Muslims

Islam was never a significant religion in the region of Latvia, but, of course, some Muslims migrated to the Baltic provinces of the Russia Empire and lived there. The statistics for the Kurzeme [Kurland] province of 1863 /SJGK1863/ show that in 1863 only 2 Muslims lived in the province - one in Jelgava [Mitau] and another one in Jēkabpils [Jacobstadt]. The Census of 1897 registered 465 Muslims who lived in Riga city. They not only lived, they also died, and the Muslim cemetery of Riga today contains burials from the 1890s. Officially Muslim payers were allowed in Riga in 1905.

I have heard of only one Muslim migration in a group to this region. It happened at the end of the 1870s when a group of Turkish war prisoners were transported to Cēsis [Wenden] at the time of Russia-Turkey war of 1877-1878. I do not know how long they stayed there, it is known only that a cemetery of Turks exists in Cēsis and a monument was erected there in 1880. I have no information as to how important their living there was from a genealogical point of view.

There was rather a long tradition in the restaurant business of Moscow and St. Petersbourg that practically only Muslim waiters (mainly Tartars) were hired at the first class restaurants. The idea was - they would not drink the high quality alcoholic drinks that were available to waiters. As it is widely known, Islam bans the drinking of strong drinks. The reality might not always have met these expectations, however. It would be quite easy to suppose that the restaurants of Riga also had this practice sometimes, but I have no precise information.

In any case, a few Muslim names have been found in old newspaper advertisements, various lists and documents. I will inform you about them when the appropriate sources are published on this Site.