The Saint Petersburg Mosque (russian: Санкт-Петербу́ргская мече́ть), when opened in 1913, was the largest

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

outside

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, its

minaret A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گل‌دسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generall ...

s 49 meters in height and the

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

is 39 meters high. The mosque is situated in downtown

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. It can accommodate up to five thousand worshippers. The founding stone was laid in 1910 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the reign of Abdul Ahat Khan in

Bukhara Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...

. By that time, the

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

community of the Russian then-capital exceeded 8,000 people. The projected structure was capable of accommodating most of them. The architect Nikolai Vasilyev patterned the mosque after

Gur-e-Amir The Gūr-i Amīr or Guri Amir ( uz, Amir Temur maqbarasi, Go'ri Amir, fa, گورِ امیر) is a mausoleum of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (also known as Tamerlane) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It occupies an important place in the history of C ...

, the tomb of

Tamerlane Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...

Samarkand fa, سمرقند , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from the top:Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zinda, ...

. Its construction was completed by 1921. Worshippers are separated by gender during a worship service; females worship on the upper floor, while the males worship on the ground floor. The Mosque was closed to worshippers from 1940 to 1956.

History

In 1882, Selim-Giray Tevkelev who in 1865 was appointed the

Mufti A Mufti (; ar, مفتي) is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion ('' fatwa'') on a point of Islamic law (''sharia''). The act of issuing fatwas is called ''iftāʾ''. Muftis and their ''fatwas'' played an important rol ...

Orenburg Orenburg (russian: Оренбу́рг, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Ural River, southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is also very close to the Kazakhstan-Russia bor ...

obtained permission, from minister Count Tolstoy, to build a mosque in St. Petersburg.Saint Petersburg mosque in "Russian Mosques"(English translation)
accessed October 2011 In 1906, the Minister formed a special committee headed by Ahun Ataulla Bayazitov to collect 750,000

ruble The ruble (American English) or rouble (Commonwealth English) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the currency unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union. , currencies named ''rub ...

s within 10 years for the construction of the mosque. They organised collections all over Russia and received donations from many sponsors. The largest donor was Said Abdoul Ahad,

Emir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...

, who undertook all expenses for the building. The location of the mosque was symbolic, sited opposite the

Peter and Paul Fortress The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a star fortress. Between the first half of the 1700s and early 1920s i ...

, in the city centre. The permission to purchase the site was given by Emperor

Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...

in Peterhof on 3 July 1907. That autumn, the committee approved the project by architect Nikolai Vasilyev, engineer Stepan Krichinsky, with construction overseen by Alexander von Hohen. The building facade was made by combining both oriental ornaments and a turquoise blue mosaic. On 3 February 1910, Ahun Bayazitov laid the cornerstone for the building, attended by government, religious and social figures. Among those who attended were

Mohammed Alim Khan Emir Sayyid Mir Muhammad Alim Khan ( uz, Said Mir Muhammad Olimxon, 3 January 1880 – 28 April 1944) was the last emir of the Uzbek Manghit dynasty, rulers of the Emirate of Bukhara in Central Asia. Although Bukhara was a protectorate of the ...

, the ambassadors of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, and

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, and Tevkelev, the leader of the Muslim party in the

Duma A duma (russian: дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were for ...

. The walls are made of grey granite and the dome and both minarets are covered with mosaic ceramics of a sky blue colour. These were created by

Peter Vaulin Peter Kuzmich Vaulin (1870-1943) was a Russian ceramics artist active in the first half of the twentieth century He originally worked in ceramic workshop of Savva Ivanovich Mamontov in the Abramtsevo Colony near Moscow from 1890 to 1904. Then in ...

in his workshop in Kikerino. In addition, many skilled craftsmen from Central Asia took part working on the mosque. The facades are decorated with verses from the Qur'an using Arabic calligraphy. Internal columns are made from green marble. The mosque was covered by huge specially made carpets woven by Central Asian craftsmen. In 1940, Soviet authorities banned services and turned the building into a medical equipment storehouse. At the request of the first

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n President,

Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of ...

, ten days after his visit to the city, the mosque was returned to the Muslim religious community of St. Petersburg in 1956. A major restoration of the mosque was carried out in 1980.

References

External links

Photographs and descriptionSaint Petersburg mosque on "Russian Mosques"(English translation)
{{Mosques in Russia Islamic organizations established in 1913 Mosques in Saint Petersburg 1913 establishments in the Russian Empire Art Nouveau architecture in Saint Petersburg Mosques completed in 1921 Mosque buildings with domes Closed mosques in the Soviet Union Mosques in Europe Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Saint Petersburg

History

See also

References

External links