Masjid Al-Abrar

Masjid Al-Abrar (Malay for Al-Abrar Mosque; Jawi: مسجد الابرار) is a mosque located along Telok Ayer Street in Chinatown within the Central Area, Singapore. It is one of the earliest mosques in Singapore. The mosque is also known by two other names – Kuchu Palli and Masjid Chulia. Al-Abrar is its official name, while Kuchu Palli, meaning "hut mosque" in Tamil, is a reflection of the mosque's first modest structure. Its location in Telok Ayer Street, in the heart of Chinatown, was where Chulia immigrants from the Coromandel Coast of South India, among the earliest immigrants to Singapore, settled when they came to Singapore, hence, Masjid Chulia. Note however that another mosque, Masjid Jamae, is also commonly called Masjid Chulia.

The building was gazetted as a national monument on 19 November 1974.

The design of the building is based on Indo-Islamic architecture with two tall minarets at the front. The minarets-like towers that define the narrow frontage are devoid of decorative elements, except for a small onion dome on the top of each tower. The building however also includes Neoclassical elements such as Doric columns in its interior.

The building was built along a row of shophouses, and the frontage incorporated a five-foot way that connects the walkway of the other shophouses. At the entrance of the mosque, the parapet that previously fringed only the central bay now ran across the whole length of the frontage. The parapet features an architrave, a frieze with mouldings and panels, a balustrade and Islamic cresting echoing that found on Masjid Sultan. The courtyard that used to lie between the entrance gate and the prayer hall was covered, with part of it converted into a gallery extension. Originally single-storeyed, the prayer hall has been extended to two storeys, with a gallery on the upper floor, and capped with a huge jack roof. While later changes are extensive, the designers took their cue from the original style, proportions and materials used in the old mosque to ensure that the new look is cohesive.

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