Mosque Magoki Attori. Museum of the History of carpet weaving

The Museum of the History of carpet weaving was opened in 1991 on the territory of ancie mosque "Magoki Attori" (XII-XVI centuries) in Bukhara. The exhibition presents all kinds of trad tional carpet, palas weaving and felting styles of Central Asians. In the XIX-XXth centuries, rugs of Uzbek tribes like "mitan", "skid", "Kurama", "Naiman" were very famous. The origin of carpe weaving in Central Asia dates back to about III-IInd centuries BC. Traditions of carpet weaving in the Bukhara oasis have passed down from generation to generation for centuries and been per- fected.
The museum collection consists of more than one hundred samples of carpet products used in everyday life of Uzbek people. The collection is divided into types of carpet: tufted carpets - "gilam"; high tufted - "djulhirs" and palas rugs that various in technique and color. Collection of Bukhara museum rugs represents the school like "Bashir", "Kizil-oyok ", "Tekke", "Yomud", "Salor", "Ersari" abounding Bukhara motives. Carpets, rugs, khurjins, djoynamozs, Chuvals, felt and other products of the museum's collection are woven with wool and cotton fabrics. Art tradi- tion influenced on the style of products, and it is manifested in the construction of ornamental patterns. This is tribal symbols, heraldic composition of animals and birds, geometric motives "girih" which includes elements such as hexagons, circular and lattice patterns.

Maghoki Attori Mosque (Uzbek: Magʻoki Attori masjidi, Tajik: Масҷиди Мағокии Атторӣ, romanized: Masjidi Maghokii Attori, Persian: مسجد مغاکی عطاری, romanized: Masjed-e Maghākī-ye Attārī) is a historical mosque in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. It forms a part of the historical religious complex of Lyab-i Hauz. The mosque is located in the historical center of Bukhara, about 300 meters southwest of Po-i-Kalyan, 100 meters southwest of the Toqi Telpak Furushon trading dome and 100 meters east of Lab-i Hauz. It is a part of UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Bukhara. Today, mosque is used as a carpet museum.

The building has a rectangular ground plan of 12 x 7.5 square meters. In the main axis of the building, the flat roof carries two octagonal tholobates with latticed arched windows. They also have octagonal domes. The floor of the mosque is about 4.50 meters below the earth's surface. This is the reason for the mosque being called 'maghākī' which is Persian for "in a ditch" or "in a pit". Another "pit" mosque is the Magok-i-Kurpa Mosque located about 150 meters northwest. Narshakhi, in his History of Bukhara (ca. 950), named the mosque built on the site of the former temple "maghāk", i.e. "pit", because even then half of it was concealed from view by the rising soil level. The southern façade is most richly equipped and was the former main entrance. Ornaments are made mainly by the arrangement of cut and carved bricks and by terracotta tiles with floral motifs. The pointed arch of the iwan is resting on two quarter columns set in walls, decorated with wattle. On each side of the iwan, three rectangular frames with decorative patterns are arranged one above the other.

It is speculated as built in the 9th to 10th century on the remains of a Zoroastrian temple from the pre-Islamic era. Before the Arab conquest there was a bazaar on the site of Maghoki Attori Mosque. It was a market for idols, potions and spices – attor (perfumes) and other goods. Besides this, there was formerly a Temple of the Moon (Mah) close to this place. Before the construction of the first synagogue, Jews in Bukhara had shared a place in the mosque with Muslims. Some say that Bukharian Jews and Muslims worshipped alongside each other in the same place at the same time. Other sources insist that Jews worshipped after Muslims. The mosque is also notable for being one of the oldest surviving mosques in Central Asia and one of the few surviving buildings in Bukhara from the time before the Mongolian invasion. In the 12th century, when Kara-Khanids reigned in Bukhara, the mosque was substantially rebuilt and re-dressed. It also received a new main facade in the south. In the middle of the 15th century, it was restored and a new portal with iwan was built in the eastern ground. At the beginning of the 1930s the mosque was restored again.