JIA/The Mosques of Songo Mnara in their Urban Landscape

Resource added
How to Cite: Horton, M., Fleisher, J., & Wynne-Jones, S. (2017). The Mosques of Songo Mnara in their Urban Landscape. Journal of Islamic Archaeology, 4(2), 163–188. https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.35272

Full description

The 15th century Swahili town of Songo Mnara (Tanzania) had six mosques—an unusual quantity for a town of only 7 hectares and a population of 500–1000 people. Largescale archaeological investigations of two previously unstudied mosques, and detailed survey of the remaining four structures has suggested a complex pattern of Islamic practice in the town, including a dynamic relationship between mosques and burials, an emerging sense of social difference within the town, and the active signalling of Islamic faith to visitors through the construction of monuments intended to be seen on approach to the town. We commend a holistic approach in which mosques are studied not as isolated structures but as part of a wider urban landscape.

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    Image
  • created on
  • file format
    jpg
  • file size
    135 KB
  • container title
    Journal of Islamic Archaeology
  • creator
    Mark Horton; Jeffrey Fleisher; Stephanie Wynne-Jones
  • issn
    2051-9729 (Online)
  • issue
    4.2
  • publisher
    Equinox Publishing Ltd.
  • publisher place
    Sheffield, United Kingdom
  • rights holder
    Equinox Publishing Ltd.
  • volume
  • doi