page_title: Kerk Street Mosque
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Kerk Street Mosque / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Kerk Street Mosque in Johannesburg, it follows the grid of the city but designed to face 11 degrees to Mecca. works from the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation
context_page_description: The Kerk Street Mosque, also known as the Jumah Mosque, is located in Johannesburg, South Africa.
  The mosque, situated on stand 788, is one of the oldest mosques and places of worship in Johannesburg.
  The first Muslim community to occupy the land set up a tent in the closing years of the nineteenth century, then in 1906 built a wood and corrugated iron structure. In 1918 construction of a brick walled structure was completed. The brick mosque was demolished in 1990 and was replaced with the modern Kerk Street Mosque designed by Driehaus Prize winner Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil.
context_section_description: The arrival of the Malay slaves and political prisoners by the Dutch East India Company in 1654 from Batavia was the first introduction of Islam in Cape Town and subsequently South Africa. The Malays were not initially given worshiping rights but the growing number of slaves brought in by the Dutch East India Company from Indonesia and India, including Bengal and the Malabar coast spread Islam which forced the Cape Colony to give rights to worship Islam. This saw the first application for land to build the first Mosque in 1793 in the Cape of Good Hope.
  After the discovery of gold in Johannesburg and the growing number of Muslims, Jumah Masjid was built in 1906 and renovated and enlarged in 1918 due to the increase in worshippers. Before the 1990 rebuilding, the Jumah Masjid could accommodate about 230 worshippers.
caption: The old Kerk Street Mosque in 1985 that was demolished to give way to the new building.
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