Mesquita da Baixa

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Mesquita da Baixa ( Jumma Masjid ) in downtown Maputo. In the foreground the original low-rise mosque, in the background the extension built between 2002 and 2005.

The Mesquita da Baixa (in German "mosque of the city center" or "central mosque", also Jumma Masjid ; Arabic   " Friday mosque ") is a mosque on Rua da Mesquita in the Central district of the Mozambican capital Maputo . The Islamic church in downtown Maputo is the oldest and largest of its kind in Mozambique.

history

The mosque in the 1920s (top picture)

The first construction of a mosque in today Rua da Mesquita already built around 1876 in the form of a small wooden hut after the Indian trade buyer Hava Ali of Comunidade Maometana Indiana (Indian Muslim had given community) a piece of land.

In 1887 the community had the wooden hut replaced by a new stone building. The mosque with a rectangular floor plan is said to have been very large for the time, Arabic art in the form of flowers and geometric shapes adorned the building both inside and outside. In the interior there was also a separate area for the ritual ablutions ( Wuḍūʾ ). The new building therefore cost £ 4,550.

In 1902 there were some structural changes to the mosque. Among other things, the entrance portal received the inscription “On the day of the last judgment, the first question will be whether you have prayed every day” in Persian and six small minarets with 18 crescent moons on the roof of the mosque. A separate prayer niche ( mihrāb ) was built in the interior to indicate the direction of prayer in Mecca. Above this, the words "Allah is the only God and Muhammad is his messenger" in Arabic and the year (1902) are placed. In addition, a relic, part of the brocade curtain of the Kaaba ( Kiswa ), was hung.

In 1935 the community with the name "Associação da Comunidade Maometana Indiana" (Association of the Indian Muslim Community) received legal recognition from the colonial administration with the directive N2407m of January 16. The piece of land in the city center of Lourenço Marques was also legalized and entered in the cadastre of the administration as the 3rd parcel of section 139 with an area of ​​575.71 meters.

Between 2002 and 2005, the community had the church completely renovated and behind the mosque itself, which was only intended to serve as a porch, a significantly larger building with a higher minaret was built. The opening took place on September 20, 2005 in the presence of President Armando Guebuza .

Web links

Commons : Mesquita da Baixa (Jumma Masjid)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anabela Soriano Carvalho: Comportamento dos empresários islâmicos em Moçambique . Ed .: niversidade de São Paulo, Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas. No. 22-23 (1999/2000/2001) . São Paulo ( cea.fflch.usp.br [PDF]). cea.fflch.usp.br ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / cea.fflch.usp.br
  2. ↑ a b c d Mesquita da Baixa - Maputo. In: Moçambique Islâmico. March 27, 2008, accessed December 20, 2014 (Portuguese).
  3. ↑ Since the annexation of Goas, Dius and Damãos by the Indian state in 1961, the community has been called Associação da Comunidade Maometana Paquistânica (Association of the Pakistani Muslim Community)
  4. ↑ Principal mesquita de Maputo reabre quinta-feira após obras. Notícias Lusófonas, September 21, 2005, accessed March 15, 2015 (Portuguese).

Coordinates: 25 ° 58 ′ 18.2 ″  S , 32 ° 34 ′ 4.7 ″  E