Although Myanmar, Thailand, India, Cambodia and Singapore are predominantly Buddhist or Hindu, they each have charming Muslim communities with fascinating histories.
The Islamic emperor sleeps within the basement of an ancient mosque in Rangoon, Burma.
A brand new train route in Bangkok, Thailand, highlights the town’s oldest Muslim community.
The ruins of an enormous Islamic monarchy tower over the town of Hyderabad, India.
A Muslim community has grown up around an enormous mosque provided by the Alserkal family from the United Arab Emirates in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The oldest city district in Baghdad, with streets named after Baghdad and Kandahar.
Here, Ronan O’Connell from The National News tells the complete story of every of them.
Rangoon, Burma
The last Muslim monarch of India was Bahadur Shah Zafar II. Like many other Indian kings, this powerful man played a big role at a key moment within the country’s history, but his stays don’t rest in an imposing tomb in Delhi or Kolkata.
Instead, his grave was buried beneath a modest mosque in Rangoon, the capital of Burma.
The Zi Wa Ka Street Mosque is positioned 700 meters south of Yangon’s biggest tourist attraction, the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda. This magnificent green and gold structure is the beating heart of the small Muslim community in a rustic where Buddhism dominates.
Thanks to its famous occupier Zafar II, this mosque is becoming an eccentric tourist attraction. He was the leader of the Islamic Mughal dynasty within the mid-Nineteenth century, which ruled large parts of India from the early sixteenth century until 1857, when it fell after almost 20 years under the leadership of Zafar II.
Zafar II fled after the British captured his fortress of Delhi. However, he was detained, charged with high treason and sent to the British colony in Rangoon. In 1862 he died within the local prison.
The great Zafar II now rests in a small mausoleum in Rangoon, a city where few individuals are aware of his past.
Bangkok, Thailand
Over the past three years, Bangkok’s metro and skytrain networks have expanded significantly. At the identical time, additionally they revealed little-known corners of the town.
With gridlocked traffic in the town making it unattainable to achieve it from the central region, Bangkok’s quiet suburb on the western bank of the Chao Phraya River previously saw almost no tourists.
However, travelers can now easily reach Bangkok’s oldest Muslim community by stopping at Itaraphap station on the brand new MRT Blue Line.
Bangkok Yai is the name of this historic district. Malay Muslims gathered here within the mid-Seventeenth century, greater than a century before Bangkok became the capital of Thailand, near one in all the town’s largest canals.
The wealth from the spice and textile trade allowed the town to thrive over the subsequent several a long time. It was then converted into the Ton Son Mosque in 1682, the oldest mosque in Bangkok.
Tourists visiting Bangkok Yai can admire the constructing’s green domes, pray on the neighboring Bang Luang Mosque, or just wander the world’s friendly streets sampling Thai-Malay halal cuisine.
Hyderabad, India
Hyderabad is one of the underrated tourist destinations in Asia. Its underrated charm is due partially to 2 outstanding historic Islamic sites.
The ruins of the powerful kingdom, in addition to an enormous necropolis containing the tombs of the Islamic dynasty that ruled the region within the sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, are concentrated within the Muslim quarter within the west of the town.
The kingdom of Golconda was ruled by the Qutb Shahis family. Their headquarters was on the Golconda Fort for over 70 years until they abandoned it in 1591 because of the plague that led to the founding of Hyderabad.
Fortunately, this fort is in good condition and has turn into a preferred tourist destination. Hundreds of obsolete structures, from palaces to halls, mosques, porticos, pavilions and houses, dot the hillside.
The fort’s coat of arms overlooks the adjoining necropolis, a group of 75 large tombs and structures that recently accomplished an incredible 10-year restoration.
Singapore
With large Buddhist, Christian, Taoist, Hindu and Muslim communities, Singapore is one of the religiously diverse countries in Asia. Singapore was ruled by Islamic leaders of Malay and Indonesian origin for a lot of centuries before it was invaded by Britain in 1819.
This explains why Kampong Glam, a Muslim enclave, is the state’s oldest surviving suburb. With street names like Arab, Muscat, Baghdad, Kandahar and Sultan, you may know you’ve got arrived on this charming area.
The centerpiece of this community is the magnificent Sultan Masjid and the big Malay Heritage Centre, each housed in a former palace of an Islamic dynasty. The cultural center educates visitors about Singapore’s Malay and Islamic culture.
Meanwhile, the Sultan Masjid impresses with its gilded domes and delightful Indo-Saracenic architecture.
Directly behind it’s one in all Singapore’s most beautiful walking streets. This pedestrian street alone is value a visit in Kampong Glam because it is filled with halal restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops and art galleries.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Unlike Singapore, Cambodia is controlled by a single denomination, and almost your entire population is Buddhist. Meanwhile, Muslims constitute about 1% of the population. The fundamental Islamic community in Phnom Penh is centered around the large Alserkal Mosque.
This magnificent mosque with tall minarets, massive domes, whitewashed partitions and mesmerizing arabesque patterns was built as a present from the United Arab Emirates in 2014. It replaced a smaller mosque built by the Alserkal family of the United Arab Emirates within the Sixties.
This mosque serves because the fundamental meeting place for Cham Muslims in the town. They are descendants of Champa, an Indochinese Islamic dynasty that ruled what’s now southern Vietnam from the 2nd to Seventeenth centuries AD.
Alserkal Mosque is positioned within the northern a part of downtown Phnom Penh, near necessary tourist attractions equivalent to Wat Phnom Temple and the Central Market.
Source: Ronan O’Connell of The National News
