The name Baghbanli, meaning gardener, links the mosque to the region’s agricultural traditions and its historical relationship with nature. The Baghbanli Mosque is an often overlooked gem nestled amid the urban fabric in the southeast corner of the Ichan Qala (old city). The composition of the Baghbanli reminds one very much of the Ak-Mechet with only one difference, that the latter has an aivan (terrace) on three sides. The harmonic combination of the open space with a yard, which has a half-open aivan and closed hall, gives the mosque Baghbanli completeness and steadiness.

The mosque is oriented to the north with a broad Iwan in front of the dome—a design feature that provided worshippers with shade throughout the day. The two columns supporting the Iwan were carved in the 15th century and reused in the mosque’s 19th-century reconstruction. The capitals of the two columns are vaguely Corinthian in character and incised with foliate motifs. The ceiling of the Iwan is also richly decorated with geometric motifs and traces. The decorative elements of this quarter-mosque show the beauty of tradition of the Khorezm school of architecture once more. Unlike the magnificent mosques, the neighbourhood houses of worship are of smaller size, but are as striking in their use of space and splendid decorations.

The mosque Baghbanli was built in the southern part of Ichan-kala at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The mosque is a building of symmetrical composition, where there is a darvazakhana, yard, aivan and mosque hall on the longitudinal axis north south. The entrance consists of three parts. There is a dome which tops the hall in the centre of the building. On the sides of it there are rooms for ritual washing (tokharatkhana). The mosque represents a rectangular hall with a two- pillared aivan opened to the north.

Coloured overlay and a carved door decorate the façade of the darvazakhana. The interior is plastered. The decorated ceiling of the aivan is covered by patterns. The wooden pillars, apparently, were brought here from another building. Their decoration, similar to the pillars of the sixteenth century from Jumah mosque suggests this idea. There are many scripts of nastalikh type in the interior of the hall, on the walls of the aivan and on the doors, giving verses, the date of construction – 1809 – and the name of the master, Ruz Muhammad.

The original-figured capitals soften the change of vertical pillar to horizontal beams. On the doors the name of other master is inscribed, the woodcarver – Ruz Muhammad the son of Adin Muhammad who carved the doors leading to the ziyarat-khana (pilgrimage room) of the mausoleum of Sheikh Mukhtar-Valy in the village of Astana of the Yangiarik district.

The legend says that the mosque was built on the money donated by two brothers-gardeners.