Juma Mosque

For seventy years of Soviet rule, Baku’s Juma Mosque moonlighted as the State Carpet Museum—an ironic twist for a 12th-century prayer hall built atop a Zoroastrian fire temple. When philanthropist Haji Sheikhali Dadashov reconstructed it in 1899, he preserved centuries-old inscriptions and a stalactite minaret from 1437. The Soviets saw potential in its conical dome and four central pillars for displaying rugs instead of reverence. After Azerbaijan’s independence, the carpets rolled out and the faithful rolled back in.