Mausoleum of Sayfiddin Bokharzi and Buyan-Quli Khan (13th–14th centuries)

The mausoleum stands on the grounds of a thirteenth-century Sufi khanaka in Fathabad, a suburb of Bukhara. Inside are two parts: the gurkhana, the burial chamber with a gravestone of rare beauty, and the ziyaratkhana, a room for commemoration.

Sayf ad-Din Bakharzi was a pupil and follower of Najm ad-Din Kubra, founder of the Kubrawiya Sufi order, and the chief sheikh of the Fathabad community. What the order taught was preached in the khanaka: restraint, ceaseless remembrance of God, fasting, patience, silence, seclusion. The khanaka was also a shelter — dervishes travelling between holy places stopped here.

For his wisdom Bakharzi was called the sheikh of the world's sheikhs. After his death the mausoleum became an important shrine, and pilgrims still come — as do travellers drawn by the architecture and the history of the place.

Beside it stands the mausoleum of Buyan Quli Khan, a devout man and a follower of Sayf ad-Din; the building counts among the finest in the district, and the two are best seen together. Fathabad lies away from Bukhara's tourist core, it is quiet, and half an hour is enough.