Oriented on making people closer

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Completing the trip to the ancient country of Margush, undertaken during the grandiose theatrical composition shown at the Opening Ceremony of the 5th Asian Games, we saw how the monuments of Greater and Lesser Gyz Gala and Sultan Sanjar Mausoleum are reconstructed on the 3D panoramic-cylindrical monitor with laser light projections...

But then one of the guests of our country, who were at the Olympic Stadium, asked: "And where is this beauty kept? Where is all this? ..."

The great Central Asian city, for a long time known as Maru Shahu-jan (Mary - the Soul of Kings) grew on the fertile soil of the oasis of the Murgab River. Its uniqueness feature is a system of nearby ancient settlements from different historical epochs, while in other ancient cities it was customary to erect new settlements directly on the site of the old ones. The settlements of Ancient Merv occupy the territory of thousands of hectares today!

Erk-kala, Gyaur-kala, Sultan-kala, Abdullahan-kala - each of these names is related to the centuries-old history with rise and fall of kingdoms and dynasties, the history of wars and the continuous chronicle of creation, the revival of the city after very serious social upheaval. And today it is a real archeological paradise for scientists who come here from different countries of the world and dig on the ancient Turkmen land, continuing the scientific traditions of their predecessors who studied Merv from the end of the 19^th century.

Taking into account the exceptional importance of the ancient historical monuments located here, the Government of Turkmenistan established the State Historical and Cultural Reserve "Ancient Merv", and in 1999 the entire complex of these invaluable monuments was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.

Once, Merv, like Baghdad, Cairo or Damascus, was considered as one of the most important capitals of the Islamic world. In those days, Merv was one of the most beautiful cities in the East. At the beginning of the 9^th century, the Khorasan governor of the Arab Caliphate al-Mamun, the son of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, settled there. In 813, al-Mamun became caliph, but he lived in Merv for long time after that.

Historians noted that at that time Merv actually played the role of the capital of the Caliphate - all orders and appointments in the Arab state came from there. At that time, it was a short but brilliant period in city’s history.

The real height of Merv was in the 11th-12th centuries, during the reign of the Great Turkmen Seljuk, whose empire stretched from the lower Amu Darya to the Mediterranean Sea. It is known that during the reign of Melik Shah there was a significant reconstruction of the Merv fortification structures. The city developed rapidly and became known as "The Soul of Kings." The era of a real cultural renaissance came when Merv the best minds of the Muslim world, poets, artists and architects, who left their imperishable works to the descendants, came to live and create there.

Merv under Seljuk was intensively expanding, becoming the largest city in Central Asia and one of the largest in the entire Muslim East (together with the suburbs its area reached 1800 hectares, and the population was 150 thousand people). Taking into account that most of the cities had 2-5 thousand inhabitants in that epoch, one can imagine the scale of the Seljuk Merv. The last Seljuk governor, Sultan Sanjar, made Merv the capital of a vast empire in the year 1118. The countless treasures were collected there, that allowed to erect castles, mosques, and palaces.

The Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar rising in the heart of Sultan-kala, the Seljuk part of the city of Merv, is the oldest building in Turkmenistan. There are not too many monuments of architecture in the world, which have been similarly preserved to the modern era and which were so often mentioned in medieval manuscripts.

The very first information about the mausoleum of Sanjar is contained in the writings of medieval authors. A well-known Arab traveler, geographer and historian Yakut al-Khamavi, who visited Merv in the beginning of the 13^th century, before the Mongol invasion, wrote about this mausoleum: "A dome of blue color rises on the top of it. It is visible at a distance of one day's journey."

Even after the destruction committed by the hordes of Genghis Khan, when Merv lay in ruins for several decades, the eyewitnesses wrote about Sultan Sanjar Mausoleum that "this is the tallest building in the world" (Rashid-ad-Din, 14^th century) and "one of the greatest buildings of the world, so strong that it cannot be damaged"(Isfizari, 15^th century).

400 years later, in 1880, Edmund O'Donovan, a reporter of “The Daily News” newspaper from London, visited Merv and wrote: "The grave of Sultan Sanjar is a place of pilgrimage and every Turkmen passes by with expressing respect to the memory of the great ruler."

The Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar was built in the middle of the 12^th century as the central part of the ensemble, which also included a palace and a Friday mosque. The present construction is the only surviving in this complex after the destruction of Merv by the Mongols in 1221-22. The inscription on the stone slab in the center of the hall reads: "This place, ennobled by the remains of one, who was called Sultan Sanjar, who descended from the Seljuks, the great ones, late fifth century of the Hegira. He was fair like Iskander (Alexander the Great), he was the patron of scientists and poets, under his rule the world of Islam imbued with prosperity and happiness, due to sciences and arts."

There is a lot of information available about Sultan Sanjar. He was the youngest son of the powerful sultan Melik Shah and ascended the throne only after a quarter of a century after his father's death, when his elder brothers were unable to retain centralized power in the great empire inherited by them. The state began to disintegrate quickly into small princely possessions.

But Sanjar, who had been the governor of Khorasan for a long time, took effective steps to save the state. He moved the capital of the empire from Isfahan to Merv, which was the cradle of the Seljuk state and where the graves of the famous ancestors - Chagrybek and Alp-Arslan were located, Sultan Sanjar began to return many previously fallen lands. Under his good governance the glory of the great dynasty was returned. The huge empire, that united the West and the East, received a boost to the political, economic and cultural prosperity, and begun to shine again.

The preserved structures, scattered throughout the vast territory of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve, testify to the former greatness of this region. The fact that life once boiled here, crowded bazaars rumbled, caravans from all over the world were moving around, beautiful buildings with domes and high minarets were drowning in greenery, the cool channels were flowing from the deep channels, in the richest libraries the wise men plunged into the endless expanses of science, and in the luxurious halls of the palace of the Sultan the destinies of countries and peoples thousands of kilometers away were discussed.

And the grandiose Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar through the mists of time brought to us the evidence of its former greatness. The architectural idea, rich decorative finish, though not completely preserved, and the bold constructive decisions of the mausoleum at the time speak eloquently about the long evolutionary stage of the building art in this region of the world.

Researchers scientifically substantiated the existence of large construction associations in the Turkmen-Seljuk state and even independent architectural schools that developed their own distinctive style. The inscription in the interior of the mausoleum has retained the name of the architect - Mohammed ibn Atsyz al-Serahsi. It follows that he was a native of Serakhs and certainly belonged to the once famous Serakhs artel. Monuments, built in that era by Serakhs masters, are preserved not only in Turkmenistan, but also in neighboring countries.

A decade and a half ago, a serious restoration of the mausoleum was carried out, during which an external dome was recreated and the shape of the obverse part of the dome drum was changed, and the bypass gallery of the upper tier was completely restored. Thus, at the very beginning of the 21^st century the mausoleum had the new image, recreated according to all canons and requirements of scientific restoration. Everything is done qualitatively, which is not to allow the loss of the priceless relic. Turkmen restorers follow this strategy in other projects, trying to preserve the spirit of the monument, its attractive aura of authenticity.

The name “Sanjar” in modern Turkmenistan became a brand: his sculpted portraits are installed in Ashgabat and Mary, and his canonical image adorns one of the Turkmen national currency bills. But more often, perhaps, the name of the great ruler sounds under the majestic vaults of his tomb, when tourists listen to the stories of the guide, and pilgrims, calling to God, mention the name of Sultan Sanjar in their prayers, the distant descendant of the forefather of the Turkmen - Oguzkhan.

... At the Olympic Stadium the "winged" horses literally fly out of the darkness. The riders hold the flags in their hands. Rapid cavalry makes several circles around the field, in the center of which there is a giant figure of Oguzkhan came from non-existence. The ancestor of the Turkmen nation had a mighty bow and three arrows in his hands.

Six horsemen are the sons of Oguzkhan and they are grouped around him. The sun rays descend to them from the sky. Riders make a circle of honor around each of the arrows of heaven. And at this time, the great descendants of Oguzkhan, the glorious sons of our Motherland are rising up out of the ground, as if from the depths of our memory, one after the other - Gorkut ata, Gyorogly, Togrul bek, Alp-Arslan, Ertogrul Gazy, Makhtumkuli...

Today every schoolboy knows: the legendary history of Turkmens begins with Oguzkhan. His name is identified with the Oguz. This ethnonym was fixed in the sources already in the first millennium BC. There are many written monuments that bear witness to the historic past of the Turkmen. Among the most significant are the earliest examples of genre works: the old Oguz destans, the folk epic "Gorkut ata", Orkhono-Yenisei inscriptions, Mahmud Kashgari's Dictionary of Turkic Languages, Yusuf Balasaguni's “The Kitadgu Bilig” (The Wisdom which brings happiness), as well as the fundamental works of medieval historians, and writings of well-known travelers and individual translations. Most brightly the people's ideas about Oguzkhan are reflected in the cycle of folklore legends, united under the name "Oguznama."

"Oguznama" is the most valuable source in the study of the centuries-old cultural heritage of our nation, where the richest and most diverse information on history, literature, language, culture, ethical and aesthetic criteria and preferences of Turkmen Oguzes are collected. "Oguznama" was carefully kept in the form of manuscripts intertwined in books, and was also passed from mouth to mouth, forming the basis of a self-contained repertoire of Turkmen bakshy (singers-storytellers).

The main part of “Oguznama” is created in the Turkmen language and is kept in the largest manuscript collections in the world. Among the most valuable monuments of ancient Turkmen script and literature are the Oguznama folk epic poems in the libraries of Paris and Kazvin, Rashid ad-Din Fazlallah's book "Universal History" (14^th century), "Oguznama" by Dan Ata, the Omani historian Yazygiyoglu, a native Nisy Salar Baba Gulaly-oglu Hyridari (16^th century), as well as the fundamental work "Origin of Turkmens" Abulgazi Bahadurkhan (17^th century) and many others. Especially popular among the Turkmens was the poem "Oguznama" wrote by the classic of national literature Nurmuhammed Andalib (18^th century).

According to legends, Oguzkhan had six sons - Gun (Sun), Ai (Moon) and Yyldyz (Star), Geok (Heaven), Dag (Mountain) and Deniz (Sea). In the theatrical composition they were grouped around their father Oguzkhan, who was holding a bow and three arrows.

According to legends, Oguzkhan distributed his lands among his sons, symbolically dividing the bow and arrows between them. The bow, broken down into three parts, goes to the three older sons, and the arrows to the three younger sons, the tribes "uch ok" ("three arrows").

Oguzkhan had 24 grandsons and they founded 24 Turkmen tribes. The Turkmen nation was descended from the grandsons of Oguzkhan.

There is a legend about the adoption by the ancestors of the Turkmen of Islam, which is also associated with the great name of Oguzkhan.

The researchers believe that the legendary image of Oguzkhan embodies the earliest stages of the history of the Turkmen people: Turano-Massagat, Hunno-Ancient Türkic, and Oguz-Turkmen. The whole history of the Turkmen nation's development is reflected in the epos.

The style of "Oguznama" is partly scientific, and in part is artistic, it contributes to the most complete, capacitive display of historical events, phenomena, genealogy, and artistic creativity of the Old Oguz ethnic community. Almost all variants of "Oguznama" contain identical information about the genealogical tree of Turkmen Oguzes, the names of sons and grandsons of Oguzkhan, the form and content of their totem symbols, and much more. The thread of the narrative leads us to the origins of an ethnic tribal gradation, genealogically linked to the grandchildren of the glorious ancestor of Turkmen nation - Oguzkhan.

Information that has survived to the present day, contained in literary sources, unites in a vivid picture, in which the reality and art fiction harmoniously intertwine. However, in spite of this, there is still a possibility to restore the general storyline of the cycle of destinies about Oguzkhan ("Ergenekon", "Bozgurt", "Alp Ar Tonge", "Tumarshah", "Shu", "and Shirak"), and roughly determine the chronology of events described there.

Most of the Oguz destans are written in a patriotic, heroic style. The cycle of destinies about Oguz has a moral-didactic character and reveals the fundamental concepts of honor, nobility, patriotism and courage in the struggle for freedom and independence of their land. Destan “Ergenekon” tells about the full dramatic pages of the history of the Turkmen Oguzes, how the heroic tribes were in a difficult situation after the loss of their statehood, but then, having gathered together the strength of spirit, "struck the thickness of the mountains" and defended their freedom.

Other destans are also permeated by a heroic pathos, in particular, the "Tumarshah" destan tells of the acts of a regal person on the coast of the ancient Khazar Sea and in the hot sands of the Karakum Desert. Almost all the early written records of Turkmens were created in poetic form.

A peculiar continuation of the cycle "Oguznama" and destans about Oguz became the epos "Gorkut Ata". According to scientists, this epos appeared 1,500 years ago and gained wide popularity among the Turkmen Oguzes. Up to now, two hand-written samples of "Gorkut Ata" have been preserved: one is stored in the funds of the Dresden Library (Germany), another one is in the Vatican Book Collection. The Dresden version of the handwritten copy was made in the 16^th century.

Despite the long period, the name of Oguzkhan remained in the minds of the Turkmen people. This name is on the pages of school textbooks and scientific works, on canvases of painters and in works of contemporary poets. Now it is immortalized in the capital of Turkmenistan in the names of the palace complex - the official residence of the Head of State Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, one of the largest city highways, the “Turkmenfilm” film studio, the youth hockey team from Ashgabat, one of the etraps in Mary velayat.

Majestic statues of Oguzkhan can be seen at the Independence Monument in the capital of the country and in the center of the fountain complex near the International Airport of Ashgabat. His image is placed on a banknote in denomination of 100 Turkmen manats and on a commemorative coin. Finally, the eight-pointed Star of Oguzkhan, which is also the shape of the State Emblem and the Flag of the President of Turkmenistan, has become widespread in the country.

The Star of Oguzkhan is actively used by local architects and designers in the design of majestic buildings and small architectural forms. Using the language of symbols, architects transform the graphic model into a three-dimensional form. A special place for ancient Turkmen symbolism is allocated literally in all the facilities of the Olympic complex, where the 5^th Asian Games "Ashgabat 2017", the largest in the history of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, are coming to an end.

In Ashgabat and other cities of the country there is not a modern structure, where the eight-pointed Star of Oguzkhan would not be used. Perhaps the most noteworthy is the TV and Radio Broadcasting Center "Turkmenistan", which got into the Guinness Book of Records. Representatives of the "Guinness World Records" company recognized the huge eight-pointed Star of Oguzkhan, decorating the center of the TV tower as the world's largest architectural star.

Another example is the Marriages Palace "Bagt koshgi" with its enormous globe, which is placed in the shape formed by six octagrams. The pattern is also repeated in smaller elements, such as metal street light shades, stylobates, fountain pools and well-tended lawns.

Behind these and countless other examples that amaze the imagination of all those who come to Turkmenistan for the first time, the desire to create an individual, harmonious, highly comfortable human environment, favorable for the realization of public and personal needs, expressing the social significance of the processes occurring in it and the spirit of the time is clearly traced.

The Star of Oguzkhan has become a true visiting card and the symbol of Turkmenistan. At the Olympic Stadium, when a rider on a great Akhal-Teke horse with a torch ascended to the Tower of History, the giant Star of Oguzkhan was above it.

The rider, according to the Turkmen tradition, made three circles atop of the History Tower and, putting his horse on its hind legs, touched The Star of Oguzkhan with a torch. The two flares moved towards the Olympic cauldron, erected over the head of a giant horse, and the peaceful flame of the Ashgabat Games of 2017 have been glowed over the lovely city.