Architectural history of Ilorin mosques in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Although mosques worldwide serve the same spiritual purposes, they are significantly different in structure from one area to another within and among localities, countries and continents of the world. Muslims used whatever was available to them in their environment and their limited experience in building mosques resulted in structural differences in mosques until the age of globalisation, when some world-class mosque structures were popularised among Muslims. This paper is an attempt to produce a historical survey of the architectural designs of mosques in Ilorin in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through exploratory research, the paper gives a thematic history of Ilorin mosques’ architecture that started as a simple structure in the nineteenth century reflecting the immediate cultural setting, to become edifices in the twentieth century reflecting outside cultural influences, for the purpose of meeting the spiritual, social, physical and psychological needs of Muslims.