The significance of the monument is due to the small number of such religious buildings of this period, the synthesis of techniques of regional and eclectic architecture.
The mosque was built in 1893 with donations from Muslims, wealthy merchants living in the Tatar settlement (now the Narimanovsky market district).
According to the laws and regulations of the Russian Empire, the residence of Muslim Tatars, Lutheran Germans and other persons of non-Orthodox faith in the new resettlement towns and villages was either prohibited or restricted. But the influence and wealth of famous Tatar families from the nearby town of Troitsk changed the situation. Tatarskaya, then Shakirovskaya, then Narimanovskaya Sloboda played a prominent role in the life of the young city of Kostanay. The main donor to the new mosque was one of the most famous merchants and benefactors of our city in the late XIX – early XX centuries, the representative of the Trinity trading house "Brothers Yaushev" Abdulvaley Akhmedkhanovich Yaushev.
The semicircular projection of the two-story mosque ended with a high balcony, from which Muslims were called to prayer. The 6-meter-high mosque building was divided into two tiers. In the lower tier, covered with felt, poor Muslims prayed, in the upper one with walls and floor decorated with luxurious carpets – the local nobility.
In 1931, by the decision of the City Council, the mosque building was transferred to the club. The first projectionist S. Zakharov recalled: "At the cinema club it was only in the evening, the exact time was not specified, they wrote in the posters – the beginning of the film after the cows." During the Great Patriotic War, an evacuation center was set up in the building, it sheltered evacuated Leningrad residents. And after the war, the KTUZ (cinema for young viewers) was located here, then the building was rebuilt as a concert hall of the regional philharmonic. From 1991 to 2016, a mosque was located in this building.
The interior of the monument was modified, an extension was made at the level of the basement, which changed the original appearance.
Description of the monument
Dating of the monument: 1893.
Location: Kostanay, 44 Al-Farabi Avenue, corner of Abaya Street.
The main volume in the composition of the mosque is the prayer hall, which is a rectangular two–light hall, i.e. the lighting was carried out by two rows of windows located one above the other in accordance with their floor-by-floor placement on the facade. Currently, there is a floor overlap.
The original appearance of the interior has not been preserved.
The interior was completely modified due to the adaptation of the mosque for the Philharmonic. Despite the reconstruction, the building has not lost its architectural identity.
The mosque is made of burnt brick on a rubble foundation, plastered much later.
The mosque is 26.86 m long and 16.5 m wide. The length of the extension is 16.5 m, width – 4.8 m. The Mihrab is 3 m wide along the edge of the inner outlines of the walls.
