Maghoki Attori Mosque ( uz, Magʻoki Attori masjidi, tg, Масҷиди Мағокии Атторӣ, Masjidi Maghokii Attori, fa, مسجد مغاکی عطاری, Masjed-e Maghākī-ye Attārī) is a historical

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

Bukhara Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...

. It forms a part of the historical religious complex of Lyab-i Hauz. The mosque is located in the historical center of Bukhara, about 300 meters southwest of

Po-i-Kalyan Po-i-Kalan, or Poi Kalan ( uz, Poi Kalon, fa, ''Pā-i Kalān'', which means "At the Foot of the Great One"), is an Islamic religious complex located in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. The complex consists of three parts, the Kalan Mosque (''Masjid-i Kala ...

, 100 meters southwest of the Toqi Telpak Furushon trading dome and 100 meters east of Lab-i Hauz. It is a part of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

Historic Centre of Bukhara.602.
UNESCO Today, the mosque is used as a carpet museum.

History

It is speculated as built in the 9th to 10th century on the remains of a

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic on ...

temple from the pre-Islamic era. Before the

Arab conquest The spread of Islam spans about 1,400 years. Muslim conquests following Muhammad's death led to the creation of the caliphates, occupying a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted by Arab Muslim forces conquering vast territorie ...

there was a

bazaar A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, suc ...

on the site of Maghoki Attori Mosque. It was a market for idols, potions and spices – attor (perfumes) and other goods. Besides this, there was formerly a Temple of the Moon ( Mah) close to this place. Before the construction of the first synagogue, Jews in Bukhara had shared a place in the mosque with

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

. Some say that Bukharian Jews and Muslims worshipped alongside each other in the same place at the same time. Other sources insist that Jews worshipped after Muslims. The mosque is also notable for being one of the oldest surviving mosques in Central Asia and one of the few surviving buildings in Bukhara from the time before the Mongolian invasion. In the 12th century, when Kara-Khanids reigned in Bukhara, the mosque was substantially rebuilt and re-dressed. It also received a new main facade in the south.Pander: ''Zentralasien'', 2004, S. 162 In the middle of the 15th century, it was restored and a new portal with

iwan An iwan ( fa, ایوان , ar, إيوان , also spelled ivan) is a rectangular hall or space, usually vaulted, walled on three sides, with one end entirely open. The formal gateway to the iwan is called , a Persian term for a portal projecting ...

was built in the eastern ground. At the beginning of the 1930s the mosque was restored again.

Architecture

The building has a rectangular ground plan of 12 x 7.5 square meters. In the main axis of the building, the flat roof carries two octagonal

tholobate In architecture, a tholobate (from el, θολοβάτης, tholobates, dome pedestal) or drum is the upright part of a building on which a dome is raised. It is generally in the shape of a cylinder or a polygonal prism. In the earlier Byzanti ...

s with latticed arched windows. They also have octagonal domes. The floor of the mosque is about 4.50 meters below the earth's surface. This is the reason for the mosque being called 'maghākī' which is Persian for "in a ditch" or "in a pit". Another "pit" mosque is the Magok-i-Kurpa Mosque located about 150 meters northwest.

Narshakhi Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Jafar Narshakhi (or Narshaki) (ca. 899–959), a Sogdian scholar from the village of Narshak in the Bukhara oasis is the first known historian in Central Asia. His unique ''History of Bukhara'' (''Tarikh-i Bukhara'') was writ ...

, in his History of Bukhara (ca. 950), named the mosque built on the site of the former temple "maghāk", i.e. "pit", because even then half of it was concealed from view by the rising soil level. The southern façade is most richly equipped and was the former main entrance. Ornaments are made mainly by the arrangement of cut and carved bricks and by

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

tiles with floral motifs. The pointed arch of the iwan is resting on two quarter columns set in walls, decorated with wattle. On each side of the iwan, three rectangular frames with decorative patterns are arranged one above the other.

References

External link

{{Tourist attractions in Uzbekistan 9th-century mosques Mosques in Bukhara

History

Architecture

See also

References

External link