Culture & Heritage

Maktab of Bai Nazar,

Bai Nazar of the Budul family was a headman of Gulmit and the foster brother of Mir Silum Khan III (death 1823)-the first Ismaili ruler of Hunza. Being an influential and political leader, he had constructed a mosque wherein he used to offer his prayers. Furthermore, this mosque, like others in Muslim world, had been serving as maktab, teaching place. This mosque is very attracting and full of architecture. It must be noted that previously the Shia Ismaili community had their own mosques known as Ismaili mosques; and the introduction of the Jamatakhana in Hunza is latest, which was in 1922, when Agha Samad, one of the representatives of His Highness Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III, visited Hunza and introduced Jamatkhana here.

This Ismaili mosque was restored by the Aga Khan Cultural Service, Pakistan and these days it serves as the office of the Open Ismaili District Girls Guide Group, Gulmit.

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