The original mosque was a single-story wooden building with a double tiered roof, built in the 1826 at the behest of Sultan Hussain Shah of Johor. After handing Singapore over to the British, he requested that a mosque for the Muslim community be built adjacent to his istana ("palace") that was located in the same place.
Sir Stamford Raffles agreed to his request and contributed $3,000 to the funds for the mosque. The land of the mosque was expanded in 1875 by
Tunku Alam, a grandson of Sultan Hussein, who bought parts of land surrounding the mosque and donated them to be used within the mosque's
awqaf endowment. Aside from the expansion of land, Tunku Alam also appointed a committee to manage the mosque with permission from the relevant colonial authorities. A domed mausoleum, reserved for the relatives of Sultan Hussein, was also established behind the mosque in the 1920s. The building began to gradually dilapidate over the years, which prompted the committee of the Sultan Mosque to propose a complete reconstruction that was estimated to cost at least $200,000. The mosque was rebuilt in phases, partly due to a lack of funds and also to prevent disrupting the daily prayers, which were continued to be held in the mosque. Construction would only be completed by 1932, while the minarets were slightly renovated in 1936 to accommodate the installation of loudspeakers for the adhan. During
World War II, the mosque was damaged by air raids conducted by the Japanese aerial forces. After the war, the mosque became the centre of the
Maria Hertogh Riots in 1950 when the rioters hid inside the mosque from colonial police. With approval from a
qāḍī, Muslim officers were able to enter the mosque and disperse the rioters. Ownership and management of the mosque was transferred to the
Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS) after the independence of Singapore. In 1968,
King Faisal of Saudi Arabia donated $37,000 to assist in funding major restoration works on the mosque. The Sultan Mosque was officially gazetted as a national monument of Singapore on 8 March 1975, due to its historical significance of being one of the earliest mosques to be built in Singapore, second only to
Masjid Omar Kampong Melaka. In 1987, an annexe building was constructed next to the mosque within the same compound. This new annexe was officially opened on 8 July 1993 by the then Prime Minister,
Goh Chok Tong. The mosque underwent an extensive renovation starting in 2014 which was sponsored by the MUIS. Restoration works were conducted, which included replacing broken and unusable doors and windows with new, identical ones as well as re-tiling of several parts of the mosque, while the electronics and lighting of the mosque were inspected. == Architecture ==