Blue Mosque, Yerevan
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The Blue Mosque (; ) is an 18th-century Persian
Twelver Twelver Shi'ism (), also known as Imamism () or Ithna Ashari, is the Islamic schools and branches, largest branch of Shia Islam, Shi'a Islam, comprising about 90% of all Shi'a Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers to its adherents' belief in twel ...
Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...
mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...
, located in
Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...
, in modern-day
Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...
. It was commissioned by
Hoseyn Ali Khan Hoseyn Ali Khan () was the khan (governor) of the Erivan Khanate from 1759 to 1783 and brother of the previous Hasan Ali Khan. Biography He was born in Yerevan in a family of khans and belonged to the Qovanlu branch of the Qajar tribe. The la ...
, the khan of the Iranian
Erivan Khanate The Erivan Khanate (), also known as , was a Khanates of the Caucasus, khanate (i.e., province) that was established in Afsharid dynasty, Afsharid Iran in the 18th century. It covered an area of roughly 19,500 km2, and corresponded to most o ...
. 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.


Names

Western visitors in the Russian period, such as
H. F. B. Lynch Henry Finnis Blosse Lynch, Master of Arts, MA, FRGS (18 April 1862 – 24 November 1913) was a British traveller, businessman, and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Parliament of the United Kingdom, Member of Parliament. Biography Lynch was the only ...
and
Luigi Villari Luigi Villari (1876–1959), son of Pasquale Villari Pasquale Villari (3 October 1827 – 11 December 1917) was an Italian historian and politician. Early life and publications Villari was born in Naples and took part in the risings of 1848 th ...
, referred to the mosque as Gök Jami (Gok Djami), which translates from Turkish as '
sky blue Sky blue refers to a collection of shades comparable to that of a clear daytime sky. Typically it is a shade of cyan or light teal, though some iterations are closer to light Azure (color), azure or light blue. The term (as "sky blew") is atte ...
mosque'. It is known as 'Blue Mosque' in Armenian, although is sometimes used as well. It is known in Persian as 'Friday mosque' or 'city congregational mosque'.


History


Early history

The mosque was built in 1765–1766 ( AH 1179) by
Hoseyn Ali Khan Hoseyn Ali Khan () was the khan (governor) of the Erivan Khanate from 1759 to 1783 and brother of the previous Hasan Ali Khan. Biography He was born in Yerevan in a family of khans and belonged to the Qovanlu branch of the Qajar tribe. The la ...
, the ruler of the
Erivan Khanate The Erivan Khanate (), also known as , was a Khanates of the Caucasus, khanate (i.e., province) that was established in Afsharid dynasty, Afsharid Iran in the 18th century. It covered an area of roughly 19,500 km2, and corresponded to most o ...
under the
Afsharid dynasty The Afsharid dynasty () was an Iran, Iranian dynasty founded by Nader Shah () of the Qirqlu clan of the Turkoman (ethnonym), Turkoman Afshar people, Afshar tribe, ruling over the Afsharid Empire. List of Afsharid monarchs Family tree ...
, as the city's main
Friday mosque A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''jumu'ah''.See: * * * * ...
. 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 The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...
'' (1911) described the mosque as the "finest building in the city." The
minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...
of the mosque, standing at was the tallest structure in 19th-century Yerevan.


Soviet period

The mosque was secularized after Soviet rule was established in Armenia. The mosque's entrances and exits were modified significantly. The main gate, on the southern side, to the right of the minaret was blocked. The western gate was "incorporated into a residence complex and became hardly recognizable as an entrance." The entrance on the northern side became the only entrance. It is accessible and visible from
Mashtots Avenue Mashtots Avenue ( ''Mashtots'i Poghota''), known as Lenin Avenue until 1990, is an avenue in the central Kentron district of Yerevan, Armenia. The avenue starts with the Victory Bridge at the south and ends up with the Matenadaran museum to th ...
. Beginning with
Alexander Tamanian Alexander Tamanian (; March 4, 1878 – February 20, 1936) was a Russian-born Armenian Neoclassical architecture, neoclassical architect, well known for his work in the city of Yerevan. Life and work Tamanian was born in the city of Yekaterinod ...
's 1924 master plan for Yerevan, the mosque has been situated more than two meters below the street level, which requires visitors to descend a flight of steps. The mosque ceased to operate as a religious institution in the mid-1920s. Its courtyard became a "creative space for Armenian artists, writers, poets, and intelligentsia, facilitating the production of a new cultural and aesthetic order for socialist Armenia. The courtyard was protected by large elm and plane trees, and in this way provided the hot and dusty city with a shaded refuge." The courtyard housed a teahouse, which became a hub for intellectual gatherings.
Yeghishe Charents Yeghishe Charents (; , 1897 – November 27, 1937) was an Armenian poet, writer and public activist. Charents' literary subject matter ranged from his experiences in the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and frequently Armenia and Arme ...
,
Martiros Saryan Martiros Saryan (; ; – 5 May 1972) was an Armenian painter, People's Artist of the USSR (1960), member of the USSR Academy of Fine Arts (1947), president of the Artists' Union of Soviet Armenia (1945-1951), the founder of a modern Armenian nat ...
, Aksel Bakunts were among its regular visitors. Foreign guests included Armenian-American writer
William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...
, Russian poet
Osip Mandelstam Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam (, ; – 27 December 1938) was a Russian and Soviet poet. He was one of the foremost members of the Acmeist school. Osip Mandelstam was arrested during the repressions of the 1930s and sent into internal exile wi ...
, Russian novelist
Andrei Bely Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev (, ; – 8 January 1934), better known by the pen name Andrei Bely or Biely, was a Russian novelist, Symbolist poet, theorist and literary critic. He was a committed anthroposophist and follower of Rudolf Steiner. Hi ...
and others. Local artists used the "courtyard for exhibitions and as a laboratory for new socialist spirituality." Seyed Hossein Tabatabai, Adviser of the Cultural Center of the Iranian Embassy in Armenia, noted that the mosque was "preserved by the efforts of a number of Armenian intellectuals," especially Charents. In the 1930s, first the Anti-Religious Museum and subsequently the Museum of
Antifascism Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...
were housed at the mosque. From 1936 until the collapse of the Soviet Union, the mosque housed the Museum of Natural Sciences, which included a
planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...
inside the main prayer hall and the
Yerevan History Museum The Yerevan History Museum ( (''Yerevani Patmut'yan T'angaran'')) is the history museum of Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia. The museum was founded in 1931 as the Communal Museum. Currently, the museum is located in a building attached to the ...
.


Independence period

In the late 1980s, during the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians until 2023, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbai ...
, the mosque did not sustain any damages because it was considered to be Persian, not Azerbaijani, and housed the city's history museum. In February 1991, a preliminary agreement was reached between the city's authorities and an Iranian delegation to restore the mosque. The mosque underwent major renovation between 1994 and 1998. The city's authorities officially transferred the right to use the mosque to Iran on October 13, 1995. The government of Iran allocated some 1 billion
Iranian rial The rial (; symbol: ; abbreviation: Rl (singular) and Rls (plural) or IR in Latin; ISO code: IRR) is the official currency of Iran. It is subdivided into 100 dinars, but due to the rial's low purchasing power the dinar is not practically used. ...
s (over $1 million) for restoration works. The mosque was re-opened as a religious institution in 1996.
Brady Kiesling John Brady Kiesling is a former U.S. diplomat and the author of ''Diplomacy Lessons: Realism for an Unloved Superpower'' (Potomac Books, 2006) and the ToposText classics/archaeology mobile application. Diplomat An archaeologist/ancient historian ...
described the restoration as "structurally necessary but aesthetically ambiguous." Another reconstruction was done between 2009 and 2011.


Today

The Blue Mosque is the only active mosque in Armenia, which has a small Muslim population (between 812 and 1,000 or 0.03% of the total population). Since restoration, it has become a religious and cultural center for the Iranians residing in Armenia and Iranian tourists visiting Armenia. In 2003 the journalist
Thomas de Waal Thomas Patrick Lowndes de Waal (born 1966) is a British journalist and writer on the Caucasus. He is a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe. He is best known for his 2003 book '' Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War''. Li ...
noted that the only regular worshippers at the mosque were "the dozen or so diplomats from the Iranian Embassy." Less than a decade later, in 2009, ''
ArmeniaNow ''ArmeniaNow'' was an independent online news publication based in Yerevan, Armenia. It was published in English and Armenian. The publication was founded in July 2002 and published its last issue in June 2016. It was recognized as one of the p ...
'' wrote that of the up to 2,000 Iranians residing in Yerevan as many as 500 periodically attend the mosque on Thursdays. The Iranian cultural center inside the mosque complex attracts young Armenians seeking to learn
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
. The Persian library of over 8,000 items, named after the poet
Hafez (), known by his pen name Hafez ( or 'the keeper'; 1325–1390) or Hafiz, “Ḥāfeẓ” designates someoone who has learned the Qurʾān by heart" also known by his nickname Lisan al-Ghaib ('the tongue of the unseen'), was a Persian lyri ...
, was opened inside the complex in October 2014. On December 10, 2015, the government of Armenia leased the mosque complex to the embassy of Iran to Armenia for 99 years to use it as a cultural center.


Architecture

The mosque is listed by the Armenian government as a monument of national significance. It is "one of the oldest buildings in central Yerevan" and the "only extant building of the Iranian period in Yerevan." The historian of Islamic art Markus Ritter described it as the "main model for the early Qajar mosque architecture of the Iranian period." The mosque complex covers an area of . The mosque itself is , while the courtyard is . The mosque contains the traditional
Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...
attributes, including a minaret, three
mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "''qibla'' wall". ...
s (prayer halls), holy inscriptions, etc. The mosque includes 24 arched cells that face the pool in the middle of the courtyard, which is surrounded by a rose garden. The minaret, standing at tall, has a 7-degree slope, but is considered to be architecturally safe.


Efforts to list as a World Heritage Site

In October 2007 Armenian Foreign Affairs Minister
Vartan Oskanian Vartan Minasi Oskanian (born February 7, 1955) is an Armenian politician and diplomat who served as the Foreign Minister of Armenia from 1998 to 2008 under President Robert Kocharyan. He is the founder of the Civilitas Foundation. Early life ...
stated during his speech at the 34th session of the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
General Conference in Paris that the Blue Mosque and other sites are on the waiting list for inclusion in the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...
. In January 2013 Armenian Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan stated that Armenia will take all possible steps for inclusion of the mosque in the list. She reaffirmed this position in a meeting with Iranian Culture Minister Mohammad Hosseini in April 2013. Hosseini stated that he hoped Armenian efforts would succeed. Armenia's Foreign Affairs Minister
Eduard Nalbandyan Eduard Aghvani Nalbandian (; born July 16, 1956) is an Armenian former diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia from April 2008 to May 2018. He is currently a professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations ...
, in his speech at the 38th session of UNESCO General Conference in November 2015: On October 15, 2015, Armenian Prime Minister
Hovik Abrahamyan Hovik Argami Abrahamyan (; born 24 January 1959), also known by the nickname Muk (), is an Armenian politician, former member of the ruling Republican Party, he was the prime minister of Armenia from 13 April 2014 to 8 September 2016. Previousl ...
and First Vice President of Iran
Eshaq Jahangiri Eshaq Jahangiri Kouhshahi (, ; born 21 January 1958) is an Iranian politician who served as the sixth first vice president from 2013 until 2021 in Hassan Rouhani's government. Jahangiri was the minister of industries and mines from 1997 to 200 ...
attended an event dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the mosque. Abrahamyan stated in his speech that both Armenia and Iran "are now making efforts to have it put on the UNESCO World Heritage list."


Controversy

Multiple Western and Armenian sources describe the mosque as Iranian/Persian. The anthropologist and ethnographer Tsypylma Darieva notes that "in local media and in official discourses, the Blue Mosque has been strongly associated with the new expatriate political body symbolizing the recent Armenian–Iranian friendship. This dominant reading of the place defines the Blue Mosque exclusively as the 'Persian Mosque'." Darieva notes that it served as a
Friday mosque A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''jumu'ah''.See: * * * * ...
for the Muslim population in Yerevan until the mid-1920s. In Azerbaijan, the mosque is usually referred to as a monument of Azerbaijani heritage of Yerevan. One government official called it "the largest religious center of Azerbaijanis living in Yerevan." A 2007 book titled ''War against Azerbaijan: Targeting Cultural Heritage'', published by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan () is a Cabinet of Azerbaijan, Cabinet-level governmental agency of Azerbaijan Republic in charge of conducting and designing Foreign relations of Azerbaijan, the country's foreign policy. The ministry w ...
and the
Heydar Aliyev Foundation The Heydar Aliyev Foundation () is a private foundation headed by Azerbaijan's First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva. The foundation is named after Azerbaijan's former president, Heydar Aliyev – the father of the incumbent president Ilham Aliyev. The fo ...
, objected to the restoration of the mosque in the 1990s and to its "presentation as a Persian mosque." The independent Armenian scholar Rouben Galichian argues in his 2009 book ''Invention of History'': At a 2022 forum, Armenian prime minister
Nikol Pashinyan Nikol Vovayi Pashinyan (born 1 June 1975) is an Armenian politician who is serving as the 16th and current Prime Minister of Armenia, prime minister of Armenia since 8 May 2018. A journalist by profession, Pashinyan founded his own newspaper in ...
stated: "We have great respect for Islamic civilization and religion, and one of the clearest proofs of this is the Blue Mosque in the center of Yerevan, which, by the way, was restored during the period of Armenia’s independence." At the
2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...
Munich Security Conference The Munich Security Conference (MSC), formerly Munich Conference on Security Policy, is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held in Munich, Germany, since 1963. Over the past four decades the Munich Security Con ...
, Pashinyan, in response to
Ilham Aliyev Ilham Heydar Oghlu Aliyev (born 24 December 1961) is an Azerbaijani politician who has been the fourth president of Azerbaijan since 2003. He is also the leader of the New Azerbaijan Party since 2005. The son and second child of former Aze ...
's accusation that Armenia destroyed mosques in Nagorno-Karabakh, stated that Armenia has a "Muslim minority in our country, and we have a functioning mosque."


Visit of Azerbaijani MPs

In February 2022 two Azerbaijani pro-government MPs, Tahir Mirkişili and Soltan Məmmədov, attending a
Euronest Parliamentary Assembly The EuroNest Parliamentary Assembly is the inter-parliamentary forum in which members of the European Parliament and the national parliaments of Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia participate and forge closer political and economic ...
meeting in Yerevan, visited the mosque. Mirkişili wrote that "Although there are inscriptions related to another state on its walls, its architecture, walls, and spirit as a whole are affiliated with Azerbaijan. We believe that its true owners will soon be able to offer their prayers in the mosque." The Iranian embassy in Armenia responded by calling the mosque a "symbol of Iranian art" and noting that "centuries-old Persian epigraphy has been preserved" on its walls. Mahmoud Movahedifar, an Iranian clergyman serving at the mosque, stated that it has distinctive features of Iran's traditional Islamic architecture and that all inscriptions are in Persian. Movahedifar added, "Even if there was a single tile here with an Azerbaijani inscription we would recognize that fact."


Artistic depictions

The mosque has been depicting in paintings by
Grigory Gagarin Prince Grigory Grigorievich Gagarin (, - ) was a Russian painter, Major General and administrator.Grig ...
(d. 1893),
Panos Terlemezian Panos Terlemezian (; 11 March 1865, Aygestan near Van – 30 April 1941, Yerevan) was an Armenian landscape and portrait painter; known for his support of Armenian nationalist causes. Biography His love for painting expressed itself while ...
(
1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...
),
Sargis Hovhannisian Aram Manukian (19 March 187929 January 1919) was an Armenian revolutionary, statesman, and a leading member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) party. He is widely regarded as the founder of the First Republic of Armenia. ...
(1921), Aleksei Ilyich Kravchenko (1934).


See also

*
Islam in Armenia Islam began to make inroads into the Armenian plateau during the seventh century. Arab, and later Kurdish, tribes began to settle in Armenia following the first Arab invasions and played a considerable role in the political and social history ...
* List of mosques in Armenia * Iranian Armenia


References

;Notes ;Citations


Bibliography

* * * * * {{Yerevan landmarks 1760s establishments in Iran Buildings and structures in Yerevan Armenia–Iran relations Closed mosques in the Soviet Union Mosque buildings with domes in Asia Mosque buildings with minarets in Asia Mosques completed in the 1760s Persian-Caucasian architecture Religious buildings and structures completed in 1766 Shia mosques in Armenia Tourist attractions in Yerevan Twelver Shia mosques 18th-century mosques in Asia