The place once known as the Mahallah

Posted by noelbynature under Buildings and Monuments, Heritage Sites and Trails
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The word “Mahallah” is the Arabic word for “place”, and there was once a place in Singapore referred to as the “Mahallah”. Do you know where it is?

Yes, the picture shows the former Mahallah - Selegie Road, and the surrounding roads. Despite the name, it was not an Arabic quarter of Singapore, but rather a place where many Baghdadi Jews settled in the early 20th century. Jerome writes:

The Mahallah was the “place” where the many working class Baghdadi Jews who had settled in Singapore around the turn of the twentieth century, called home, a Jewish Quarter so to speak. They went about the daily business, just as they might have done on the streets of old Baghdad or Calcutta where many had originated from, living amongst the Indian, Eurasian and Chinese families in the area. The area included Selegie Road, Short Street, Wilkie Road, Sophia Road, Prinsep Street and Middle Road. That Arabic was a common language and that the two buildings mentioned both display the Star of David on their façades, provides an appreciation for who the area’s inhabitants were. It was common to see Jews dressed in Iraqi attire, with men topped with a fez, as the new immigrants sought to recreate a familiarity of where they had arrived from, within the surroundings of their new world. The large Jewish families that lived in the area were relatively poor, many with ten or more children, and most were cramped in the many small two storey houses that were common in the area. Many were small traders, rabbis and bakers who came to seek a better life or to serve the community, some following their more successful brethren, for the promise of success. Living in the Mahallah, many struggled to make ends meet. However, it was from the adversity of living in these conditions that many in the community succeeded in life, with many prominent and successful Singaporeans emerging out of the Mahallah, among them Jacob Ballas and Harry Elias.

Immigrant Jews in Singapore played an important role at the start of the 20th century, and have a continuing legacy here through some of the old buildings in the Mahallah, as well as in street names such as Elias Road and Meyer Road. You can read more about the streets of Mahallah in Jerome’s post here.

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