Uzbek Mosque

The Mosque's old exterior, 1917–1919.

The mosque's construction dates back to 1682 when the Emir of the Khanate of Bukhara, Abd al-Aziz Khan, built it at the tomb of his uncle, Quli Khan, who passed away in Baghdad on a trip to Hajj in 1650. Two years after his brother, Subhan Quli Khan, took the throne of the Khanate in 1680, Abd al-Aziz settled in the mosque to be with his uncle. During the rule of the Ottoman Sultan, Murad IV, many Uzbeks started to immigrate and settle in Baghdad and the mosque became known for being the center of gatherings of the Uzbek people living in the city at the time who were known to practice the profession of sharpening knives. The mosque saw a downfall during the reign of the Mamluk governor Dawud Pasha of Baghdad in 1818 who renovated the mosque and gave it a small minaret which the mosque also became notable for. The mosque also has a madrasa for jurisdiction that was also established by Dawud Pasha.[1][2][3]

In 1917, the mosque was subjected to change when British soldiers removed the hospice when they entered Baghdad. The mosque would later be demolished at the time of leader Abd al-Karim Qasim in 1961 during expansion works of the old Ministry of Defense, and it was rebuilt in its current form.[1] Shortly before it was demolished, teaching in the madrasa was abolished with the last teacher being Sheikh Salem bin Mustafa. The mosque later became a refuge for the leader. During the Ramadan Revolution in 1963 which overthrew Qasim's government, Qasim spent a night at the mosque before he was arrested and then executed.[1] Currently, the mosque is looked after by the Sunni Endowment Office and is located in al-Maidan square near al-Ahmadiya Mosque.[4]

Among the notables of the Uzbek Mosque were Sheikh Jalal al-Hanafi who was its imam and preacher in the late 1930s and the Islamic jurist and scholar Abd al-Karim Zaidan who used to give public lectures in this mosque.[5]

• History of modern Baghdad Mosques (2023) by Yunis al-Samarrai