Lesson – Historical monuments in Tashkent. Plan

4.3 Friday Mosque

Welcome to Friday Mosque in Tashkent. Here you will find information, view photos and read tourist reviews of Friday Mosque in Tashkent. You may also visit our full list of Historic sites in Tashkent, or click the link to look at our full list of sightseeing places in Tashkent.

This is the third largest Friday mosque in Uzbekistan, after two buildings of its kind – Bibi Khanum in Samarkand and Kalyan in Samarkand. This three-domed mosque which was completely rebuilt is located in the center of the Old Town, on the hill near Chorsu Bazaar. Architectural ensemble, surrounded the Friday mosque in the past, is almost completely destroyed during the earthquake, except for heavily restored building Kukeldash madrassah and domes of the mosque of Gulbazar.

After the Arab conquest in the 8th century, an ancient Zoroastrian Tashkent laid in ruins. In 819, the young Amir Yahya ibn Asad, who had just received from the Arab governor of the eastern caliphate the management of all lands present the Tashkent region, stopped his horse at the hill, which is now quite clearly visible between the three urban areas – Chorsu, Khodro, and Eski-Juva, said: “Here we’ll construct our capital, albeit on the hill will rise Madina Al-Shash – the northern outpost of the Maverannahr!” And at the highest point of the selected hill Yahya ibn al-Assad ordered to lay the foundation of the first in Tashkent Friday mosque.

Tashkent, as it is known, stands near the mountains, in the earthquake zone. Therefore, many medieval monumental buildings here often suffered from earthquakes, sometimes even completely destroyed. This also affected the Friday mosque. Serious damage to the main mosque caused massive earthquake in 1868, when most monuments of medieval architectures of Tashkent significantly affected.

Only in 1888, after two decades, it was finally restored with funds provided by the Russian emperor Alexander III, so it became known as the Royal Mosque. And although the appearance of the building during the reconstruction had to change somewhat, it is, as before, produced a very impressive experience.