4 - Masjids on the Move: Mobility and the Growth of “Portable” Islamic Space

Summary

The fourth chapter focuses on contemporary mobility paradigms and the ability of masjid space to travel and evolve in response to changing conditions of being. The case studies in this chapter push discussions of masjid space beyond considerations of three-dimensional form to accommodate the realities of individuals and groups on the move. The first case study focuses on the car rapides transport buses in the city of Dakar, which in many ways act as mobile masjids capable of transporting sanctification throughout the city. The second case study in this chapter follows the development of airport prayer spaces on the continent, whose spiritually ambiguous identities allow them to shift character in response to the bodies that inhabit them. The third case study in this chapter focuses on the emergence of virtual space, specifically the growing online terrain of the holy city of Touba (Senegal), which is increasingly operating beyond its geographic borders by expanding itself as a conceptual “territory” into a global digital environment. These case studies move masjid space beyond a tangibly rooted form toward privileging its reality as a flexible, mobile, and sometimes immaterial terrain that is able to realize itself beyond established hierarchies of physical presence.