Bukhara Mosque in St. Petersburg: the legacy of Abd al-Ahad Khan

Bukhara Mosque in St. Petersburg: the legacy of Abd al-Ahad Khan

An important event for Russian Muslims was the acquisition of land for the construction of a mosque in St. Petersburg by Abd al-Ahad Khan.

Part of the funds for its construction belonged to the Emir; the rest he was obliged to collect from the Bukhara merchants. The mosque was supposed to be one of the capital’s magnificent buildings and the largest in Europe. Abd al-Ahad Khan was personally present at its ceremonial laying in 1910. This was his last visit to the capital. At the end of the same year, he died in Karmana, where he had lived since 1894, after a quarrel with the Bukhara clergy. Unlike other emirs of Bukhara, he was buried in the local cemetery.

As for the mosque, its opening took place in 1913 with the participation of his son, the emir Seyid Mir Alim Khan, and Isfandiyar Khan, the ruler of the Khanate of Khiva, who came to power with him. Alim Khan had to bring to complete another project conceived by his father in Petersburg, the construction of a mansion at Kamennoostrovsky Avenue, not far from the mosque. Both of these buildings today are an integral part of the historical architectural appearance of the city, and in the memory of Petersburgers they remained associated with Bukhara – “The House of the Emir of Bukhara,” as the townspeople call the mansion, and the mosque built by him.

You can learn more about the topic in the book-album “Uzbekistan in historic photographs of the 19th - early 20th centuries in the collections of Russian archives” (Volume XXXVII) in the series “Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan”. 

The main sponsor of the project is the oil service company Eriell-Group.
 

Bukhara Mosque in St. Petersburg: the legacy of Abd al-Ahad Khan