The story of 31 mosques

Although Sri Lanka’s Muslims form nearly ten percent of the population of Sri Lanka, a comprehensive work detailing their main places of worship and recording their history, evolution and architecture has been a long-felt need. This lacuna is now filled with a well-illustrated coffee table book ‘Iconic Masjids of Ceylon’ authored by Asiff Hussein and published by the Ceylon Baithulmal Fund.

The history of mosques in Sri Lanka, as the reader would find, is a most fascinating one interwoven with stories of miracles, perseverance and very importantly many instances of co-existence and co-operation with the other communities that call this beautiful island their home.

The book covers 31 iconic mosques of Sri Lanka from what is supposed to be the oldest standing mosque in the island, Masjidul Abrar in Beruwala said to have been built in 920 but embellished over the years to the ultra-modern Jamiah Naleemiah Mosque that has been compared to a flying saucer. The work also covers a number of little known mosques of great antiquity such as the Bakinigahawela Mosque near Monaragala with its thick walls and traditional local architecture as well as heritage mosques showing profound colonial influence such as the Meeran Mosque in Galle Fort.

As Professor Sujit Sivasundaram, Professor of World History, University of Cambridge notes, “This lavishly-illustrated and well-researched digest of the mosques of the country makes an invaluable contribution to the important task of building understanding, appreciation and admiration of the rich cultural traditions of the Muslims of Lanka. It documents the astonishing diversity of stories behind the mosques of the island, ranging from north to south, and from earliest maritime origins to high modernism, and from simplicity to technicolour, and taking in saints, preachers and pilgrims of so many kinds. It bears out the width of Islam in Sri Lanka as well as the way Muslim structures are connected with so many distinct periods in the island’s past. For once, here is a coffee-table book with a serious purpose.”

Iconic Masjids of Ceylon can be purchased at the office of the Ceylon Baithulmal Fund, No. 44, Haig Road,

Colombo 4 or ordered online.