One of the oldest mosques in Russia, in
the western region of Ryazan, has been returned by the authorities to
the Muslim community. After years of legal battles - writes Itar Tass newsagency- the Spiritual Council of Muslims has become the Russian owner, on December 4, of the Khan Mosque and the mausoleums of Shakh Ali Khan and Sultan Muhammad Avgan in the town of Kasimov 225 kilometers east of Moscow.
The buildings have been returned by the regional municipal museum, which never used them as places of worship.
Built by the Tatars in the fifteenth century, the Kasimov Khan mosque is the second oldest mosque in Russia, after the Dzhuma mosque (XIII century) in Derbent, Dagestan, North Caucasian republic.