Mosque of the week: Märcani Mosque

Maybe some of you might know the city of Kazan because of the football club FC Rubin winning the national league in 2008 and 2009. But did you know that one of the oldest mosques in the region is situated in that city? The Märcani Mosque was constructed in 1766 by Catherine the Great’s authority and financed by donations from the local people. It was built in traditions of the Tatar medieval architecture and currently named after named after Tatar scholar Şihabetdin Märcani who worked there as imam in 1850. The two-storied mosque with two halls even escaped closure during the Soviet period. The city of Kazan is capital of the Republic of Tatarstan which is a federal subject of the Russian Federation and a Muslim-majority area.