A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It has a place for prayer where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, choir performances, and children's plays. They also have rooms for study, social halls, administrative and charitable offices, classrooms for religious and Hebrew studies, and many places to sit and congregate. They often display commemorative, historic, or modern artwork alongside items of Jewish historical significance or history about the synagogue itself.
Mountain Jews are the Mizrahi Jewish subgroup of the eastern and northern Caucasus, mainly Azerbaijan, and various republics in the Russian Federation: Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Karachay-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria, and are a branch of Persian-Jewry. Mountain Jews took shape as a community after Qajar Iran ceded the areas in which they lived to the Russian Empire as part of the Treaty of Gulistan of 1813.
Quba District is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. Located in the northeast of the country, it belongs to the Guba-Khachmaz Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Qusar, Qabala, Ismayilli, Shamakhi, Shabran, and Khachmaz. Its capital and largest city is Quba. As of 2020, the district had a population of 173,400.
Islam is the majority religion in Azerbaijan, but the country is considered to be the most secular in the Muslim world. Estimates include 97.3% and 99.2% of the population identifying as Muslim. Of these, a majority belong to the Shia branch (60%-65%), while a significant minority (35%-40%) are Sunni. Traditionally, the differences between these two branches of Islam have not been sharply defined in Azerbaijan.
The Fasanenstrasse Synagogue was a former liberal Jewish congregation and synagogue, that was located at 79–80 Fasanenstrasse off Kurfürstendamm, in the affluent neighbourhood of Charlottenburg, in Berlin, Germany. Completed on 26 August 1912, the synagogue was located close to the Berlin Stadtbahn and Zoo Station.
Khinalug or Khinalyg, is a municipality and an ancient Caucasian village with origins dating back to the Caucasian Albanian period. It is located high up in the mountains of Quba District, Azerbaijan. The municipality of Khinalug is part of the Quba District and consists of the villages of Khinalug and Galaykhudat. The village was included in the Cultural Landscape of Khinalig People and "Köç Yolu" Transhumance Route UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023.
Zoroastrianism in Azerbaijan goes back to the first millennium BC or earlier and was the predominant religion of Greater Iran before the conversion to Islam.
The history of the Jews in Azerbaijan dates back many centuries. Today, Jews in Azerbaijan mainly consist of three distinct groups: Mountain Jews, the most sizable and most ancient group; Ashkenazi Jews, who settled in the area during the late 19th-early 20th centuries, and during World War II; and Georgian Jews who settled mainly in Baku during the early part of the 20th century.
Holy Myrrhbearers Cathedral a local historical monument and church, built in 1909 in Baku, serves as the center of the Baku diocese.
Quba is a city and the administrative centre of the Quba District of Azerbaijan. The city lies on the north-eastern slopes of Shahdag mountain, at an altitude of 600 metres above sea level, on the right bank of the Kudyal river. It has a population of 47,200 (2023).
Qırmızı Qəsəbə is a village and municipality in the Quba District of Azerbaijan. As of 2010, it had a population of 3,598, mostly Jews. It is widely believed to be the world's only population centre exclusively made up of Jewish people outside of Israel and the United States, and is likewise considered to be the last surviving shtetl.
The Bibi-Heybat Mosque is a historical mosque in Baku, Azerbaijan. The existing structure, built in the 1990s, is a recreation of the mosque with the same name built in the 13th century by Shirvanshah Farrukhzad II Ibn Ahsitan II, which was completely destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1936.
The Islamization of Jerusalem refers to the process through which Jerusalem and its Old City acquired an Islamic character and, eventually, a significant Muslim presence. The foundation for Jerusalem's Islamization was laid by the Muslim conquest of the Levant, and began shortly after the city was besieged and captured in 638 CE by the Rashidun Caliphate under Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Rashidun caliph. The second wave of Islamization occurred after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Christian state that was established after the First Crusade, at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. The eventual fall of the Crusader states by 1291 led to a period of almost-uninterrupted Muslim rule that lasted for seven centuries, and a dominant Islamic culture was consolidated in the region during the Ayyubid, Mamluk and early Ottoman periods. Beginning in the late Ottoman era, Jerusalem’s demographics turned increasingly multicultural, and regained a Jewish-majority character during the late-19th and early-20th centuries that had not been seen since the Roman period, which largely ended the Jewish presence in the region.
Pir Mardakan Khanqah is historic architectural monument located in the village of Goylar, 16 km south-west of Shamakhi district of the Azerbaijan Republic. The complex includes a tomb, a dynasty building and small auxiliary buildings. It was built in XIII–XIV centuries. According to some sources, this is the tomb of Seyid Mardakani, one of the famous scholars of his time.
The Six Dome Synagogue is a former Jewish synagogue and now landmark Jewish history museum, located in the village of Gyrmyzy Gasaba, of Quba district, Azerbaijan. The former synagogue building was erected at the end of the nineteenth century and is similar in design to a synagogue in Istanbul. The synagogue was the center of religious education.
The Kőbánya Synagogue is a former Neolog Jewish synagogue located at Cserkesz Street 7-9, in Kőbánya, in the Xth District of Budapest, Hungary. Completed in 1912, the building was used a synagogue until 1964 and, following restoration, has been used as a Pentecostal church since 1991, now known as the Temple of Everybody.
Yukhari Mahalla Synagogue, is a synagogue located in the city of Oghuz in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Ashaghi Mahalla Synagogue, is a Jewish synagogue, located in the city of Oghuz in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The Museum of Mountain Jews is a museum in Guba, Azerbaijan, dedicated to Mountain Jews. Opened in 2020, it is located in the 19th-century Karzhog Synagogue. It is the first and only museum in the world devoted to Mountain Jews.
