Architecture of the Mosques of Russian Empire in the Early 20th Century

The beginning of the 20th century was marked with wide-scale construction of mosques on the territory of the Russian Empire from Saint Petersburg to Urals. The foundation of this process was laid back in the 1760s-era with the construction of Kazan and Kasimov mosques. In 1788, Catherine the Great signed a decree to establish Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly – the first official Islamic organization in the Russian Empire. Until now, there has been no monographs describing the architectural style of mosques built early in the 20th century. The goal of this research is to identify similarities between certain mosques and other pieces of Russian architectural style, and to establish whether mosques have a common Islamic, global or local prototype. It is essential to highlight the cultural and architectural value of mosques in order to awake interest to them on a broad scale. The main tasks of the research are to compile a catalogue of mosques and study their types. The detailed analysis of all mosques is followed by the conclusions regarding the unique or typical features of an architectural piece from the point of view of local traditions. At this stage it becomes clear what Islamic prototypes were used in construction, what the popular trends were and whether regional architectural schools existed.