Ismaili Centre, Dushanbe

The Ismaili Centre, Dushanbe is one of six such centres world-wide and is an Ismaili jamatkhana. It was the fifth purpose-built Ismaili Centre, and the first in Central Asia.

The Ismaili Centre, Dushanbe
Religion
AffiliationNizari Ismaili Muslim
LeadershipHis Highness the Aga Khan
Location
Location47 Ismoil Somoni Avenue; 734000 Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Geographic coordinates38.58521°N 68.7634°E / 38.58521; 68.7634
Architecture
Architect(s)Farouk Noormohamed Design Associates – Vancouver, Canada
TypeJamatkhana
Groundbreaking30 August 2003
Completed2009
Website
https://the.ismaili/ismailicentres/dushanbe

Background

Dushanbe is the capital of Tajikistan, a country characterised by an unusually extensive Ismaili population: the region of Badakhshan, which spills over northeastern Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan and North Pakistan, is the only part of the world where Ismailis make up the majority of the population.[1] Under Soviet rule, the religion was discouraged, but since 1991 has increased its public prominence, and the Personal Representative of the Ismaili imamate has been granted full diplomatic status.[2] In May 1995, Aga Khan IV became the first Aga Khan known to have visited the region, invited by the governments of Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic.[3]

Function

Following extensive development work for Ismaili people in Tajikistan, the Centre was inaugurated on 12 October 2009 by the Aga Khan and the Tajikistani president, Emomali Rahmon[4] (though as of 2013 not all of its planned functionality had been implemented).[5] The centre gave the traditionally peripheral Ismailis a prominent architectural focus in the capital city,[6] while retaining the Ismaili Centres' customary sense of seclusion for those within the building,[7] and is a mark of the increasing integration of Tajik Ismailis into the global Ismaili community.[8] The Centre was designed 'to become part of the fabric of the civil life of the area',[9] and accordingly includes not only facilities for worship, but also for conferences, lectures and cultural performances (including translation booths, enabling simultaneous multilingual delivery of events).[10]

Architecture

Designed by the Canadian architect Farouk Noormohamed, and like various post-independence Tajik buildings, the Ismaili Centre evokes Samanid architecture, its brickwork particularly evoking the Ismaili Samanid Mausoleum.[11] The building is set within gardens featuring fountains and Persian silk trees.[10]

The Centre is also notable for some of its sustainability features, such as earthquake-resistance and the use of an innovative water-source heating and cooling system.[10]

References
  1. Ismaili Muslims in the remote Pamir mountains Archived 3 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. Daryoush Mohammad Poor, Authority without Territory: The Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili Imamate (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), pp. 149, 196, 221.
  3. Zubaidullo Ubaidulloev, 'The Revival of Islam in Post-Soviet Independent Tajikistan', pp. 10-11.
  4. Zubaidullo Ubaidulloev, 'The Revival of Islam in Post-Soviet Independent Tajikistan', pp. 10-11.
  5. Larisa Dodkhudoeva, Rustam Mukimov, and Katherine Hughes, 'Tajik Art: A Century of New Traditions', in The Shaping of Persian Art: Collections and Interpretations of the Art of Islamic Iran and Central Asia, ed. by Yuka Kadoi and Iván Szántó (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), pp. 276-97.
  6. Zubaidullo Ubaidulloev, 'The Revival of Islam in Post-Soviet Independent Tajikistan', pp. 10-11.
  7. Karim H. Karim, 'A Semiotics of Infinite Translucence: The Exoteric and Esoteric in Ismaili Muslim Hermeneutics', Canadian Journal of Communication, 40 (2015).
  8. Daryoush Mohammad Poor, Authority without Territory: The Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili Imamate (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), p. 226.
  9. Daryoush Mohammad Poor, Authority without Territory: The Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili Imamate (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), p. 183.
  10. 'Architecture of the Ismaili Centre, Dushanbe', the.ismaili (13 October 2009).
  11. Larisa Dodkhudoeva, Rustam Mukimov, and Katherine Hughes, 'Tajik Art: A Century of New Traditions', in The Shaping of Persian Art: Collections and Interpretations of the Art of Islamic Iran and Central Asia, ed. by Yuka Kadoi and Iván Szántó (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), pp. 276-97.
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