Ахмад Яссавий жоме масжиди

Gracing the Bektemir district of the Uzbek capital city Tashkent, the Jame Masjid named after Ahmad Yasawi honours one of the most beloved Turkic masters in all of Islamic history. Tashkent itself is an ancient city, known to the medieval Muslim geographers as Shash or al Chach, and its central position on the Silk Road made it a crossroads of faith, scholarship, and trade for over fifteen centuries. Mongol, Timurid, Shaybanid, Qing, Russian, and Soviet rulers have all passed through its streets, yet the Muslim identity of the city has remained unbroken, and the modern Uzbek republic has restored and built thousands of mosques in every neighbourhood.
Ahmad Yasawi, known in Turkic tradition as Hazrat Turkistan, was born in the early twelfth century in Sayram near modern day Shymkent and later lived in Yasi, now Turkistan city in southern Kazakhstan. He composed a celebrated collection of mystical verses, the Diwan i Hikmat, in the Turkic tongue, making Islamic teachings accessible to shepherds, farmers, and warriors across the vast Turkic steppe. His influence shaped the spiritual orientation of many Turkic peoples, and his shrine, rebuilt as a great mausoleum by Amir Timur in the 1390s, is one of the finest monuments of Central Asian Islamic architecture. The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, taught that the scholars are the inheritors of the prophets.
Architecturally the Bektemir mosque reflects the contemporary Uzbek revival of traditional architectural forms. A sky blue tiled dome rises above the main prayer hall, a pair of slender minarets flanks the main entrance, carved wooden doors open onto a carpeted interior, and calligraphic panels quote verses of the Qur'an in the elegant hand familiar across Central Asia. A separate women's section is provided with its own entrance and wudu facilities. Ramadan brings long Tashkent style iftars of plov, samsa, and freshly baked non bread, shared on long trestle tables by families and neighbours from surrounding apartment blocks. The Friday khutbah is delivered in Uzbek, with Qur'anic citations in clear Arabic. Accurate daily prayer times for Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha are published on this page for every resident of Bektemir and every visitor to the venerable Uzbek capital.