Small historical mosque
Published/Last edited on 4th October, 2017.
Towering above the surrounding tightly packed shophouses and bungalows around Lebuh Acheh, the Acheen Street Mosque’s minaret betrays its presence in the otherwise hidden enclave.
The small butter-coloured mosque was built at the turn of the 19th century by Syed Hussain Al-Aidid a wealthy spice trader of the Acehnese royal family who had settled in Penang. According to accounts, he was among other wealthy international traders who were invited to take up residence in Georgetown by Francis Light to strengthen Penang’s (and Britain’s) presence as a trading post to rival that of Sumatra.
The mosque’s architecture survives largely in its original form with a truncated version of the pyramidical tiered roofs seen in mosques in Aceh, Melaka and elsewhere in the archipelago, and features an octagonal Chinese pagoda-style minaret.
The Moorish arcaded facade is an early 20th-century addition and the ugly corrugated metal awning over the veranda much more recent. Within the compound a row of bungalows housed Penang’s first Mufti, a madrasah and dwellings of the relatives of the founder, who himself now lies in a mausoleum beside the mosque.
Acheen Street Mosque is important historically sitting at the heart of Georgetown’s first Malay urban settlement within the surrounding lanes and alleyways. Here until the late-20th century when air travel became more affordable, the area served as an assembly point for multitudes of pilgrims from all over the archipelago on their way to Mecca via ship, bustling with pilgrim brokers and ticketing agencies, and was sometimes referred to as the “second ... Travelfish members only (Full text is around 400 words.)
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Address: Jalan Lebuh Acheh, Georgetown
Coordinates (for GPS): 100º20'11.04" E, 5º24'52.84" N
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Reviewed by
Sally Arnold
Sally spent twelve years leading tourists around Indonesia and Malaysia where she collected a lot of stuff. She once carried a 40kg rug overland across Java. Her house has been described as a cross between a museum and a library. Fuelled by coffee, she can often be found riding her bike or petting stray cats. Sally believes travel is the key to world peace.