Joanna
Chris Doss wrote:
>I just got back to Moscow on the train from Kazan,
>Tatarstan. Anyway among other things something that
>most struck me was that the Kazan Kremlin is dominated
>by two immense structures: a gorgeous, gold-encrusted
>Russian Orthodox Church and a gorgeous,
>gold-encrusted, mosque about 200 meters from it
>(there's also a gorgeous synagogue and about a dozen
>other mosques and churches in the town itself).
>Anyway, not only does this exemplify the long history
>of uneasy friendship/alliance between Islam and
>Russian Orthodoxy, it shows what smart empires do. If
>the US had been smart, the first thing it would have
>done after conquering Baghdad would have been to BUILD
>A GIANT MOSQUE, rather then bombing the existing ones.
>
>In any case I had a great time. Tatar both sounds and
>looks really cool, and thus I picked up a
>Russian-Tatar teach-yourself-Tatar book, and got a
>couple of CDs of Tatar folk and pop music. Interesting
>but not surprising to have my earlier impression
>reinforced that Tatars physically look much less
>"Asian" than their fellow Golden Hordlings the Uzbeks,
>Kazakhs, and Mongols, probably for the same reason
>that Russians look less "European" than Germans --
>Tatars and Russians have been intermarrying for
>hundreds of years. The world's most famous Tatar,
>Marat Safin (whose first name, traditionally spelled,
>would be Murad), could easily pass for an Italian,
>methinks. Or a Turk.
>
>
>
>Nu, zayats, pogodi!
>
>
>
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