Tuan Guru
The exiled imam.
LiebeB — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Liridon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Liridon — CC BY-SA 4.0
The oldest mosque in South Africa, built in 1794 on Dorp Street in the Bo-Kaap at a time when Dutch rule barred Muslims from praying together in public, so its founding was a turning point in the history of Islam in the country. The mosque is tied to the name of Imam Abdullah ibn Qadi Abdus Salaam, known as Tuan Guru, a prince from the island of Tidore in Indonesia whom the Dutch exiled to Robben Island, where he wrote out copies of the Holy Quran from memory, later becoming the mosque's first imam after his release. Tuan Guru also founded a school for Muslim children, which played a part in the earliest writing of Afrikaans in Arabic script. The building is a simple white structure with a small minaret, much like the houses around it, yet it carries more than two centuries of Muslim history at the Cape. The mosque is still in use for prayer, and visitors are welcome at suitable times outside prayer hours, in modest dress. It is usually combined with a walk through the Bo-Kaap.
The exiled imam.
A small minaret.
Around the mosque.
Dorp Street, Bo-Kaap, Cape Town
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