Anau Mosque or the shrine of Seyit Jamal ad-Din

Twelve kilometers east of the capital of Turkmenistan, near the Ashgabat-Mary highway, in a fertile valley between the Karakum Desert and the Kopetdag mountain range, lie the ruins of a unique 15th-century architectural monument known as the Anau Mosque or the shrine of Seyit Jamal ad-Din.

Not far from it, one can find a famous archaeological site from the Eneolithic period (3rd millennium BCE). This site consists of two mounds, northern and southern, whose study began in 1904 by an American expedition led by Raphael Pumpelly. After the expedition’s findings were published in the United States in 1908, the Anau mounds gained worldwide fame, becoming a primary source for studying ancient agricultural cultures of southern Turkmenistan, which since then have been referred to as the “Anau cultures.” However, these were small settlements (the northern mound measures 60 meters in diameter and 12 meters in height) and cannot be compared to larger and richer archaeological sites in the region, such as Namazga-depe, Kara-depe, and Altyn-depe, also located in the foothills of the Kopetdag valley. Anau’s prominence stems from being the first discovered site of its kind. Throughout the 20th century, it repeatedly became the focus of new research by Soviet and American archaeologists.

To the east of the Eneolithic mounds lies a large medieval settlement. The ancient name of the city that once existed here remains unknown. Researchers tend to identify it with the Parthian settlement “Tatar,” mentioned by the ancient Greek traveler and geographer Isidore of Charax. Written sources from the 13th–15th centuries associate this area with the fortress of Suluk. The name “Anau” has been in use since the mid-18th century. The settlement consists of a large citadel covering over 7 hectares (shaped like an irregular circle with a diameter of 300–350 meters), built on a hill and rising 10–12 meters above the plain. It is surrounded by a ring of collapsed walls with towers and a wide, almost filled-in moat. The upper part of the fortress wall was made of adobe bricks, while the lower layer contains remnants of an earlier clay wall. Beyond the fortress, in the southwest, lay a provincial town of the 18th–19th centuries, rural in character, covering an area of about 250 hectares.

Archaeological excavations on the fortress hill revealed the lowest layer dating back to the early Parthian period. Additionally, ceramics from the pre-Islamic era, a significant layer from the 9th–10th centuries when the settlement expanded beyond the fortress walls, and pottery with engraved ornaments from the 11th–12th centuries, a time of cultural decline for the city, were discovered. During the Mongol invasion, the fortress was destroyed, but life here quickly resumed, as evidenced by numerous finds from the 13th–14th centuries. A new period of flourishing occurred during the Timurid era. However, the only structures surviving from this period include a 15th-century underground sardoba (water reservoir) with a round basin 6.5 meters in diameter and, on the southeastern crest of the former wall near the central gates, the ruins of a mosque in front of the tomb of Sheikh Jamal ad-Din.

The mosque itself was constructed, according to inscriptions on the façade and interior, during the governance of the Timurid governor Abu-l-Qasim Babur Bahadur Khan (1446–1457). The construction was financed by his vizier, Muhammad Khudaydat, who chose the site near the grave of his father, Sheikh Jamal ad-Din, a native of Anau. The mosque was designed as a large religious complex, combining a memorial hall (ziyaratkhana), a Sufi hospice (khanaqah), rooms (hujras) for pilgrims, and likely a religious school (madrasa). The building’s composition was defined by its location on the sloping terrain at the crest of the former fortress. This monumental structure is characterized by the asymmetry of its right and left wings, the free arrangement of varying dome volumes, and the spatial lightness of its interiors.

Along the three facades of the main building, a basement level with hujras extended down the slope of the hill. Its flat roof reached the mosque floor level and served as an open terrace. The square hall, measuring 10.5 meters across, was covered by a dome resting on four intersecting massive arches and squinches. This structural concept had been introduced into the architecture of Iran and Turan just a few years earlier by the architect Qavam al-Din Shirazi. Inside, the hall’s walls were divided into three tiers: the lower level featured pointed niches with openings to the terrace, while the upper tiers contained niche-lodges. Spiral staircases in the building’s corners led to surrounding galleries on the second and third levels.

The hall opened northward with a wide vaulted opening. Outside, this was presented as a prominent portal richly adorned with decorative elements, forming the courtyard’s central composition. The portal was faced with polished bricks with inserts of blue and azure tiles and mosaic sets, while its upper section featured a perforated arcade with seven openings, some of which retained traces of stained glass. In the tympanum above the arch, there was a unique mosaic depiction of two dragons against a background of apple blossoms. They are depicted heraldically, facing each other—an image deeply rooted in local traditions, widely represented in Islamic art and architecture, and analogous to Chinese motifs.

The serpentine bodies of the Anau dragons, or ajdarha, with four clawed limbs, are masterfully integrated into the tympanum above the mosque’s central arch. They are marked by dynamic expressiveness, as though frozen in motion. This effect is achieved through the stylized design of their heads with bulging eyes, tufts of beard and mane, and the overall undulating dynamics of their forms. The dark purple scales of the dragons are outlined in white, with their dorsal fin-like extensions rendered in a honey-yellow hue. Tongues extend from their open mouths, merging with the floral patterns that densely surround these mythical creatures. The saturated blue background of the dragon mosaics harmonizes perfectly with the terracotta hue of the brickwork on the portal. This demonstrates the exceptional craftsmanship and refined artistic sense of the unknown creator and the artisans who executed the design.

The mosaic panels of the Anau Mosque were created using a typical 14th–15th-century Central Asian technique known as kashin—a silicate, glazed ceramic material akin to European majolica. Researchers determined that the kashin of the mosque mosaics consisted of quartz with alumina and lime additives. The coloring agents included oxides of cobalt, copper, manganese, and iron. The porous structure of the ceramic allowed the glaze to penetrate, forming a thin, glassy surface layer with intense tonal qualities. The kashin material could be easily cut, enabling the creation of various curvilinear shapes for mosaic assembly. The large mosaic panels with dragons were preassembled on square panels securely attached to the wall with a thick gypsum-clay layer (ganch).

The Anau shrine has long attracted researchers. Alongside studies of its construction, minor repairs were undertaken. The most extensive documentation and photography of the monument were carried out in 1947 by the South Turkmenistan Archaeological Complex Expedition (STACE) led by Galina Pugachenkova, who later published the book The Anau Mosque (Ashgabat, 1959), offering a comprehensive and in-depth study of this remarkable Central Asian architectural monument.

By the late 19th century, the structure had already suffered significant damage due to soil subsidence, earthquakes, and frequent military actions. It was completely destroyed in the Ashgabat earthquake on October 6, 1948. The dragon mosaic panels, shattered into small fragments when they fell from a height, were buried under 2–3 meters of debris. Only some fragments of the mosaic were recovered during local clearances, while most of the composition remained buried for 53 years. Thanks to a project supported by the “U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation” in 2001, Turkmen specialists managed to clear the area in front of the main façade of the Anau Mosque, partially reinforce the remaining walls, and, most importantly, recover all surviving mosaic fragments. This work was conducted by the National Directorate for the Preservation, Study, and Restoration of Historical and Cultural Monuments of Turkmenistan. Unfortunately, only about 30% of the mosaic has been preserved. The recovered fragments have been meticulously restored and are now displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ashgabat. The ruins of the mosque, specifically the tomb of Seyit Jamal ad-Din, have long become a significant local shrine, attracting daily pilgrims who perform traditional ziyarat rituals and make wishes, hoping for the saint’s intercession.