WHT 2024: Site 8

Site 8: Madrasah Alsagoff Al-Arabiah

Address: 111 Jln Sultan, Singapore 199006

Wakif: Syed Mohamed Bin Ahmad Alsagoff (SMA)

Summary

Syed Mohamed bin Ahmad Alsagoff engaged in the export of Straits produce and Malayan tin to Arabia and Europe. From his assets, Syed Mohamed bequeathed a portion of his estate to Wakaf SMA Alsagoff. He is the grandson of Hajjah Fatimah binte Sulaiman and son of Raja Siti Kraeng Chanda Pulih.

In his last will (wasiat), he had stated that a school be built to teach Islamic knowledge, Arabic language as well as English for the Muslim community. The school, Madrasah Alsagoff Al-Arabiah, was then opened in 1912.

For the first 30 years of its existence, only boys were enrolled. It was only after the end of the Japanese Occupation of Singapore in the 1940s that the school started enrolling girls. Today the madrasah is one of six full-time madrasahs in Singapore.