Date: Saturday, 18 January 2014
Time: 2.00pm – 4.00pm
Venue: MHC Auditorium
Lecture is conducted in English.
More than serving as places of worship, mosques are integral to Malay community life, traditions and customs. Apart from Masjid Sultan and Masjid Hajjah Fatimah which still stand today, the wider Kampong Gelam area was once dotted with several mosques which had served the Muslim communities in the vicinity.
Maarof Mosque or Masjid Bahru at Clyde Street/Jeddah Street is a historic mosque and community institution for the Javanese community living in the neighbourhood adjoining the Arab Street–Haji Lane (Kampung Jawa) area. Built in 1870 and demolished in 1996, the mosque and its activities were closely connected to Kyai Agung or Syeikh Muhammad as-Suhaimi, an important Islamic scholar from Java of Hadhrami Arab descent, as well as the Habib Nuh Mausoleum along Palmer Road. This lecture reviews the story of this forgotten mosque from the historical, social, institutional and architectural perspectives.
NOTE: A general discussion and aerial view of the Maarof Mosque and the Clyde St / Jeddah St area is available in Singapura Stories here.
Speakers’ Profiles
Dr Imran bin Tajudeen
is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture, NUS. His research interests centre around vernacular urbanism, house and mosque architecture in Southeast Asia, and critical perspectives in urban heritage studies. In 2005, he published his article, Reading the Traditional City in Maritime Southeast Asia: Reconstructing the 19th century Port Town at Gelam-Rochor-Kallang, Singapore in the Journal of Southeast Asian Architecture. His research papers have won prizes at major international conferences, including the ICAS Book Prize 2011 for the best PhD paper in the field of Social Sciences Book.
Helmie Sufie Jailani
is passionate about the history of Maarof Mosque and is personally connected to the individuals who were the descendants of Kyai Agung and the heirs to his tradition of teaching and learning at the mosque and its satellite institutions of learning, including the Madrasah Al-Maarif at Ipoh Lane. He is a member of PERIPENSIS, the organisation that continues the tradition of Islamic learning. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was also taught by the imam of Maarof Mosque, Syeikh Muhammad Taha As-Suhaimi, the grandson of Kyai Agung. Helmie Sufie Jailani is currently a financial planner.
For more enquiries or registration, drop an email to NHB_MHC_Programmes@nhb.gov
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