Мектебе (maktab) "Arafat" — Muslim Sunday school operating since 1995 at the Cathedral Mosque of the city of Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Region.
Nature of the institution
The Tatar word Mektebe derives from the Arabic maktab — "a place of meeting." The course of study at the mektebe lasts two years; approximately 50 people receive instruction at the Sunday school each year.
History
The first teacher at the Arafat mektebe was Renat Bochakov, a graduate of the Imam Abu Hanifa Institute in Naberezhnye Chelny. From 1996, Zukhra Alimova — a graduate of Lobachevsky University and of the Nizhny Novgorod mektebe "Ikhsan" — began teaching women and girls; from that same year she also took on the duties of director of the Arafat mektebe.
From 1999, the Tatar language was added to the curriculum, and the academic programme was brought into alignment with the unified curriculum shared by all Nizhny Novgorod mektebe schools: Arabic, Quran recitation, fiqh, aqidah, the history of the prophets, the history of Islam, hadith studies, and Tatar. The Arafat mektebe library holds 1,500 religious and secular books in Arabic, Tatar, and Russian. Since the 2004 academic year, a puppet theatre has operated at the mektebe.
Press
- Photo report from the celebrations marking the tenth anniversary of Maktab "Arafat," 8 May 2005 (archive)
Address
Nizhny Novgorod Region, city of Dzerzhinsk, ul. Zheleznodorozhnaya, 82.