Muslim mosques of the Yenisei province in the legal framework of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th — early 20th century

Abstract

In this article, the functioning of Muslim parishes in the Elysee province in the second half of the 19th — early 20th centuries is being examined. The paper has been prepared using archival materials of the State Archive of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and Central State Historical Archive of the Republic of Bashkortostan, many of which are being introduced into scientific discourse for the first time. The archival materials are presented by petitions from Muslims of the Yenisei Province, and the associated correspondence from provincial departments and the Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly. Based on the analysis of the source base, it has been established that the active construction of religious buildings on the territory of the Yenisei Province by Muslims only started in the beginning of the 20th century. Mosques performed not only a religious function for Muslims, but also a public institution uniting representatives of the Islamic tradition. Despite the fact that the community was obliged to cover all construction and maintenance costs itself, the process of obtaining such permissions was quite lengthy. For example, in the city of Yeniseisk, it took several years for the Muslim community to obtain the permission and build a mosque. The first petition for the permission to build a mosque in Yeniseisk was sent to the Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly in 1865, and the mosque itself was built only in 1906. To obtain the permission to build a religious building, the Muslim community had to prove its worth, both before provincial authorities and the Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly. A separate decision on the possibility of building a mosque in the region was given by the diocesan authorities in order to establish the fact that a religious building built by Muslims would not infringe on the interests of the Orthodox population, as well as attract the newly baptized people. At the beginning of the 20th century, with the increase in the number of immigrants in the region, there was a discernible trend towards the larger number of Muslim communities in the Yenisei Province, and at the same time of the construction of mosques. Furthermore, during this period, there were certain relaxations in the requirements for religious construction for Muslims. However, all these changes, as well as active position of the Muslim population in the region still required lengthy correspondence with government officials, as well as spiritual departments, both of the Muslims themselves and the Russian Orthodox Church. One of the main problems, which remained intractable even in the beginning of the 20th century, was concerned with the compliance with norms of the Construction Charter regarding the size of the parish. The Yenisei Province remained being a multi-confessional region, where the Muslim community was not always dense.

Keywords

• orenburg mohammedan spiritual assembly
• religious construction
• muslims.