The oldest part of the synagogue was called “Kanisa Mulla Mani”, that is, the synagogue named after Mulla Mani. Mullah Mani is a venerable Jew who was a foreman in this synagogue in the 20s of the 20th century.
Before the construction of the first synagogue, Jews prayed in the same room with Muslims in a mosque called “Mahak-i Attari.” According to one version, Jews prayed with Muslims at the same time, but in different corners. According to another, Jews came there only at the end of Muslim prayers. This can explain the custom, which exists among Bukharian Jews, to end the morning prayer with the words “Shalom Aleihom.”
There is a version that the resettlement of Jews in the Jewish quarter is associated with the construction of a synagogue. Before the construction of the synagogue, Jews lived near today’s Lyabi-Khauz, at a local Bazaar market. In an effort to concentrate around the prayer house, they gradually moved to this quarter, where a synagogue was built, so that not a single Jewish family remained in the Bazaar.
According to another version, the Jews have been living in Jewish Mahallah since the time of their resettlement from the central regions of Persia. They say that this area was occupied by Muslims, and when it was empty, the quarters located here began to collapse, and the ruler of Bukhara gave this place to the Jews who came from Jerusalem in the interests of trade.
The synagogue, in the Mahalli Kukhma quarter, with a 300-year history, was closed by the Soviet authorities in 1940. And only in 1945, at the insistent request of the population, the former building of the synagogue was returned to the Jewish community, which functions to this day.
Image attribution: Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0
