T It was especially pleasant that Marat Gubaidullin became our guide in this fabulous journey through time. Moving from painting to painting, the artist told us about the visit of the famous Arab traveler Ibn Batuta to the capital of the Golden Horde.
Having visited Constantinople, Cairo, Baghdad, Ibn Batuta believed that the Sarai was the most beautiful city he had ever seen. «It was a magnificent city, but during the wars of Khan Tohtamysh with Amir Timur, this city was destroyed. And over time, the stones of this city were used to make the Astrakhan fortress,» the artist said. We also saw historical characters such as Queen Nursultan and Süyümbike in Gubaidullin painting. If thanks to the art of diplomacy Nursultan, the Kazan Khanate managed to avoid wars with Moscow, the fate of Süyümbike was more tragic. Contrary to a beautiful legend, she did not jump from the tower built by Ivan the Terrible as a wedding gift. The Russian Tsar asked Kazan murzas to betray her and send to Moscow, which they did. The Great Queen and her son Utyamysh Girei died in a foreign land, but their names remained in the memory of many generations of Tatars, the place of power of which, according to the artist, is Bulgarians, «where our ancestors adopted Islam. One of the sources of inspiration for Marat Gubaidulin is religion. It was also possible to see his šamail at the exhibition. The exhibition will last from September 10 to October 31, 2020.
