. All the Russias; travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, & Central Asia. THIC TOMB OF TAMKKLANE—THE UllKR CHAMBER mosque of the Shah Zindah, or Living Saint, a martyred saintof Islam, who is to arise again in the hour of the triumph of hisfailh. You enter it through a blue and white-tiled gateway, andpass by a marble stair between a double row of tombs of Timursrelatives and generals. To the left, when I visited it, the verysacred mosque was crowded with kneeling worshippers, all bow-ing together like a wave as the leading niollali chanted the cre
. All the Russias; travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, & Central Asia. THIC TOMB OF TAMKKLANE—THE UllKR CHAMBER mosque of the Shah Zindah, or Living Saint, a martyred saintof Islam, who is to arise again in the hour of the triumph of hisfailh. You enter it through a blue and white-tiled gateway, andpass by a marble stair between a double row of tombs of Timursrelatives and generals. To the left, when I visited it, the verysacred mosque was crowded with kneeling worshippers, all bow-ing together like a wave as the leading niollali chanted the credoof Islam. If I caught thedeeprollingalliterativesyllablesaright,they were the sacred words which Mohammed saw in letters of 332 ALL THE RUSSIAS fire on the tiara of Gabriel, since that day the profession of themost fanatical— God, and nothing but God, and Mohammedthe Prophet of God. Then through a long narrow corridor tothe entrance of the inner mosque, on the threshold of which amollah was devoutly praying, with its huge inscription, God isGreat, and a green text from Mecca, a carved wooden pulpit,. KiMl; (II TAMEKLANK—THE CRYPT WHERE HE LIES and an enormous Koran, five feet square. Then across paddedcarpets to the inner sanctuary, where, behind a pierced stonescreen, old green flags hang, and a faint candle shows the deepstone-built hole where the Saint awaits the joyful news of thefinal triumph of Islam. Beside the screen is a heavy little woodendoor, leading to the vault below, and fastened with a mostquaint padlock. That has never been unlocked since the Saintentered the earth, twelve hundred and fifty-nine years ago,said the mollah who was conducting me—with a fine disregard,it must be confessed, of historical accuracy, for that wouldplace the date about six hundred years before the birth ofTimur himself, who built the mosque. This spot, however,does not need the aid of pious fiction, and through these narrow SAMARKAND AND BEYOND 333 ways and gates and prayer-ch
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