Legend about khan-atlas
In the days of our ancestors, long long time ago, one of the rulers of a beautiful city Margelan decided to take a fifth wife. He was famous for having weakness for beautiful women, and loved spending his days indulging himself in a luxury. This time his choice fell on a young daughter of a poor weaver. The poor man surely didn’t want to see his daughter to be the old khan’s toy and never dreamt her being the part of khan’s older wives intrigues.
He fell on his knees and begged khan to be merciful and let his daughter to be under the father’s roof for a little longer. Khan gave a little thought and laid down his own conditions: he will grant his request only if a weaver creates something more beautiful than his daughter.
All upset weaver sat on the shore of aryk[1] with his mind wandering, and all of a sudden he saw the reflection of clouds in water colored in rainbow after the rain. He joyfully shouted:
“Thank you for the idea, dear sky!” and rushed to his house to get to work immediately. In the morning he weaved an extraordinary fabric inspired by the beauty he witnessed – light and airy as clouds, breezy like pure mountain air, shimmering with rainbow colors.
When the man brought his masterpiece to the palace, khan astonished by its magic beauty asked:
"Can you tell us, how you made it?"
And the master replied:
“I took green of leaves after the rain, added the colors of tulips, blush of a dawn, blue of a night sky, sun rays reflected on a fast flowing water, shine of my daughter's eyes, and then blended everything together.
The exceptional fabric the Margelan master created is now known as khan-atlas, his daughter found her happiness too, she married khan’s son.
[1] aryk - a small aqueduct
Translated by Elga J.
Illustatrated by Elga J.