Masjid Abdul Gafoor

Masjid Abdul Gafoor stands on Dunlop Street in Little India, with a history linked to Tamil Muslim traders and Baweanese workers in the old Kampong Kapor area. An earlier mosque on the site, known as the Dunlop Street Mosque, was built in 1859 to serve Muslims living and working around the former racecourse at nearby Farrer Park. Shaik Abdul Gafoor bin Shaik Hyder, a chief clerk at a law firm, later became one of the trustees of the mosque endowment and helped raise funds through rental properties around the site. Construction of the present brick mosque began in 1907, and the mosque was later renamed in his memory after his death in 1919.

The building is distinctive for its mix of Saracenic and Neoclassical features, including cinquefoil arches, Corinthian and Doric pilasters, crescent-and-star motifs, a grand cupola, coloured glass panels, and Arabic calligraphy. A forgotten basement was rediscovered during restoration planning in the 1990s and later integrated into the mosque’s expanded prayer space. Gazetted as a national monument in 1979, Masjid Abdul Gafoor remains a working mosque in Little India, with Tamil sermons, religious classes, and a continuing role for worshippers in the central area.