The 1.5-century-old Gohar Agha Mosque in Shushi, Artsakh was reopened due to the efforts of the government of Artsakh and the Revival of Oriental Historical Heritage Foundation. The initiative to restore the mosque began 5 years ago and it was implemented by the IDeA Foundation’s Artsakh Development Program.
First, the history of the mosque and Madrasa, the prerequisites for construction, and the role of Islamic religious history in Artsakh were researched in depth. The mosque was constructed in the 1880s and it operated until 1920. The mosque was turned into a museum under the Soviet Union. After the Liberation of Shushi during the Artsakh war, the museum also stopped operating and the mosque was ignored. The plans to restore the mosque aimed to keep its original appearance and to restore the Madrasa (educational institute) as well. Religion, Islamic religious philosophy, Persian, and Arabic were among the subjects taught there.
Excavations were carried out at the site before restoration began. A tomb from the Middle Ages was found under the first floor of the Madrasa. According to Dean of the YSU Faculty of Oriental Studies, Ruben Melkonyan, the tomb’s architecture contains elements of Shia Islam and all of its engravings are written in Persian and Arabic. “There were no Azeri or Turkish engravings on any part of the mosque or its surrounding buildings. Everything was written in either Persian or Arabic.”
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Nelly Grigoryan
