Chokardiza cemetery was founded in the 10th century beside the mosque of Khodja Mansuri al-Maturidi. It adjoined the fortress, what gave this name: “Chokar" - warrior, "dizo” - fortress. As the Islamic holy, the cemetery is equaled with cemeteries of Bokiyyah in Medina and Mualloh in Mecca. There are tombs of imams Mansur al-Maturidi, Abu Kosim Samarkandi and Burkhan ad-Din al-Marginoni. Earlier, the cemetery occupied 20 hectares at least and prolonged Shahi-Zinda cemetery in the southeastern part of rabad. It was the place for burying of famous Islamic theologians, lawyers and scholars. The inscriptions on gravestones of the 9th - 12th centuries nearby the central structure prove that. In 1141, when the Qarakhitai smashed the army of sultan Sandjar in the battle near Samarkand, several tens of thousands Muslim warriors were buried as gazi (“fighters for faith”) at Chokardiza. In a process of city development, the cemetery had got under the later structures. However, inhabitants of the old city still remember about the tombs and install special niches – small memorial mazars in external walls of their houses.
The necropolis of imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (died in 944) represents a modern monumental structure above implied tomb of the outstanding medieval Islamic theologian. He was a founder of “al-maturidiyyah” school in qalam, spread among khanaphits of Maverannahr. In the 10th century, imam al-Maturidi, alongside with imam as-Samarkandi, played an important role in the religious life of the Samanid state, resisting Mutazilite, Raphidite and Qarmatian ideas spreading in Central Asia. Beside the tomb of imam Mansur al-Maturidi there was a tombstone - "kairak" of his disciple, imam Abu Kosim Samarkandi, famous for works in Islamic philosophy, hadith study and laws (fiqr). The memorial pavilion to the left from the mausoleum of imam al-Maturidi was built on the place, where was, probably, the tomb of another famous theologian Burkhan ad-Din al-Marginoni. Behind the mausoleum there is dahma of Samarkand seyids – Dahma-i-Siyidon.