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Blue Mosque, Yerevan
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Blue Mosque, Yerevan
The Blue Mosque (Armenian: Կապույտ մզկիթ, romanized: Kapuyt mzkit’; Persian: مسجد کبود, romanized: Masjed-e Kabūd, Turkish: Gök Jami) is an 18th-century Iranian Twelver Shia mosque, located in Yerevan, Armenia. It was commissioned by Hoseyn Ali Khan, the khan of the Erivan Khanate. It is one of the oldest extant structures in central Yerevan and the most significant structure from the city's Iranian period. It was the largest of the eight mosques of Yerevan in the 19th century and is the only active mosque in Armenia today.
The mosque was secularized in the 1920s and housed the History Museum of Yerevan for more than five decades. Following Armenia's independence, the mosque was renovated with support from the Iranian government and again started operating as a mosque, serving the Muslims residing in Armenia.
Western visitors in the Russian period, such as H. F. B. Lynch and Luigi Villari, referred to the mosque as Gök Jami (Gok Djami), which translates from Turkish as 'sky blue mosque'. It is known as Kapuyt mzkit’ 'Blue Mosque' in Armenian, although Gyoy mzkit’ is sometimes used as well. It is known in Persian as Masjid-i Juma 'Friday mosque' or Jami-i Shahr 'city congregational mosque'.
The mosque was built in 1765–1766 (AH 1179) by Hoseyn Ali Khan, the ruler of the Erivan Khanate under the Afsharid dynasty, as the city's main Friday mosque. The mosque was the largest of the eight mosques operating in Yerevan when the Russians captured the city in 1827. The mosque underwent substantial redecoration with tiles around 1887-88 (AH 1305), under Russian administration. The mosque underwent another reconstruction in 1907–1910.
H. F. B. Lynch, who visited Erivan in 1890s, wrote: "There is nothing very remarkable in the architecture of the mosque; but the floral paintings which adorn the ceiling of a companion and smaller edifice on the north side of the court are of very high merit." Luigi Villari, an Italian diplomat and historian, gave a detailed description of the mosque in his 1906 book titled Fire and Sword in the Caucasus. He wrote that the "great mosque called the Gok Djami [...] is a good deal more than a mosque; it is a long quadrangle containing several places of worship and a number of cells, schools, and offices of the Moslem religious administration. It is not very ancient [...] but it is handsome." The Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) described the mosque as the "finest building in the city." The minaret of the mosque, standing at 24 metres (79 ft) was the tallest structure in 19th-century Yerevan.
From the late 18th century, the mosque was home to a school (madrasa), which was the largest and most regularly operating of the mosque schools in Erivan. The German scholar August von Haxthausen, who visited the mosque in the 1840s, gave a description of the school:
In one of the halls, to the left of the mosque, we found a school assembled, consisting of about thirty boys, who sat in a row against the walls, all with their legs crossed under them; two teachers, in the same posture, sat facing them, one on each side; in the centre stood water-jugs, inkstands, etc. The boys were summoned two at a time to repeat their lessons […]. Although they are all Tatar children, the only language taught is Persian: in no case do they learn to read or write their own language. They have only manuscript books; the teachers read to them, until they become accustomed to the characters; the book generally used for this purpose is a Persian history of Nadir Shah. The process of teaching them to read and write in a language quite foreign to them is very tedious, sometimes occupying several years.
As Tadevos Hakobyan writes, the relatively poor conditions and educational methods described by Haxthausen were common to the schools attached to churches and mosques in Erivan in this period, which, in any case, were attended by only a small percentage of the city's children.
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Blue Mosque, Yerevan
The Blue Mosque (Armenian: Կապույտ մզկիթ, romanized: Kapuyt mzkit’; Persian: مسجد کبود, romanized: Masjed-e Kabūd, Turkish: Gök Jami) is an 18th-century Iranian Twelver Shia mosque, located in Yerevan, Armenia. It was commissioned by Hoseyn Ali Khan, the khan of the Erivan Khanate. It is one of the oldest extant structures in central Yerevan and the most significant structure from the city's Iranian period. It was the largest of the eight mosques of Yerevan in the 19th century and is the only active mosque in Armenia today.
The mosque was secularized in the 1920s and housed the History Museum of Yerevan for more than five decades. Following Armenia's independence, the mosque was renovated with support from the Iranian government and again started operating as a mosque, serving the Muslims residing in Armenia.
Western visitors in the Russian period, such as H. F. B. Lynch and Luigi Villari, referred to the mosque as Gök Jami (Gok Djami), which translates from Turkish as 'sky blue mosque'. It is known as Kapuyt mzkit’ 'Blue Mosque' in Armenian, although Gyoy mzkit’ is sometimes used as well. It is known in Persian as Masjid-i Juma 'Friday mosque' or Jami-i Shahr 'city congregational mosque'.
The mosque was built in 1765–1766 (AH 1179) by Hoseyn Ali Khan, the ruler of the Erivan Khanate under the Afsharid dynasty, as the city's main Friday mosque. The mosque was the largest of the eight mosques operating in Yerevan when the Russians captured the city in 1827. The mosque underwent substantial redecoration with tiles around 1887-88 (AH 1305), under Russian administration. The mosque underwent another reconstruction in 1907–1910.
H. F. B. Lynch, who visited Erivan in 1890s, wrote: "There is nothing very remarkable in the architecture of the mosque; but the floral paintings which adorn the ceiling of a companion and smaller edifice on the north side of the court are of very high merit." Luigi Villari, an Italian diplomat and historian, gave a detailed description of the mosque in his 1906 book titled Fire and Sword in the Caucasus. He wrote that the "great mosque called the Gok Djami [...] is a good deal more than a mosque; it is a long quadrangle containing several places of worship and a number of cells, schools, and offices of the Moslem religious administration. It is not very ancient [...] but it is handsome." The Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) described the mosque as the "finest building in the city." The minaret of the mosque, standing at 24 metres (79 ft) was the tallest structure in 19th-century Yerevan.
From the late 18th century, the mosque was home to a school (madrasa), which was the largest and most regularly operating of the mosque schools in Erivan. The German scholar August von Haxthausen, who visited the mosque in the 1840s, gave a description of the school:
In one of the halls, to the left of the mosque, we found a school assembled, consisting of about thirty boys, who sat in a row against the walls, all with their legs crossed under them; two teachers, in the same posture, sat facing them, one on each side; in the centre stood water-jugs, inkstands, etc. The boys were summoned two at a time to repeat their lessons […]. Although they are all Tatar children, the only language taught is Persian: in no case do they learn to read or write their own language. They have only manuscript books; the teachers read to them, until they become accustomed to the characters; the book generally used for this purpose is a Persian history of Nadir Shah. The process of teaching them to read and write in a language quite foreign to them is very tedious, sometimes occupying several years.
As Tadevos Hakobyan writes, the relatively poor conditions and educational methods described by Haxthausen were common to the schools attached to churches and mosques in Erivan in this period, which, in any case, were attended by only a small percentage of the city's children.
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