Kannur was home to Kerala’s only Muslim dynasty, the Arakkal Ali Rajas. Moideen Palli, the roadside mosque at Ayikkara or Kannur City in Kannur district nearby is an excellent piece of craftsmanship. The locals call Ayikkara as ‘Kannur city’ because once it was a downtown area during the Arakkal rule. The city area is called ‘Kannur town’.
Built almost three hundred years ago, the Moideen Palli is one of the oldest Mosques in Kannur.
The Moideen Palli on 12 June has reopened. It had been closed for two months to contain COVID-19.
On the reopening day, the historic mosque conducted Jumua (Friday prayer) by maintaining COVID-19 norms.
The COVID-19 norms include disinfecting the mosque, maintaining a register for believers, restricting the number of persons for a group prayer to 100 with physical distancing, wearing face masks, disallowing people above 65 years of age, using hand sanitizers and bringing personal prayer rugs from homes, and ensuring that the ablutions are done from home.
Few mosques except major mosques across Kerala will continue to remain closed for a few more weeks in spite of the government allowing them to reopen conditionally.
Shahan Abdul Samad, a freelance photographer and multimedia journalist based in Kannur has captured the prayer which held after weeks of closure to slow pandemic’s spread.