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Roghbonli mosque
Unlike the
magnificent mosques, the
neighborhood houses of worship are
of smaller size, but are as striking
in their use of space and splendid
decorations. In the neighborhood
mosque Roghbonli, built in the
southern part of Ichan-kala at the
beginning of the nineteenth century,
one finds an example of this. The
mosque is a building of symmetrical
composition, where there is a
darvazakhana, yard, aivan and mosque
hall on the longitudinal axis north
south. The entrance consists of
three parts. There is a
cupola-topped building in the
center. On the sides of it there are
rooms for ritual washing
(tokharatkhana). The mosque
represents a rectangular hall with a
two- pillared aivan opened to the
north. A cupola tops the hall.
Coloured overlay and a carved door
decorate the facade of the
darvazakhana. The interior is
plastered. The decorated ceiling of
the aivan is covered by patterns.
The wooden pillars, apparently, were
brought here from another building.
Their decoration, similar to the
pillars of the sixteenth century
from Jumah mosque suggests this
idea. There are many scripts of
nastalikh type in the interior of
the hall, on the walls of the aivan
and on the doors, giving verses, the
date of construction — 1809 — and
the name of the master, Ruz
Muhammad. The original-figured
capitals soften the change of
vertical pillar to horizontal beams.
The composition of the Boghbonli
reminds one very much of the
Ak-mechet with only one difference,
that the latter has an aivan on
three sides. The harmonic
combination of the open space with a
yard, which has a half-open aivan
and closed hall, gives the mosque
Boghbonli completeness and
steadiness. And the decorative
elements of this quarter-mosque show
the beauty of tradition of the
Khorezm school of architecture once
more.
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