The 15th century Swahili town of Songo Mnara (Tanzania) had six mosques-an unusual quantity for a town of only 7 hectares and a population of 500-1000 people. Large-scale archaeological investigations of two previously unstudied mosques, and detailed survey of the remaining four structures has suggested a complex pattern of Islamic practice in the town, including a dynamic relationship between mosques and burials, an emerging sense of social difference within the town, and the active signalling of Islamic faith to visitors through the construction of monuments intended to be seen on approach to the town. We commend a holistic approach in which mosques are studied not as isolated structures but as part of a wider urban landscape.

The rectangular (6.72 x 4.66-4.75 m) prayer hall had a flat brick roof supported by four circular wooden columns built into the floor on substantial stone foundations below the floor, and it had a qibla line of 004 degrees. On the south, east, and west sides of the mosque, there were three doorways. Three shaped sandstone steps on the flanks (which were likely arched) lead to open side verandas.

The mihrab had four jamb orders and was remarkably flat and concave. The higher portions that were built from the blocks included a capital with double herringbone decoration and a two-order arch with a double apex nick, all of which were encircled by a plain architrave.

The mosque’s washing room was initially freestanding, but during the course of its existence, some additional walls were built. An enclosure wall was constructed there, and the area was utilized for burials to the south of this washing area. This wall’s proximity to a destroyed tomb—which itself had bordered an earlier tomb—indicates that it was an addition made later in the series. More graves were surrounded on the north side by a low cemetery wall, which was abutted by a western plinth that was also constructed.