Share Our Heritage with the World

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A story: It is the last decade of the 18th century. Karachi is turning into a peaceful cosmopolitan city. Many religious and ethnic communities are coexisting here like, using a traditional analogy, a bouquet of flowers in a colourful vase. There is a series of magnificent churches. Temples are no less inspiring. A synagogue adds harmony to the environs. The Parsi community has its holy place. All of these mostly exist in or around the Saddar region. So the existence of a mosque, commensurate with the constructional attributes of the time, is not surprising at all.

What you see of Saddar today is a terrible state of affairs. Unplanned constructions, hideous encroachments and an unruly traffic have tarnished its image like a child ruining a beautiful painting with random and wild brushstrokes. Jama Masjid Qassaban is not very far from Empress Market. Despite being sandwiched between an old residential building and a concrete structure, its peculiarly different minarets and stone facade make it stand out.

Situated across Shahrah-i-Iraq (formerly Clarke Street) on Talpur Road (Napier Street) Jama Masjid Qassaban, according to one account, was built as far back as 1899. The date that you can see inscribed at the top of the structure as per Islamic calendar is 1319 Hijri, which is almost the same as its Gregorian counterpart. So it has seen more than a century of time's vagaries. A lot has changed ever since. Sadly, today worshippers, following any belief, do not feel safe at holy places. This was not the case when Jama Masjid Qassaban's designers were busy sharpening their pencils or when Mohammad Yousuf was busy getting water from the well for worshippers.

[Source: Karachi Legacies of Empires by Peerzada Salman]

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