Masjid Hajjah Fatimah - Singapore's Leaning Tower

Java Road, Bugis
Central, Singapore

March 2012

 

Named after an aristocratic Malay woman, Masjid Hajjah Fatimah was built in 1845-1846. The mosque was built on the site of Hajjah Fatimah's former house at Java Road. 

 

Hajjah Fatimah was an intrepid businesswoman, exceptional for her time. Born into a wealthy Malaccan family, she married a Bugis prince from Celebes who ran a trading post in Singapore. Her only child, a daughter named Raja Siti, married Syed Ahmed Alsagoff, son of Syed Abdul Rahman Alsagoff, a successful Arab trader. It was only upon Hajjah Fatimah's death that the business passed into the hands of the Alsagoff family who continued it in its own name. Her grave, along with those of her daughter and son-in-law, lie in a private enclosure in the mosque.

Built on sandy land, the minaret leans about six degrees towards the onion-shaped dome and has thus gained fame as Singapore's "leaning tower". Preservation works undertaken in the 1970s stopped the gradual tilt of the minaret but a slight inclination is still visible. 

 

The mosque was designated a national monument on 6 July 1973. Much-needed preservation and renovation works were undertaken around this time, including making the mosque’s dome watertight and strengthening the foundations of the building. 

 

Today the mosque is owned by Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS).

 

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More photos are available on Merlion Wayfarer's Picasa at :
Places - Kampong Glam

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Sources

• "Masjid Hajjah Fatimah" (19 March 2012). Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masjid_Hajjah_Fatimah.
• "Hajjah Fatimah Mosque" (05 January 2003). Edian AZRAH & Joanna TAN, National Library Singapore. Retrieved from http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_259_2005-01-06.html.
• "Hajjah Fatimah Mosque" (19 March 2012). Preservation of Monuments Board. Retrieved from http://www.pmb.sg/?page_id=174.
                 

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