Sofi Hamid: a colorful and enigmatic cemetery in the middle of nowhere

4 min read

2 weeks ago Adam

Camels, of course, but also samovars, sewing machines, prayer beads, a collection of guns, cars, snakes, and fruits.
What do these have in common?
You can find all at fifty kilometers southwest of Baku, off Alag Highway in what might appear to be “the middle of nowhere” on a wide, wind-swept plain, without village or town is within sight, hidden from the public eye, where lies a mysterious place called Sofi Hamid.
A plese where you would wonder who was buried here, what do those symbols, images, and bright colors mean and, above all, why the writings on the graves are in Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic scripts.
Between two villages of Sangachal and Umbaku, it is a cemetery much more colorful than anything you have seen before in Azerbaijan.

Actually Sofi Hamid Cemetery will tell you more about the history of Azerbaijan than any museum or history book.
Functioning as a cemetery since the 18th century, its style and writings on the graves will narrate the story of this land’s inhabitants and their beliefs between Islam, Communism, and then Islam again.
In fact, even after the invasion of Azerbaijan by communists in 1920 that fiercely cut the ties of locals with Islam, this cemetery shows that Islamic ideology nevertheless persisted and reflourished during and after the long era of communism.
This sanctuary and cemetery were built around the tomb of Sofi Hamid. Locals know only a little about his life, whose shrine is located at this spot, only that he had a big camel herd, but his main reputation came from his Sufi teachings.
At his deathbed, he asked his followers to bury him wherever his camel would rest.
His will was granted and this spot became his tomb and shrine. When you enter Sofi Hamid sanctuary, the white camel statue is where that camel had come to rest many centuries ago!

Later on, his “murid”s (followers of an Islamic teaching) also chose this area for their graves and, by time, more people continued this tradition with those who wanted to be close to a sacred place had set their graves here.
The gravestones are characterized by carvings of objects that were meaningful in the life of the person who passed away, carved out on limestone and painted, usually in pastel colors with apples, pears, grapes and pomegranates are part of the display of fruit, as well as documents of the trends and transitions related to folk beliefs, religion, nationalism, politics, economy, education, and even language and alphabet usage, that have taken place over the centuries.
One of the pictures found on one of the graves depicts a woman dressed in black feeding a snake.
According to locals, if you are a person of integrity, the snakes won’t harm you and, not by chance, the snake carvings on tombstones symbolize that this person buried was so kind and pure that even snakes wouldn’t harm them.
Interestingly, Islam discourages memorializing the corpse after death, holding that the grave is only a temporary sanctuary for the human body in this “Fani Dunya” (ephemeral, temporary, material world). When a person dies, his soul passes on to the next World, and all remnants of this existence here on earth, including the grave itself, must be allowed to disintegrate and gradually disappear.

Either way, as time goes by, Sofi Hamid’s shrine gained a sacral significance and people started visiting his tomb for good luck and with the hope that their wishes will come true.
Sanctuaries like this are known as “pirs” among the locals and are very widespread across the country. Women who are unable to conceive visit this shrine and crawl under the camel three times, a practice that is supposed to help them to get pregnant.
You will also see strips of cloths tied around the tree branches behind the camel, which symbolize the prayers of the visitors and some women even hang symbolic little matchboxes representing baby cradles. Some people claim that white camel symbolizes eternal life.
Its unique colors, images, and scripts craved on wind-swept graves make it a must-see mysterious place to visit.