Ramadan Mosque

At the turn of the XIX–XX centuries. Orenburg was built up mainly in the northern direction. In the 1890s. The new plan was continued, and a breakdown of the area east of Ufimskaya St. (now Tereshkova) was carried out. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were already more than 80 households and 300 male Muslims in the so-called New Places. At their request, the Orenburg City Duma, in a journal dated 08/27/1908, decided to allocate a plot of land on Yekaterinburg St. (now Lobovskaya), where, according to the journal of the Orenburg Provincial Government dated 11/19/1908, the construction of the 7th cathedral mosque was allowed.

The construction of the stone building at the corner of Yekaterinburgskaya and Meshchanskaya Streets (now 146 Michurina St.) was finally completed only in 1910. The parish of the Cathedral Mosque covered the eastern part of the New Building. Its western border was Shaposhnikovskaya Street (now Leushinsky), the southern one ran along Lagernaya Street (now May 1), the eastern one along Ufimskaya and Sakmarskaya Streets (now Tereshkova and Ordzhonikidze), the northern one along Stepnaya Street (now Shevchenko). People of poor means lived here mainly: mill workers, cabmen, grain farmers, artisans. The mosque had old-fashioned mektebs and madrasas. The primary school program was designed for 5 years and included the study of the Tatar language, the basics of Islam, the rules of orthoepic reading of the Koran (Tajweed), and hadith. For 5 years, the madrasa taught etymology (sarf) and syntax (nahu) of the Arabic language, dogmatic theology (kalam), interpretation of the Koran (tafsir), ethics (ahlyak), logic (mantiq), hadith, Muslim law (fiqh), rules for the distribution of hereditary shares (faraiz), arithmetic. In the 1910 academic year, 3 teachers taught 75 people here: 50 in the mekteb and 25 in the madrasa.

The senior imam of the Orenburg Cathedral mosque was Zagidulla Akhmetzyanov (since 1909). The Cathedral Mosque not only continued to function during the Soviet era, but also briefly became the center of the spiritual life of Orenburg Muslims. After the closure of most of the city's mosques in 1930-31, people from all parts of the city began to flock here to pray. In 1932, the group of believers numbered about 300 people, in 1933 – 400, and in 1936 – from 800 to 1,000. Of course, this could not but cause concern on the part of the authorities, and in 1937 the cathedral mosque was closed. The Traffic Police Department was located in its building. It was returned to the faithful only in 1991, and in 1996, at the suggestion of Mufti A.-B. Khairullin, the mosque was named in honor of the holy month of fasting. Currently, its imam-khatib is F.Z. Zinatullin. The mosque has a Sunday school for the study of the basics of Islam, iftars and mawlids are held. 50-60 people gather here for Friday prayer every week.