Legends of Bukhara.

"Under the influence of the works of European Orientalists, the 'golden east, the land of wonders,' the east of the Thousand and One Nights gradually fades into the realm of legend; instead, a picture of the real life of Eastern peoples unfolds before us, and the reasons that preceded the course of their history and their role in human history become clear."

V.V. Bartold. "Review of 'Notes on the Ethnic Composition of the Turkic Tribes' by N.A. Aristov. 3. V.O. vol. HI, p. 355.)

Traditions of Tashkent.

Among the populations of Bukhara and Tashkent, legends circulate attributing the construction of the famous Kogeltash Madrasah in Bukhara to a Cossack. A Tashkent resident, Munavvar-Kary Abdrashitov, told me about this in October 1923, when we, as participants in the all-Uzbek scientific congress in Bukhara, were staying in the aforementioned madrassa.
Unfortunately, Abdrashitov couldn't provide me with any details. Subsequently, I began inquiring whether similar legends circulated among the Cossacks themselves; it turned out that the Turkestan Cossacks indeed have legends about the construction of the Kogeltash Madrassa by one of their fellow tribesmen.
Here is a brief summary of one such legend, told to me by Omar Dikhanbaev, a Cossack from the Tama clan in the Kurchu volost of the Turkestan district, and translated into verse by Zhumanazar Urumkulov, a Cossack from the Kyzyl-Orda district:
"Once upon a time, when the Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Cossacks were subordinate to the Khan of Bukhara, there was a mullah in Bukhara named Shamsi-Muhammad. This mullah informed his khan that in the steppe there was a nomadic people called Cossacks who did not properly understand the true religion of Muhammad and did not observe the rules of Sharia.
Therefore, he, the mullah, proposed to the khan that the Cossacks be declared infidels and allowed to be sold in the markets like slaves. The khan convened a council. The council decided that it was improper to suddenly declare an entire people infidels, and Their representatives must first be invited and tested on their knowledge of Sharia law.
If they fail to properly answer the mullahs' questions, then all Cossacks are to be declared infidels and allowed to be sold like slaves in the bazaars. When the Cossacks heard the Bukhara Khan's decision from his envoys, they convened a grand council to decide whom to send to Bukhara to answer the Khan and the mullahs.
The council pondered for a long time how to respond and whom to send. At this time, a Cossack named Koge asked the council's permission to go to Bukhara to answer the mullahs and free the Cossack people from slavery. The council granted permission.
Koge arrived in Bukhara just in time for the midday prayer, entered the mosque where Mullah Shamsi-Muhammad served, and began to pray with the others. At the door A soldier stood in the mosque with a whip in his hand, watching the worshippers.
When the prayer ended and everyone sat in a circle for the final prayer, Koge performed the bata (raising the hand, palms up, to the face) with his hands hidden in his sleeves.
Mullah Shamsi-Muhammad shouted at the soldier:
"Take this man and punish him, for he does not know the rules of Sharia."
Then Koge said:
"Wait, Mullah, if God only hears the naked, then take off your clothes and pray naked. Why is it necessary to hold your hand naked during prayer, while covering the rest of your body with clothing? Where does it say in the holy books that Allah hears only those who pray clothed?
Let's go to the Khan, let him resolve our dispute."
The Mullah fell silent and was at a loss for words. Appearing before the Khan, Koge asked him for permission to live in Bukhara for four or five years to prove that he and his people - the Cossacks - were Muslims. The Khan granted his permission.
After this, Koge gave away all the horses, clothing, and even the provisions he had brought with him from the steppe to the poor and became a pauper. Koge resolved to live and accumulate wealth through his own righteous labor. He began to go outside the city to pick herbs, make brooms from them, and sell them at the market.
He ate very little and, with the proceeds from selling the brooms, began buying chickens. Soon, Koge had an innumerable number of chickens. Then he began making bricks. When he had made a large number of bricks, he came to the Khan and asked permission to build a mosque.
The Khan granted his permission. Then Koge asked the Khan for a master builder, stipulating that The master met Koge's demands. The Khan agreed, summoned all the masters of Bukhara, and ordered Koge to present his demands. Koge said:
"I need a master who will swear that:
1) he has performed the five daily prayers his entire life and never missed one,
2) he has never set foot on earth without the ablution required by Sharia and has never harbored evil thoughts,
3) he has never committed adultery and has always led a pious life,
4) he has always satisfied the beggar who came to his door,
5) he has always fulfilled the duties of a true Muslim,
6) he has always treated everyone who passed by without asking where they came from or why,
7) he has always told everyone the truth to their face, regardless of their position,
8) he has never bowed to anyone except God.
Only such a person can I, by vow, permit the construction of the mosque to begin."
None of the Bukhara masters could make such an oath, and all refused to begin construction. The khan then ordered Koge's terms to be announced to all residents of Bukhara and for volunteers to be summoned. No one responded to the khan's call.
When not a single person in Bukhara could be found who would meet Koge's demands, the latter announced to the khan that he would take the aforementioned oath and began construction of the mosque. Without any outside help, Koge built the mosque's walls alone and only then permitted the craftsmen to complete and decorate the mosque.
The people of Bukharans marveled at the sight of the new mosque, and since Koge was the only pious man in all of Bukhara, the mosque was named Koge-Kogetash, later renamed Kogeltash, meaning "building of Koge." One night, Koge, coming to his mosque to pray, saw a crowd gathered there, enjoying themselves, listening to singing, dutar playing, and dancing singers. Horrified by this blasphemy, Koge wept.
Then he took an axe and began to hack at the mosque's walls. He wanted to destroy his own structure, lest the temple he had built be desecrated by the entertainment of the wicked.
Then Mullah Shamsi-Muhammad, who was among the revelers, ran up to him and said:
"Wait, Koge, this building is so holy and pious that it cannot remain on earth in its present state unless it is desecrated. We learned this from the holy books. Therefore, we, the mullahs, deliberately arranged this feast here so that your Kogeltash would remain on earth forever, otherwise it would either ascend to heaven or sink into the earth.
We also learned that there is no man in the world more pious than you, nor any building more holy than the one you built."
Koge believed the mullah and, appearing before the Khan of Bukhara, said:
"If my deeds are deemed pious, then issue an order recognizing the Cossack people as true Muslims and freeing them forever from being sold into slavery and enslaved."
The Khan granted Koge's request and ordered the flogging of Mullah Shamsi-Muhammad, who had slandered the entire Cossack people, and then ordered his hanging. Having freed his people from slavery, Koge went to Mecca and there passed away.
Such was Koge, the liberator of the Cossack people from slavery, and his structure, called Kogeltash, remains in Bukhara to this day and will stand there forever until the end of time. Such is the legend. Of the persons mentioned in the legend, Mullah Shamsi-Muhammad is apparently a historical figure, and can be identified with that Mullah Shams al-Din-Muhammad, a native of Samarkand, who lived during the time of Sultan Hussein Bayqara in Herat, by whose fatwa, as Vambery narrates, in 945 AH (= 1538 AD) the Persians were declared infidels and expelled.
"This fatwa," says Vambery, "caused much grief to the unfortunate Iranians: ... without the fatwa they could not have been sold in the market of fanatical Bukhara, because they would not have been branded with the name of kafir, and only kafirs can be sold."
Only in our legend does Mullah Shams al-Din Muhammad propose to the Khan that he declare the Cossacks, not the Persians, infidels. The Tama clan, whose representative told me this legend, belongs to the Younger Horde; within the Tama clan is the Atamshal subclan, and within the Atamshal subclan is the Koge tribe.
Currently, the Koge tribe lives in the Aktobe district (Uysylkarinskaya, Bestamakskaya, Burlinskaya, Burtinskaya, and Karatugayskaya volosts).According to Cossack legends, the Atamshalovtsy and Kogintsy came to the Aktobe district from Bukhara and Syr Darya region about 200 years ago. Cossacks of the Koge tribe believe that their ancestor Koge was the builder of Kogeltash. 

Note.

1. Vambery. A. "Essays on Central Asia." Moscow, 1868, p.p. 182-183.
2. Materials on Kyrgyz land use. Turgay region. 
7. Aktobe district. Volume VII. Voronezh, 1903. Notes to the communal tabliids of the Aktobe district, pp. 37-38. According to the Vakf Authority in Bukhara, the construction of the madrasah dates back to 976 AH; the following tarikh exists for this madrasah, which indeed corresponds to 976 AH.
Some read that then we would have 986 AH. In Bukhara, the construction of this madrasah is attributed to Kul-Baba Kukeltash, a contemporary of Khan Abdullah. As for the identity of Mullah Shamsuddin-Muhammad, for example, according to Muhammad Yaqub (see the manuscript of the Middle Azeri State Library, according to the Kalya catalog, No. 3, p. 121-6), he was a contemporary of Khan Ubeydullah (940-946 AH) and Mir-Arab, a famous madrasah builder in Bukhara.
The Kukeltash Madrasah, associated in legend with the name of Shamsuddin-Muhammad, was, according to historical data, built later. According to the same work by Muhammad Yaqub (p. 121-6), the fatwa of the akhund Damullah Shams al-Din Muhammad indeed declared the Shia Persians infidels, making it permissible to buy and sell them.
A fifth of the proceeds was given to Khan Ubaydullah, who, in turn, donated the money to the sayyids and ulema; the latter transferred the bulk of the money to Emir Abdullah Yemeni, known as Mir-Arab, who used these funds to build a madrasah in Bukhara in 942 AH. (ed.)

Authority:
L. A. Zimin. "To V.V. Bartold. Turkestan Friends, Students, and Admirers." Tashkent. 1927.