24 April 2019

Cambridge Central Mosque

Posted in:

Mosques and Shrines

Author:

YBirt

The Cambridge Central Mosque is the first purpose-built eco-mosque in Europe, completed at a cost of £24 million in March 2019, with a zero carbon footprint. A project led by Cambridge Muslim scholar, Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad (b.1960, also known as Dr. Timothy J. Winter, Shaykh Zayed Lecturer of Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University), the mosque opened on 24 April 2019. Its lighting, ventilation, power, and water usage partly draw on harvested sunlight and rain, as well as good design to generate unpowered air circulation. Its main hall can accommodate 1000 worshippers. The impetus to create a larger central mosque came after it was recognised in the mid-2000s that the oldest mosque, the Abu Bakr Mosque, established in 1981 in Mawston Road, could no longer accommodate growing demand.

Architecturally, the new mosque incorporates aspects of local Cambridge and traditional Islamic design, seen in the defining feature of the mosque, the tree-columns that support the whole structure, using sustainable spruce. The eight-pointed octagonal vaulting is a traditional Islamic motif that also draws directly on the English gothic fan vaulting seen in King's College Chapel, Cambridge. Another feature is the typical Cambridge yellow brickwork, which incorporates - in red Dutch brickwork - Kufic calligraphy with repetitions of the phrase, Qul huwa'Llahu ahad (Say: He is God, the One). Conceived by Alfred Marks (1952–2017), who also designed the iconic London Eye and treetop walkway at Kew Gardens, in consultation with Islamic architectural and art experts, the mosque trust won the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) award for RIBA Client of the Year 2021 recognising "exemplar clients who champion and commission outstanding architecture".

As the mosque complex is entered from the Mill Road, the garden designed by Emma Clarke, professor of traditional garden design at the Prince of Wales Institute for Traditional Arts, faces on to the road. It features some plants mentioned in the Quran, such as the British climate allows for, as well as the yew hedges seen in old English churchyards. Next comes the Portico offering a transition from the garden's trees to the first row of the "symbolic forest of the interior". Entering the building, next comes the Atrium, both a hallway and a multi-purpose space for conferences, weddings, exhibitions, etc. with a seminar room on the left and a cafe on the right. The marble floor was designed by Keith Critchlow, a renowned expert in traditional including Islamic geometry. The rows of "trees" continue through the Atrium into the main Prayer Hall, where there are 12 in total. These symbolise the four imams of Sunni Islam and the 12 imams of Shi'i Islam. Decorating the main hall is calligraphy by Turkish master Huseyin Kutlu, embroidery from the Kaaba in Makkah, and two tiles on either side of the mihrab (prayer niche) from the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

The mosque was funded by 10,000 individual donations. One of the galleries is named after Baraka I. Khan (1991‒2016), who did much to raise money for the mosque. Diagnosed with advanced lung cancer shortly after graduating from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, she died at the young age of 24. Two-thirds of the funding came from Turkey, the major sources being the Directorate of Religious Affairs and the construction company Yapi Merkezi. This was facilitated by a meeting arranged by one of the mosque trustees, the pop star and convert to Islam, Yusuf Islam (b.1948, also known as Cat Stevens), and the then Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdoğan (b.1954), in 2013. Islam and Erdoğan were old acquaintances. Erdoğan later attended the official inauguration of the mosque on 5 December 2019.