MOSQUES

MOSQUES, Muslim religious buildings. In Bashkortostan, M. building started along with the spread of Islam and the transition of the Bashkirs to a settled life‑style. Historical sources mention M. of the 16–17th centuries. At the beginning of the 18th century, Kazanskaya Doroga M. were built in Staroye Kuskildino (1701), Imay‑Utarovo (1724), Gulyukovo (1725) villages, and other localities. Each M. had its maktab or madrassa. The establishment of the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly promoted the mass construction of M. in Bashkir, Meshcheryak and Teptyar settlements. The M. in Selo Staroyaksheyev, Baltachyevsky Raion is known as one of the surviving M. of the 1st half of the 18th century. It was built in 1738. By early 19th century Orenburg Gub. had four stone M. and 1258 wooden ones. In the following years, these M. were built: the First Grand Mosque, the Second Grand Mosque (closed by the Bashkir Central Executive Committee in 1931), the Third Grand Mosque (closed by the Bashkir Central Executive Committee in 1940), the Fifth Grand Mosque (closed by the Bashkir Central Executive Committee in 1962), the Sixth Grand Mosque (closed by the Bashkir Central Executive Committee in 1934; all of the above mentioned M. were situated in Ufa), the Sterlitamakskaya Grand Mosque in Sterlitamak (closed in 1930 and was subsequently demolished), the First Grand Mosque and the Second Grand Mosque in Selo Tyemyasovo, Baymak Raion of the BASSR, closed in the 1930s), the First Grand Mosque in Derevnya Toshkurovo of the Tanypskaya Volost of the Sibirskaya Doroga (now Baltachevsky Raion of the RB; closed in the 1940s), and other M. In 1922, there were 2507 M. in the Ufa Gub. and Ma­ laya Bashkiriya. At the end of the 1920s and 30s, there was a massive closure of M. and the destruction of religious parishes.

An active construction of M. in the RB started at the beginning of 1990s. In 2013, there were 1060 M. in the RB; in 2018 – approx. 700 M.