The eight-sided minaret is located in the Yukhari Bash neighborhood of Shaki city, on Abdurrahim bey Hagverdiyev Street.[1] According to assumptions, this minaret once belonged to the Juma Mosque that was situated in the area. An inscription on the minaret indicates that it was built in the 1880s. A tombstone adjacent to the minaret notes that the scholar Mustafa Efendi was buried there.[2] The minaret itself is made of red brick, while the foundation of the demolished mosque building is made of river stone.[1] The brick edges of the minaret are decorated with pressed rhombus patterns.
After the Soviet occupation in Azerbaijan, an official campaign against religion began in 1928.[4] In December of that year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan transferred many mosques, churches, and synagogues to the control of clubs for use in educational purposes.[5] While there were 3,000 mosques in Azerbaijan in 1917, this number dropped to 1,700 in 1927, to 1,369 in 1928, and to just 17 by 1933.[5][6] During this period, the mosque in the area was destroyed, but the eight-sided minaret survived because it had been built separately from the mosque building.[1] Today, only the foundation of the mosque building remains.[2]
After Azerbaijan regained its independence, the eight-sided minaret was included in the list of immovable historical and cultural monuments of local significance by Decision No. 132 of the Cabinet of Azerbaijan dated August 2, 2001.[7]
