In days of old, there once was a respectable merchant called Lord Tura who wished to celebrate the bountiful blessings bestowed on him from above by constructing a magnificent new mosque. Building materials were duly brought and Persian slaves hired for the job. All that remained was for the Khan to grant the final permission. However this was to prove problematic since the Khan was currently disposed in one of his many battles against the Emir of Bukhara. In the end, Lord Tura decided to proceed with construction work anyway, thinking that the Khan could not possibly have any objections to another house of prayer in his city. The resulting mosque was a masterpiece - whilst not grand, it was beautfully designed and graced with a tall, elegant minaret from which to call the faithful to prayer.
However upon his return to Khiva the Khan was far from happy with the new building. His chief cause for concern was the minaret and when he climbed to the top he became even more agitated. The minaret's height and proximity to his castle granted the Mullah a bird's eye view into his harem five times a day! This would not do at all and the vexed Khan ordered the immediate destruction of the minaret. It was replaced by the short and stubby minaret which can still be seen today - a pawn in Khiva's history.