St. Petersburg, August 16, 2022

The Russian Museum of Ethnography hosted today the opening of the photo exhibition “Lead us on the straight path” dedicated to the 1100th anniversary of the adoption of Islam by the Volga Bolgaria. The exhibition presents the works of photographers from Tatarstan Farit Gubaev and Ramil Gali, “Tatar-inform” reports.

The project was named after the sixth verse of the first Sura of the Koran. The photographs captured two periods in the modern history of Islam in Tatarstan: the revival of interest in religion in the late Soviet years and the current life of the Muslim ummah.

The photo shows the rise of the crescent moon on the Syuyumbike tower in the capital of the republic, the first common prayers, the construction of new and the opening of historical mosques, various events in the Islamic life of Tatarstan in the 80s and 90s of the XX century.

The photos have preserved the first holiday “Izge Bolgar Zhyeny”, which took place in 1989 at the suggestion of the Mufti of Muslim Religious Administration of the European Part of the USSR and Siberia (now the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia) Talgat Tadzhuddin. At that time they also celebrated the 1100th anniversary of the adoption of Islam in the Volga Bolgaria, but according to the Muslim calendar.