A scholar from Budapest and a woman ruler in India helped create the building usually called Britain’s first purpose-built mosque.
This is the Shah Jahan Mosque, also known as the Woking Mosque, in Woking, England. It was built in 1889 and is a Grade I listed building.
It was commissioned by Gottlieb Leitner, a scholar born in Budapest in 1840, who founded an Oriental Institute in Woking in the early 1880s. The architect was William Isaac Chambers.
Part of the money came from Shah Jahan, the Begum of Bhopal, and the mosque is named after her.
It is small, with a green dome, small domed turrets and a tall arched entrance, in a style often described as late Mughal or Indo-Islamic.
In 1895 the Afghan prince Nasrullah Khan joined Eid prayers there. Leitner died in 1899, and the mosque stood unused until 1913, when a new community led by the imam Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din brought it back to life.
In 1917 a burial ground opened on Horsell Common for Muslim soldiers of the Indian army who died in British hospitals. Eid prayers on 28 May 1922 are thought to be the first public celebration of Eid in Britain.
Sources differ on when the institute was founded, and on whether this is the first purpose-built mosque in Britain or in Northern Europe.
The Shah Jahan Mosque was built in 1889 by the Hungarian-British Orientalist Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner. It was partly funded by Nawab Shah Jahan Begum of Bhopal, as a place for students at the Oriental Institute in Woking to worship. The Institute, founded by Leitner in 1881 according to Wikipedia (another source says 1883), awarded degrees from the University of the Punjab in Lahore.
First years and disuse
The mosque became the first formal place of Islamic worship in England. During his 1895 visit to England the Afghan prince Nasrullah Khan prayed Eid al-Adha prayers at the mosque and made a donation of £492. After Leitner’s death in 1899 the mosque closed and fell into disuse until 1913.
Revival
The London Mosque Fund created the Woking Mosque Trust on 17 April 1912, and the property passed to the Trust in 1915. Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din became the imam, and the mosque became a centre of community life.
Architecture and design
The mosque was designed by William Isaac Chambers (1847–1924) and built in Bath and Bargate stone, in a late Mughal style. It is small, with a green dome, small domed turrets and a tall arched entrance, and it stands behind a low wall and gate. Pevsner Architectural Guides described its architecture as “extraordinarily dignified”. According to Wikipedia, the alignment with Mecca was established by a ship’s captain who was brought in to take bearings.
More to know
The burial ground
In 1917 a burial ground for Muslim soldiers of the Indian army who died in British hospitals opened on Horsell Common, a short distance from the mosque.
Eid in 1922
Eid prayers held at Woking on 28 May 1922 are thought to be the first public celebration of Eid in Britain.
The History, Architecture and later sections are adapted from the Wikipedia article “Shah Jahan Mosque, Woking”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full article. Text has been shortened.
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