Among Zoroastrian burial items, there is a camel-shaped zoomorphic OSTADON lying there. It was found…
The question of constructing a mosque in the capital of the Russian Empire was first raised by Muslim servicemen back in 1798. However, their petition "For the granting of a prayer house for Muslims in Petersburg and the allocation of land for a cemetery" was not approved by Paul I. Later, the Muslim clergy made repeated appeals to the city authorities four times—in 1861, 1867, 1881, and 1882—but all were unsuccessful.
Nevertheless, the Muslim community managed to obtain permission to appoint Akhuns A. Bayazitov and M.Sh. Yunusov to collect the necessary funds for the mosque's construction. By January 1905, when a decisive turn in the matter of building the mosque finally emerged, the total amount of collected donations reached 51,183 rubles. However, it was the personal involvement of Emir Said Abdulkhalid Khan that played an exceptional role in finally laying the first stone for the St. Petersburg Cathedral Mosque. He achieved what seemed impossible—gaining approval from Nicholas II and investing 500,000 rubles in purchasing the land for construction in the historical center of the capital.
According to calculations found online regarding the purchasing power of the ruble in 1905, one ruble today is approximately equivalent to $43. Thus, Abdulkhalid Khan invested around $21.5 million in acquiring the plot. Additionally, about $2.2 million was raised through donations. And all this was just at the initial stage.
