Set apart by the tides of time

The Bidya mosque stands as a unique example of the UAE's heritage.

On the east coast of the United Arab Emirates stands a structure about 500 years old and of a peculiar design. The square building with four domes has no clearly identifiable characteristics but is being used today as a mosque.

Emirati archaeologist Nasser Al Aboudi, who has done extensive research on the mosque, argues that it is a unique historical structure in the UAE.

Watch video: Sunset prayer at Bidya mosque

"It is unique because of its architecture, its remote location and its having remained intact for such a long time," he told Weekend Review.

Watch video: Bidya oldest known mosque in the UAE

The architecture of the mosque is unique in that it stands on a thick central pillar, its roof is not made of wood and it has no minaret. While its religious characteristics could be identified by its four domes, what determines it as a Muslim house of worship is that its minbar and mehrab face Makkah.

According to the Fujairah municipality's records, the mosque measures 6.8 metres by 6.8 metres and includes a yard for worship. Unlike other historical buildings in the UAE, particularly on the west coast, the mosque has been built using material native to the village. Only the material used for construction of the wall around the yard is different, as it was built later.

The domes are not spherical but form steps in circular layers that shrink in diameter as they are stacked up. Al Aboudi believes the layers were added after the building of the mosque since similar mosques in neighbouring countries have regular domes.

It is also said that the building initially had only one dome - above the minbar and mehrab - and it is the widest and tallest among the four.

Twenty metres north of the mosque are what appears to be the remains of a house. Only a few walls with small square windows exist. Al Aboudi believes it was a relatively new structure and could have served as lodgings for the imam of the mosque.

Located close to Bidya, a village in Fujairah, and between the cities of Khor Fakkan and Dibba, the mosque is commonly referred to as "Bidya mosque" because its real name is not known. It has also been called the "Fort Mosque" since it is located below the Bidya Fort.

Bidya village lies on the Gulf of Oman and its people rely on fishing and farming for a living. The village gained prominence in the UAE through the mosque, which lies off a highway that was built after the federation was established in 1971. The highway connected the village to the rest of the UAE. Adding to the prominence of the village are other archaeological finds. A 30-metre grave from 2000BC has been found in the village besides other findings from 200BC, the Hellenistic period.

The north-western coast of Oman and the eastern coast of the UAE are also home to 11 castles from the Portuguese period.

According to Al Aboudi, some researchers have mistaken a few of the forts as having been built by Portuguese invaders. He argues that they had been built by the natives and later modified by the Portuguese.

Bidya is also home to two forts on which archaeological research has not been done but, according to Al Aboudi, since the forts are not Portuguese in architecture, it is believed they were built by the inhabitants of the village to defend themselves against invasions.

Given the mosque's characteristics, experts have found it difficult to determine its age. The only information available today is based on educated guesses.

Al Aboudi says there has been a lot of speculation on the date.

Fujairah government documents cite the age of the mosque as "more than 500 years old" - which was apparently established through carbon dating. The date has, however, not been accepted by experts. "I studied the mosque architecturally only. My conclusions on its date are based on that and research done by other scientists," he says.

In an effort to find a more credible date for the mosque, Al Aboudi compared the building with similar mosques in other countries and consulted with other experts in the field.

He found Portuguese documents from as far back as 1645 referring to an "old and strange mosque" close to the remains of a small Portuguese castle and another castle. The Portuguese, he says, made drawings of all the forts and castles on the UAE's coast and that of the Gulf of Oman, including the Bidya castle that stands close to the mosque.

One of the first to mention the mosque was English writer M. Tomkinson. He wrote about the mosque in a book about the UAE, describing it as a "shrine" that is designed like those only found in Yemen.

Some have said it was built by the Ottomans but British archaeologist Carl Philips has compared it to structures found in Dhofar, Oman, Socotra, Yemen and Iran, dismissing theories that it resembles Ottoman or Seljuk architecture.

Asked why the oldest mosque in the UAE dates back only 500 years even though Islam was adopted by the region over 1,400 years ago, Al Aboudi says many of the mosques built earlier were made of weaker material and were probably destroyed.

Al Aboudi points out, however, that most experts who have studied the structure do not agree it was originally built as a mosque and suggest that it could have been a shrine since it does not have a minaret, lacks windows and is not made in the traditional geometry of mosques.

Al Aboudi believes it was turned into a mosque at a later stage. The reasons he cites are: the location of the mehrab, which is carved into the mountain at the base of which the mosque sits and is thought to be a later addition, the small size of the structure and the rarity of the use of domes in old Emirati architecture. Also, the qibla (direction of prayer towards Makkah) is slightly slanted," he says.

Al Aboudi theorises that the structure could also have served as a resting area for travellers to whom the villagers would serve food and water. Therefore, it is perhaps only safe to classify it as the oldest standing structure in the UAE that serves as a mosque, and not the UAE's oldest mosque.

Past of the seeker

Nasser Al Aboudi graduated in archaeology from Baghdad University in 1977. He has since published seven books and over 100 articles on archaeology and heritage. He has also worked for the UAE's Ministry of Culture where he was involved in excavation and restoration projects and represented the country at the World Heritage Committee.

Criticism of the restoration process

The Bidya mosque's restoration began in 1986 and continued in 2001 at a cost of about Dh500,000. It is now fit for worship. Since archaeologist Nasser Al Aboudi's study was published, it has sparked interest among researchers and institutions worldwide, and a media call for it to be restored. That led the government of Fujairah to request the Dubai Municipality to take up the project since the latter had the capability.

Al Aboudi has, however, been critical of the restoration efforts because they did not involve research or excavation, which he says is necessary in the restoration of a historical mosque such as this one. He also questions why there have been no reports of archaeological finds, if any were made.

"The reports of the restoration process also did not refer to the minaret of the mosque. Where is it? Has it been searched for?" he wrote in the introduction of his research. "This structure was restored like any other building. ... The restoration process should have been managed by archaeologists, not engineers," he told Weekend Review.

He added that every step of the process should have been documented "but there are no reports available on the restoration". Al Aboudi adds that the process which involved the use of concrete, which he argues should not be used in restoring a mud building, has changed some of the designs on the mosque.

He maintains that not enough attention has been paid by the federal government to archaeological sites in the UAE. "There isn't even a federal law protecting archaeological sites," he said.