Mosques in Somalia: from Hamar Weyne to the Mosque of Islamic Solidarity

In short

This guide lists the best-documented mosques in Somalia by age, with what each source says. The medieval mosques are covered in detail on the history pages linked below; this page points to them and adds the later and modern mosques.

The medieval mosques

• Mogadishu, 1238 and 1269. The minaret of the Jama'a mosque of Hamar Weyne carries an inscription dated 636 AH (1238), and the Fakhr al-Din Mosque an inscription of 1269 naming Sultan Fakhr al-Din. Its marble mihrab came from India (Fakhr al-Din Mosque, Wikipedia; List of mosques in Somalia, Wikipedia). The Arba'a Rukun Mosque in Shingani has a mihrab inscription naming its founder, Khusrau ibn Muhammad (same list). See early Mogadishu and the mosque inscriptions.
• Zeila. Local tradition dates the Masjid al-Qiblatayn, the "mosque of the two qiblas", to the 600s, but no reliable date has been established (List of mosques in Somalia, Wikipedia). See how Islam reached the Somalis.
• Somaliland. A 2023 study by the archaeologists Carolina Cornax-Gómez and Jorge de Torres Rodríguez counts fifteen medieval mosques in the old towns of Somaliland. See medieval mosques of Somaliland.

Hamar Weyne's small mosques

The old quarter of Hamar Weyne in Mogadishu has about 25 small mosques (Awooto Eeday Mosque, Wikipedia, citing Anita Adam, Benadiri People of Somalia, pp. 204–205). Several are described in published sources.

Twin Mosques

The Twin Mosques (Masaajidka Mataanaha) joined two older mosques, the Aw Mukhtar and the Aw Sheikh Omar. Before they were merged, the two shared one courtyard and one place for ablutions, with two prayer rooms facing each other, two imams and prayers held at the same time (Twin Mosques, Wikipedia, citing Nuredin Scikei, Exploring the Old Stone Town of Mogadishu, Cambridge Scholars, 2017, p. 62).

Awooto Eeday Mosque

The Awooto Eeday Mosque is said to have been paid for by a pious woman known as Awooto ("grandmother") Eeday. A plate above its mihrab bears the date 1223 AH (1808), though the scholar Maria Rosario La Lomia suggests it may mark the renovation of an older mosque. It is the neighbourhood mosque of the Shanshiyo (Awooto Eeday Mosque, Wikipedia, citing La Lomia, Antiche Moschee di Mogadiscio, 1982, pp. 59–60).

Adayga Mosque

The 'Adayga Mosque, also called the Aw Musse or Haji Musse mosque, stands among houses in the narrow lanes of Hamar Weyne. La Lomia suggested it may date from the 13th century, because its minaret resembles the minaret of the Jama'a mosque of Hamar Weyne (Adayga Mosque, Wikipedia, citing Adam, pp. 204–205, and La Lomia 1982, p. 40).

Sheikh Rumani Ba Alawi Mosque

The Sheikh Rumani Ba 'Alawi Mosque, locally Masaajidka Rumaaniga or Aw Shukumaan, can only be reached through long winding lanes. During a renovation two old objects were lost: a piece of wood inscribed with the year 822 AH (about 1419) and an iron ring hanging from an old beam, of the kind used in older houses nearby to hang lanterns (Sheikh Rumani Ba 'Alawi Mosque, Wikipedia, citing Scikei, Exploring the Old Stone Town of Mogadishu).

Shingani: the Sheikh Ahmed Sharif Mosque

The Sheikh Ahmed Sharif Mosque is a small mosque in Shingani, Mogadishu's other old quarter. The present building dates from 1337 AH (1918–1919). Scikei writes that older mosques stood on the same site one on top of another, and the archaeologist Anders Broberg dates earlier buildings there to about 1730–1740, the 17th century and the 13th century (Sheikh Ahmed Sharif Mosque, Wikipedia, citing Scikei, p. 63, and Broberg, New Aspects of the Medieval Towns of Benadir, 1995, pp. 118–120).

It was built during a dispute between two Shingani lineages, the Ashraaf and the 'Amuudi, over the khatiib (Friday preacher) of the old Friday mosque, who had been chosen by elders of both. The Ashraaf built the new mosque nearby. The dispute ended in 1339 AH (1920–1921) after mediation by Carlo Avolio, a director of the municipality, together with elders of Shingani and Hamar Weyne and religious leaders: the 'Amuudi would pray twelve Fridays in the Sheikh Ahmed Sharif Mosque, the Ashraaf returned to the old Friday mosque, and the 'Amuudi accepted a new khatiib chosen from the Ashraaf (same article, citing Adam, pp. 128–129, and Sharif 'Aydarus, Bughyat al-amal fi tarikh al-Sumal, 1950, p. 40).

The Mosque of Islamic Solidarity, 1987

The Mosque of Islamic Solidarity (Masjidka Isbahaysiga) overlooks the sea in Mogadishu. It was built in 1987 by Hamar Construction with funding from Saudi Arabia's Fahd bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud Foundation, and holds up to 10,000 worshippers, the largest in the Horn of Africa. It was closed after the civil war began, reopened in 2006 by the Islamic Courts Union, renovated from 2012 by a Somali contractor with funding from the Türkiye Diyanet Foundation, and refurbished by the federal government in 2015 (Mosque of Islamic Solidarity, Wikipedia, citing Shaul Shay, Somalia between Jihad and Restoration, 2011, p. 100). See the Islamic Courts Union.

The Ali Jimale Mosque, 2022

The Ali Jimale Mosque (Masjidka Cali Jimcaale) near Mogadishu airport was built by the businessman Ahmed-Nur Ali Jimale and named after his father. Modelled on Turkish mosques, it holds up to 5,000 worshippers. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud opened it in July 2022 by praying the Eid al-Adha prayer there with Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre and members of parliament (Ali Jimale Mosque, Wikipedia, citing Goobjooge and Muqdisho Online, 2022). In 2024 the Hormuud Salaam Foundation held its yearly Ramadan Qur'an recitation competition there (Shabelle Media, 15 March 2024).

Mosques and the war

Sufi shrines and tombs, many of them beside mosques, were destroyed in areas held by al-Shabaab from 2008 (Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a, Wikipedia, citing the Mapping Militants Project). See saints, shrines and siyaaro and heritage sites.

Read further

• Nuredin Hagi Scikei, Exploring the Old Stone Town of Mogadishu (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017).
• Maria Rosario La Lomia, Antiche Moschee di Mogadiscio (1982).
• Islam in Somalia