Talk:Marree Mosque

Confusion between four mosques

To clarify the identities of the Marree mosques: there were three historical ones, all dating from the 1880s. One was right in or very close to the township, and another was at Herrgott Springs, about three kilometres north of the town. Nothing can be identified at the sites of either of these today. The site at the spring has been obliterated by trampling cattle. The third, probably the one shown in the historic photograph in the article, was a private mosque built by Abdul Kadir, near his camel yards about a kilometre north-east of the township. An earth floor and the stumps of wooden posts show where it stood. The fourth mosque standing right in the middle of the township was built as a tourist attraction in the 1990s. Peter Bell (talk) 03:21, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

This is interesting, Peter Bell. Are there any citations which can be used to add this info to the article? Laterthanyouthink (talk) 02:16, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

The principal source is a report to the South Australian government, of which I was one of the authors. If you Google "Heritage of the Birdsville and Strzelecki Tracks" you should go to a government website from which you can download it. Pages 54-58 are on the background of the Afghan cameleers, and pages 263-272 are on the Marree mosque. The background is mostly from a book by Christine Stevens, Tin Mosques and Ghantowns, 1989, pages 175-179, 229 & 302-303. Peter Bell (talk) 07:54, 1 September 2019 (UTC)

Hi @Peter Bell:, if you look at the article, you will see that the "report to the SA government" is already cited in the article - I added this to the article in June 2019. I also noticed at the time that there were four mosques and decided to get access to a copy of one of the books listed in the article to find out more about this, i.e. Australia's Muslim Cameleers: Pioneers of the Inland, 1860s-1930s which has a map showing where the first three mosques are located and which is only available from the State Library of South Australia (SLSA). Access requires a visit to SLSA and I have not been there yet. By the way, I am interested in where the first mosque was located in order to upgrade the coordinates on the article. Regards Cowdy001 (talk) 12:09, 1 September 2019 (UTC)

Hi Cowdy001, yes, I wasn't complaining about the quality of what you'd written or the sources, just trying to clarify the surprisingly large number of mosques which Marree supported for a while. I haven't seen Australia's Muslim Cameleers and the information I have is vague about the site of the first mosque. Peter Bell (talk) 12:23, 1 September 2019 (UTC)

Hi Peter Bell, Thanks for your reply. I have just re-read pages 263–272 from Heritage of the Birdsville and Strzelecki Tracks and Iwould suggest that the article should be upgraded as follows:

1. The history section be replaced with two new sections - one section would be about the historical background to the practice of Islam in the Far North of SA and the other section would be about the four sites (i.e. divided into four sub-sections)
2. The article should be renamed as "Mosques of Marree" or "Mosques in Marree" in order to be inclusive of all four sites and avoid the argument whether the article should be about the oldest site or about the most archaeological relevant site etc.

Regards Cowdy001 (talk) 10:49, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

Cowdy001,I'm perfectly happy with those suggestions. Peter Bell (talk) 13:49, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

Sounds good - thanks to both of you, Cowdy001 and Peter Bell. It'll be great to have that extra info and clarity on the mosques! Laterthanyouthink (talk) 02:21, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

@Cowdy001, Peter Bell, and Laterthanyouthink: A few years have passed and it would appear that there have been no updates to the four mosques. Are one of you going to update content? I'm happy to review once semi-finished. Cheers. Rangasyd (talk) 03:30, 26 December 2023 (UTC)