A Day tour to Langar ota village from Samarkand. Langar is a popular name for a village in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Iran and other countries. And among all, the small village of Langar in the vicinity of Shakhrisabz, which is famous for the mausoleum of Muhammad Sodik, one of the great Sufis, especially stands out.
The history of the name Langar for the settlement is very interesting – it comes from an Iranian word, which in turn was borrowed from the Greek language, and means “anchor”. The transformation took place as follows: anchor-angor-langor-langar. By the way, the Turkish city of Ankara is also translated as “anchor”. And the meaning of this name is that this was the name of the places where caravans constantly stopped on the Great Silk Road, the places where they stopped, where they “dropped anchor,” and that is why settlements with this name are so often found in Central Asia.
The name of this particular Langar appeared in a slightly different context, and this is connected with one legend. A long time ago, in the 15th century, there lived Sheikh Muhammad Sodiq, who was a student of the famous Sufi Ishqiya Baba, the founder of the Ishqiya Sufi order. One winter morning, Muhammad Sodiq overslept and did not have time to heat up the water for ablution for his teacher, but in order to somehow warm it up and make amends, he pressed the jug to his chest. When he handed the jug to Ishqiya Baba, it turned out that the water had boiled. Then the teacher told the student that he had comprehended all the stages of enlightenment, and the two of them had nothing to do in one place, and then ordered him to sit on the camel and ride until the camel could not stand up, and there the young Sufi would have to “throw anchor.” So Muhammad Sodiq left his mentor and reached places in the vicinity of Shakhrisazb, and where the camel could no longer walk, the village of Langar appeared.
