Suleymaniyah Mosque

Back in 1786, after a severe fire, the authorities decided to evict unnecessary people from the Orenburg fortress, and a small suburb arose to the west of the historical part of the city, which was named Golubina, and then Staraya Slobodka. In the mid-1860s, the first industrial establishments began to appear to the north, near which their owners, tenants of urban land, settled.

This is where the whole area got its historical name of Rent. In the 2nd half of the 19th century. Both suburbs were actively replenished by Tatar immigrants from the Volga provinces.

This was also facilitated by the fact that leather, sheepskin, soap-making and other crafts, which were traditionally engaged in by Tatars, were brought to "rented places" outside the city limits for sanitary reasons. Initially, Muslims who lived in the Old Settlement and rented a Caravanserai mosque. However, their number grew, and over time it became necessary to build their own religious building. At the request of local Muslims, the Orenburg Provincial Government magazine dated 07/12/1885 authorized the construction of the 5th cathedral mosque on a site donated by Orenburg philistine Abdulgaziz Shamsutdinovich Ageev, the owner of a large sheep-sheepskin establishment. It was built by 1887 in Staraya Sloboda, on the corner of Kinikeevskaya St. (now the lane). Zavodskoy 41) and Voroniy Lane (Chulochny Lane, 14).

At the end of the 19th century, the Cathedral mosque parish was the largest in the city and by 1890 numbered 1941 people (875 men and 1066 women), by 1908 its number had decreased to 1052 people (respectively. 500 and 552). At the beginning of the 20th century, the eastern boundary of the parish was Ardatovskaya and Izvoshchichya streets (now the lane). Ardatovsky and Yaitskaya streets), yuzhnaya – Ovsyanikovsky Lane (now Slesarny Lane), the western border ran along the line of Zhirkovskaya St. (now Skornyazhny Lane), Empty, Golovinsky Lane (now Kozhevenny), Chernorechenskaya St., Naberezhnye Chelny Lane (now 1st Linear St.), 1st Goncharny Row (now M. Jalil) and Burannoy St. (now Belogorskaya), Severnaya – on the 4th Goncharny Row (now Guseva St.). The largest number of Muslims lived on Chernorechenskaya, Kinikeevskaya (now Zavodskoy Lane), Vlasovskaya (now Pavlovskaya), Yefimovskaya (now Mavritsky), 1st, 2nd and 3rd Goncharny Row (now M. Jalil, Goncharnaya and Shafeeva streets).

The Muslim population of Staraya Sloboda and the Lease consisted of grain merchants, shoemakers, tailors, hatmakers, furriers, furriers, tanners, sheepskins, saddlers, and other artisans, workers of industrial enterprises located here. The mosque had a mektebe and "Zagidiya" madrasah, and the 1st city Muslim Library was opened in 1917.

The senior imams were Z.H. Kashaev (1887-1923) and A.Z. Kashaev (1923-31). In the first decades of Soviet rule, the Cathedral Mosque parish remained the largest in the city. According to information from 1923, 420 men actively attended it. The mosque was closed in 1931, and its imam, khatib A.Z. Kashaev, was shot by the verdict of the troika of the NKVD in the Orenburg region on 02/15/1938. The building housed a dormitory, an orphanage, and a receiver-distributor for minors. It was returned to believers only in 1991.

The mosque, restored at the expense of businessman Rahim Suleymanov, was named "Suleymania". Currently, its imam-khatib is Ilgiz Mazitovich Bikbov. "The mosque" has a Sunday school for the study of the basics of Islam, a Muslim public museum, and a women's creative collective "Nur" ("Light") led by G.V. Abubakirova, who performs spiritual and religious songs (munajats).