Pilgrimage site · Yangiariq District

Sheikh Mukhtar Vali Complex

A 14th-century mausoleum over the grave of the 13th-century scholar Sheikh Mukhtar Vali. Enlarged under Muhammad Rahim Khan I and graced with carved doors, it remains one of the busiest pilgrimage sites in Khorezm.

Mongol eraXIV; 1806–182540 min1 min read

Who was Sheikh Mukhtar Vali?

Tradition remembers Sheikh Mukhtar Vali as a leading 13th-century scholar who worked to revive Islam in Khorezm after the Mongol conquest; the sources give his death as 685 AH (1286 CE). Khivan lore links him to Ak Sheikh Bobo of the Konya Ark, said to have been his teacher, and some accounts make him a teacher of Pahlavon Mahmud.

The complex

The shrine lies in Ostona village, about 20 km southeast of Khiva. A small tomb first marked the grave; in the 14th century a mausoleum with a large hall, a smaller hall and a burial chamber was built. The large hall opens through deep arches on four sides, with cells and a pilgrims’ room at the corners of the smaller one, and two burial chambers, a kitchen for ritual halim and a storeroom behind; the sheikh, his wife and relatives are buried here. Four finely carved doors survive, one signed by the master Zayniddin ibn Odina Muhammad. Under Muhammad Rahim Khan I (1806–1825) the complex was repaired and a single-columned iwan and a hall for Quran reciters added.