Kul-Sharif Mosque, Kazan, Russia
Kazan is Tatarstan's capital city the name "Kazan" means "cauldron" in the Tatar language-a reflection of its dynamic history. After Russia conquered the city in the sixteenth century, ethnic Tatars were moved to the old city where they lived in a virtual ghetto.
Kazan has remained at the heart of a region where Sunni Islam has been the dominant religion since the tenth century. It is the northern-most Islamic capital in the world and is evenly divided between Tatar Muslims and ethnic Russians.
It was Catherine the Great who restored Tatars with the full right to worship as Muslims 1788, which in turn led to a strong Islamic revival in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Most recently, the Soviet period witnessed the persecution of both Muslims and Christians, as well as the destruction of most of Tatarstan's mosques. By 1990, only twenty-three mosques remained in the autonomous republic, one of which was in Kazan.
Magnificent mosque Kul Sharif in city of Kazan. One of the most beautiful and most northern mosques of the world. It is constructed by thousand-year anniversary of city of Kazan.
