Auwal Mosque

Auwal Mosque

Coordinates : 33 ° 55 ′ 15 ″ S , 18 ° 24 ′ 55 ″ E Coordinates: 33 ° 55 ′ 15 ″ S , 18 ° 24 ′ 55 ″ E-33.920833333333 18.415277777778
place	Bo-Kaap , Cape Town
Laying of the foundation stone	18th century
Direction / grouping	Islam since 1794
Architectural information
Details
minaret	1

Website: http://auwalmasjid.co.za

The Auwal Mosque , Arabic المسجد الأول, is considered to be the oldest mosque in South Africa . Its foundation stone was laid in the Dutch Cape Colony in 1794, before the religious freedom granted by the British .

The official opening of the mosque could only take place after religious freedom was granted under the new British rule . In the literature there are therefore different information for the opening of the mosque. (1794 for the still unofficial prayer room, 1797/98 for the official mosque). The Islamic community founded by Imam Tuan Guru split after his death in 1807 in a dispute over his successor. The second mosque in Cape Town arose from this split with the Palm Tree Mosque on Long Street .

The slaves of Cape Town, mostly from Islamic countries, were forbidden by the Dutch East India Company to take personal items, in particular the Koran , into captivity. The Koran, written down by Tuan Guru from memory in captivity on Robben Island in the 1780s, is considered the first Koran script in South Africa, so that the madrasa attached to the mosque gave a decisive impetus to the Islamization of the slaves and black population of Cape Town. A copy of this Koran is kept in the mosque. This mosque is therefore of great importance for the formation of the Cape Malay identity .

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Auwal Mosque on www.auwalmasjid.co.za (English) , taken on July 14, 2016.
↑ Abdulkader Tayob: Islam in South Africa: Mosques, Imams, and Sermons . University Press of Florida 1999, pp. 24ff. ISBN 0-8130-2343-2
^ Nigel Worden, Elizabeth van Heyningen, Vivian Bickford-Smith: Cape Town: The Making of a City: An Illustrated Social History . New Africa Books, 2004, ISBN 978-0-86486-656-1 , p. 126 ff.
^ Nigel Worden, Elizabeth van Heyningen, Vivian Bickford-Smith: Cape Town: The Making of a City: An Illustrated Social History . New Africa Books, 2004, pp. 124 ff. ISBN 0-86486-656-9

[Auwal_Webseite-1] Auwal Mosque on www.auwalmasjid.co.za (English) , taken on July 14, 2016.

[2] Abdulkader Tayob: Islam in South Africa: Mosques, Imams, and Sermons . University Press of Florida 1999, pp. 24ff. ISBN 0-8130-2343-2

[3] Nigel Worden, Elizabeth van Heyningen, Vivian Bickford-Smith: Cape Town: The Making of a City: An Illustrated Social History . New Africa Books, 2004, ISBN 978-0-86486-656-1 , p. 126 ff.

[4] Nigel Worden, Elizabeth van Heyningen, Vivian Bickford-Smith: Cape Town: The Making of a City: An Illustrated Social History . New Africa Books, 2004, pp. 124 ff. ISBN 0-86486-656-9