Friday mosque · Samarkand City

Khoja Nisbatdor Mosque

Type

Friday mosque

District

Samarkand City

Built

1901

A Friday mosque in the Sozangaron quarter south of the Registan. The present building went up in 1901 on the site of an older mosque under master builder Abduqodir Boqiyev.

165 Sozangaron St, Samarkand

History

The present fired-brick building replaced an older mosque in 1901. The work was led by the celebrated Samarkand master builder Abduqodir Boqiyev, with the brothers Zayniddin and Shamsiddin Gafurov laying the brickwork, Usto Sadullo carving the plaster and Usto Mahmud painting it; the date of construction is worked into the carving of the iwan door.

In Soviet times the building housed a post office. After independence it was returned to the faithful and fully restored. The Khoja Nisbatdor complex is on the national heritage register as a 19th–20th-century monument.

Architecture

Raised on a high platform, the mosque comprises a winter prayer hall and a broad iwan on its south side, faced by a low faceted minaret. The hall's east front has three arches, each with a door and a carved plaster lattice above it. The iwan ceiling is finished in delicate plasterwork picked out in red and blue, and the mihrab niche in the west wall is filled with muqarnas.

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 (9)