"1740th years were the time of a fierce persecution of Islam… In the Kazan province by June, 1744 from 536 existing mosques 418 were destroyed; they refrained from utter annihilation just because the rumors about it could reach Moslem countries and cause destruction of churches there, too". (V.V. Bartold, volume 9, page 409-410)
Mosques of Crimea experienced the same lot. Within several centuries in the course of spread of Islamic faith in Crimea there was a historical process of unification of various ethno-confessional groups which inhabited the peninsula, the Crimean-Tatars. Islamic cult buildings constructed in the 13-18 centuries (mosques, madrasas) as architectural monuments of the past are a part of our cultural heritage. In the East mosques alongside with palaces and city fortifications were the basic elements which formed a city and differed with their functions and sizes. As a rule there were built several assembly mosques where a Friday prayer was held and tens of small quarter mosques for convenience of fulfillment of five prayers which are obligatory for Moslems. Quarter mosques were real present man's clubs. In the conditions which are distinct from the West where city self-management has generated town halls, the role of assembly mosques was great. They personified spiritual unity of members of a city community; there were affirmed the norms of law and moral - aesthetic regulations of Islam. Each newcomer before he could exercise the privileges of the townspeople should have come in an assembly mosque and as though to confirm the unconditional submission to all requirements of local spiritual and secular authority by it.
Islamic cult constructions were the architectural creeds, by their construction oriental governors and aristocracy strived to immortalize their names. Therefore in Crimea there were many mosques, evidently representing the epoch of the Middle Ages sated with important historical events, carrying from the far times the names of Seljuk, Osmani, Mamluk sultans, the Golden Horde and the Crimean khans. They personified cultural, political and economic relations of the peninsula with various regions of the Islamic world. A lot of names and events in history, connected with the Islamic cult buildings are rather indicative. One of the first mentions concerning the construction of a mosque in Crimea in written sources dates back to1222. During the reign of Ala eddin Kei-Kubada (1219-37) the Rumi sultan in the Asia Minor has achieved the apogee of his power. On command of the sultan Seljuk armies under the leadership of Husam eddin Choban-Bey landed in Crimea, reconquered from Kipcahks the town of Sudak, and built a mosque. Osman Akchokrakly especially noted that for a centuries-old history of its existence it was repeatedly reconstructed, and its earmarking changed. In 1423 the Genoa missionaries transformed the mosque into "a Catholic temple", the Turks since 1475 again into the mosque, and since 1783 in the fortress settled down a Russian garrison.
In 1262 the khan of the Golden Horde Berke and Mamluk sultan Beybars (Kipchak, the native of Crimea, died in 1277) concluded a military-political union. For a long time diplomatic relations between both states were carried out through Crimea. With the purpose of strengthening of the authority of Islam on the peninsula on command of sultan Kala'una (1250-90) in Crimea was built a mosque which was named by people "the mosque of Beybars". The Mamluk period (1250-1517) is considered to be the top of medieval architecture of Egypt. Sultans and grandees competed in construction of magnificent palaces, mosques, madrasas, and hospitals - maristans. This brilliant period began from the erection in 1285 of a huge architectural ensemble which included a mosque - madrasa, a maristan and the mausoleum of sultan Kala'un. Two years later, in 1287 as medieval Arabian historians Ibn al-Foraty and Al-Markizi state, "… the set of different supplies for the mosque which was under construction in Crimea (Solgat) at the cost of 2000 dinars is sent". Unfortunately, the mosque was not preserved up to now, but even its ruins indicate monumentalism of the building constructed once. In connection with declaration of Islam as the state religion of the Golden Horde in 1314 by order of the khan in Crimea was built a mosque which is marvelously preserved up to now. In the Central state archive of the AR of Crimea is preserved the copy of the telegram sent by the director of the Bakhchsarai museum U.Bodaninsky to the Crimean CEC and Krasnokrymsky city soviet in April, 27, 1932, "By the decision of CEC an ancient monument - the mosque of Uzbek where there is a museum storehouse of monuments of the Tatar olden time is to be pulled down. We ask to cancel this decision".
The biggest mosque in Crimea built in honor of sultan Selim in the town of Kefa (Feodosiya), the creation of a well-known Turkish architect Hodzha Sinan, is disassembled in 1833, and constructed by him in the town of Kezpev (Evpatoria) Khan-Dzami for a long time was used as a museum of atheism. New trading and craft centers of the peninsula of the 16-18 centuries - Bakhchisarai, Kezlev, Kara-suvbazar, Or were actively built up with public and cult constructions with the support and protection of the Crimean khans, that during the Soviet period of our history became one of the reasons of their destruction. For example, in Bakhchisarai according to the description of the Turkish traveler Evliy Chelebi, in 1666 there were 24 mosques, in 1786 there were 38 mosques, and now there are only 8. Moreover, only two of them are open, one undergoes restoration, and the other five mosques are used as a kitchen of a boarding school, a house, a cinema "START", a sausage shop, and a society of invalids. In Karasuvbazar (Belogorodsk) in 1666 there were 28 mosques, in 1786 - 21. In the 20th years to the architectural monuments which are protected by law and state by the National Commissariat of education of Crimean ASSR were attributed the buildings of two caravan-sarays of the 17th century, two baths - "Buyuk hammam" and also three mosques - "Khan Dzhami", "Shor-Dzami", "Buyuk-Dzhami". Nowadays in the Kara-suvbazar does not exist any monument of medieval architecture. In the city of Kezlev in the 17the century there were buildings of 26 mosques, in 1786 - 21, and nowadays there are only three mosques. The criminal attitude of the colonial and then Soviet administrations to the monuments of the material culture of one of native peoples of Crimea is quite explicable. For the officials Islamic cult buildings were the heritage of the people alien to them, and, hence, they did not represent any value for them.
So, the total of number of mosques built during five and a half of centuries in 6 cities and 1474 villages of Crimea by 1786 was more than 1600. Probably, the same number of them was kept by 1805 when without taking into account the Yalta district there were1556 cult buildings. But after half a century, by the beginning of the colonial war, when the most powerful states of Europe "exchanged blows" in Crimea (1853-56), the amount of mosques was reduced up to 1492.
In 1859 from Northern Caucasus began powerful emigration movement to the limits of the Ottoman empire of hundreds thousand highlanders, who suffered defeat in a long war with the Russian empire and did not want to remain subdued in the won and enslaved Motherland. In 1860-62 about two hundred thousand Crimean Tatars who were rescued from official and landowner arbitrariness also emigrated to the Balkan and Asia Minor possession of the Ottoman Port. Purposeful political action of the imperial regime was a real national tragedy for the Crimean Tatars. K.Hanatsky in "The Memorable book of Taurian province" (1867) has shown the scales of this tragedy, "In the Perekopsk district Tatars left 278 auls or villages and 41331 persons moved. New settlers occupied 34 colonies; the other 244 remain in ruins. In the Simferopol district moved 17459 people from 146 villages and auls, 18 of them became empty and remained in ruins; the other 126 remain under former names, as not all Tatars moved abroad. In the Feodosiya district emigration of Tatars occurred from 67 villages, 14 of them became completely empty. From the Evpatoriya district moved abroad 80434 people which lived in 196 villages, 39 of them became completely empty. Thus, emigration of Tatars in the Taurian province occurred from 784 tatar villages or auls, 330 of them remain in ruins, and the others are occupied by new immigrants".
In connection with significant reduction of the population and desolation of villages in the peninsula by 1864 were preserved from destruction 803 mosques, and quarter a century later, in 1890 even less - 737. The number of mosques remained at the same level up to 1914, whereas after the end of the First world and civil wars there were only 632 mosques (100 mosques for only 6 years!). Thus, one of the results of Russian colonial policy in Crimea (1783-1917) was destruction of about thousand Islamic cult constructions.
After the establishment of the Soviet authority and acceptance of the decree about separating the church from the state the mosques were given to Moslem communities. The control over the activity of religious organizations and societies was carried out by the Commission on questions of cult in Crimea. However, in the 30th years together with enforcing of atheistic propaganda and persecutions on clerics mosques were closed basically under pretext of their unsatisfactory sanitary-engineering condition, the decayed constructions were destroyed, and the rest were transferred to collective farms under warehouses, clubs, schools, reading rooms, etc.
In the following 1938 year 23 mosques were closed, and since 1944 up to the end of the eightieth began the period when everything that could remind of the Crimean people was destroyed, - cemeteries, cult constructions, villages, toponymics, etc.
Ibrahim ABDULLAEV
On the materials of newspaper "Arraid"
