HYDERABAD: A 300-year-old mosque in Hyderabad is the smallest in the world, but sadly a neglected one too. Historians record that the Masjid Mir Mahmood Sahib, or Jinn Masjid, in the city, is smaller in dimensions than the one in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh which was, until now, considered the smallest mosque in the world. Today, water is seeping into the Jinn Masjid and its plaster is flaking off.
The mosque is popularly known as Jinn Masjid as it is isolated, and people have been weaving stories of Jinns or spirits praying there. According to the book, The Landmarks of the Deccan: A Comprehensive Guide to the Archaeological Remains of the City and Suburbs of Hyderabad written by Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami in 1927, it was built on a hillock near Mir Alam Tank in 1688.
“Mir Mahmood bears no inscription but on Zanjiri gate, some Persian couplets are engraved in plaster, which have been much obliterated,” writes the author. It is very much a Qutub Shahi-era Structure that needs to be conserved. It would not cost more than a few lakhs for the government to restore this wonder, says Dr Mohammed Shafiullah of the Deccan Heritage Trust.
He adds that the Jinn Masjid measures 9’2” x 12’0”, which is 110 square feet, making it 10,000 times smaller than the largest mosque in the world, The Great Mosque of Mecca, which is built on an area of 38,31,952 sq feet and can accommodate 40,00,000 people. “It (Jinn Masjd) was constructed at the time of Mir Mahmood Saheb, who came from Iraq during the rule of Abdullah Qutb Shah and settled down here,” states Shafiullah.
“The Mir Mahmood Saheb, with the dimension of 10.21 metre square, is smaller than the mosque in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, which has a dimension of 16 metres square,” he adds.
Albeit small, this mosque is accommodated with all the classic features of a ‘Qutub Shahi’ mosque or a functional mosque. “The mosque is located on a hillock. It has a stairway to go to the terrace to offer aazaan. It also has a space for the imam and space for a few people, not more than eight, to offer prayer,” says a florist, MD Akbar Khan, whose cart is located right next to the hillock on which the mosque is built.
“If not protected, the structure will crumble. It can be a major tourist attraction if the government takes the initiative and allow heritage groups to come up with a plan to restore the mosque through crowdfunding. It would not cost much to fix the mosque as it is small,” says Mohammed Sajjad Ali, a heritage activist from the city.