Uzbek legends. Plan: Introduction

2.2The legends of national items (legends of Khan atlas)
A legend of khan-atlas says: “In ancient times, one of the rulers of Margilan decided to marry for the fifth time. His choice fell on the young daughter of a poor weaver. Being annoyed, the girl's father fell on his knees before the old khan, asking him to withdraw from the girl. The khan replied that he would fulfill the request of a poor man, if the next morning he created something extraordinary that would make the Khan forget about the beauty of the girl. The sad weaver sat on the bank of the channel, not knowing what to do next. And suddenly he saw the reflection of clouds in the water, which were painted with a rainbow of colors after the last rain. "Oh, heavens, thank you for the idea!" - He cried and ran home to get to work immediately. The next morning he wove an unusual cloth: light and airy as a cloud, cool like a pure mountain air and as iridescent as a rainbow. When the master brought this extraordinary fabric to the khan, he was shocked with its enchanting beauty, "How did you do that?" - He asked the weaver. And the weaver said: "I took green rain-washed leaves, added colors of tulip petals, the blush of dawn, blue night sky, patches of sunlight on the water and bright eyes of my beloved daughter and mixed everything up." The unusual fabric was called Khan-Atlas ("Khan silk"), and the khan married the weaver's daughter to his beloved son.Many of us love silk for its softness, lightness, and for the pleasant sensations that silk delivers when it adheres to the body, and for how it flows along the figure. Silk is magnificent and we all know that silk, for the most part, was made in China. Later thanks to the Great Silk Road the technology spread to Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Here we will talk about Uzbek silk - the khan atlas. «Atlas» translated from Arabic means "smooth". By its nature, an atlas is a dense silk fabric with a special type of weave (only on the upper base there is a more valuable fiber), with a shiny and smooth surface. Khan atlas is made in Uzbekistan, the largest production is in the city of Margilan. The production of silk fiber, like many centuries ago, is based on the cultivation of silkworm. This is a worm and it eats leaves of a mulberry tree. At the moment, the whole production is automated, before everything was done manually. And such a khan atlas, hand-woven now is a rarity, the so-called khan atlas from chests. Because it can only be purchased from hands from stocks of people, that is, from chests. What is the beauty of the khan atlas? It is unique and inimitable, it is always different. Khan atlas is a concentrate of all the colors of the rainbow. And this wonderful kind of silk was born not by chance. Once, one of the rulers of Margilan decided to marry for the fifth time. He saw the artist’s young daughter, fell in love and decided that she would be the fifth wife. The artist was upset when he knew about the intention of the Khan, came to the palace and asked him not to touch his daughter. Then Khan said that he would abandon his intention only if the artist created something more beautiful than his daughter by the next morning. The artist could not eat and could not sleep all night. At dawn, he went to the creek. The saddened artist sat down in thought on the bank of the stream, looked into it, and a rainbow was reflected in it. The artist burst into tears and when tears fell in the stream, the rainbow rippled and presented the artist with a wonderful drawing. The artist understood what his salvation was, and wove an extraordinary fabric in the image of what he saw - light as a cloud, cool as mountain air, and reflecting all the colors of the rainbow. By the morning, the master brought his creation to the khan. He was shocked by the beauty of the fabric and ordered him to be called "khan-atlas" ("khan's silk"), and he gave the artist's daughter a wife to his beloved son.Uzbekistan loves its fabric and traditionally sews costumes and dresses for girls and women.Khan atlas is spruce and at the same time it cools in the heat. Of course, many interpretations appeared. From varieties of colors to the material on which this drawing is applied, khan atlas has become a household name and now there is velvet khan atlas and cotton.Many centuries ago one of Marghilan rulers fell in love with beautiful daughter of a poor artist and wanted to marry her at any cost. Having heard this news, the father of the young beauty was saddened. So he came to the palace and asked the ruler not to marry his daughter. Khan didn’t agree and laid down one condition. If the artist could create something beautiful and unusual till the next morning, the Khan would forget about his daughter. “It’s impossible” – thought the artists and came out of palace. Saddened, hesat near arik (small channel). At once he saw reflection of cloudsin the water and this reflection was colored with all the colours of rainbow. He thanked Allah for wonderful idea and went home immediately. Arriving home, he wove an unusually beautiful fabric - cool as a mountain air,light as a feather, reflecting all the colors of the rainbow. The artist pleased with the work came to the palace the next morning. When Khan saw beautiful and so light fabric, he was astonished at its beauty. Hence the name "khan-atlas" (Khan silk), and artist’s daughter was married the khan’s son. So khan-atlas became one of the symbols not only of Marghilan but Uzbekistan. There are nature of the Uzbek people and its national artistic taste in the pattern of this fabric. A color palette and texture of silk symbolize kindness, energy and optimism. One of the most popular legends of the emergence of Khan-Atlas, the national fabric, is the legend of the Rich Khan and the poor weaver. According to the legend, in search of the fifth wife in his harem, the choice of the khan fell on the beautiful daughter of a poor weaver. However, neither the girl nor the weaver herself wanted her to become the wife of the khan. The girl’s father begged the khan to give up his decision, but neither pleas nor persuasion helped, the khan was adamant. And to get rid of the weaver who pleaded with him, the khan suggested an alternative, the weaver will create something by morning that will impress the khan’s imagination or the daughter of a weaver will fill up the khan’s harem. In thought the weaver came to the shore of a deep water ditch, sat down on its edge and cried for not being able to come up with a solution. Suddenly, it rained, and the sun, looking out from behind the clouds, shone in the waters. Then the poor man’s tears dried up, he saw the answer in the reflection of the clouds and the rainbow on the question that tormented him.