Nasir Khusraw, the eleventh-century Persian philosopher, poet and Ismaili missionary who took refuge at Yumgan in the Badakhshan mountains, is the central culture-hero of Pamiri religion. Historically the founder of the Ismaili community of the region, in oral tradition he becomes a saint of cosmic stature, hailed as the Sun and the Eagle of Yumgan and the 'Proof of Khorasan'. Legends credit him with taming the high country as he carried the faith into it: opening springs, planting the sacred junipers that mark the mountain passes, and overcoming the powers that opposed him. His tomb and the many shrines and sacred places ascribed to him make him the axis of Pamiri devotion, a 'Ka'ba of wishes' to which the faithful turn for protection and aid.