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In 1898, by the Kinta River, the chief of Kinta built a mosque in memory of his wife. It still stands on Jalan Masjid, Ipoh. His son, born in Ipoh in 1897, grew up to help create Malaya's first university. Here is the story of a father, a son, and the town that grew between them.
Many of us have driven past it.
A white mosque with a blue dome and two tall minarets, by the Kinta River, on Jalan Masjid in Ipoh.
It has stood there for 128 years. It was built by a man whose title is often translated as “Lord of Kinta”. And its story runs from a village on a riverbank to a university hall in Singapore.
In our last story, Ignatius Chew turned his family's photographs and letters into a museum in Ipoh. Today's story is about another Ipoh family whose legacy you can still visit.
Earlier in this series, we took you down Concubine Lane, which, according to accounts of the time, was built on padi land owned by the same Malay chief. Today, we meet him properly.
What Is Masjid Panglima Kinta?
Masjid Panglima Kinta, also called the Dato' Panglima Kinta Mosque, stands on Jalan Masjid, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, close to the banks of the Kinta River. Jalan Masjid was once called Hume Street.
It was built in 1898 by Dato' Panglima Kinta Muhammad Yusuff bin Lassam, in memory of his wife, Saaidah binti Chik, who died that year.
It is one of the oldest mosques in Ipoh. In 2012, it was gazetted as a heritage building.
Who Was the “Lord of Kinta”?
Dato' Panglima Kinta is one of the oldest titles in Perak.
Its holder is one of the Orang Besar Lapan, the Eight Major Chiefs of the Perak sultanate, and was the chief of the Kinta district: the “Lord of Kinta”. The full title is Orang Kaya-Kaya Panglima Kinta Seri Amar Bangsa DiRaja.
Histories of Perak trace the title back to the reign of Sultan Mudzaffar Shah II, in 1636.
By tradition, two branches of the family took turns to provide the chief: the Paloh line and the Kepayang line, named after two old Malay villages along the Kinta River.
When the ninth chief, Zainal Abidin, died in 1884, his cousin Muhammad Yusuff was chosen as the tenth Dato' Panglima Kinta. He held the title until his death in 1903.
From a Village by the River to a Tin Town
In the early 1880s, Ipoh was still a village on the Kinta River. Then huge deposits of tin were found all around it, and miners and traders poured in.
Histories of the Kinta Valley credit Dato' Panglima Kinta Muhammad Yusuff with steering Ipoh's growth, from a small village into the largest town in Kinta, during his years as chief.
He encouraged newcomers to come and trade. According to one Perak heritage researcher, he changed Malay village land into shop lots, which were sold to Chinese buyers for $25 a lot.
In 1894, when Ipoh's new Sanitary Board was formed to look after the town, he was listed among its members, alongside the tin miners Leong Fee and Yau Tet Shin.
Ipoh survived the Great Fire of 1892 and rebuilt. By 1895, it was the second largest town in what became the Federated Malay States.
It was a town built by many hands. Malay chiefs and villagers, Chinese miners and shopkeepers, and traders from India, Sumatra and beyond: Ipoh needed all of them.
1898: A Mosque for Saaidah
In 1898, his wife, Saaidah binti Chik, died.
That same year, he built a mosque in her memory, on a plot of about 45,000 square feet near the river. It cost about $15,000.
It is built of brick and lime plaster, painted white, with a design that mixes Mughal and Neoclassical styles. Its square prayer hall sits under a two-tiered, pyramid-shaped roof, and today a blue dome rises above the building. Two minarets rise on either side, and semicircular arches hold up the porch.
Over the years, more was added around it: a burial ground for the Panglima Kinta family, a madrasah for religious classes, a place for ablutions and a house for the mosque's officials.
What to Look For When You Visit
Four things to look out for:
The mimbar, or pulpit. A tall wooden pulpit carved with flowers, awan larat scrollwork and verses of the Quran, made in 1928 by a carpenter named Mohamed Sopian, reportedly without a single nail.
The prayer hall itself. It holds about 400 people, with room for about 200 more in the corridors at Friday prayers.
The family mausoleum behind the mosque. An Egyptian Quran teacher, Shaik Tholji, who lived at the mosque and taught Quranic recitation, is buried there too.
A small gallery in the grounds. It tells the story of the Panglima Kinta and the early history of Ipoh.
If you visit, dress modestly and check the prayer times first.
The Son Born in Ipoh
Dato' Panglima Kinta Muhammad Yusuff had a son, Mohamed Eusoff.
Mohamed Eusoff was born in Ipoh in 1897, into the family of the chiefs of Kinta. He went to the Anderson School in Ipoh, then joined the Malayan Civil Service. He served in Kinta, including as an assistant collector of land revenue and as a magistrate in Ipoh.
He could have stayed a local official. Instead, he helped build something much bigger.
Built for the World: A University for Malaya
In March 1947, he was appointed to the Carr-Saunders Commission on University Education in Malaya. He was its only Malay member.
The commission's work led to the University of Malaya, founded in Singapore on 8 October 1949 by merging Raffles College and the King Edward VII College of Medicine.
He sat on the University Court from its first meeting in 1949. In 1951, the university gave him an honorary doctorate in law; it describes him as the first Malay to receive one. In 1953 he became Chairman of the University Council, and in 1954 its Pro-Chancellor.
That university later grew into two. In 1962, its Singapore division became the University of Singapore, today's National University of Singapore, and its Kuala Lumpur division became Universiti Malaya.
At home in Perak, he was installed as the fourteenth Dato' Panglima Kinta in 1951. He served on the Perak State Council and the Ipoh Town Board, was President of the All-Malaya Muslim Missionary Society, and was nominated to speak for the Orang Asli in the Federal Legislative Council.
He was a man of many committees. He was President of the Ipoh Rotary Club in 1947, reportedly its first Malay president. He led the Ipoh Red Cross Society and the Perak Amateur Athletic Association. By the time of his death, he is said to have held no fewer than 56 public appointments.
He died in July 1957, weeks before Merdeka.
His name lives on. In November 1958, Eusoff College opened at the University of Malaya in Singapore, its first residential hall for women. Today, Eusoff Hall at the National University of Singapore still carries his name. And in 2021, Universiti Malaya opened the Dato Panglima Kinta Eusoff Research Centre.
The hall that bears his name remembers him as a believer in all-round education. He often said it was “life outside the classroom” that enriched students' lives as much as their studies.
What the Panglima Kinta Story Teaches Our Children
First lesson: build for others.
A mosque built in 1898 still serves people every week, 128 years later.
Second lesson: make room for newcomers.
Ipoh grew from a riverside village into a tin town because people from many places were welcomed in to work, trade and build.
Third lesson: turn grief into something that lasts.
A husband lost his wife, and built something in her name that has outlived them both.
Fourth lesson: education carries a family further than land.
The father helped a village become a town. The son, an Anderson School boy from Ipoh, helped give Malaya its first university.
Fifth lesson: life outside the classroom matters.
Mohamed Eusoff believed it. So do we.
The Next Time You Cross the Kinta River
So the next time you drive along Jalan Masjid, look across at the white mosque by the water, and remember how it began.
A chief by the river.
A mosque for his wife.
A town that grew around them.
A son from Ipoh who helped build a university for Malaya.
Born in Ipoh. Built for the World.
Have you ever stopped at Masjid Panglima Kinta on Jalan Masjid? What do you remember about it? Tell us
This story is part of Born in Ipoh. Built for the World., our City of Millionaires heritage series. At EdQuest International School in Ipoh, we believe history, character and critical thinking are best learned through real stories, including the stories of our own city.
Stories in this series are shared for informational and educational purposes. Where accounts differ, we say so. We respect all races, religions and cultures, and we do not represent or endorse any political party or movement.
