Aitbai Mosque in Kyzylorda: A Historic Sunni Mosque in Kazakhstan
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Kazakhstan
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Russian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Mosque
On this page7 sections
History
Aitbai Mosque in Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan, was built in 1878 in the brick style during a period when mosque construction was expanding in the city. Then known as Perovsk, Kyzylorda was seeing the establishment of Kazakh, Uzbek, and Tatar mosques, and the new building became an important Sunni Muslim religious institution.
Construction in Perovsk
Construction was initiated by Aitbai Baltabaev, a merchant from Bukhara, who contributed 40,000 rubles. Local residents financed the remaining costs, while the work was led by Iskak and Kamal, masters from Aulie-Ata, the former name of present-day Taraz. The mosque opened in 1878 and also functioned as a madrasa, an Islamic educational institution traditionally devoted to religious and scholarly study.
The building belonged to the Sunni tradition, the largest major branch of Islam, and it continues to function as an active mosque.
Soviet-era changes
During the Soviet period, the mosque was closed and assigned a series of nonreligious uses. It became a cinema in the 1950s, later housed a boarding school, and served as a sewing workshop during the 1970s. The building was subsequently occupied by the Kyzylorda Restoration organization.
Protection and restoration
The Kazakh Design and Restoration Institute examined the monument and prepared a comprehensive repair and restoration project in 1980. In 1982, the mosque was placed under state protection as a monument of history and culture of republican significance. Restoration was completed by the late 1980s, after which the building returned to use as a mosque.
A minaret was later added with money collected by worshippers. During the 2000s, an unauthorized major renovation and replanning changed the interior. Restoration specialists criticized the intervention, stating that the historic facade was the only substantial part left untouched and that the building’s historical value had consequently been reduced. Aitbai Mosque remains on Kazakhstan’s state list of monuments of history and culture of republican significance.
Remains
Building and layout
The mosque stands at 18 Satpaev Street in the historic center of Kyzylorda. Its rectangular plan measures 16 by 12 meters, and the building rises 14 meters high. Fired brick, including a brick foundation, forms the structure. The foundation is 1.70 meters deep and 0.90 meters wide, while the bricks are described as measuring 16 by 12 centimeters.
Interior partitions divide the building into a prayer hall and a vestibule. At the center of the prayer hall, a domed space rises toward the roof beneath iron roofing. The building was plastered and whitewashed, and its ceiling was painted. The complex also includes a prayer area, dining room, and service and residential rooms in the courtyard on the northwestern and southeastern sides, together with the later-added minaret.
Decorated facades
The facades display elaborate figured brickwork, making the mosque a notable example of the brick style and distinguishing it from older forms of Muslim religious architecture. The western facade, which contains the mihrab, a recessed or projecting feature marking the direction of prayer toward Mecca, is arranged as a symmetrical composition of horizontal and vertical elements. Bands, cornices, and pilasters divide the wall into five sections: a central section and two sections on each side. The two sections nearest the center are narrower than the outer sections.
The central section receives the richest decoration. Its lower part contains a projecting, multifaceted mihrab, while its upper attic is decorated with cartouches. The other facade sections carry corresponding ornament. At mihrab level, projecting bricks create applied frames resembling radiating arches. Above them are ribbon-like patterns made from small recessed niches arranged in a seam motif. Narrow horizontal projections and cornices articulate the pilasters, which also feature bracket-like corbel blocks. The front forms a large portal with a centrally placed entrance door, and its historic masonry is the principal surviving part of the original building after the later replanning.
