MARBLE RITUAL VESSEL OF THE GOLDEN HORDE ERA FROM THE SETTLEMENT OF MIZDAHKAN. EPIGRAPHY AND SEMANTICS OF PATTERNS

This article examines the epigraphy and decoration engraved on a ritual vessel made of marble found in 1938 at the Mizdahkan settlement (Republic of Karakalpakstan). The vessel was made in 722/1322 and dates back to the Golden Horde era, when the abandoned Mizdahkan settlement was transformed into a temple center of the Sulaymaniyya brotherhood. The article provides a full reading of the surviving inscriptions on the ritual vessel and, for the first time, a detailed analysis of the semantics of the complex pattern on it is offered, bearing in mind that this is by no means a random set of geometric figures inscribed within each other. Trying to unravel the complex semantics of this pattern on the vessel is all the more important given that artifacts associated with Sufi rituals are extremely rarely the subject of semantic analysis. We concluded that the two- and three-level combinations of geometric patterns on the vessel are associated with the graphic representation of dhikr methods and complex ritual meditations (muraqaba) accepted by the Kubrawiyya Sufis. The results of the analyses (including source data) give grounds to assume that the master deliberately chose such an intricate and unique type of decoration on the vessel he made, since he was well acquainted with the ritual tradition of Kubrawiyya and quite possibly practiced dhikr himself.