Экскурсия " Казань. Старо-татарская слобода"

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen! I’m your tour guide, my name is Alina. Welcome to Kazan, one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in Russia, the capital of the republic of Tatarstan. Kazan is a thousand-year-old city with rich and unique history which is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage cities. It’s also one of the biggest and important cultural and industrial centers on the Volga River. It is the port of five seas, one of the largest river ports in Europe. For Russia and the whole world Kazan is a symbol of tolerance, peaceful neighborhood of two great religions and cultures. Representatives of about one hundred nationalities and ethnic groups live here in friendship and peace.

Today we are taking our way to the historical center of Kazan, The old Tatar Settlement.

The history of the settlement begins shortly after the fall of Kazan, when some of the Tatars were allowed to settle near the city’s low-lying and swampy shores of Lake Kaban. It is said that the ancient Bulgar prince Kaban built Khan’s palace and planted the beautiful gardens on the shores of the lake.

The Old Tatar settlement is situated in the central part of the city. Tukay Square station is where we began walking. The birthday of  Gabdulla Tukay, is celebrated every year in Kazan. People lay flowers at the monument of the great poet, held rallies and celebrations.

Let’s move on to the lake Kaban. There is a walking path there. But we’ll get to it by the Tatar State Academic Theatre named after Galiaskar Kamal. It was built in 1986. You can recognize it due to the big blue roof that looks like a hill. Every kid of Kazan dreams to slide down from it …

I think that now we have to walk along the Kaban lake. According to the legend, at the bottom of the lake lay the treasures of the Kazan Khan. Ivan the Terrible wanted to get them while storming the city. The treasures were never found but still according to legend there is a secret passageway to the treasures in one of the buildings besides the lake.

The walkway is decorated nicely. You can sit on the bench or stroll along the lake and feed the ducks and admire the beautiful view of the opposite side of the lake or wait for the sunset. On this side of the embankment stand colorful wooden houses. We have reached the end of the street, let’s turn around and walk back again.

Although the policy of Christianization was used against the Tatars, still mosques were gradually built. All of them are comfortable and clean. Marjani (Yunusovskaya) Mosque  is the oldest stone mosque of the city (1766-1770). It was built by the Tatar merchants. The imam of the mosque was a philosopher and religious leader Marjani. Here stands his house. Walking up a bit, we will see the Cathedral (Hay market) Mosque. The business center of the New and the Old Tatar settlement was the hay market that attracted visitors to Kazan by oriental flavor and Asian goods.  There were numerous stores, shops, hotels, tea houses, where in a leisure conversation over a cup of tea Tatar merchants concluded trade deals. In the center of the Haymarket Square, according to the will of the merchant millionaire Yunusov, his sons Ibrahim and Ishaq built a Cathedral (Haymarket) Mosque. Another mosque was built in 1782 by the merchant Burnaev in place of the old wooden mosque (Burnaevskaya mosque), which was burned down. These are more mosques in the Tatar settlement; while walking you will see a few others.

Now, I suggest going to a couple of museums. You need to find out at last who is Gabdulla Tukay. Also we will visit the house-museum of Kayum Nasyri.

Everything is close as ususal. In the center of the Old Tatar settlement on Yunusov square was built a mansion by the order of Tatar merchant Apakov at the end of the 19th century. The merchant gave it to his daughter Maryam Banu who married the son of Shamil as a dowry. Today it is a museum of Tukay. On the second floor you can see the restored interior of the front house rooms of the rich Tatar merchant.

You can get inside for 30 rubles. It is all decorated in a very cozy and home-like atmosphere

Gabdulla Tukay is a literary genius who lived for only 27 years. By his strong and emotional poetry he earned the title of the “People’s Poet”. Tukay’s creativity is multifaceted: he was a poet and essayist, literary critic and social activist. For the development of the Tatar poetry and culture he made as many as Alexander Pushkin for Russian poetry and culture. The name of Gabdulla Tukay (1886-1913) is known not only in Tatarstan, but also far beyond its borders. He is known by everyone who appreciates art, who loves poetry. The creativity of Tukay is many-sided: he is a poet and publicist, literary critic and public figure. For the development of the Tatar poetry and the culture he made as much, as Pushkin for the Russian poetry and culture.

Gabdullah Tukay is one of the most famous poets of modern Tatar literature.

Although he died very young, just 27 years old, he left 12,000 lines of poetry. In his poems he treated different nationalistic, religious, social and personal themes. His poems are enjoyed by the young as well as the old. He was famous and popular to the extent that during his lifetime, his poems were widely memorised and turned into proverbs. Gabdulla Tukay was born in the Monger county in the village of Kushlawich in April,1886 in a former Kazan province. His father was an imam and belonged to a family of imams (seven generations).

Gabdullah lost his father when he was just four and a half months old. His mother died when he was three. So, he became an orphan early. Nobody wanted to have the orphan, so he was passed from one family to another. and spent some time at the grandfather’s place who sent the boy to Kazan in 1889. At last, in 1895 nine-year old Gabdulla arrived to Uralsk to his cousin where Abdullah was adopted by his aunt and her husband. It was only after he settled in Jayik that he began to receive a proper education. He visited the "Mutiullah" madrasa and attended for some years a Russian school. Since the "Mutiullah" madrasa was a jadid (modern) school, the education programme included, in addition to Islamic teachings such as the study of the Koran, Hadith (the words of the prophet Moham-mad) and Fiqh (Islamic law), lessons in history, geography and mathematics. In literature classes he became acquainted with Ottoman and Chagatay poetry, which influenced him profoundly.

In Uralsk he spent his childhood and youth. Here he studied in madrasa, in this city he began to write verses. In this small town young Tukay got acquainted with the heritage of Great Russian poets - Pushkin and Lermontov. Their verses won the heart of this young poet.

His talent was admired by many people, the owners of the Kazan and other newspapers invited the poet to work. Among them there was also an Orenburg newspaper of millionaire-gold miner Rameev 'Vakyt' ('Time'). And though Tukay knew, that Rameev was a good poet, he didn't work for him. His dream became Kazan where the life was more vivid than in Orenburg or Ufa. And he went to Kazan.

Tukay loved people and, perhaps, from the Tatar writers of the past nobody had managed to express the spirit of the nationality (national character) with such depth and artistic force as he did it.

Tukay loved Kazan so much, he said, that the Tatar people would find happiness only in the unity with the Russian people, in the fatherland.

The poet had lived last years in Kazan; he loved the city and devoted to it many nice lines. The poet names it the city of the science and art. There is the most beautiful museum of the poet in Kazan.

So, although Tukay has written many poems on social, national and religious themes, most emphasis is attached in the Soviet period to his poetry of a social nature. Certainly Tukay was a progressive person who wanted to modernise his fellows and insisted on social, political and national development.

In reality, he was criticising the kind of priesthood, which interpreted Islam in such a way as to accumulate a personal benefit of power. This aspect of Tukay, in particular, is misinterpreted and Soviet authors present him as an atheist[5]. This we know to be totally wrong.

Quite the contrary, Tukay was a religious person who believed in God and in the teachings of Islam. Otherwise he would not have been held in respect by the Tatars of this time, who had a deep regard for religion. Moreover, his funeral procession would not have been led by Alimjan Barudi, the mufti to be. There is another point, which must be born in mind: Tukay was educated in a madrasa. This gave him a solid Islamic background. Furthermore, many of his poems are written in the spirit of Islam with the view to propagate this faith. At least five such poems as this are now under censure; no recent Soviet publications of his poems contain these Hence, Tukay's sentiments on the subject remain - by force - inaccessible to those in the Soviet Union.

  Near the Kamal Theater we passed the sculpture depicting a young man and a strange creature sitting on a log. This is an illustration for Tukay’s fairy tale “Shurale” (1907). It reveals many features of the national character – ingenuity, hard work, love of nature and humanity. Its roots date back to one of the varieties of popular mythology. In the museum, you can see some of the personal belongings of the poet and his gifts to others. Here, for example, is an porcelain box – a gift to his sister. The most valuable item in the museum is Tukay’s death mask.

After the museum let’s go down this street. It is called Tukaevskaya, as you might guess. There are a lot of old dilapidated buildings and yet I love it. You will love it too.

Now we’re going to the museum of Nasiri.  Kayyum Nasiri was a Tatar ethnographer, writer and educator of the 19th century. He created a lot of different papers, one of which is “Flowers and Herbs” where he described the healing properties of herbs. As a mark of his passion you will see not only the decorative flowers but herbs in the garden in front of the house. In the house we will see dry twigs of sage and other plants on the walls. The house is very cozy; there are quite a lot of personal things of the famous scientist. One of the exhibits is a watch that cost a fortune in those days, and Nasiri could simply sell it to live in prosperity for many years. But he did not. He preferred to live modestly doing things he loved. Kayyum Nasiri made an invaluable contribution to the creation of scientific education of his people. He was one of the first innovators of the reformist trend. And I like the fact that the museum staff are friendly, and will tell you about the life of Kayum Nasiri with great interest.

Wandering through the streets of the Old Tatar settlement we can feel the breath of history, filled with good times and bad times, and because of that so alive and real! There is a special spirit of the Tatar people, who, though experienced prejudice and poverty, have not lost their traditions and are proud of their nation. Our tour is coming to an end. Thank you for your attention. I wish you good luck!