'Every mosque has a great story to tell': Documenting Singapore’s lost mosques
SINGAPORE: Located off Upper E Declension Road, Jalan Hajijah is a placidity road, the home to several condominiums and landed backdrop.
For nigh of the terminal century, all the same, the area was dwelling to Masjid Kampong Hajijah - a small mosque serving the 300 residents of Kampong Hajijah, a village that stood by the sea earlier state reclamation extended the shoreline outwards.
Dating back to 1900, the mosque and the village surrounding it were torn down to brand way for newer developments in the mid-1980s.
Independent heritage researcher Sarafian Salleh told CNA that Masjid Kampong Hajijah may have been just one of every bit many every bit 120 mosques that dotted the island in the mid-20th century, prior to the institution of the Mosque Edifice Fund in 1975.
The mosque and the village were named for Madam Hajijah Cemat, a wealthy Malay landowner who founded the village and mosque, as well as donated the land for nearby Masjid Kampung Siglap, which still stands today.
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His experience documenting Masjid Kampong Hajijah in 1986, when he was simply 16, sparked Mr Sarafian's passion for heritage photography.
This passion slowly faded after he furthered his studies, got married and had children, he noted.
"The photos that I had amassed over the years were eventually forgotten and lost," he said.
EVERY MOSQUE HAS A STORY TO TELL
His passion was ignited once once again in 2007, when he dug out old photos and started sharing them on social media.
"My postings of old photos of Kampong Hajijah defenseless the attention of Ms Hanizah Abdul Ghani who was the great-granddaughter of Mdm Hajijah, the lady who congenital Masjid Hajijah in 1900," he said.
Ms Hanizah shared stories about her great-grandmother, and this spurred Mr Sarafian to "recall that every mosque has a great story to tell", he added.
The fifty-year-one-time - a mechanical engineer by trade, who also volunteers as a tour guide with non-profit organisation My Customs - said the number of such "lost mosques" in Singapore is not well-documented.
However, his own research - together with that of his friend Mr Zaini Kassim - has helped plug this gap, locating and cataloging such forgotten mosques, working with information from athenaeum as well every bit contributions from friends.
"Mr Zaini Kassim has been consolidating the names of existing and lost mosque in Singapore and we have consistently updated the data on social media," Mr Sarafian said.
Mr Zaini, 56, said his own piece of work documenting mosques began in the 1980s, when he realised such "kampong mosques" were slowly disappearing.
Mr Zaini noted that one such kampong mosque, Masjid Kampong Holland, closed in 2022 after having been around since the 1950s - first equally a surau (modest prayer hall) before being upgraded to a 500-congregant mosque in 1975.
Simply a scattering of kampong mosques remain hither, on temporary occupation licences issued by the Singapore Country Authority - such as Masjid Petempatan Melayu Sembawang, nestled abroad in a forested area on the outskirts of Sembawang, a rock's throw away from the Johor Straits.
Another is the 68-year-old Masjid Hang Jebat in Queenstown, which sits at the end of a row of colonial era terraced houses on Jalan Hang Jebat, next to where the KTM (Malayan Railway) train tracks ran earlier services ended nine years ago.
Mr Sarafian and Mr Zaini are not alone.
A Facebook group, called Lost Mosques of Singapore, has nearly two,400 members, with almost daily posts on long-gone mosques - such equally the Paya Goyang and Angullia Park mosques off Orchard Road, and Masjid Aminah in Geylang, where a block of Housing Board flats now stands.
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The foundation of the 2 men'southward research goes back to a volume from the early on 1980s entitled Masjid-Masjid di Singapore 1982 (Mosques in Singapore 1982), a slim volume by Syed Abu Bakar Alsagoff which catalogued the mosques in the country at the fourth dimension.
Despite the "exhaustive documentation" constitute in the book, the ii men, likewise every bit others online, have been able to identify mosques non recorded.
Mr Sarafian hopes to exist able to put together a book, documenting the mosques as well as the stories from villagers who used to live around them.
For his function, Mr Zaini hopes more of such books will be written to create a tape of mosques and villages that are now forgotten.
With Islam having come to the region centuries ago, Mr Sarafian said mosques hither probable predated Masjid Omar Kampong Melaka - built in 1820 past Arab philanthropist Syed Omar Aljunied - which is oftentimes acknowledged as the oldest mosque in Singapore, though data about these early mosques have been lost to history.
PRESERVING SINGAPORE'S HISTORY
Mosques of the past were generally found along Singapore'south coastal areas and riverine networks, Mr Sarafian said.
There were mosques found farther inland, merely these were fewer than those found forth coastal areas, he added.
These included Masjid Haji Osman in Seranggong Kechil (now Serangoon), and Masjid Wak Sumang at Kampong Punggol (now Punggol Point), he said, noting diverse sources point to Kampong Punggol as ane of the earliest settlements prior to the arrival of Stamford Raffles.
Named for the Javanese warrior said to take founded Kampong Punggol, Masjid Wak Sumang was demolished in 1995 to brand mode for developments in the area, though it lives on in the proper name of an LRT station besides as several roads in the Punggol area.
"These mosques were generally constructed in the middle of a Muslim customs that lived and traded in the respective district and serve as a identify to pray, kampong meetings and teachings of religious knowledge," said Mr Sarafian.
They often lacked the minarets and domes associated with mosques, he said, and instead the architecture of these houses of worship were designed to suit to Southeast Asia'due south tropical climate.
"These mosques were built on stilts, which permit cantankerous-ventilating breeze beneath the dwelling to cool the space whilst mitigating the effects of the occasional flood," he noted.
"The roofs were steeply pitched to facilitate tempest h2o and excessively overhung to offer shade and reduce glare from the lord's day."
Mr Sarafian added that these mosques were often sited together with community wells, where villagers could describe water to perform wudhu - the Muslim ritual washing earlier prayer.
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Older mosques also had percussion instruments called the bedok and the kentong, which were sounded to call residents for the five daily prayers.
These mosques were smaller and often served no more than 300 people each, he said, compared with up to five,000 worshippers today as with Masjid Darul Ghufran in Tampines.
While newer mosques are mostly given Arab names, Mr Sarafian said older mosques had "Malay names", associated with known personalities or historical locations.
Documenting these forgotten mosques is an important process in preserving Singapore's history, he said.
"Keeping the original names of the mosques helps to retain the history of the folks living in that location who were the building blocks of the nation."
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/every-mosque-has-a-great-story-documenting-lost-mosques-193751
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