HOLY PATRONS III. KAFFOL SHOSHI WHEN THE CITY BECAME TASHKENT

In one of the earliest hadises, (legends about the life of the Prophet Mohammed), he is quoted as saying: «Leave Turks in peace until they leave you in peace».

The consolidation of the Arab Caliphate over the lands occupied by the Turkic tribes was not easy and was carried out, in many respects, due to the combination of circumstances: the Turkic Kahanat had been weakened due to the internal conflicts and the attacks of the Tan Chinese Empire. After the destruction of their ancient capital on the bank of Salar Turk, the rulers of the oasis Chacha tried to apply to the Chinese for help against the Arabs, but in response they were simply faced with a demand that they enter into citizenship of the Empire - without any conditions. Commander Gao Syan-Chji ensnared the Turkic governortudun, Mohedu, by a ruse and in captivity put him to death.  It was only after this that the tribal chieftains took a liking to Muslims and a Chinese military expedition was smashed by a combined Arab and Turkic cavalry attack. However, almost at once, the Caliphate began to lose power over the Movarounnahr, a recently conquered land towards the north from Amudarya River.  Violent disorders regularly flared up.  At first there was a rebellion of people in white dresses under the leadership of Mukana, a mysterious heretical prophet in a mask.  Then there was a mutiny of feudal subjects headed by the discon-tented Arab governor Raphii ibn-al-Lais. «In gratitude» for the suppression of this mutiny the caliph Mamun transferred governance over the region to the local commanders from the Bukhara dynasty of Samanids.

In 819 the Emir Yakhya ibn Samanid, having got charters for governing the Chach and Ilak regions, selected a place for a new capital on the hill not far from a holy spring.  The waters of the spring, according to legend, had once cured the Macedonian, Alexander the Great.  A fortress with watchtowers and the first cathedral mosque were built.  At the foot of a hill, at the crossroads of four caravan routes, the Chorsu market appeared and around it merchants, butchers and craftsmen blocks sprung up. Thus ended the history of Chacha and commenced the chronicle of a new city, originally called Madina ash-Shash or Binkent.  Within two hundred years, however, it had already acquired its present name: Tashkent.
 
Abu Bakr Ismail Kaffol ash-Shoshi was born in the early tenth century in Binkent, into the family of an ordinary townsman. Little is known about his life. The first of the Muslim protectors of Tashkent is said to have been distinguished by religious zeal and a thirst for knowledge of the world.  However, his concern for his aged parents, (one of the Muslim's main virtues), held him for a long time in his paternal home in the encirclement of every day matters.  It was only when he was in his forties that he succeeded in realizing his long-standing dream: to study in Baghdad, at the main Academy of the Islamic world Bait al-Khikmat, which had been founded as far back as under the Caliph Mamun by Al-Khorezmi and Al-Ferghani, both scholars native to Central Asia. Abu Bakr Ismail, however, was attracted most of all not by astronomy and mathematics for which the academy was famous, but by the traditional Islamic theology at that time not being singled out from Islamic law.  He became a follower of one of the four canonical theological schools, (Mazkhab), the Shafiit, named after its founder  the legendary Imam as-Shafii.  Soon he became famous as a Sunni interpreter of the Koran. Although, later on, Khanifit Mazkhab acquired a wide recognition among Turkic peoples, the works of Kaffola Shoshi's have been studied in the religious schools of Muslim countries down to the present day.
From Baghdad Abu Bakr returned to Binkent and, according to the tradition of many ascetics of those times, resided at the city boundary - behind what was in those days the Northern outskirts of the city, looking directly to the steppe.  But his modest choice didn't mean a withdrawal from secular matters. As in the days of his youth, with meekness and zeal, he combined the most everyday cares with prayers and theological investigations.  Soon the townsmen found that they had acquired a benevolent, wise and approachable person as a cousellor, adviser and tutor.  In addition, he was one of the authoritative lawyers of his time. Abu Bakr was given the nickname Kaffol, (Defender), from his contemporaries and his nearest descendants already called him Khazrat Imam: “Great leader of the faithful”.

One of Kaffola Shoshi major contributions was the conversion of the Turks to Islam, both those settled in the environs of his native Chacha and also of the steppe nomads. Inspired by him, prophets went to the remotest corners of the steppe converting the population not by the force of arms, but by the force of words. In the middle of the tenth century, Islam was adopted by the first rulers of the Karakhanid dynasty, who united the numerous tribes of Karluks, Chigil, and Yagma. The vassal state of the Samanids in which, (as in the Caliphate itself), the Arabic-Persian authorities relied upon guards of Turkic mercenaries didn't resist conversion, if only due to the reason that the major part of population, to say nothing of the army, simply didn't take the newcomers from the North as strangers and followers of another faith.  

In 992 the Chacha oasis was conquered by Kharun Bogra-khan.  It was about this time the metropolis began to be called according to the Turkic-style: Tashkent (“Stone City”). At first, this was probably simply due to the convenience of agreement, since at that time there were no stone or brick buildings in the “stone city”. That's the reason why the first mausoleum Kaffol Shoshi, who died in 976, has not been preserved.  The second has, also, not stood the test of time. The current mausoleum was built as far back as the sixteenth century and, having stood up against the blows of several terrible earthquakes, it has survived to the present day, almost as in its original form. In 2007, following a Resolution of the government of Uzbekistan, it has been the subject of intensive restoration, together with the whole architectural complex of the ancient square Khast Imam.