukhari, the author of “Sahih”. May Allah have mercy on him. Among Sheikhs, he was the best in the study of law, better than the Hanafis, may Allah have mercy on him. He died, may the Almighty save him, in the year 255/896”.
Later, the shape of the ensemble itself was significantly altered. The main building of the mausoleum was demolished and new walls were built on the remains. The adjacent building on the eastern side was also rebuilt. All of them were erected on a specially prepared platform. A narrow vertical through-space was left in the walls of “kari khan”, encircling the entire mausoleum, allowing the voice of “kari” reciting Salat al-Janazah (funeral prayer) to be heard. The tombs were connected with each other by a wide vaulted opening. The fences adjoin the wall of the old Sufi cell. All the outbuildings are situated to the south of khanqah (Sufi monastery). Water was supplied through ceramic “kuburs” (plumbing). Food for the residents and pilgrims was delivered in the same way.
Numerous restorations and research were carried out in the late 1950s, which made it possible to restore the original décor of the mausoleum in the 1980s. In 1990, UNESCO celebrated the 1000th anniversary of Al-Tirmidhi by reconstructing his mausoleum.
The research revealed that the mausoleum, occupying a relatively small area (about 590 square metres), was one of the most complex medieval monuments in terms of the number of structures that were erected one after another over the centuries. They consist of masonry and adobe brick, interspersed with numerous graves, ceramics and decorative household items. The irregularities of the relief, reconstruction and renovation can tell a lot about the history of the ensemble. It is interesting that before the first constructions a Buddhist temple had been located there. Among the remains here there are the bases of columns, fragments of burnt brick details, remains of aqueducts and domestic pottery of the Kushan period.
Since gaining independence, the renovation and restoration of this unique cultural monument continued. Masters from all over the country made their contribution to the restoration of the ancient architectural complex. The work was rather time-consuming, since it was important to preserve the original appearance. And, judging by the results, they succeeded in it. The territories adjacent to the mausoleum were significantly expanded and refined. Special lighting was installed, trees and flowers were planted. Thus, the ancient cultural monument was enriched with new colors, characteristic for today. All this makes it possible to learn the history of this region even better, which has always been of great interest to the whole world.
The complex was built in the territory of the museum that exhibits artifacts found during archaeological excavations carried out simultaneously with the restoration works.
Al-Tirmidhi
Abu Isa Muhammad ibn Isa as-Sulami ad-Darir al-Bughi al-Tirmidhi (824 – 9 October 892), often referred to as Imam Al-Tirmidhi, was an Islamic scholar and hadith collector. He wrote “Al-Jami as-Sahih” (known as “Jami at-Tirmidhi”), one of the six canonical hadith compilations in Sunni Islam. He also wrote “Shamaili Muhammadiyah” (popularly known as “Shamail at-Tirmidhi”), a compilation of hadiths concerning the personality and the character of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
Birth
Muhammad ibn Isa Al-Tirmidhi was born during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Ma’mun. It is reported that he was born in 209 AH (825-826). However, according to Adh-Dhahabi, Al-Tirmidhi was born near the year 210 AH (825-826), hence some discrepancies among scholars about the exact date of Al-Tirmidhi’s birth. Some sources state that he was born in Mecca, while others believe the scholar was born in Termez, in the south of present-day Uzbekistan (the village of Bugh, to be precise). It is this version which is considered to be more reliable (this is not even surprising, since his nisbats “At-Tirmidhi” and “Al-Bughi”).
Hadith studies
Al-Tirmidhi began studying hadiths at the age of 20. In 235 AH (849-850) he started his journey through Khurasan, Iraq and Hijaz in order to collect hadiths. At that time, Khurasan, the birthplace of Al-Tirmidhi, was a major centre of learning, where a large number of muhaddiths used to live.
Other major centres of learning visited by Al-Tirmidhi were the Iraqi cities of Kufa and Basra. Al-Tirmidhi recorded 42 hadiths from the Kufan teachers. In his “Jami” he used more reports from Kufan teachers than from teachers of any other city.
Al-Tirmidhi was a pupil of Al-Bukhari, who lived in Khurasan. Adh-Dhahabi wrote: “His knowledge of hadiths came from Al-Bukhari”. Al-Tirmidhi mentioned the name of Al-Bukhari 114 times in his “Jami”. Al-Bukhari’s “Kitab at-Tarikh” was the main source for him when Tirmidhi paid attention to discrepancies in the text of hadith or its transmitters. He regarded Al-Bukhari as the most knowledgeable person in Iraq or Khurasan in the science of discrepancies of hadith.
When mentioning the jurists’ decrees, he followed Al-Bukhari’s practice of not mentioning the name of Abu Hanifah. Since he never received a reliable chain of narrators to mention Abu Hanifah’s decrees, he instead attributed them to “some people from Kufa”.
Al-Bukhari also highly appreciated Al-Tirmidhi. He is reported to tell Al-Tirmidhi: “I have profited more from you than you have from me”. And in his “Sahih” he narrated two hadiths from Al-Tirmidhi.
Al-Tirmidhi also narrated several hadiths from Abu Dawud and one from Muslim. Muslim narrated one hadith from Al-Tirmidhi in his own Sahih.
Wensick mentions Ahmad ibn Hanbal as one of the teachers of Al-Tirmidhi. However, according to the most reliable sources, Al-Tirmidhi never went to Baghdad, nor did he attend any of Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s lections. Moreover, Al-Tirmidhi never directly narrates the hadiths from Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his “Jami”.
Some of Al-Tirmidhi’s teachers also taught Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu-Dawud, Ibn Majah and an-Nasai.
Death
According to Adh-Dhahabi, Al-Tirmidhi was blind in the last two years of his life. It is said that the terrible consequence of his blindness was excessive weeping, caused either due to fear of the Almighty or the death of Al-Bukhari’s close friend.
He died on Monday night, 13 Rajab 279 AH (Sunday night, 8 October 892) in Bugh.
Al-Tirmidhi is buried in the outskirts of Sherobod, 60 kilometres north of termez. In his native Termez he is known as Abu Isa Al-Tirmidhi or “Termez Ota” (“Father of Termez”).
Ilmira Gafiyatullina