Khoja Abd al-Khalik Abd al-Jamil Gijduvani

Bukhara is a city like a magic box, every next street of which is ready to share a story or a legend that will not leave any visitor indifferent. Throughout the Islamic world, Bukhara is known as the city where the most famous Sufi order Khadjagan was founded. The founder of the order was a well–known representative of Sufism, one of the seven Bukhara pirs (great, well-kown Sufi), the tenth in the golden succession of sheikhs of the Nakshbandi Sufi Tarikat - theologian Khoja Abd al-Khalik Abd al-Jamil Gijduvani.

The exact date of birth of the Sufi sheikh remains unknown for certain, but many researchers are inclined to believe that it was the very beginning of the XII century – 1103. Abdulkhalik Gijduvani was born in the small town of Gijduvan, which is located 52 km from Bukhara. His father, the famous Islamic theologian, Hadith scholar and Islamic Lawyer, Imam Malik, was from Malatya (modern territory of Turkey). Mother is a representative of a noble family of the rulers of Byzantium. Abdulkhalik Gijduvani's parents moved to Central Asia by the will of fate, and then finally settled in Bukhara. 

Abdulkhalik Gijduvani gained spiritual knowledge from early childhood from his father Imam Malik, who was the second of four imams of the Sunni school, the founder of the Malikite Madhhab (theological and law school). At the age of 9, Abdulkhalik Gijduvani already knew the Koran.

Then Abdulkhalik Gijduvani studied in Bukhara with Allam Sadreddin, and received initiation from murshid (teacher), the great Tajik-Persian pir, theologian, Sufi sheikh and unique righteous of Islam Yusuf Hamadani. Simultaneously with Abdulkhalik Gijduvani, Yusuf Hamadani had such famous followers as Ahmad Yassawi, Abdulloh Baraki and Khoja Hassan Andaki. In the second half of the XII century, Yusuf Hamadani left Khorasan, his deputy Sheikh Abdulkhalik Gijduvani, a supporter of the hidden dhikr, began to spread his teachings in Khorezm and Khorasan, and Ahmad Yassavi, as a supporter of the loud dhikr, became a murshid (teacher) on the territory of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. However, centuries later, both of these tarikas (the way of the Sufi, the teaching) became popular in Central Asia, Anatolia and the Balkans. 

According to legends, Imam Malik, the father of Abdulkhalik Gijduvani, was acquainted with Saint Khizr, who predicted to the Imam the birth of his son, who would become a great sheikh. After the birth of Abdulkhalik Gijduvani, Hazrat Khizr took him to his training. It was he who taught Gijduvani and the first Caliph Abu Bakr the hidden dhikr, and later introduced him to Yusuf Hamadani. 

Contemporaries described Abdulkhalik Gijduvani as a tall, white-skinned man with black hair and eyebrows, who was sensitive, warm-hearted and insightful, not denying anyone help and support. For his openness and wisdom, he was nicknamed Hojai Jahon, which translates as “world’s hoja".

It is to him that the saying belongs: “Every imam should own a craft.” Many books belong to Gijduvani's pen, the most famous of them are: “Vassiyat-name", “Risala-i Tariko", “Risala-i Sahavia", “Zikr-i-al Khalik Gijduvani".

Already at the age of 22, Abdulkhalik Gijduvani, who became a theologian, always sought to end the confrontations of various Islamic movements on the territory of Transoxiana. 

The world’s Khoja died at the end of the XII century, in the period between 1179 and 1200, the exact date is unknown. He was buried by his students in his native Gijduvan, next to his mother's grave. However, for a long time there was no mausoleum near the burial place of the great sheikh. 

With the coming to power of the representative of the Temurids – Mirzo Ulugbek, who respected and honored the memory of Sufi sheikhs and theologians, he decided to erect a madrasah at the grave of Abdulkhalik Gijduvani. The construction was completed in 1433. The madrasah was small, one-story, its portal was facing east. Over time, a mosque and a minaret were built around the madrasah.

In 2003, on the date dedicated to the 900th anniversary of the birth of Abdulkhalik Gijduvani, on the initiative of UNESCO, the first President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov and the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan, a decision was made on a large-scale restoration of the memorial complex. Restoration work was carried out on an area of 6 hectares. The modern memorial is a single–domed wooden aivan, mounted on wooden columns, under which is the gravestone of the great sheikh, whose granite slab is decorated with words from the Koran. Madrasahs with hujras (Sufi monasteries), minaret and mosque were restored, the territory around the complex was improved and landscaped. 

Today, the memorial complex of Abd Al Khalik Gijduvani is one of the most famous pilgrimage destinations for Muslims from all over the world.