Kampung Jemput (Muscat Street) Ramadhan bazaar

Kampung Jemput (Muscat Street) Ramadhan bazaar
(from left to right) 1965, 1988, 2012
Source for the three respective images: SPH, MITA (both accessed from NAS a20), and Kelvin Ang

The area directly in front of Sultan Mosque is known locally as Kampung Jemput to its residents, encompassing Muscat Street and the upper end of Bussorah St. ‘Jemput’ translates into ‘invite’/’welcome’ in Malay.

The photographs above show the Ramadhan bazaar there in 1965, 1988 and 2012.

In 2012, two Omani arches were erected framing the two ends of the street, the latest phase in the  ‘Arabisation’ of the area (see other post on Bussorah Street). Murals now line the end Muscat St near Arab Street, that depict supposed Omani influence and interactions. Oddly enough, this strange move  fails to recognise the area’s multi-ethnicity and historic Javanese residential community, seems to reflect unawareness of the artificiality of the street name ‘Muscat’ itself (and the reasons for this name), and worse, overlooks the Hadhrami/Yemeni, rather than Omani, origins of Singapore’s Arab community.