Soon enough we arrived at the town of Teluk Intan. Immediately we went some 5km eastwards to an area called Batak Rabit to get to this old mosque...
To the right side of this mosque lies a private burial ground belonging to the family of Laksamana Raja Mahkota, an inherited noble title of Perak... By the way, that's my family... :]
At the verandah of the mosque is a notice board. Among the things displayed are these pictures of some religious scholars. Felt like taking a snap... You see I am interested in the one on the top-right hand, a late 18th Century to early 19th Century prominent scholar in Kedah known as Tuan Hussein al-Banjari. For the record, his name is listed among seven major personalities of the same era said to be of saintly status! While I have visited the tombs of the other six in the list including that of Tok Kenali in Kelantan, Tokku Paloh in Kedah and Habib Nuh in Singapura (forgive me for refusing to used the Anglicised word Singapore), I have yet to visit Tuan Hussein's, I think in Titi Gajah somewhere off Alor Setar...
A look at the mosque's verandah...
Actually we went to the mosque for a few reasons. One of it is because a few regular visitors of my Malay blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU would like to join this Perak trip from here...
In the picture (from left) is my friend and cameraman Zaidi who goes by the on-line name of PerpatihTulus followed by Dong, a regular reader of the blogspot who joined the trip along with me from Kuala Lumpur. In the white shirt is Zam who works in Shah Alam but is on holiday at his parents place in Chenderong Balai, 20km from Teluk Intan, He was the first to join us at this mosque...
A look at the Perak river from where they were standing. Actually I took the picture above of them from one of these floats! 
A look towards the north-east of the river... So what is so special abouth this mosque? For more details, it is recommended you read the posting Masjid lama Batak Rabit (The old mosque of Batik Rabit) made in the blogspot SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) more than a year ago.
Now whenever people talk about the historical happenings in and around the Pangkor Treaty of 1874, the place that came to mind is Pasir Salak some 30km away from here. Why? Because most remember the murder of the first British resident to Perak J.W.W. Birch which happened there in 1875... They forgot that apart from there, major battles, even plans made by the Perak royals and nobles were held here in Batak Rabit, within and around the compounds of this mosque! Because this was where Sultan Abdullah II, the ruler of Perak then held his fort and command from... This was where his closest family members, the Perak Hilir royals were mainly concentrated before the place was destroyed and burned down by the British.
By the way, it was only in this trip that I learned the mosque is much older than I thought. If earlier I thought it was built in the 1920s (the site of the original older mosque is just next to the private burial grounds beside), a video clip taken by Zaidi while I was busy answering the call of nature showed that the roofing for the still existing tower is dated 1865! This means, the mosque itself is that old or much older... This also means, the original older mosque which is now reduced to a group of old planks could have been of course built much much earlier...
For video clips on the latest trip to Perak which tries to uncover the happenings behind all this, please visit my Malay blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU . For more details and a better understanding of things (apart from some entertainment and laughs, hehe...) look forward to the DVD of the trip to be released soon, God willing. Enough! :]
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