Muslim saints and mausoleums in Central Asia and Xinjiang

Sacred places or mazars, as they are referred to in this volume, play an important role in the intricate system of religion of the Muslim people in former Soviet Central Asia and Xinjiang (Chinese Central Asia). There are numerous mazars all over Central Asia, and most of them are the mausoleums of Islamic saints, in which various people are believed to have been buried: Islamic saints and leaders of Islamic mysticism; saints and prophets who belong to central Muslim traditions; legendary saints whose existence is questionable; kings and leaders who were active during the Islamization period. A pilgrimage to a mazar is normally motivated by pleas for intercession from the religious personage buried in the shrine and is typically associated with Sufism. This volume provides the cogent results of recent historical and anthropological research conducted by ten international scholars in the Ferghana Valley and Xinjiang Uyghur region, and offers new perspectives for research on the mazars in Central Asia. On the basis of these results, we can broaden the scope of our research on the beliefs of Islamic saints and their mausoleums in the Muslim regions around the world.