Seyitjemaletdin

The Seyitjemaleddin Mosque, known by its name, is truly a very complex structure that has served the functions of a mosque, a mausoleum, a madrasah, and a khanqah. The study of the mosque in Anau began with V. A. Zhukovsky in 1886. In 1904, the American expedition of R. Pumpelly excavated its ruins. During the Soviet Turkmenistan period — namely, the 1920s — A. A. Karelin and V. R. Tripolsky investigated the causes of its collapse and destruction, while S. S. Sklyarovsky prepared its drawings. Restoration work was carried out at different times (by V. R. Tripolsky and N. M. Bachinsky). In 1947, under the leadership of M. E. Masson, the South Turkmenistan Archaeological Expedition (STAE) undertook an in-depth and comprehensive study of the mosque. At the top of the mosque’s portal, a large inscription mentioning the name of Sultan Abul-Qasim-Babur, ruler of Khorasan (1446–1457), states: “This building was constructed during the reign of the great sultan, the ruler of his peoples, the protector of lands and centuries, Abul-Qasim-Babur Bahadur Khan. May the Almighty eternalize his power and his reign!” In other inscriptions, it is noted that this “House of Beauty” was built in 1455–1456 at the expense of a certain Muhammad in memory of his father Jamal-ad-din-ud-din. G. A. Pugachenkova confirms that the Muhammad mentioned in the inscription on the mosque was the vizier Muhammad Khudaydot, and that his father Jamaleddin, who is buried there, was from Anau. The structure was never fully completed because after Sultan Babur's death (1457), a period of civil war and devastation began. The mosque, constructed of well-fired brick, was never adorned with glazed tiles. Its portal faced north, and in the center of the south wall was a mihrab covered in glazed tiles. On both sides of the mihrab were small arched niches that protruded from the wall surface. On the other two walls of the mosque were two deep and spacious niches each. The most valuable artistic feature of the mosque was its glazed portal decoration, which displayed two terrifying dragon figures stretching toward one another. Their yellowish bodies, against a dark blue glazed background covered with fine floral patterns, coiled across the surface. These floral patterns extended outward from each dragon's mouth. There are no other examples of such dragons depicted on religious structures in Central Asia. Despite the deep-rooted tradition of dragons in Central Asian art history, the definitive explanation for the depiction of dragons on the Anau mosque has not yet been found. G. A. Pugachenkova offers the most convincing interpretation — that this reflects the totem of the primary Turkmen tribe who inhabited Anau at that time, and that Sheikh Jalaleddin, who was buried in Anau, may have belonged to this tribe. The idea that the totem (the tribe’s religious symbol) originated locally is further supported by the unique glazed decoration surrounding the portal, its Arabic inscriptions, and the fact that nowhere else in Central Asian architectural monuments are dragons depicted in this way. Moreover, the shapes of the decoration are characteristic of the pottery designs from the Turkmen Eneolithic (Copper-Bronze Age) period and continue to survive in Turkmen carpet art to this day. All of this allows us to conclude that the artistic style of the Anau mosque decoration is a direct legacy of the Turkmen people’s distant ancestors.