Mullo Bozor Ohund Mosque

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Mullo Bozor Ohund Mosque

The Mullo Bozor Ohund Mosque is located northeast of the city center and is now the main mosque of Namangan. Mullo Bozor Ohund lived in the 17th century and may have been among those who resettled in Namangan from the earthquake-destroyed Ahsikent, becoming known as the mentor of the poet Babarakhim Mashrab. Mashrab became famous primarily as a critic of the clergy and was eventually executed in Balkh for his verses.

Mullo Bozor Ohund was a great thinker of his time and was well-versed in jurisprudence, hadiths, history, geography, arithmetic, rituals, literature, psychology, and many other sciences. He also wrote in Turkish, Arabic, and Persian.

From childhood, Saint Mullo Bozor Ohund was drawn to knowledge, was very well-read, and shone with intellectual talents. His vocation led him to Bukhara, where he received serious education in various sciences at the Mir-i Arab Madrasah. After receiving blessings from his teacher Mirzo Bahodir Bukhori, he traveled to countries in the Middle East. He then returned to his native Namangan and became a serious scholar-researcher in theology, medicine, astronomy, geography, mathematics, and literature. His sermons and deeds were revered and respected by the people, and even during his lifetime, pilgrims came to him for advice, help, healing from spiritual and bodily ailments, and for prayers that only he would recite. His death shook the entire population of Namangan with great sorrow, and his tomb, and later mausoleum, became a holy place for worship and prayers to Allah through the saint Mirzo Bozor Ohund, who became an angel of God.

The complex is divided into 3 parts – the mosque, the main hall (khonako), and the entrance to the sanctuary (darvozakhona). In the courtyard, there is a pond with a diameter of 10 meters, which gently descends down 8 thirty-centimeter steps. Its base consists of reinforced concrete panels, while the walls and main entrance gates are made of burnt brick in a unique figurative design.

The scholar is buried in the Mullo Bozor Ohund mausoleum, the appearance and structure of which symbolize Islamic Sharia. The first pentagonal part of the mausoleum represents the 5 deeds in Islam, the next 7-sided part represents the 7 conditions of faith, and the 40-sided circle represents the 40 fards. This section reads: “Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim, Allah.”

The mosque is designed for 3,000 believers, who come to the sanctuary in hopes of finding solace and confirmation of their thoughts, feelings, and hopes. They believe that the holy Mullo Bozor Ohund, now in heaven and looking down at his tomb and them from above, will be as kind as he was in life and will grant them with the name of Almighty Allah whatever they ask for and dream of.