On the construction of the Cathedral Mosque in Commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of the House of Romanov in Astrakhan

Abstract

In the early 20th century, Astrakhan was one of the largest urban Tatar-Muslim centers. In the pre-revolutionary period, the city had 14 mosques, both wooden and stone. The construction of stone mosques in Astrakhan began in 1810; over the course of the 19th century, a distinctive Astrakhan type of religious Muslim architecture took shape and has survived to this day. At the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. Three stone mosques were built in Astrakhan, but the community grew rapidly, partly owing to the resettlement of Tatars from the Middle Volga and Ural provinces. While forming new mahallas along regional lines, the Tatars elected an imam from among themselves, opened a prayer house, and then the community asked the local provincial administration and the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly to build a mosque and grant it the status of a cathedral mosque. In the early 20th century, the Tatars living in the area around Parobichev Bugr in Astrakhan submitted a similar petition to the authorities, linking the construction of a mosque to the 300th anniversary.

Financing. The work was carried out at the expense of the grant provided in 2025 by the Foundation for Science and Technology of the Republic of Tatarstan for the implementation of fundamental and exploratory research in scientific and educational organizations, enterprises and organizations of the real sector of the economy of the Republic of Tatarstan No. 29 dated 01.12.2025.

For citation: Imasheva M.M. On the construction of the Cathedral Mosque in Commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of the House of Romanov in Astrakhan. From History and Culture of Peoples of the Middle Volga Region. 2026, vol.16, no.3, pp. 103–118. https://doi.org/10.22378/2410-0765.2026-16-3.103-118 (In Russian)