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middle-aged man was sweeping out the dust in the Al-Anshor Mosque in Pekojan, West Jakarta, when less than a meter away another man took out a microphone to broadcast the call to prayer, or adzan.

'€œHalf of the mosque is still being renovated. Nowadays, we can only pray on the second floor and on some parts of the first floor,'€ Iskandar, a caretaker of the mosque, told The Jakarta Post recently as he put away his broom and picked up a sarong.

The mosque, located on Jl. Pengukiran in Pekojan, has been a silent witness to history with a number of literary sources suggesting that it was built in the 17th century by Muslims from Gujarat and Bengali, India, who had come to Jakarta for trading purposes.

In the backyard, there are three unnamed graves that were found alongside the mosque. '€œPeople believe that the three graves hold the Indians who live nearby,'€ Iskandar said.

The Jakarta administration'€™s official website jakarta.go.id named Al-Anshor Mosque the oldest existing mosque in Jakarta. The mosque was discovered by a Dutch priest. In 1648, the priest revealed the discovery of a mosque and a Muslim school to a church council.

It took 345 years before the city administration named the mosque a heritage building through gubernatorial letter No. 475/1993.

However, the historical mosque is far from the traditional idea of a cultural heritage-listed building.

Having being built on land less than 150 square meters, the mosque is located in a small alley of a suburban area that is barely wide enough for a motorcycle to pass through.

When the Post visited the mosque, some parts of the mosque were undergoing renovation with the ceiling and tiles yet to be installed and paint peeling off from most of the walls. Despite the mosque'€™s poor condition, it still serves the local residents as a place for prayer.

The renovation of the mosque started in 2012, and has progressed slowly due to a lack of funds.

'€œWe are still waiting for more funds to continue the renovation. Otherwise, we will have to use the mosque the way it is,'€ Iskandar said, adding that the mosque last received funding assistance from the city administration in the 1990s.

He said that two years ago, the mosque was submerged by flooding during a rainy season. The ground of the mosque was later thickened to prevent rain water from entering the facility.

Al-Anshor Mosque head Asmadireja said that he relied solely on donations from local people to run the mosque and those donations contributed between Rp 800,000 (US$60) and Rp 1 million.

Separately, historian Ade Purnama said that the mosque was built in Pekojan because back then, the area was inhabited by Indians. He said that Pekojan was also home to some other old mosques, including Jami Al-Anwar Mosque, which was located around two kilometers away from the Al-Anshor Mosque.

'€œJami Al-Anwar Mosque was built in 1751. However, there isn'€™t any literature that can say exactly when Al-Anshor Mosque was built. What we know is that both mosques have a different style of design,'€ he said.

'€” jp/Indra Budiari