Order of Honour ‘Al Fakhr’ is the highest award of the Council of Muftis of Russia. The first President of the Republic of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev received it in 2005, and then donated the exhibit item to the collection of the Museum of the History of Tatar Statehood and the Republic of Tatarstan.
‘Al-Fakhr’ translated from Arabic means ‘Order of Honour’. The medal was established in 2003, it is awarded to heads of state, heads of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, patrons of art who have provided outstanding support to the Muslim population. The award has two degrees. For all the time, only twenty-eight people received the Order of the I degree, including the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov, Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky and President of Tatarstan Shaimiev.
The order was executed in the form of an eight-pointed star with a diameter of 5 centimetres with a traditional oriental ornament. It was made of gold-coloured metal and covered with blue, white and blue enamels. In the centre — there is a round green medallion depicting a crescent and a five-pointed star with Arabic text in a semicircle. Around the medallion — there is a patterned border.
On the reverse side of the order — there is a relief inscription in the upper part in a circle in Russian ‘Honour Al-Fakhr’, and in the lower part in a circle there is a corresponding inscription in Arabic. Also, the medal number and a device for attaching to clothes was placed there.
Shaimiev was born in 1937 in Aniakovo Village of the Aktanysh Region of Tatarstan and grew up in a traditional family. He graduated from the Kazan Agricultural Institute, worked as an engineer, and then began an administrative career in the Tatar Regional Committee of the CPSU. Shaimiev served as the President of the Republic since 1991 till 2010. During his reign, the region adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Tatar SSR and the Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan. After Shaimiev resigned, he took up research work and the revival of the ancient settlement of Bolgar and the island city of Sviyazhsk.
In an interview, the former president emphasized the role of religion in Tatar culture and said: ‘Kazan has always been an educational centre in the field of Islam. With this positive experience, we became an educated nation, and it played a huge role. We have always adhered to the canons of Islam, and within their scope we need to find the place for Islam in the present time’.
‘Al-Fakhr’ translated from Arabic means ‘Order of Honour’. The medal was established in 2003, it is awarded to heads of state, heads of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, patrons of art who have provided outstanding support to the Muslim population. The award has two degrees. For all the time, only twenty-eight people received the Order of the I degree, including the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov, Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky and President of Tatarstan Shaimiev.
The order was executed in the form of an eight-pointed star with a diameter of 5 centimetres with a traditional oriental ornament. It was made of gold-coloured metal and covered with blue, white and blue enamels. In the centre — there is a round green medallion depicting a crescent and a five-pointed star with Arabic text in a semicircle. Around the medallion — there is a patterned border.
On the reverse side of the order — there is a relief inscription in the upper part in a circle in Russian ‘Honour Al-Fakhr’, and in the lower part in a circle there is a corresponding inscription in Arabic. Also, the medal number and a device for attaching to clothes was placed there.
Shaimiev was born in 1937 in Aniakovo Village of the Aktanysh Region of Tatarstan and grew up in a traditional family. He graduated from the Kazan Agricultural Institute, worked as an engineer, and then began an administrative career in the Tatar Regional Committee of the CPSU. Shaimiev served as the President of the Republic since 1991 till 2010. During his reign, the region adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Tatar SSR and the Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan. After Shaimiev resigned, he took up research work and the revival of the ancient settlement of Bolgar and the island city of Sviyazhsk.
In an interview, the former president emphasized the role of religion in Tatar culture and said: ‘Kazan has always been an educational centre in the field of Islam. With this positive experience, we became an educated nation, and it played a huge role. We have always adhered to the canons of Islam, and within their scope we need to find the place for Islam in the present time’.
