The 160-Year-Old Tomb of Holy Man Habib Noh

Imran
So it’s a very beautifully built staircase.

Jimmy
Amazing. Yeah.

Imran
With granite steps, no less, right? And Shanghai plaster balustrades on top. And then the mausoleum itself is also interesting because it takes on European features, right?

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
If you look at the mouldings outside, the windows, right? But it has a dome, and the dome itself is interesting because it’s actually circular. It’s a globe, but a flattened globe with a disc on top. So it’s not a typical dome that you would find.

Jimmy
What do you mean by a flattened dome?

Imran
So instead of being a perfect sphere, it’s somewhat elliptical.

Jimmy
Okay, so it’s a little bit flatter?

Imran
Flatter, yeah. Right. And then on top of that is a circular drum. It would be called a drum in architectural terms. Meaning that it’s like a cylinder on top of it.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
Yes, if you look at it carefully again. But of course, the function of these domes above is well-known in Islamic architecture. In fact, the word in Arabic for dome, qubba, is also synonymous with the term for maqam or mausoleum. So if you say qubba, people would assume you’re talking about a mausoleum or tomb, actually. The use of qubba or domes for mosques is less frequent. In fact, early Arabian mosques didn’t even have domes.

[Music playing]

Jimmy
You’re listening to BiblioAsia+, a podcast produced by the National Library of Singapore. At BiblioAsia, we tell stories about Singapore’s past, some familiar, others forgotten, all fascinating. Palmer Road is not a particularly well-known road, but it is home to one of Singapore’s oldest and most visible landmarks. Thousands of people pass it daily on their way to work when they’re on the Keppel viaduct heading east towards Marina Bay. It’s a squarish building topped by a green dome. It’s set on a hill, which makes it easy to spot. This building is Maqam Habib Noh, or in English, the mausoleum of Habib Noh. Habib Noh was an Arab holy man and a descendant of Prophet Muhammad. Habib Noh died in 1866 and was buried on Mount Palmer. His grave became a site of pilgrimage, and a mausoleum was later built over it.For more than a century now, it has attracted pilgrims, not just from Singapore, but from around the region as well. In January 2026, it was reopened after a year and a half of major renovations that included a new dome and structural reinforcements. Here to tell us more is Dr Imran Tajuddin from the National University of Singapore.

Imran is working on a book about the mausoleum, and he’s also a senior lecturer in two departments at the university, the Department of Malay Studies and the Department of Architecture. He was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT’s Aga Khan program and the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden. He was also the Mutawa visiting fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Welcome to the show, Imran.

Imran
Hi, Jimmy.

Jimmy
How are you?

Imran
I’m good, thank you.

Jimmy
Thank you so much for coming onto the show. We’re really excited to have you, and it’s really wonderful that Maqam Habib Noh has now reopened. But, you know, for the benefit of those of us, for the listeners who don’t know, you know, who exactly is Habib Noh?

Imran
So Habib Noh was well known in his lifetime and immediately after. In fact, you could argue to this day that he is very well known among certain circles – particularly those who seek out places to visit which are considered the graves of holy men.

And Habib Noh’s distinction lies in the fact that during his lifetime and after, he’s remembered for a number of remarkable things. Some people would call them miracles, others would point out not the miracles, but the deeds that he performed. One of the accounts you will hear, right, written about him, including live witness accounts that were recorded during his lifetime, were that he used to go around helping the poor and children.

And one of the remarkable things he would do is that he would go to different shops. Muslim-owned shops, of course. So these are shopkeepers who allowed him to take items from their shop to give away to either children or the poor.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
So that’s one of the many things on record. There are other miracles that you can read about that were considered miracles. So he would, for example, foretell something and then it happens, you know. And most of the time, the stories involve his presence among workers of the port or the dockyard. The harbour, so to speak. So the other thing about Habib Noh that needs mentioning is that he is Hadhrami Arab from Hadhramaut, the surname Al-Habshi, which is an interesting surname because Habshi means that he’s from Habesha. Habesha is Abyssinia, which is Ethiopia. So his surname records the fact that there was a particular clan of the Hadhramaut Arabs from what is today Yemen, who had an association with Ethiopia or Abyssinia. The other thing to mention is because he is a Sayyid, right? He is therefore a lineal descendant of Prophet Muhammad via the prophet’s grandson Husayn. Not all Hadhrami Arabs are descended from the prophet, only those who are Sayyids.

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
The Sada. So Habib Noh is a Sada. So in other words, he’s a lineal descendant. So this all adds up to why he is particularly revered. Not all Sayyids are particularly revered like him, but Habib Noh holds multiple distinctions as we can see.

Jimmy
Okay, okay. So that makes sense. That’s why he was revered.

Imran
So this brings us to his two main places or three, actually. There were three. So Kampong Glam where he resided most of the time. He was also at Kampong Sambau, which is the former name of the settlement where his mausoleum and the mosque at the base of the hillock upon which his mausoleum lies is situated.

So. Kampong Sambau is the old name.

Jimmy
Oh, I see.

Imran
And there was also a Sambau Street. You mentioned Palmer Road.

Jimmy
Yes.

Imran
Actually, the old address of the mosque is Kampong Sambau. And several houses were owned by the family of Haji Mohamed Salleh, the founder of the mosque or rather the person who endowed money to rebuild the mosque.

The mosque was already there before it was rebuilt by Haji Mohamed Salleh, so it’s a very old settlement as well.

Jimmy
Oh, wow.

Imran
So actually, it’s inseparable. When you talk about Habib Noh, why did he choose to come to Kampong Sambau and the hillock? Right? And that is because there is an old Malay settlement there.

But when I say Malay settlement, it’s also multi-ethnic. Oh. As we know, one of the oldest Hakka temples in Singapore, arguably the oldest, according to the temple itself, is the oldest Hakka temple. It’s there.

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
The Fook Tet Soo Hakka Temple, right? It’s at the base of Mount Palmer, which is not the same hillock, not the same hill as the hillock upon which the mausoleum lies.

Jimmy
That’s a bit confusing.

Imran
Yes, it’s a bit confusing, but it’s a different hill. Okay. So Mount Palmer has the fort.

Jimmy
Yes, okay.

Imran
And at the base of Mount Palmer is Fook Tet Soo, the Hakka temple.

Jimmy
Right. Okay.

Imran
And then a very short distance away is the hillock upon which Habib Noh, when he was alive, used to retreat to. It’s a spiritual retreat. So that’s the other aspect of his life. He also went for these spiritual retreats. In Islamic terms, it’s called khalwa. It’s a kind of a form of withdrawal from society. He chose the hillock. The hillock did not seem to have a name during his time. Maybe it did have a name, but it’s not on the record anywhere. After his passing though, it came out in two British survey maps as Bukit Keramat.

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
And that’s in reference to him, of course.

Jimmy
Right, right.

Imran
Keramat, right? This term keramat is actually from Arabic, but it’s also in the Malay language. Adopted. And it means sacrosanct, sanctified. Actually, karamah literally means blessed.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
Or blessing. Blessed. So blessed hill or a blessed person, a blessed burial site. So that’s his hill, Bukit Keramat, after he passed away. So before he passed away, we were not quite sure of the name of the hill. But the hill, the hillock, sorry. Let’s call this a hillock as opposed to Mount Palmer, the hill.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
And the little hillock, Bukit Keramat, is at the promontory called Tanjong Malang. Now, those of us who are history enthusiasts or historians would know Tanjong Malang from the treaty of 1819, right? So the East India Company had territory, or rather they ceded territory by Sultan Hussein and the Temenggong, Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim, from Tanjong Malang to Tanjong Katong.

Jimmy
Oh, wow.

Imran
Yes. It’s leased between 1819 to 1824 when John Crawford forced a new treaty.

Jimmy
Yes.

 Imran
Which made the Sultan and the Temenggong concede the entire island.

So now back to Habib Noh. He chose the hillock on Tanjong Malang, which is a significant promontory. Why? Because, now notice his name. We’re still on Habib Noh here. His name, Noh. That’s the Arabic pronunciation of Noah. And the same prophet. So Muslims believe in almost all the prophets also contained in the Bible and the Hebrew prophets. So Noah, or Noh, is associated with the sea. So Habib Noh’s story of birth also involved being born on a ship.

Jimmy
Oh wow.

Imran
Well yes. So near Penang. His family was based in Penang as well as Palembang. Both port cities. So he retreated to the hillock at a promontory called Tanjong Malang, which commanded views of the two main harbours of Singapore. The Singapore roads, the harbour in front of Telok Ayer, Singapore River, and the whole entire stretch of Kampong Glam or Beach Road.

The old name for Kampong Glam stretched from Bras Basah all the way to Rochor River. So that’s Kampong Glam Beach, essentially what we call today “Beach Road”. From Bras Basah to Crawford or Rochor. Yeah. So he commanded to one side from Tanjong Malang and the little hillock, he commanded a view of the Singapore roads or the harbour in front of Singapore River, and Rochor River, and Kallang Bay, right? All the way to Tanjong Rhu.

He could see all of that. And the entire stretch of the East Coast, actually. Before the reclamation, all the way to roughly where the coast bends at around Bedok, Sungei Bedok. But anyway, that’s one side.

And then at the hillock on the other side, what do you see? Can you imagine? You can see, right, Pulau Blakang Mati and Mount Serapong, the hillock there. And then the new harbour, what is called the New Harbour or rather Telok Blangah, which is another very old harbour and shipping lane. And Tanjong Pagar, of course, the other side. So we know Tanjong Pagar very well today, but we often forget Tanjong Malang. That’s where he chose.

Jimmy
Yeah, I did not know about Tanjong Malang.

Imran
So that’s Habib Noh in geographic location, but also his own life, which I mentioned earlier. He’s called a holy man, but also the Muslim term for it is Waliyullah, which literally translates to “friend of God”.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
So he’s regarded as a learned and pious person. So these are some of the things that made him revered during his lifetime. And certain, you know, what we would consider mysterious acts. You know, choosing the hillock going there for spiritual retreat, doing the things that he’s known to have done, predicting things and they turn out true.

So this was what attracted people to him so in fact Habib Noh was so well-known and that his passing warranted a long obituary in the Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, published on 2nd August 1866, a few days after his actual passing on 27 July 1866. The obituary also mentions the long procession. The long trail of people who accompanied the burial. There’s also an infamous story. That the procession happened partly because… we don’t know exactly. We are trying to piece together the exact location of where he lay in burial for prayers before he was brought for burial.

Apparently, it was somewhere in Telok Blangah, and likely a house associated with the Temenggong family. And there was another location at the house of a merchant, an Arab merchant to be precise. And in this case, it’s also most likely a location near Raffles Place. So all these we are trying to piece together for the book.

But until the details are confirmed, we know that there are separate locations involved. Where he lived, right, or where he was putting up. He was staying somewhere. What we call the kenduri or the something like a feast for the funeral was held and the incurring prayers, and then his actual burial.

There is a story though that does not have any details about a place, that mentions that he was supposed to be buried at a particular location, and then his body would not move, right? He could not be lifted until somebody remembered that during his lifetime, he mentioned that he wanted to be buried on the hill at Tanjong Malang, and only then were they able to move the body.

So this story is quite well-known. Everybody who knows about Habib Noh will recount this story. So we do know that at first, people intended to bury him somewhere else. Where that somewhere else is is not entirely 100 percent clear. Probably, the Temenggong’s burial ground, right? Because he had a strong affiliation with the Temenggong. So when he was finally buried, he was given the burial at the top of the hillock, right?

Jimmy
Which was not a cemetery at that time.

Imran
There was a cemetery.

Jimmy
Oh, there was a cemetery.

Imran
So this is the thing about Kampong Sambau, the settlement in which the hillock is to be found.

It is a very old Malay village, very old Malay fishing village, which also had a Hakka temple.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
So the Hakkas, when they first arrived, apparently then associated with the Malays there.

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
And they were close enough for a temple to be built behind a very old Malay village.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
Yes.

Jimmy
Wow.

Imran
And there is both a prayer house or surau. Surau is to distinguish it from a masjid or the formalised mosque that holds congregational Friday prayers, right? So a surau was already there, and next to the surau was the burial ground. So there was a burial ground, but not on the hill. It was around the hill on the other side, on the seaward side.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
The waterfront side. One particular old map records the cemetery on that side. Now he was buried on the hillock’s summit where the burial is still to be found today. So at first of course it was a straightforward simple burial. Probably a temporary structure might have been erected, but otherwise, you know, there was no building yet.

The building had to wait till around 1890. We are not sure of the exact date either. We have not found the original building plans, but we do know the staircase, that monumental staircase that goes up, was constructed in 1895 according to the building record by Swan & Maclaren, no less.

Jimmy
Oh. Wait, they only built stairs?

Imran
So 1895 was the plan, the drawing set for the stairs.

Jimmy
Wow.

 Imran
Doesn’t mean that Swan & Maclaren was not involved in the mausoleum either. We just don’t have the drawings, and we don’t know whether they were. Most likely they were.

Jimmy
Yeah.

Imran
It would be quite odd.

Jimmy
Doesn’t make sense to make…

Imran
Correct. It would be quite odd that they only made the staircase ’and never, you know, built the actual mausoleum. Yeah. So it’s quite strange. And the reason Swan & Maclaren was involved, I think it’s quite clear. Swan & Maclaren was favoured by many of the members of the community who were wealthy enough to endow things. So for instance, when Masjid Sultan was rebuilt between 1826 to 1828, Swan & Maclaren was involved, and that’s probably the most prominent Muslim project in Singapore, right? And of course, you must remember that the building of the mausoleum for Habib Noh was by Syed Mohamed bin Ahmed Alsagoff. So this is a member of the Hadhrami Arab community in Singapore who are quite wealthy and prominent in building projects. So, the choice of Swan & Maclaren makes sense.

Jimmy
And I guess that the reason for building that then would be that it was a site of pilgrimage and that someone felt that it was necessary to mark the space in a more permanent fashion.

Imran
That’s right. So the reason for this, of course, is because of his popularity, the visits must have been continuous, or at least frequent enough to warrant some kind of a structure. And also because Habib Noh was close to a number of the Arab families in Singapore, obviously, and in particular, the Alsagoffs. And so then that explains the reason Syed Mohamed bin Ahmed Alsagoff sponsored the building of the mausoleum sometime around 1890. The sponsor, Syed Mohamed Alsagoff, was also named Nong Chik. And this is a Bugis aristocratic title because he’s actually linked to another famous family in Singapore, which is Hajjah Fatimah.

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
The person who sponsored the mausoleum, Syed Mohamed bin Ahmed Alsagoff, is in fact the grandson of Hajjah Fatimah, another very well-known mercantile family in Singapore. His father, Syed Mohamed Alsagoff was the son-in-law of Hajja Fatima, marrying Hajjah Fatimah’s daughter by a royal husband.

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
No less than the prince, a king if he’d still held the kingdom, of Makassar in South Sulawesi. So in about probably 1812, 1813. We are not sure the exact date, this particular person seems to have moved to Singapore at Rochor, where Hajjah Fatimah Mosque is to be found today. Together with the Temenggong. The Temenggong moved to Singapore River, he moved somewhere near Rochor. And So then we’re talking about a person who was considered by all the Bugis traders who were a powerful network, and Raffles recognised this, right?

Jimmy
Yeah.

Imran
He encouraged the Bugis to come because of their trading networks.

A member of this recognised government in exile, if you like, came to Singapore! Just imagine how significant that is. And Habib Noh had a close association with the family next door. So Hajjah Fatimah’s next door neighbours were the Alsagoffs. So Habib Noh is not just to be seen in isolation. He was part of a network of early pioneers who were already in place by 1819 and before.

Jimmy
Yes. That’s amazing.

Imran
It’s fascinating and amazing. Exactly. So in fact, Hajjah Fatimah’s daughter, by this royal husband of hers, Raja Siti, married Syed Ahmed Alsagoff, who is the father of Nong Chik, Syed Mohamed bin Ahmed Alsagoff. So Nong Chik, who bore the royal title, right, a minor. It’s not a royal title, but it’s a domestic term of endearment from the Bugis language. Nong Chik was the person who endowed money for the building of the mausoleum.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
So in fact, there’s so much story to be told from the perspective of these family connections.

Jimmy
This sounds like it could be a book.

Imran
Indeed. And it is going to be in a book form, right? But I think we also want to talk a little bit about the form in which the mausoleum took.

Jimmy
Okay. Yes, let’s talk about that.

 Imran
Yeah. One of the remarkable things about it is [that] it’s on a hillock, so it necessitated that monumental staircase.

Jimmy
Yes.

Imran
The staircase was built, as we know now, by no less than Swan & Maclaren. In fact, it’s a bridge. If you look at the structure properly, it’s not resting directly upon the hillside.

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
It’s in fact like a bridge with arches, with foundations into the ground so that any landslide won’t affect the staircase. If you imagine like an overhead bridge staircase, it is what it was.

Jimmy
Interesting.

 Imran
With arches, though, because this is brick, not concrete, right? The overhead bridges we are familiar with today are in concrete. This is in brick and plaster. So if you look carefully at the sides, you’ll be able to see the former arches that have now been walled over in between the arches.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
The space in between.

Jimmy
But you can still see the outline.

Imran
The outlines of the arches are articulated in mouldings. So it’s a very beautifully built staircase. Yeah, with granite steps, no less, right? And Shanghai plaster balustrades on top. And then the mausoleum itself is also interesting because it takes on European features, right?

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
If you look at the mouldings outside the windows, right? But it has a dome, and the dome itself is interesting because it’s actually circular. It’s a globe, but a flattened globe with a disc on top. So it’s not a typical dome that you would find.

Jimmy
What do you mean by a flattened dome?

Imran
So instead of being a perfect sphere, it’s somewhat elliptical.

Jimmy
Okay, so it’s a little bit flatter.

Imran
Flatter, yeah. And then on top of that is a circular drum. It would be called a drum in architectural terms. Meaning that it’s like a cylinder on top of it.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
Yes, if you look at it carefully again. But of course, the function of these domes above mausoleums is well known in Islamic architecture. In fact, the word in Arabic for dome, qubba, is also synonymous with the term for maqam or mausoleum. So if you say qubba, people would assume you’re talking about a mausoleum or tomb, actually. The use of qubba or domes for mosques is less frequent. In fact, early Arabian mosques didn’t even have a dome.

Jimmy
Right, right.

Imran
Well, we are very accustomed today…

Jimmy
Yes, that’s right.

Imran
Now, this is the interesting confusion I want to bring in, which is people have mistaken the mausoleum at the hillock summit to be the mosque when in fact it is a mausoleum. Right. And people don’t realise that the humble roofed, two-tiered roofed building at the base of the hill next to the base of the staircase is the mosque.

Jimmy
That’s so interesting.

Imran
Yes, that’s the mosque. And maybe it’s a good point here to introduce the mosque a little bit.

Jimmy
Yeah. So tell us a little bit about the mosque. First, you know, who built it?

Imran
Yeah. So the mosque – who built it?

Jimmy
Was that a bad question?

Imran
Yes, it’s a good question! Because Kampong Sambau, as I said, is a very old settlement.

Jimmy
Yeah.

Imran
It pre-exists Habib Noh’s presence. It was already there when he came, and it was already there when the Hakkas built the temple. Kampong Sambau by name, earlier, the mosque had existed as a wooden building nearby.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
Very nearby. We have the old maps to show it.

Jimmy
So it’s an exact location, and it’s not where it is now?

Imran
Yeah, it’s slightly further away.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
Just slightly further away. And so when it was rebuilt, it was around 1907 – we have the building drawing for it – and this is where Haji Muhammad Salleh enters the picture. By all accounts, we don’t have a more precise documentation on him, but we do know his descendants who are still around. But they don’t remember all the full details either, so this is where it gets a bit less certain. But we know that Haji Muhammad Salleh endowed the mosque and he rebuilt it. Now, this is something forgotten because people assume that he built the mosque from scratch.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
But from my study of the old maps and documents, the mosque was already there before him.

Jimmy
But that makes complete sense, right? Because this is an old kampong.

Imran
There would’ve been a surau.

Jimmy
Yeah, there would’ve been a surau.

Imran
Yeah. In fact, in English, we don’t make the distinction, but in Malay it would be a surau, right? As opposed to a masjid.

Jimmy
Yes.

Imran
So a surau was definitely already there and he rebuilt it in about 1907 in the form we see more or less today. There is a slight adjustment to the mosque, actually, in 1984. Renovation. Yes. So without visuals though, it’s difficult to explain. From having four interior columns, it was expanded to have six.

So usually when I do some architectural tours for Singapore Heritage Festival, and I will point out, you know. I would ask whether you can tell which are the two new columns. Some people can tell because if you look at the mouldings of the column capital, you can tell that the last new ones are a bit different. That was from 1984 as opposed to the 1907 original construction.

Jimmy
Was it to lengthen it?

Imran
To lengthen it, to make it larger in 1984. But otherwise, the original structure is all there. The roof was also raised in 1984, but otherwise the roof form is the same.

Jimmy
Okay. Was there a reason that the mosque was built so close, or is it just because there’s no space or something?

Imran
Ah, okay. So because of the land ownership, it’s adjacent. And also there was a bit of a land consolidation. But also because there was an intention actually, by Haji Muhammad Salleh for the mosque to be part of the complex of the mausoleum or maqam.

Jimmy
So to make it a more unitary sort of design.

Imran
Yes. The management was different in the past, of course.

Jimmy
Oh yeah. For the two structures?

Imran
Yes, it’s different. So the tomb was under a trust fund. The Habib Noh Trust Fund, whereas the mosque is its own structure. Yeah. But today it’s put together, yeah.

Jimmy
And going back, you know, the big thing that happens is well, of course, the Second World War.

Imran
Right.

Jimmy
Did the mosque or the mausoleum sustain any damage?

Imran
No. So during the bombings, there was no damage to the mosque.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
In fact, there was also a famous incident where there were several fires, actually. In the area. Five altogether. And in one particular story that we’re documenting for the book as well, there’s an eyewitness account. The fire stopped short of the mausoleum and mosque.

Jimmy
Oh, okay.

Imran
So this is like a favourite story of people, you know? It stopped short. There was a warehouse right next door, Palmer Godowns. It stopped there and it never made it to the…

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
Yeah. It just didn’t. And you might know also talking about whether the mausoleum and mosque sustained damage or destruction. Another well-known incident if you talk to people who know about Maqam Habib Noh would be to say that the East Coast Parkway project, right, the highway project, if you look at a map or Google Earth image, you can see that it has to swerve just past the mausoleum, and it comes really close to it.

Jimmy
Right, right. 

Imran
So if you were a transport engineer and you measured it according to turning radius, and you went straight along Keppel Road to turn, it would have obliterated [the mosque].

Jimmy
You would have obliterated the mosque. Both the mosque and the mausoleum.

Imran
Because they both lie in the path.

Jimmy
Right.

 Imran
The straightforward path. There is a slight swerve to go around them. It’s ever that close. If you really drew it, you could see it.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
You know? Unfortunately, we don’t have the visual, but just take a look at it. There are many accounts about this. One of them that has been recorded is about the failure of the bulldozers, right? Famous account. Two, in fact and then they abandoned the project. Now, we’re trying to ascertain and also record the eyewitness accounts, actually. We’ve fortunately.

Jimmy
Are there eyewitness accounts of the bulldozers not moving?

Imran
Yes, there are.

Jimmy
Oh, wow. That’s so cool!

Imran
There are. There was somebody working. Yeah So that would be hopefully, you know, get properly recorded in due course. Yeah, so those are some of the interesting events you could say. Of course, my question personally is why did this even have to happen? Because we know that in the ’50s, before the ECP project of ’71, ’72, ’73, there was a group, a heritage group in Singapore called Friends of Singapore, and in addition also Carl Alexander Gibson Hill, who wrote places of interest in the Singapore Street Directory. They all listed Maqam Habib Noh as a place of historical interest to be safeguarded. So I don’t know, at some point in time, was it forgotten? I think it’s also clear that the state from the beginning had an intention to preserve the place. So I am not sure what happened there. So maybe a miscommunication, I don’t know. But I, it seems clear to me that from the beginning, there was public acknowledgement and state acknowledgement of the significance of the maqam.

Jimmy
How could they not have known?

Imran
Exactly. So I don’t know. So we’re still trying to figure out how exactly this transpired, you know, the whole incident regarding the bulldozers. Was it really intended to demolish the maqam? Was it something else? We do know the cemetery was exhumed.

Not the maqam, though. Right. Not the actual grave of Habib Noh, as well as a relation of his, Syed Abdul Rahman Al-Habshi. And there’s another grave just behind, which is still there as a respected grave. One of the earliest Muslim jurists or judges in Singapore, actually. These are retained. The public cemetery that used to surround the maqam has been exhumed.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
And of course, the settlement has been removed.

Jimmy
Yes.

Imran
Kampung Sambau. Now, another thing to mention about Habib Noh…

Jimmy
The man or the maqam?

 Imran
The man. Another thing to mention about Habib Noh, a side note if you’d like, but an important one, is how is he connected to the Hakka temple and the Chinese?

Jimmy
Yeah, that would be very interesting.

Imran
Yeah. He is known to have enjoyed Chinese wayang or opera.

Jimmy
Oh, really?

Imran
And he would, according to accounts, he would take the front seat, and he would watch the whole performance. I have asked the Fook Tet Soo Hakka Temple whether they have records of wayang performances because he went there. They don’t have it. They don’t know, and they are not sure. I asked whether it could have been in Hakka or Cantonese. They said most likely Cantonese because they spoke Cantonese as well.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
Because of the province, they’re from Guangdong.

Jimmy
Oh, okay.

Imran
So most likely, we don’t know. Was Habib Noh watching Hakka opera or Cantonese opera? More likely the latter. But even something, a question like this is so interesting.

Jimmy
Yes, it is. It is.

Imran
Because Habib Noh, therefore was…

Jimmy
Very cosmopolitan.

Imran
And close to the community there, right? Including the Chinese temple. So I think it changes how we perceive the relations.

Jimmy
Very much so.

Imran
To me, it’s a beautiful anecdote. He did so many things including watching Chinese opera at the Hakka temple next door. Remarkable.

Jimmy
You’ve really opened my eyes because whenever I, you know, you go over the Keppel Viaduct, and you see the Maqam Habib Noh. You think, “Okay, it’s clearly a very Muslim thing.” 

Imran
Yes.

Jimmy
But, you know, all these things that you’re telling me, you know, certainly tells us that it’s much more complicated. You know, so there were Chinese living nearby. There was a Chinese temple.

Imran
Yes.

Jimmy
Habib Noh himself liked Chinese opera, which I have to say, you know, definitely a one up on me. You know, it’s really remarkable, and this is in the middle of the 19th century.

Imran
Yes. One more thing to mention, remarkable as well, which has to do with the site and the sponsorship of the mosque, is that – and this is also early Singapore history – you know, in early Singapore, 1819, 1820, food was scarce. So both Farquhar and Raffles endeavoured to bring people in, particularly Melaka, of course, because of Farquhar’s connection, and the Melaka Chinese, Malays, and Tamils were encouraged to come because they would be able to provide food.

Jimmy
Yes.

Imran
Right? Whether it’s through chickens or fish. Now, fish, okay, our site concerns fish. Hikayat Abdullah, by Munsyi Abdullah, records that somebody he named Encik Mata-mata opened up the kelong at Tanjong Malang.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
And this was when fish was finally found in abundance at Telok Ayer Market and elsewhere.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
So you could buy fish, fortunately, no longer at exorbitant prices. Now, there is a little bit of a gap there in the record, because the next we know is that the person whose land it is where the kelong emanate from, and these are huge kelong.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
It is not owned by somebody named. Munsyi Abdullah records it as Haji Mata-mata from Melaka.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
Very important to note. The next we have on the record is that the owner of the land there is Encik Melaka.

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
Yes. So Encik Melaka, is he Haji Mata-mata? Or is he the son, or what is this? You know? So we don’t know. Encik Melaka bin Baba Ismail.

Jimmy
Bin Baba Ismail.

Imra
So this term Baba, of course, is a Persian term used by everybody, including, of course, the Peranakan Chinese. But it’s a Persian term of respect, Baba.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
That’s the gap there, is how do we connect Haji Mata-mata from Melaka in Munsyi Abdullah’s account with Encik Melaka, the owner of the land there and owner of the kelong. Because Encik Melaka is on the record as the owner of the kelong. And the kelong were eventually bought by who else, but Haji Mohamed Salleh, the person who rebuilt and endowed the mosque.

Jimmy
Right, right, right.

Imran
So you could say that the money from the biggest and earliest commercial fishery in Singapore contributed to the mosque.

Jimmy
That’s such an amazing story.

Imran
Amazing story. Not only that, one of the findings I made was that in 1877, the Singapore Port Authority of colonial Singapore, of course, issued port regulations concerning kelong. Because, and there’s a map from 1866, two maps, actually. I forgot the other year which shows kelong in the water, and they are extensive.

Jimmy
Right. That must be a minor problem for the ships that are going to go by.

Imran
That’s right. That’s why in 1877, those port regulations were introduced because they were spread out in the water, you know?

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
Okay, one of them is as long as – I try to give a sense of how long it was, not just by stating in kilometres, but giving us a land sense, because we are very land-bound people, right? So if I told you it stretches from Bras Basah Road to Rochor Canal, you can tell how long that is.

Jimmy
Yes. That’s right.

Imran
Imagine that’s the longest kelong stretching out to sea.

Jimmy
Offshore?

Imran
Correct. Offshore.

Jimmy
Oh my goodness.

Imran
So these kelong are not inshore. They are offshore.

Jimmy
Yep.

Imran
Yeah. Meaning that they’re in deeper water. And the name malang – I should explain a little bit. Malang refers to rocky outcrops in the water. There, there are two meanings of malang in Malay. Everybody knows malang meaning unfortunate, but that’s not the meaning of Malang here. In Malay, there is a second meaning, and there are several places in Singapore and elsewhere which have the name Malang something. And So then Tanjong Malang refers to the rocky outcrops, and if you look at all the old navigation maps, the rocky outcrops are shown very clearly on the map.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
And it’s beyond this rocky outcrop. The rocky outcrop makes it very good for fishing grounds, by the way.

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
Which is why kampong –

Jimmy
The fish hide in the rocks or

Imran
Oh, yes. We call it a lubok in Malay, right?

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
Where fish hide.

Jimmy
Ah.

Imran
So then, beyond that also in the slightly deeper waters. So you can imagine this is a fertile, fantastic fishing ground which provided fish for your Teochew market at Ellenborough, famous one which is now at Jurong Fishery Port.

Jimmy
Yep.

Imran
Shifted already, right? But the Teochew fish market, as well as the Hokkien one at Lau Pa Sat or Telok Ayer. So the fish were sold there as well as other places. Kampong Glam had a market as well. Yeah.

Jimmy
So I want to know what happened to the kelong?

Imran
Oh. So the last we see of the kelong were in 1905, 1906 maps.

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
I traced.

Jimmy
Okay, okay.

Imran
So that was the last of it until the reclamations finally reached… Initially, the reclamations were restricted to the Tanjong Pagar side.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
So the fishing village there had two halves. The Tanjong Pagar side and the Tanjong Malang, Kampong Sambau side. Kampong Sambau managed to hang on and survive for a long time. So there was even a case – it’s called the foreshore case – in which it came out in the courts. And the judge ruled in favour of the Malays saying that, “Actually, you must understand,” and he used the word amphibious, “the peculiar amphibious nature of Malay settlement.” So you cannot say that they don’t own the land.

Jimmy
Yes.

Imran
They don’t live on land. That foreshore is theirs. They’ve lived there since before 1819, and so they have a right there. So sometimes, the courts do rule in favour of indigenous rights, you know.

Jimmy
That’s really quite surprising to me.

Imran
Yes.

Jimmy
Especially because you think that’s where the harbour is, right?

Imran
Ah, yes.

Jimmy
So all these ships are going to have to negotiate around these kelong.

Imran
Well, I would have imagined the Tanjong Pagar folks and others are saying, “Wow, how come they get this treatment? We were evicted way before.”

Jimmy
Right, right.

Imran
“What happened to us?” You know. “Why weren’t we defended this way?” So they were defended that way.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
And they were still there till quite late. 1906, 1907

Jimmy
That’s quite late.

Imran
Yes, before the reclamation finally took on most of that land. And so then only the landward side of Kampong Sambau survived. The landward side was where people owned plots of land and large houses.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
Including the descendants and family of Haji Mohamed Salleh, Encik Melaka, and everybody else that lived there. I mentioned earlier you know, Malay settlements always have two sides, usually. Almost always, invariably. There’s the landward side, darat side, and the laut side. And so then usually occupationally they were also different, right?

Jimmy
But it was one settlement.

Imran
One settlement.

Jimmy
Ah.

Imran
So usually we qualify as darat, laut. So the name of the kampong, and then the darat side – the land side – where houses are usually spaced out a little bit more, a bit bigger. And then there’s the laut side, which has houses built over the water or on the edge of land, and these were primarily the fisherfolk.

Jimmy
Right. Makes sense.

Imran
Yeah. Of course, there were some fisherfolk on land as well, but mostly they would be out in the water. So that’s the nature of Malay settlements, actually.

It’s always two halves.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
Usually two halves. And it is on the record in building drawings that some Chinese also lived in Kampong Sambau on houses above the water.

Jimmy
Okay, so there were some Chinese fishermen then.

Imran
Yes. So this is like Wang Dayuan’s account, you know, from 1346 or thereabouts, where he mentioned, right, the Chinese lived among the Malays in the Bukit Larangan area, right? Or he called it Pancur, right? Pancur. Yeah. So actually, Kampong Sambau had that as well. There were some Chinese living in houses above the water with the Malay fishermen. It is fascinating.

Jimmy
Really amazing.

Imran
That’s Kampong Sambau.

Jimmy
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I want to take you back a little bit, just briefly, just to talk about the mausoleum and the renovations. Can you tell us what did they do? It was closed for about a year and a half, and then they renovated it.

Imran
Yes.

Jimmy
What was done to it?

Imran
So what happened was, one of the things that I think instigated the renovation also was, if you remember, the mausoleum had these beautiful emerald or moss green mosaic tiles. I think most people loved it. It gave it a distinction. Unfortunately, they were popping out all over the place. And, you know, if one lands on your forehead out you go. It’s actually very sharp.

Jimmy
Yeah, yeah.

Imran
I, for one, wish that we could have retained the mosaics. I really wish we could have, but because of the expensive nature of such a retention and the fact that it would keep popping out, there was no other choice. So what happened was it had to be either done one way or the other. You can’t just do half-half.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
And one of the reasons, possible reasons, is the vibrations caused. If you ever stood at the site, where do you think vibrations would come from?

Jimmy
Oh, it’s all the traffic going by.

Imran
Yes, the viaduct!

Jimmy
My gosh.

Imran
If you stood there, not only is it sonic it’s visceral.

Jimmy
I didn’t realise that.

Imran
It’s corporeal. You can feel it through your feet.

Jimmy
Oh, wow.

Imran
So you can imagine the vibrations.

Jimmy
Yeah. That’s not going to be good for the…

Imran
You know, there are engineers who specialise on vibrations alone.

Jimmy
Wow.

Imran
Yeah. And they would probably be shaking their heads thinking about what this building is subjected to, you know?

Jimmy
Constantly.

 Imran
That plus the fact that just regular maintenance of buildings required some refurbishments, and also the dome. The dome was starting to slightly leak. So you don’t want to wait for it to properly leak.

Jimmy
Yes.

Imran
And so then it was, you know, the whole thing was replaced.

Jimmy
Wow. So a brand new dome.

Imran
Brand new dome in exactly the same form, so we replicated everything.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
Yeah, so it’s good. In that sense, the maintenance was thoroughgoing.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
One of the happy things that happened was… I’m not involved in the actual committee that looks at the restoration at all, but I did recommend, when I saw it, that the mosaics, the 1970s-style multi-coloured mosaics inside the front chamber be retained, and fortunately they are.

Jimmy
Okay. That’s good.

Imran
So that’s quite beautiful if you go into the front chamber. So the mausoleum building has two chambers, the actual burial chamber of Habib Noh and a front chamber. That is the beauty of the architecture. When you come up the flight of steps, the grand flight, you enter the front chamber first, so there’s a hierarchy of space, and then the actual tomb.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
So in that front chamber, there are these 1970s mosaics.

Jimmy
Right. I want to ask, and I don’t know if it’s appropriate, because I’m not Muslim. But would it be appropriate for me to go and visit?

Imran
Oh, absolutely. So one of the distinctions of Maqam Habib Noh is that it’s visited by anybody.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
Everybody. And yeah, it’s in that sense multifaith. In fact, in the past and I’m going to go on the record saying this. I’m sure people won’t mind. In the past, it was a bit more free. In other words, people even put joss sticks and so on. So now today, this has been frowned upon because they, the non-Muslims are asked politely to not do that. And there are other ways to pay homage respect. But actually, you know, as long as you’re not praying to him.

Jimmy
Yeah.

Imran
It doesn’t matter. You know, you can use joss sticks, it doesn’t matter. But the point here is that today they want it to be free of artefacts, because in Islam actually, there’s no need for artefacts.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
As you know, if you go into a mosque, it’s completely devoid of any imagery. It’s aniconic, you know? And so then likewise, this is not prayer. So when you visit a tomb, it’s called ziyarat, right? And it’s only to pray for the person.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
You know, because you respect the person. And for some people it’s not just respect, it’s also love. You know, for them it’s endearment or admiration if you like, right? So that’s the objective of a ziyarat. Some people would consider it controversial, although it’s not, because there is a theological argument for it, which is to ask God to help you while you are at the grave of an important person or friend of God as it is called. Not to pray through the person, but in the presence of the deceased. So this is a kind of like a…

Jimmy
Like a sacred space.

Imran
Yes, a sacred space. You can put it that way. So it’s quite interesting. You’re not praying to Habib Noh, of course, because there’s no such concept, right? There’s no praying to a person other than God. But it is felt that being at the grave site…

Jimmy
Okay. That makes a lot of sense.

Imran
For some people, it’s also about the spiritual dimension and so on. It’s a very interesting dimension.

Jimmy
I’m actually told that Maqam Habib Noh is not just visited by pilgrims in Singapore, but from outside the region as well. Is that true?

Imran
Oh, absolutely. That has been the nature of the site since the beginning. There is a network of important burial sites across the entire Muslim world, actually. Even in the central Arab lands, right? In fact, it is among the Arabs that this practice not just began, but is active, right? The idea of visiting the graves of important holy persons.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
Mostly male, but also female. And this practice is what we see here. It’s not a Malay practice, right? It is an Islamic practice of visiting exalted persons.

Jimmy
Do we know where people come from?

Imran
Everywhere. Sometimes you might find people from further afield. Usually it is people nearer us, meaning from Peninsula Malaysia, from Sumatra and Java. You know, from Borneo.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
But otherwise, it can be from further afield. We can mention whether it is India or even places in Arabia.

Jimmy
That’s amazing to me that, you know, we have a pilgrimage spot in Singapore that people from around, not just the region, but from outside the region come in.

Imran
And internally, also multi-faith. The site is Muslim. Let’s not make a mistake about that. But what I mean is non-Muslims come as well. And it has been a longstanding practice.

Jimmy
That’s so amazing to me. I understand that you’re working on a book on all of this.

Imran
Yes, we have a team. A team of writers.

Jimmy
Tell us a bit about this book that, that you’re working on. What’s the book about?

 Imran
So the book hopes to be a comprehensive documentation and record of the historical dimensions. Also the biographical. So with that, for the aspect of biographical, a colleague of mine Samir Bin Diab is working on particularly the biographical aspects of not just Habib Noh. People around the life of Habib Noh as well.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
So it’s a very detailed study by him. And mine would be a detailed study of what I just shared today, right? The settlement, the kind of context in which Habib Noh existed and a little bit also on the aspects of place and activities of people surrounding both mosque and mausoleum, Encik Mata-mata and so on, Haji Mata-mata. This book will, therefore, be a necessary reference for an important site like that. So the site’s importance is multidimensional. You’ve got, of course, the mausoleum itself. But the mausoleum and Habib Noh did not stand in a vacuum.

Jimmy
Of course not.

Imran
Yeah, so, the rest of the context that I mentioned: the settlement, including its Hakka and Chinese component. In fact, we didn’t even mention that there was a Parsi lodge nearby and a Parsi burial ground, although that figures less in the story, I would say, not as much as the Hakka and Chinese side of the settlement.

And then you also have Mount Palmer, which I didn’t talk about as much, but again, that figures less in the story. I like the fact that it’s a Malay and Chinese story, you know. Which is quite a Singapore story.

Jimmy
I’m really excited. Is this book coming out in 2026? 2027?

Imran
Yeah, the book, hopefully, will come out early next year.

Jimmy
So that’s early 2027.

Imran
Early 2027.

Jimmy
Okay. I’m really looking forward to it because, you know, you’ve made the story of Habib Noh and the area so much richer just from this conversation.

I would love to be able to read about all this in detail to find out more.

Imran
Yeah.

Jimmy
You know? So is it going to be very thick? He hesitates to answer.

Imran
Yeah, I hesitate to answer because let’s see how much makes it into the final cut.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
Okay. Yeah, as much as possible.

Jimmy
Okay. Yep, yep. Right. I have to ask this question because, you know, I’m employed by the National Library, but can I ask you, did the resources in the library and the archive been useful in your research in putting this book together?

Imran
Yes, absolutely. And I think a shout-out here to the important point of having NewspaperSG (opens in new tab), the archives that are accessible. Only thing is I think sometimes there are records that take longer to retrieve.

Jimmy
Okay. I’ll speak to the relevant people.

Imran
Yeah. But the other thing that also sometimes is a bit more challenging would be the SLA records.

Jimmy
Ah, okay.

Imran
The land records. So those are, I think, the main stumbling blocks, because to reconstruct early history in Singapore, very often the land records are extremely important.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
But retrieving some of these are a challenge today, I think. Yeah, that would be one area of hopefully room for improvement.

Jimmy
Okay, okay. I’m glad to say that I don’t think SLA records come under the National Library.

Imran
Unfortunately, I know, yeah.

Jimmy
If it had been, we would have obviously made it very accessible.

Imran
Yeah. So, no complaints to the NLB side.

Jimmy
Right. And actually, I have to say that NewspaperSG (opens in new tab) is a wonderful resource.

Imran
Yes.

Jimmy
You were also involved in the writing and editing of the book The Grand Mosque of Singapore: Two Centuries in the History of Masjid Sultan (opens in new tab), which was actually published just last year.

Imran
Yes.

Jimmy
You know, what interesting things did you discover during the process of writing that book or working on that book?

Imran
Yeah, because that was a collective effort with, I think altogether, what, 15 or 17 contributors, I forgot. I contributed two chapters, and even then, I struggled to make them shorter. And also I had no time to write fully. So there’s so much more to be written.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
So what I did was, if you read my two chapters, I tried to be systematic. I have never written in that fashion before.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
What I did was to make it clear for a lay reader, otherwise it might be too dense. It was to make clear to the reader that there are 14, or is it 15, new findings.

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
Without being repetitive about it. Like, for example, I state something, and then this constitutes the fourth new finding, and then the third new finding, the fifth new finding.

Jimmy
Wow. So quite a significant book then.

Imran
Yes, and the probably the most important, well, there are several. Let me try to just give maybe the top five.

Jimmy
Okay.

Imran
First one is, it’s 1819 or 1824, and it’s by legal documents, including a 60-year Sultan Hussein lease for the mosque, which expired in 1879. So if you minus 60, you get 1819.

Jimmy
Okay, so you’ve established then that, it started in 18…

Imran
And this was more than a year into the project. Nobody else who looked at the same records had noticed it.

Jimmy
Oh, right.

Imran
And when I did, I was doubtful. I was like, “How come this has never been seen?” It’s so obvious. This and this.

Jimmy
Yes.

Imran
And So then when I broke the news to the team, then we took more than a month because we had both an internal discussion and then a discussion with the National Heritage Board. Yeah, so in order to verify beyond doubt, you know.

Jimmy
If you want to make a claim like that.

Imran
Yeah, absolutely. You can see it, actually. So it’s quite a wonder why. And the other thing that I still wonder about today is how come the Muslim community in 1924 forgot. They thought 1924 was the 100th year anniversary. Right. When, maybe, I think the reason is clear. For one thing, the people who were there in the earliest period were no longer involved after 1879.

Jimmy
Yes, of course.

Imran
The trust, yeah, it changed. There was a sea change.

Jimmy
Oh, I see.

Imran
1879 when the 60-year lease lapsed.

Jimmy
A new body.

Imran
There was a board of trustees. First five members, and then it became 12 members, and it was appointed by the royal family, actually.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
So then later it was no longer appointed by the royal family, so there were transitions that changed the whole composition of people who were in the know from the earliest period.

Jimmy
So you lost some institutional knowledge.

Imran
Yes. At some point, somebody took it, the 1824 expansion of the old mosque, as the foundation.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
Yeah. So what happened was, so the second major finding is that 1824 is not the first construction, but an expansion using money that Sultan Hussein specifically requested not for his own use, but for the mosque.

Jimmy
From the EIC [East India Company].

Imran
From the EIC because of the new treaty that forced him to surrender the entire island. And related to that, another important finding is if you look at the actual treaty words, the clauses, the first clause was not about the cessation of the island. No.

Jimmy
It was not?

Imran
The first clause was about the relinquishing of the royal monopoly over two tropical hardwoods used in construction in Singapore. Read it again.

Jimmy
Oh.

Imran
So that affects projects by the royal family, including the mosque. So you cannot expand the mosque if you no longer have the royal monopoly. You have to buy from the British.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
I think this was, therefore, the reason or the rationale for Sultan Hussein’s request for money. And not for himself or for his palace, but for the mosque, which was for the community at large.

Jimmy
Right. Right.

Imran
So it was a good, like, request on his part. It’s often misunderstood, you know? It’s like, “Oh, why do you ask EIC to build a mosque for you?”

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
But actually, if you read the treaty, you realise, “Why did the EIC force upon him a relinquishing of royal monopoly?” This was a kind of royal monopoly right across the kingdoms of the region. So in Java as well, the rulers of Java, Javanese courts, had royal monopoly over teak, which the Dutch then removed as well. So it’s the same story. Similar story, because wood was used for… If you look at all our old colonial buildings and shop houses, you realise those huge timbers used to hold up the floorboards, which were also big. These were all from our tropical hardwoods.

Jimmy
That’s so interesting.

Imran
Balau and resak, by the way.

Jimmy
So all this is a means of removing a monopoly from the royal family and thus removing a source of revenue.

Imran
Source of income, correct. Second clause was no longer allowed for them to charge any customs duties on Chinese junks.

Jimmy
Okay. Again, revenue.

Imran
Again, revenue. And then the clause about the cessation of the island. So you can see the priority.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
Quite interesting. Construction material, which is the two best tropical hardwoods there was in Singapore. So in fact, every time you look at those wooden members of old colonial buildings and shop houses, I recall the treaty, you know, how important it was. So then the mosque needs, you know – how to expand, right? So you need money from EIC.

Jimmy
Right, right.

Imran
Yeah, so that was a remarkable story, 1824.

Jimmy
Okay, so that was the second or third finding?

Imran
Yeah. The third, I would say. Okay. Because second was the treaty which has that as the first clause. The third is the 1824 expansion rather than construction. And then I mentioned earlier that there’s the end of the 60-year lease resulted in the appointment of the first five board of trustees, right? There were other related findings, new findings, which is the role of the royal family in various stages of introducing the board of trustees, in order to have a legal basis. Actually, Sultan Hussein also by instituting the 60-year lease, it gave a legal basis for the mosque. Okay. And So when in 1897, the British Crown and the courts decided to acquire the Istana Kampung Glam, they couldn’t touch the mosque because the mosque was separate.

Jimmy
Ah.

Imran
Otherwise, you know. So to this day, Sultan Mosque remains an independent institution because of that foresight. It’s under its own board of trustee’s management.

Jimmy
That’s great.

Imran
Well, of course, MUIS [Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura] has a mosque management board.

Jimmy
Yes.

Imran
So right now, you have this situation where they have a board of trustees as well as a MUIS-appointed mosque management board to this day.

Jimmy
Okay, okay.

Imran
Yeah. Other findings include the fact that Sultan Ali had a role in the announcing of trustees, right? Who the trustees were in Sultan Mosque.

Jimmy
Why is that significant?

 Imran
Because this was not for… this has been forgotten. It’s often understood as a separate matter from the royal family. You know, you’ll be surprised to hear some articles as well as social media posts and videos are asking people, “Do you know why it’s called Sultan Mosque? What has the sultan got to do with it?” You know, this whole forgetting, therefore, is addressed by things like that. The links were there all the way until it became a full-fledged institution in its own right.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
The board of trustees. But actually, the actual initial appointments were made directly by either Sultan Hussein or Sultan Ali or the third in line.

Jimmy
Right.

Imran
Tengku Alam or Sultan Iskandar Alam Shah. Yeah. There are several more. There’s too many to recount here, but yeah so that’s what we did.

Jimmy
Well, that’s amazing. That’s wonderful that you were able to uncover, you know, these and many other things. And it’s obviously then a very important document.

Imran
Yeah. Of possibly the most important mosque. And it’s related directly to Singapore’s early history as well. Of being a colonial port city, yeah.

Jimmy
Thank you, Imran for coming on the BiblioAsia+ podcast. Do check out the Maqam Habib Noh on Palmer Road if you want to see how it has been renovated. And of course, you have to read Imran’s book The Grand Mosque of Singapore: Two Centuries in the History of Masjid Sultan (opens in new tab). It’s been a pleasure having you. And you know, I’m looking forward to your book on Habib Noh and the area around it.

Imran
Thank you.

Jimmy
Thank you, Imran.

[Music playing]

Jimmy
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Bonny Tan and Marsita Omar, “Keramat Habib Noh (opens in new tab),” Singapore Infopedia, published 19 August 2016.

Hadijah Rahmat et al. ed., The Grand Mosque of Singapore: Two Centuries in the History of Masjid Sultan (opens in new tab) (Singapore: Masjid Sultan, 2025).

Liyana Taha, “Life in Death: The Case of Keramats in Singapore,” BiblioAsia 8, no.4 (January 2013).

William L. Gibson, “Then and Now: The Keramat Phenomenon in Singapore,” in Chapters of Asia (Singapore: National Library Board, 2024).

This episode of BiblioAsia Podcast was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Red Ink Media. The background music "Di Tanjong Katong" was composed by Ahmad Patek and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Imran for coming on the show.

Produced by the National Library of Singapore, the BiblioAsia Podcast tells stories about Singapore history.