Samarkand has many ancient mosques like any other city of Islamic culture. Mainly, these are small single storey buildings, by size much differed from monumental cathedral mosques of Bibi-Khanym and Tillya-Kari, which were usually constructed in account of supreme governors. Some mosques are popular throughout the city. Believers and tourists visit them by quantities. These are so-called memorial mosques: Hazret-Hyzr, Ruhabad, Khodja Akhrar, Abdi-Darun, summer mosque at Shahi-Zinda and Mahdum-i A’zam necropolises. Muslims come here to exercise sacred memorial ceremonies. Besides that, almost each quarter (mahalla) has its own mosque. Such mosque forms a public center and, as a rule, a major architectural structure of mahalla. They represent public architecture and were constructed chiefly in the period of Samarkand reviving, the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. The most famous are mosques in the centre of the city: Kuk-mosque, mosque of Khodja Zud Murad and mosque of Khodja Nisbatdor.
The architecture of the Samarkand mosques reveals well-recognized architectural tradition. "Khanaka" – a square, sometimes rectangular, premise with inner mihrab forms a core of a mosque. An open verandah - "aivan" with wooden columns and painted ceiling adjoins one or several sides of “khanaka”. A characteristic feature is a small reservoir - "houz" and small minarets with dome-shaped "lanterns" on the top. So, the mosque forms closed and all-sufficient world, symbolically exposing basic elements of the universe: greenery of trees, water in "houz", prayer house and minaret skyward.