Nauan Khazret (Nauryzbai Talasov) mosque

In the town of Kokshetau there are two mosques associated with the name of one of the public figures of Northern Kazakhstan, the Kazakh enlightener and theologian Nauryzbai Talasov, better known by the people as Nauan Khazret. One of them is located on the street Auelbekova, 91, and is a historical landmark of the city. According to the informant Kayrolla Zhunisov, who had been working in the administration of the mosque for about 20 years, the building was built at the end of the XIX century. And as a spiritual center, it functioned until 1920, until the Soviet authorities decided to close all religious institutions in the city. In the same year the minaret of the mosque was demolished. During the Great Patriotic War, a military unit was located here, then a local history museum of the Kokshetau region, from the middle of the 1970s - an exhibition hall of the Republican Art Directorate of Kokshetau. In 1989, in accordance with the decision of the Kokshetau Regional Executive Committee, the mosque was returned to the believers of the city. In the early 1990s, restoration work was carried out in the mosque by the personal of the "Kazprojectrestoration" Institute, the minaret was restored, and in memory of NauanKhazret, who served here as an imam, was named after him. In 2015, the grand opening of the central mosque for 1,200 people was held in Kokshetau. After that, it was decided to name the new mosque in honor of NauanKhazret, and to assign the name of the previous, historical mosque, the name of Jaqiya kazhy. The new mosque "NauanKhazret" is located on the street Gorkiy, 6/1.

Nauryzbay Talasov was born in 1843 in the village of Zhylkeldy of the Mezgil volost of the Kokshetau external district. After graduating from the aul school of the Historical Mosque "NauanKhazret" (now the Jaqiya Kazhy Mosque), he continued his studies in the madrasa of Petropavlovsk. After successfully completing the madrasa, he was recommended to the seminary in Bukhara, then he completed an internship at one of the largest Muslim centers in the world - in Baghdad. Nauryzbay Talasov was fluent in Old Turkic, Uzbek, Arabic, and Persian languages. He had deep knowledge of Oriental literature, philosophy and culture. As K.K. Abuyev points out, Nauryzbay Talasov was left as a teacher at a theological seminary in Bukhara. However, the Muslim public of the Kokshetau district sent a special delegation of three people to Bukhara, with a request to allow Nauryzbay Talasov to return to his homeland. Upon his return in 1886, the board of the Akmola region approved him as the imam of the Kokshetau mosque.

Nauryzbay Talasov (Nauan Khazret) put a lot of effort into the spiritual education of the Kazakh population of the region, streamlined and simplified religious rites, established close ties with the Muslim clergy of the neighboring counties. Thanks to his activities on the donations of Muslims, a madrasa and a boarding school opened at the mosque. Along with the Muslim education in the madrasa, students studied Arabic and Russian graphics, oriental languages ​​and literature, taught poetry by Abai Kunanbayev, sang songs of Akan Seri and Birzhan sal. An assistant and close associate of Nauan Khazret was his former student Shaimerden Kosshygulov, in the future a well-known public figure, a deputy of the State Duma of the 1st and 2nd convocations.

Nauryzbay Talasov worked during the establishment of the political domination of the Russian Empire in Kazakhstan. The tsarist government sought to limit the conduct of religious studies in rural Muslim schools and urban boarding schools. Teachers and students were required to study the Russian language, teaching in the Kazakh language was prohibited. However, the policy of Russification conducted by the tsarist authorities, the violent Christianization of the steppe led to an increase in the religiosity of the indigenous population of the northern regions of Kazakhstan. In this situation, Nauan Khazret sought to rally the people in order to preserve national traditions and customs, showed disagreement with government policies, was at the center of the people protesting against the colonialists who were encroaching on the language and religion of the Kazakhs. Nauan Khazret due to his sense of justice, eloquence, wisdom enjoyed great respect among the people. When there were any disagreements between people, they turned to Nauan Khazret for a solution, and his cautionary words were then passed on from mouth to mouth. After familiarizing himself with the ideas of Jadidism, Nauryzbay Talasov sought to spread the moral and ethical convictions of the Jadids among the people, spoke to his parish about the need to acquire modern knowledge, and preached Islam in a native language that everyone could understand.

The royal authorities feared the growing influence of Nauan Khazret among the people. In April 1903, by order of the head of the Kokshetau district, a madrasa and a boarding school were searched, during which about 300 books, manuscripts prohibited by censorship, and a hectograph (a simple printing press) were confiscated. The works of Oriental philosophers — Firdousi, Navoi, Nizami, and others — were withdrawn. The military governor of the Akmola region reported the results of the search to the Governor-General of the Steppe Territory. As a result, the authorities decided to close the madrasa, and Nauryzbay Talasov and his assistant Shaimerden Kosshygulov to arrest. Nauan Khazret’s activities were recognized as unlawful, and he, along with Sh. Kosshygulov, was sentenced to exile in Eastern Siberia ­– to the Irkutsk Region. Nauan Khazret was sentenced to three years of exile, Sh.Kosshygulov to five years. Only due to the intervention in this case of Alikhan Bokeykhanov and Mambet-Ali Serdalin in 1905 they were able to return to their homeland.

Nauryzbay Talasov (Nauan Khazret) died at the age of 73 in Kokshetau and was buried in a Muslim cemetery on the shores of Lake Kopa. Nauan Khazret left a noticeable mark in the history of public and spiritual life in Kazakhstan. He saw his main purpose and supreme sense in serving his people, in caring for moral improvement and widespread enlightenment of the Kazakhs. Without interfering in political life, Nauan Khazret primarily sought to spread moral and ethical values ​​in Kazakh society. He tried to attract famous and influential people in the Kazakh steppe, so that they would assist in rallying the people in the name of preserving their national identity. Documentary evidence has survived that Nauan Khazret was in touch with Abai Kunanbayev.

The Kazakh people have great respect for everything associated with the name of NauanKhazret. Both mosques located in Kokshetau have a special socral significance and are widely known not only in Northern Kazakhstan, but also beyond its borders.

The historical mosque in the city of Kokshetau (now the mosque named after Zhaqiya kazhy) has all the characteristic features inherent in mosques of Northern Kazakhstan in the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries. It consists of a spacious chapel and a minaret. The walls are made of logs and sheathed with thin panels. On the eastern edge of the roof there is a dome, on the quadrangle below it there is an octagonal bunk tower, on the western edge there is a hexagon drum with a flat dome. The facades of classical form are intermixed with elements of wooden architecture, characteristic of an eclectic style. The upper and lower window frames are decorated with applied patterns.

The new mosque “Nauan Khazret” has four minarets 25 m each, trimmed with aglay stone bought in Azerbaijan. The building has a room for the marriage ceremony, rooms for reading the Koran, offices for mosque workers, a library and a dining room for 350 people.