Shitta-Bey Mosque | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Affiliation | Islam |
Status | Active |
Location | |
Location | Lagos Island, Lagos |
Country | Nigeria |
Architecture | |
Architect(s) | João Baptista da Costa |
Type | Mosque |
Style | Afro-Brazilian Architecture |
Founder | Mohammed Shitta Bey |
Date established | July 4, 1894 |
Groundbreaking | 1881 |
Completed | February 7, 1892 |
Construction cost | £3000 [1] [2] |
Specifications | |
Capacity | 200 |
Minaret(s) | 1 |
Materials | concrete, granite and marble |
Designated as NHL | National Monument [3] |
Some sources reported £5,000 [4] and £7000. [5] |
Shitta-Bey Mosque is a mosque, religious learning centre and one of the oldest mosques in Nigeria. [6] The mosque is located at Martins Ereko Street, Lagos Island, Lagos, Nigeria. It was established in 1892 and designated as National monument by Nigerian Commission for Museums and Monuments in 2013. [3] The mosque, considered one of the most important historical legacies of Nigeria, [7] Shitta-Bey Mosque was named after its founder Sierra Leonean-born Nigerian, Mohammed Shitta Bey, who was an aristocrat, philanthropist and businessman. [8]
The construction of the mosque started in 1891 and was financed by Mohammed Shitta Bey, a businessman and philanthropist, son of Sierra Leone-born parents of Yoruba descent. A Brazilian architect João Baptista da Costa oversaw the construction which was done with tile-work depicting the Afro-Brazilian architecture. [3] The Shitta-Bey Mosque launched on July 4, 1894, at a ceremony presided over by Governor of Lagos, Sir Gilbert Carter. Others in attendance included Oba Oyekan I, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Abdullah Quilliam (who represented Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire), and prominent Lagosian Christians such as James Pinson Labulo Davies, John Otunba Payne, and Richard Beale Blaize as well as foreign representatives. [7] Quilliam brought a letter accredited to the Sultan of Turkey asking Lagos Muslims to embrace Western education. [9]
It was at the launch that Mohammed Shitta was honored with the "Bey" title, the Ottoman Order of Medjidie 3rd class (the highest class for a civilian) by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Thereafter, Mohammed Shitta became known by the compounded name Shitta-Bey. [10] [11]
Abdulhamid I or Abdul Hamid I was the 27th sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1774 to 1789.
ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd, also spelled as Abdulhamid, Abd-ul Hamid, and Abd ol-Hamid, is a Muslim male given name, and in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words ʻabd and al-Ḥamīd, one of the names of God in the Qur'an, which gave rise to the Muslim theophoric names. It means "servant of the All-laudable".
William Henry Quilliam, who changed his name to Abdullah Quilliam and later Henri Marcel Leon or Haroun Mustapha Leon, was a 19th-century British convert from Christianity to Islam, noted for founding England's first mosque and Islamic centre, and Britain's oldest Muslim organization, the Association of British Muslims.
Dusé Mohamed Ali was a Sudanese-Egyptian actor and political activist, who became known for his African nationalism. He was also a playwright, historian, journalist, editor, and publisher. In 1912 he founded the African Times and Orient Review, later revived as the African and Orient Review, which published in total through 1920. He lived and worked mostly in England, alongside the United States and Nigeria respectively. In the latter location, he founded the Comet Press Ltd, and The Comet newspaper in Lagos.
Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb was an American writer, publisher, and the United States Consul to the Philippines. He converted to Islam in 1889, and is considered by historians to be the earliest prominent Old Stock American Muslim convert. In 1893, he was the sole person representing Islam at the first Parliament of the World's Religions.
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Abdul is the most frequent transliteration of the combination of the Arabic word Abd and the definite prefix al / el.
Abdulhamid II or Abdul Hamid II was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a period of decline with rebellions, and presided over an unsuccessful war with the Russian Empire (1877–78), the loss of Egypt and Cyprus from Ottoman control, followed by a successful war against the Kingdom of Greece in 1897, though Ottoman gains were tempered by subsequent Western European intervention.
Esma Sultan was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Sultan Abdulaziz and Gevheri Kadın.
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The Oku people or the Aku Marabout or Aku Mohammedans are an ethnic group in Sierra Leone and the Gambia, primarily the descendants of marabout, liberated Yoruba people who were released from slave ships and resettled in Sierra Leone as Liberated Africans or came as settlers in the mid-19th century.
Mohammed Shitta-Bey, alias Olowo Pupa, was the first titled Seriki Musulumi of Lagos. He was a prominent Nigerian Muslim businessman, aristocrat and philanthropist who was involved in commerce across Lagos and the Niger-Delta region. He was also a patron of the Shitta-Bey Mosque in Lagos, and served as a leader in the Lagos Muslim community until his death. He is known to be one of the founding fathers of legitimate commerce in precolonial Nigeria; as at the time of his death he was the most prominent and wealthiest Muslim trader in West Africa.
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Ahmadiyya is an Islamic branch in Nigeria under the caliph in London. Members of the organization are predominantly from Western Nigeria.