Friday mosque · Koshrabot District

Josh Ota Mosque

Type

Friday mosque

District

Koshrabot District

Built

1838

Renovated

2020

Historic Friday mosque in the remote village of Josh, Qoshrabot District: an inscription dates it to 1838, and it was fully reconstructed in 2019–2020.

Josh mahalla, Urganji rural community, Qoshrabot District

History

The mosque stands in the village of Josh, almost 150 km from Samarkand and 45 km from the district centre. A Persian-Arabic inscription on a marble slab above the minbar records that it was built in 1254 AH (1838) by Sheikh Abdulaziz Khoja, a descendant of Muqim. The national heritage register dates it to the 18th–19th centuries, while the regional Muslim Board’s news describes its history as six centuries long.

According to an article on the board’s website, Sheikh Abdulaziz Khoja added the mosque and a pool to the mausoleum over the grave of his ancestor Bobo Josh Ota; the mausoleum and pool have since vanished, and the grave now lies in the mosque’s iwan.

After the village joined the Obod Qishloq (Prosperous Village) programme in 2019, the mosque and mausoleum were fully reconstructed within a year, with an ablution block, a library and a rest area for pilgrims, and the grounds were laid out as a garden. The mosque reopened to worshippers and pilgrims on 1 March 2020.

Official list: Listed by the Samarkand branch of the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan (sammuslim.uz).

Visiting a mosque: cover shoulders and knees (women should wear a headscarf) and take your shoes off at the door; avoid prayer times and ask before taking photos.

Details come from official sources and were checked in October 2026. Details may change — please check before you visit. Something wrong? Let us know

Sources (15)