AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Far from the European mainland and thousands of kilometers away from it, precisely on the western coast of the island of "Mayotte" in the Indian Ocean, the "Tsingoni" Mosque still stands. The oldest mosque in France that is still in use and where prayers are held.
According to a report by Agence France-Presse, the importance of this building is not limited to its religious function, but its walls and architectural layers have become a stone document that reveals the long and deep history of human settlement and cultural exchanges in the Comoros archipelago.
In line with documenting this heritage, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) conducted precise excavations inside the mosque in 2023. This action was part of an extensive project to restore the building after the mosque was officially listed in the French historical monuments registry in 2015.
The results of these excavations confirmed previous archaeological findings and clarified the precise chronological sequence of this site. Evidence shows that the roots of settlement in this place go back to the 12th century AD.
Islam Before the Sultans
Traditional narratives had always suggested that it was the sultans who brought Islam and civilization to the island of Mayotte in the 16th century, when they made the city of "Tsingoni" the capital of their rule.
But the archaeologists' shovels told a completely different story. They proved that the mosque and Islam had been present in this region centuries before the emergence of the sultanate rule.
"Martial Pauly," a historian and researcher at the French National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Inalco), explains that Islam gradually entered the island of Mayotte during the 11th and 12th centuries through maritime trade networks.
He suggests that sailors from Oman and perhaps Iran may have brought the new religion to this region, during a period when traditional "animist" beliefs were dominant in the area.
Coral Architecture; The Memory of the Ocean
Over time, the architectural structure of this place also changed in step with religious and social developments.
After the initial settlement in the 12th century AD, a stone mosque was built at this site, the remains of which date back to the 14th century AD. Materials such as coastal sandstone, basalt, and coral were used in its construction. A material that archaeologists consider a regional time indicator, because its use in mosques on the East African coast in the same period has also been observed.
In the 16th century AD, simultaneously with political and economic developments and the prosperity resulting from sultanate rule, this building reached the peak of its architectural development, its area multiplied, and in 1538 AD, a historic mihrab was built in it bearing the name of the ruler of that period, "Sultan Ali Muhammad."
Quran and Nail; Coexistence of Beliefs
Researchers, through examining the discovered artifacts, found that the inhabitants of the island of Mayotte followed the Shafi'i school of thought.
The mosque and the city of Tsingoni remained among the main centers of the region until the 18th century AD. But after regional tensions with the neighboring island of "Anjouan" and then the transfer of the island of Mayotte to French sovereignty after the sale of this island in 1841 AD, their status declined.
But the most astonishing discovery from an anthropological perspective relates to a finding that "Justine Saadi," the scientific director of this project, raised about the nature of cultural coexistence between Islam and local beliefs.
Researchers found, inside one of the walls of the mosque, a page of the Quran that had been buried next to a wooden nail from the building's structure. An action that was probably carried out during one of the old restoration stages of the building.
This unique combination of a tradition related to local magical or folk beliefs for protection and Islamic belief based on the text of the Quran is a summary of the cultural characteristics of this place.
Saadi emphasizes that this harmonious mixture of Austronesian, Bantu, and Swahili roots is precisely what shapes the deep identity of the inhabitants of the island of Mayotte and has turned their ancient mosque into a living treasure of the cultural richness and diversity of the Indian Ocean.
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