Ethnographies and folk beliefs claim that women predominate as pilgrims in pilgrimages to Islamic shrines in Kazakhstan. For example, an important common point between the shrine pilgrimage and the Hajj pilgrimage is their pre-Islamic heritage. However, the presence of cultural and non-Muslim religious traditions in pilgrimage rituals at shrines must also be taken into account.
Eliade covered the ground on how sacred space is conceptualized and the Islamic shrine pilgrimage at Aisha Bibi shrine in Kazakhstan aligns with his framework. These three steps to the rite of passage of pilgrimage in the shrine do not include whether the wish is granted or not. As a result, pilgrimages have remained under the government, even in independent Central Asia today, including Kazakhstan.
Chapter 1, “History of Shrines in the Muslim World and Central Asia,” uses historical secondary sources to record the development of Muslim pilgrimages to shrines. The first half looks at pilgrimages to shrines in the wider Muslim world, from Sufism in early Islam to the present.
History of Shrines in the Muslim World and in Central Asia
In the case of Central Asia, the Soviet Union mounted deadly challenges to Islam and the shrine pilgrimage, as the state dismissed the practice as superstitious. This chapter aims to place the modern pilgrimage of Kazakhstan in the wider landscape of pilgrimage in Central Asia and the Muslim world. The shrine pilgrimage is not only being strengthened and restored, but innovations are also being made in practice.
A look at the Islamic literary genre of shrine guides can testify to the flourishing culture of pilgrimage in pre-modern Central Asia. It took until Soviet control of Central Asia before the pilgrimage faced possible extinction. From 1943 to 1945, Islam and specifically pilgrimages in Central Asia would be further impacted by Soviet policy changes.
By the end of Hrsučel's administration in 1964, pilgrimages to shrines in Central Asia had indeed decreased with some measures. The 21st century resurgence of pilgrimage to shrines in Central Asia shows how deeply the practice has long been ingrained in the daily lives of Central Asian Muslims. Pilgrimage to the shrine in Central Asia has undergone great changes in form, from the great prestigious.
More needs to be done to reveal precisely the role of women in shrine pilgrimage in the pre-modern era and in Central Asia.
Women and Shrine Pilgrimage
Because of its ambiguous nature of Islamic legality, the shrine pilgrimage has created opportunities for women to become religious authorities, which would otherwise be rare or. Although shrine pilgrimage opens up more space for female pilgrims and religious authorities, challenges to the presence of women in such spaces will still continue. The second half of this chapter examines the shrine's female pilgrims, three different groups of female pilgrims who are part of the larger female-dominated shrine pilgrimage.
Instead, the reason for women's collective motivation to make the pilgrimage to the shrine lies in the nuances of social mobility that Muslim women have in their respective societies, even if the shrine pilgrimage still somehow manages to consistently produce a female majority. This section on Women as Shrine Pilgrims looks at three groups of women shrine pilgrims: Turkish small town and local shrine pilgrims in the early 1980s;. Women, on the other hand, are more conscious and sensitive about shrine pilgrimage.
In this way, Tapper argues that women seek pilgrimages to shrines as a form of resistance and respite from their secular repression. In this context, shrine pilgrimage acts as a social pressure release valve, a small luxury allowed to women. Tapper believes that the shrine pilgrimage is important for women because it acts as an escape for women to pay respect to God, but it is itself a construct.
Their families encourage pilgrimage in the shrine and by saving their mobility for this, further valorizes the ritual. The women's generous donations in solidarity with Palestinians are in line with local shrine pilgrimage practices, where women also contribute alms to make a religious vow with God. The vastly different societies and the position of women within them should suggest drastic changes in the predominance of women on shrine pilgrimage over time.
And yet all three cases result in female-majority or even female-exclusive pilgrimage groups at shrines. In the middle is a view of pilgrimage to the shrine as an attainable reward for self-imposed restriction alongside other women. These different views still lead to a similar outcome of a predominantly female pilgrimage to the shrine; this can partly be explained by the presence of women's shrines, as in the case of Turkish women, but this is not the case for all groups.
Aisha Bibi Shrine in Kazakhstan
Given the limitations, the Aisha Bibi Shrine was suitable for this fieldwork in terms of determining the baseline number of pilgrim genders and collecting interviews. The shrine of Aisha Bibi is located 20 km outside the center of the city of Taraz in the village also called Aisha Bibi, along the busy Taraz-Shymkent highway in the Zhambyl region of southern Kazakhstan. The shrine area is fenced and has a photogenic paved path leading to the Aisha Bibi Shrine surrounded by rose bushes and benches.
The Aisha Bibi Shrine is only accessible by road and no buses stop nearby, and it is beyond the reach of ride-sharing apps. They had to pass qualifying exams set by the National Religious Ministry to be selected to work as guardians of the Aisha Bibi Shrine. According to the spokesperson of the Taraz State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve, the shrine of Aisha Bibi is a historical object and should be properly treated as a museum.
During the fieldwork, many pilgrims arrived at the Aisha Bibi shrine after hours and were left disappointed and confused to find the gates of the shrine closed. The Aisha Bibi Shrine car park with a tourist booth on the right and shops and the ticket booth at the entrance to the shrine compound on the left. Women go more to the Aisha Bibi shrine to pray for love because she is a symbol of love, while campaigners and politicians come to the Karakhan shrine to ask for blessings.
The shrine is said to date back to the 11th to 12th century, linked to the legend of Aisha Bibi. A local custom recommends first visiting Aisha Bibi's husband, Karakhan, at his shrine in downtown Taraz to ask for 'permission' to meet his wife before visiting Aisha Bibi shrine. However, because Aisha Bibi Shrine is on the highway, more people and tour buses visit Aisha Bibi Shrine compared to Karakhan Shrine.
The sanctity of Aisha Bibi is sometimes attributed to her holy, even prophetic lineage;. Pilgrims and religious tour groups tended to emphasize Aisha Bibi's tragic love story and holiness and. These tours, of which I observed less than five times during the course of the fieldwork, were visually different from caravans and even the shrine workers, shrine guards and government officials at Aisha Bibi Shrine made distinctions.
Apart from caravans, the second most prominent category of pilgrims at the Aisha Bibi shrine were family units. She also has a story of success related to pilgrimage to the shrine, though specifically by Aisha Bibi.
Conclusion
Women often play a prominent role behind the scenes at Islamic shrines, not only in Central Asia but in the wider Muslim world. The Mazar of Boboi-oba: Typical and Atypical Features of Sacred Sites in Central Asia' in Muslim Saints and Mausoleums in Central Asia and Xinjiang, edited by Shinmen Yasushi, Sawada Minoru & Edmund White, 91-105. Local Politics and Patronage of the Shrine of the Holy Nativity in Kazakhstan” in Central Asian Affairs Vol.
The Study of Religious Mobility: Pilgrimage, Shrine Visits and Religious Tourism from the Maghreb to the Middle East” in New Itineraries and Pathways in Pilgrimage Studies. Sacred Places and 'Public' Narratives: The Shrine of Ahmad Yasavi in the Hagiographical Traditions of the Yasavi Sufi Order, 16th - 17th Centuries", in The Muslim World vol. Shamanism in Central Asia" in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient Vol.
Introduction" in Sacred Spheres and Islamic Landscapes: Placements of Spiritual Power Across Time and Place. The Changing Relationship Between Mazar (Shrine) and Dar-al-Ulum (Seminar) Revisited," in Sufism Today: Heritage and Tradition in the Global Community. Marabout Women in Dakar: Creating Authority in Islamic Knowledge” in Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute, Vol.
Palestinian Children Indonesian Women's Shopping Activities While on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem” in Muslim Women's Pilgrimage to Mecca and Beyond. Sacred Lineages in Central Asia: Translocality and Identity,” in Mobilities, Borders and Ideas of Travel: Rethinking Translocality Beyond Central Asia and the Caucasus. Agency and the Roles of South Jordanian Bedouin Women on Pilgrimages and Visiting Holy Sites” in Approaching Religion Vol.
Negotiating with Baraka: Persian Sufism, Mysticism and Premodern Politics” in The Muslim World, Vol. On Saints, Shrines and Tractors: Disentangling the Meaning of Islam in Soviet Central Asia” in Journal of Islamic Studies Vol. Tapper, Nancy “Chapter 12: Ziyaret: Gender, Movement, and Exchange in a Turkish Community,” in Muslim Travelers: Pilgrimage, Migration, and the Religious Imagination.
