Tatar mosque — is the typical mosque architecture in Tatarstan and other Volga Tatar-populated areas of Russia. Occasionally found in other regions of Russia, modern Tatar religious architecture was developed in the late 18th century and gained popularity in the 19th century Idel-Ural.

History
The earliest examples of Islamic Tatar architecture are located in Bolghar; none of them are in use today. They reflect strong similarities to Central Asian Islamic architecture from which the designs were derived. However, it is believed that design of rural mosques, opposing to Central Asian-like mosques of capital cities, evolve from their ability to withstand the harsh local climate. Many mosques, both stone and wooden were built, according to this style. The oldest of the still active modern Tatar mosques is the Märcani mosque in the Tatar capital of Kazan. Dating from the reign of Catherine the Great, the mosque’s minaret is placed in the center of a gabled roof. It is believed that the concept was adopted from traditional rurual Tatar mosques. The Märcani mosque is an example of revival Tatar religious architecture as most mosques were destroyed due to the Christianization edict of 1742.

Mosques with a minaret on the roof were built in the Tatar cities and villages before. Especially the widespread use of such mosques began with construction in 1766-1770. which became the largest and most important stone mosque in Kazan, al-Mardzhani (it was the first cathedral, Yunusovskaya), designed by Russian architect V. I. Kaftyrev after personal permission of Empress Catherine II and her proclamation of a society of multi-confessional tolerance in Russia.

On the construction of mosques in the Volga region in the XIX century. The Decree of December 13, 1817, ” On the Organization of Villages and Church Buildings ” was distributed. With the entry into force of this decree, the architecture of the Tatar mosques in Russia was introduced into the framework of “exemplary” construction. In 1831 an exemplary project was developed and sent out to the field. Drawings of mosques are a creative search of architects of building offices. In the villages of Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Simbirsk provinces, mosques were built on these projects.

In the XIX century. architects PG Pyatnitsky, MP Korinfsky, AK Shmidt, AI Peske, worked in the Kazan and Simbirsk gubernias over projects of mosques in the second half of the 19th century. – PI Romanov, M. Ermolaev, Pavlov, N. Parensov, FI Petyondi, PV Tekhomirov, technician of the provincial board Alexandrov, private compiler of the plans of the mosque Abdulla Mansurov, N. Foshderebryuggen, Jakobson and others.

On some exemplary projects, mosques are a very unusual building in appearance. The main volume of the building in the form of a regular octagonal prism had three entrances from the western, eastern and northern sides. The latter had separate warm canopies, in which were located office space and a staircase to the minaret. From the southern facade was a mihrab. In the center of the pyramidal sloping eight-fold roof was a squat octagonal dome with a dome ending, the external gallery of which was located directly on the roof of the building. This entire composition is crowned with a crescent (see the figure of architect Jacobson).

Both wooden and stone mosques with a minaret on the roof represent a rectangular one-two-story building with a gable roof, oriented from north to south. From the southern end adjoins a rectangular in terms of the volume of the mihrab.

Unlike a separately standing minaret, the minaret, which is structurally connected with the building of the mosque, is resistant to wind load. Since the weight of the wooden minaret is small, the best solution in this case is to set the minaret directly on the roof using rafters as additional braces, which also increases its strength to wind load. The minaret was structurally attached to the rafters and beams of the ceiling.

Minaret
The octagonal or sometimes cylindrical minaret cut through the roof and ended with a high pyramidal or conical tent. The minaret is located in most cases above the geometric center of the building and was a two-three-tiered tower, consisting of a rod (with or without a base), an inner azanchi and tent area.

Wooden minarets were always octagonal, stone could be octagonal, or cylindrical or combined.

Functional scheme of the mosque
If the building was two-story, on the first floor there was a service and economic area, where along with the necessary supplies for the mosque (inventory, library, woodbins) there were fireproof storerooms for the goods of local merchants. In accordance with the tradition of Islam, the mosque is not only a religious but also a cultural and educational institution. Therefore, on the first floor was often located the mekteb of her mahalla. The northern part of the building was occupied by a vestibule zone (canopy, wardrobe), southern part – ritual (prayer halls, mihrab).

In one-story mosques, the layout was built according to the standard scheme: the entrance-vestibule-altar part. From the hallway there was a move in the warehouse podklet and a staircase to the attic, where you could walk to the minaret by a special boardwalk. A spiral staircase led to the upper platform.

In many places mosques were of very modest size and standard layout, as the number of mahallas increased due to the extension of the lobby on the north side it was expanded.

The design of the mosque
The uninhabited walls of the mosque were painted with ocher, they were divided according to the internal planning according to the wooden boards, painted under the rust in white or blue. The fronts of the building and the core of the minaret were painted with ultramarine, contrasted with white friezes and green cornices. The semicircular pediment window, decorated with sewn dies under a wedge arch, was painted white and green. Such coloring began to occur in the second half of the XIX and early XX century.

Unification
The edict on unification of church buildings of 1817 was expanded to the mosques in 1831, when the exemplary project was developed and circulated to governorate architectural offices of Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm and Simbirsk Governorates. Tatar mosques, such as Märcani and Apanay were built in baroque style. İske Taş and Pink Mosques were contributed to classicism style.

Among the architects, contributed to the mosques building in the 19th century the most notable were Pyatnitsky, Korinfsky, Schmidt, Peske, Romanov, Yermolayev, Pavlov, Parensov, Petondi, Tekhomirov, as well as non-professional architects Mansurov, Foshderebryuggen, Jakobson.

In 1844 another exemplary mosque project was introduced, which was used mostly for urban mosques. The minaret was placed at the northern part of the building, under the door. However, mosques with minarets in the roof are constructed till today.

Source From Wikipedia