Shah Jahan Mosque

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The Shah Jahan Mosque in Oriental Road, Woking, England, is the first purpose-built mosque in the United Kingdom. Built in 1889, it is located 30mi southwest of London.ConstructionThe Shah Jahan Mosque was built in 1889 by Hungarian-British Jew and orientalist Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner. It was partly funded by Sultan Shah Jahan, Begum of Bhopal, as a place for students at the Oriental Institute in Woking to worship at. The mosque was designed by architect W. I. Chambers and built in Bath and Bargate stone. It was designed in an Indo-Saracenic Revival style, and has a dome, minarets, and a courtyard. The architecture was described by Pevsner Architectural Guides as "extraordinarily dignified".The Oriental Institute, for the students of which the mosque was construction, was founded by Leitner in 1881. He had purchased the former Royal Dramatic College building in Woking and established the Institute in order to promote oriental literature. It awarded degrees from the University of the Punjab in Lahore, India.HistoryThe mosque became the first formal place of Islamic worship in England. Queen Victoria's Indian servants and her Indian secretary, Abdul Karim, used the mosque when the Queen visited Windsor Castle. A small number of dignitaries, students, and guests used the mosque until Leitner's death in 1899, following which the mosque closed.