New trip to the North - The Ubudiyah mosque and Perak royal mausoleum revisited...

OK. Among the places revisited in the recent trip to the North is the magnificent Ubudiyah mosque on top Bukit (hill of) Chandan in the Perak royal town of Kuala Kangsar...

For a bit of history of the mosque, open the above picture in another window...

A look inside the mosque...


One of the hall arches...



Just in front the mosque is the Perak royal mausoleum...

From the right side of the mosque one could see this section of the royal mausoleum housing tombs belonging to close kith and kins of Perak's 26th ruler, Sultan Abdullah, the sultan who was exiled by the British for his involvement in the killing of their first resident to Perak, J.W.W. Birch in 1875...

But first, have a look again at the mosque from an interesting angle...




Now, a look at the both the mosque and the royal mausoleum from it's furthest left-hand corner. For the record, in this section of the mausoleum lies the tombs of the closest kith and kins of Raja Muda Musa ibni (son of) Sultan Ja'afar, Sultan Abdullah's younger brother.



Closer to the mosque, just about 6 metres away from the tomb of Sultan Abdullah lies the tomb of my great-great-great grandfather (I'm a fifth generation descendant) Laksamana Raja Mahkota (royal admiral) Muhammad Amin. For the record, he is a cousin of the sultan.

The last time I visited this tomb earlier this year there was no fencing.

Now, it's not only properly fenced, there's also an information board telling a bit of his involvement in the killing of Birch and how he was also exiled along with the sultan, to the Seychelles islands in Africa 1877. Unlike the sultan though who got to return to Perak later, he was then exiled to Singapore and died there in 1905. Thank God, his body was returned to Perak in 2006 in full ceremony.

For the story, please read the old article The return of Admiral Muhammad Amin's remains to the royal mausoleum of Perak . Do also have a look to at the article In Perak's royal mausoleum to give justice to Laksamana Raja Mahkota Muhammad Amin...

New trip to the North - Lebuh Aceh mosque revisited...

Continuing from the article New trip to the North - places in Alor Setar revisited...

That night, after visiting (revisiting actually) a few other places, we arrived in Pulau Pinang. After dinner, we head straight for this place, the Lebuh Aceh mosque...

For the record, the mosque and its surroundings used to be main focal point for the local Malays.

In fact, it was the focal point for all Malays and Muslim from around the region to as far as Kelantan and Singapore. Before airplanes became the main mood of long distance travel, Muslims used to go for the pilgrimage to Mekah or Haj by ship. Pulau Pinang was the embarkation point and Lebuh Aceh was the place they congregated at for up to months before the long journey to the Arab peninsular began.




A closer look at the tower...

Time to go inside...

As my wife talked to the custodians of the mosque, my friend Shamsul took some proper photographs. For the record, this journey to the North (also the journey to the East Coast a month earlier and the South almost two months ago) was made to record some pictures and stories for an upcoming coffee-table book about mosques in Malaysia.

We also visited the tomb in front of the mosque especially that of Syed Hussein Aidid who opened up Lebuh Aceh. While the official statement says the mosque was built in 1808, the custodians said the correct year was 1795. And while Western-slanted history recorded Pulau Pinang as discovered and then developed by Francis Light in 1786 (excuse me for refusing to put the title Sir in front of his name), the custodians said Light actually borrowed money from Syed Hussein to develop the island!

The tomb of Syed Hussein... Al-Fatihah (recital of the Quran's opening verses) for him please.

While official history tried to belittle his actual importance by describing him as just a wealthy trader with some associating him with Aceh royalty, the fact is he was actually the Sultan (ruler) of Aceh, albeit for three days! Circumstances then including in-fighting from other members of the royal family forced him to abdicate the throne in favour of his son.

The truth is, he was actually deeply involved in the fighting against colonial rule especially that of the Dutch in Aceh. He used Pulau Pinang as a base to get weapons to help Aceh citizens fight against the Dutch.

While full frontal war against Aceh by the Dutch was only declared in 1873, there were numerous attempt to destablise the great Malay Islamic empire through several means since the early 17th Century. Often royalties were pitted against each other using diplomatic channels and this became the Western colonialists (English included) main modus operandi of conquest until the whole Malay archipelago succumbed to colonial rule by the middle of the 19th Century. That's all...

New trip to the North - places in Alor Setar revisited...

Peace be upon you all. Over a month ago, I made a series of articles based on places revisited when going to the East Coast. The series was ended with the article New trip to the East Coast - Masjid (mosque of) Kampung Laut revisited...

Last weekend, I went to the North and revisited some other places. So let me just make an article or two based on the visits ya... starting with this. Come! :]

Here's a picture of my wife staring out a window at a certain interesting building. I've just finished my prayers when I saw her in this pose and decided to snap a picture...

For information, we were inside an old mosque...

The old mosque which is totally made out of timber without the use of any nail had been salvaged with new zinc roofings. It is located in Langgar, 11km out of Alor Setar...

The mosque is very near to the Kedah royal mausoleum.

Then we visited the royal mosque called Masjid (mosque of) Zahir right smack in the middle of the city of Alor Setar.

The information board says the mosque was designed following that of the mosques in Langkat, Sumatera. Have a look at the design in the pictures below...

Just outside the compound across the road, there lies this building known as Balai Nobat, the places for keeping the royal instruments. Compare its design with the tower of the old mosque shown earlier. Some say that's how the Balai Nobat looks like before it was replaced with a concrete building early 20th Century. Done... :]