Magok-i-Attari Mosque

History

The mosque stands between the shahristan and the Shakhrud canal, in a market area that traded from pre-Islamic times until the 1930s. Archaeology suggests a fire temple once stood here and was later adapted as a mosque. The building burned in the great fire of 937, lay in ruins for a long time and was rebuilt in fired brick.

Its name has changed several times: from the 9th to the early 13th century it was the Mah (Moon) mosque after a nearby market of that name; in the 16th century Magok-i-Attari, 'the herbalists' pit'; and in the 17th century Magok-i-Kuhna, 'Old Magok', to avoid confusion with the Magok-i-Kurpa Mosque. V. A. Shishkin excavated extensively here in the 1930s.

Architecture and museum

The 12th-century south portal is decorated with carved stucco and patterned brickwork — some of the finest ornament in Bukhara. The domes and east portal were added when the mosque was rebuilt in the 16th century. You walk down steps to reach it, because the ground around it has risen by several metres over the centuries.

Since 1991 the mosque has housed a carpet museum, with Uzbek, Turkmen, Persian, Kazakh and Armenian carpets, flat-weaves and saddlebags from the 18th to 20th centuries.

Did you know?

Tradition has it that before Bukhara's first synagogue was built, the city's Jews prayed in this mosque — some accounts say alongside Muslims, others that they worshipped after them.