the Friday mosque of Kiponda

The Ijamaa mosque is large by the standards of Stonetown. There are at least 30 mosques in this old quarters of Zanzibar and this is one of the oldest.


the Ijumaa Mosque sits in the narrow alleys of Kiponda, Stonetown, Zanzibar, Tanzania



façade of the Ijumaa Mosque



the elaborately carved wooden door of Ijumaa Mosque


Known in Kiswahili as Msikiti Ya Ijumaa Mizingani, it was originally built by Sunni immigrants from Faza in 1831. Like most of the mosques in Zanzibar, it was simple and unpretentious. It underwent several renovations and expansions notably in the 1850s and the 1950s. In 1994, the Ijumaa Mosque was refurbished in a more modern arabesque style with geometric arches and ramparts with funds from Arabic states. A marker in the mosque proclaims it as the burial place of famous Muslim scholars in Zanzibar.


an old gas lamp converted to electric



a small cube of a building right across the mosque



Arabic markers in marble



rampart shadows of the mosque