The İske Taş () or Iske Tash Mosque, also the Old Stone Mosque (via , , ''Starokamennaya, Iske-Tash'')
or the Mosque of the Old Stone (via ),
formerly known as ''The Ninth Cathedral Mosque'', ''The Big Stone Mosque'', is a mosque in Kazan
Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...
, Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
.
History
According to the old legend, it was erected on the place of a communal grave of the fighting men who defended Kazan in 1552. The grave was marked by a ''big old stone'' (''zur iske taş''), which has been preserved in front of the east facade of the mosque for many years after its erection.
The mosque was built in 1802 with donations of merchant Ğabdulla Ütämişev. The qibla
The qibla () is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Great Mosque of Mecca, Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. In Islam, the Kaaba is believed to ...
of the mosque was set by Ghabdennasir Qursawi. In 1830 it was reconstructed according to the project of Alexander Schmidt. The mosque's façades were rebuilt in classicism traditions. Their strictness is accentuated by the minaret with three tiers set on a thick cross wall between the praying rooms. The minarets' shape is associated with the minarets in the ancient towns Bolghar
Bolghar (; Tatar language, Tatar: Болгар, بلغار, ''Bolğar''; Chuvash language, Chuvash: Аслă Пăлхар, ''Aslă Pălhar'') was intermittently the capital of Volga Bulgaria from the 10th to the 13th centuries, along with Bilär, ...
and Kasimov. The mosque is two-storied, has two halls, the minaret is placed in the center of gable roof.
In the 19th century the imams were from Amirkhan family.
The mosque was closed according to the decision of Central Executive Committee of Tatar ASSR at the end of the 1930s. It was used as a school and then as storage during the Soviet rule. In 1994 it was returned to the believers.
See also
*Islam in Tatarstan
Islam in Tatarstan existed prior to the tenth century, but it saw major growth in 922, when Bulgars, Bulgar ruler Almış converted to Islam.Azade-Ayse Rolich, The Volga Tatars, 1986, page 11. Richard Frye, Ibn Fadlan's Journey to Russia, 2005 ...
*Islam in Russia
Islam is a major religious minority in the Russian Federation, which has the largest Islam in Europe, Muslim population in Europe. According to the US Federal Research Division 1998 reference book, , viArchive.org/ref> Muslims in Russia number ...
* List of mosques in Russia
* List of mosques in Europe
References
External links
Russian mosques
{{Authority control
Mosques in Kazan
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1802
Closed mosques in the Soviet Union
Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Tatarstan
Anti-Islam sentiment in Russia