To find the cache, you need to walk along Kallang River. The cache is located at the end of the path which is about 190 meters from a small house, partially embedded in the wall of a warehouse at 49 Moonstone Lane, near the Kallang River, has housed the grave of someone named Syeda Sharifah Zainah Al-Habsyi. The woman buried along the residential street was the great-granddaughter of renowned healer, Habib Noh.
Habib Noh's shrine is housed at the Haji Muhammad Salleh mosque on Palmer Road, on the edge of the Central Business District.
It was understands that Syeda Sharifah was also related to the Aljunied family, who hail from a line of established traders in Palembang that set up base in Singapore after the British established a trading post on the island in 1819
Dr Imran, from National University of Singapore who issued a call for more information on the grave, noted that Syeda Sharifah is actually two honorifics which denote her descent from the Ba'Alawi sada lineage of Hadhramaut, Yemen.
He said her grave is significant as it lies along the banks of the Kallang River, which was home to the Orang Biduanda Kallang, a community of "sea nomads" who were among the original inhabitants of Singapore.
According to two accounts he obtained, Dr Imran said the grave formerly stood in the compound of the raised floor house of Syed Haroon Alhabshi, who is the younger brother of Syarifah Zainah Alhabshi. Both are related to Habib Noh.
Syed Haroon was the imam of Kampung Marican’s mosque, and his home was the only raised floor house there. He also maintained the grave. His son, also Syeda Sharifah’s nephew, later constructed the small building in the 1950s, which still stands today. A business man bought the old house plot to build a rice warehouse but the grave was retained.
The family were evicted from the kampung in 1977, said Dr Imran
He added: "The grave is already indicated on maps from 1936 and 1937, but the Muis record states that it dates from 1939.
"It is located at a historic site - one of the old villages that were found along the Kallang River which was already in existence in the mid-19th century. By the 1920s, it was called Kampung Marican after a major landowner there who hailed from Penang."
Mr Mohamed Faizal, 38, a musician and heritage buff who alerted Dr Imran to the exhumation posting, said: "I believe Syeda Sharifah Zainah Al-Habsyi must have been quite important because her grave has stood the test of time." - Source The ST.
