This ruined mosque is called the Mosque of the Two Qiblas, but only one prayer niche still stands.
It is Masjid al-Qiblatayn, in the old port of Zeila on the Gulf of Aden, in Somaliland. Local people call it the oldest mosque in town.
Tradition says it was built in the early seventh century, after some of the first Muslims fled Mecca for Abyssinia. Local tradition also says it had two prayer niches, one facing Mecca and one facing Jerusalem.
From Zeila, those two directions differ by less than one degree. Only the niche in the north wall survives today.
Archaeologists who surveyed it found two phases of building, and suggest the story may come from that. Its walls are rough coral stone set in earth mortar, and rubble under the floors suggests an earlier building stood here first. The tall minaret seen in many photos belongs, they say, to the neighbouring Shahari mosque.
Imported pottery from a small test pit dates from the thirteenth century onward, and the oldest remains are still undated. Scholars disagree on when Islam took root on this coast, so the seventh-century date remains unconfirmed.
The site is mostly ruin today. Digging has exposed its foundations, and it has little protection.
The mosque's name means 'mosque of the two qiblahs', referring to its two mihrabs. According to tradition, one of the mihrabs was oriented north toward Mecca and the other northwest toward Jerusalem.
The building is largely in ruins. This is due to repeated diggings as well as exposure of the foundations of the structure, without any conservation efforts protecting the site. In 2007, George Abungu produced a report of the site as part of a UNESCO assessment mission.
Only one mihrab, oriented northward, was visible. The remains of another structure nearby are visible, possibly indicating that the mosque underwent two different phases of construction. It also contains the tomb of a sheikh named Babu Dena.
More to know
The oldest remains on site are undated and further archeological investigation is needed to understand them. According to local tradition, Muhammad's family migrated to Abyssinia in the early seventh century and constructed the mosque thereafter.
At present, scholarly dates for the Islamicization of the region are uncertain and may be as late as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, though others suggest a possibly earlier but unknown date.
The History, Architecture and later sections are adapted from the Wikipedia article “Masjid al-Qiblatayn, Zeila”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full article. Text has been shortened.
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