Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Jameah Mosque / Jamia Mosque / Queen Victoria Mosque Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, Western Cape Martin Bergman TORSTENSON: Architect 1903 minaret

Date: 1850 : 1903 : 1914 : 1932 Client: Cape Muslims Type: Mosque Style: Eclecticism : Islamic Traditionalist Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 33°55'05.98" S 18°25'00.82" E Alt: 41m

See more photographs The Jameah Mosque was the first Mosque which was specially granted land for a mosque site and hence is also known as the Queen Victoria Mosque as patronage of the British Crown. It is adjacent to the disused stone quarry where the First Jumuah (Friday Congregational Prayers) were read in 1790. It is the biggest Mosque in the Bokaap and the fifth oldest Mosque in South Africa. It is understood that the Jameah Mosque is known for having the First Jumuah read in a Mosque in South Africa. (Information board outside Mosque) Built in 1850, it was the fourth mosque in Cape Town, preceded by the Auwal Mosque, the Palm Tree Mosque and the Nural Islam Mosque - all in the Bo-Kaap. It was the fifth mosque in South Africa, preceded by the Uitenhage Mosque built in 1849 The mosque had a timber minaret added in 1903 and when it was enlarged in 1914 to accommodate extra worshipers for the Hiempu a new minaret was added. (Hiempu is an Indonesian word meaning “alternate”. In 1914 an agreement was reached that the imams of the various mosque congregations in Cape Town would take turns to conduct the Juma-ah prayers at this mosque.) The minaret was again replaced and a new entrance added in 1932. References: Davids, Achmat. 1980. The Mosques of Bo-Kaap - A social history of Islam at the Cape. Athlone, Cape: The South African Institute of Arabic and Islamic Research. pg 56-60, 63, 71, 85, 103, 106, 113, 130, 138-147, 159, 161, 167, 170