[2][3] The building, which involved people from various cultural backgrounds in its construction, was the centre of an Islamic reform in the area during the 19th century.

[9][10] According to Abdul Baqir Zein, the mosque was first built in 1700 at the foot of Mount Padang, then moved to the bank of Batang Arau, as the Dutch colonial government intended to use the previous location to build a road to Emma Haven Port.

[11] However, the Indonesian Department of Religion documents the mosque as having been constructed in 1790 with a wooden frame and a roof made from Sago palms.

[11][12][6] It was erected on waqf land donated by locals[12][6][11] and located in the center of the city's Minang district.

[6][15] Before the end of the Padri War, in 1818 the Minang Ulamas held a meeting at Ganting to discuss the steps they would take to eliminate mysticism and superstition from Islam on the island.

[6] The floor had received work beginning in 1900, when tiles from the Netherlands, ordered through Jacobson van den Berg.

[9] The corps expanded the front chamber until it was 20 metres (66 ft) in length; they also built a Portuguese style façade.

[12] Meanwhile, ethnic Chinese under Captain Lo Chian Ko began working on an octagonal dome, resembling the top of a vihara.

[6][17] In 1921 Abdul Karim Amrullah established the Thawalib Schools in Padang mosques, including Ganting, to better educate the local populace in Islam.

[6][14] When the Japanese began occupying the Indies in 1942, Sukarno – at the time a Dutch prisoner in Bengkulu – was evacuated to Kutacane.

However, once they reached Painan they discovered that the Japanese forces had already occupied Bukittinggi; this quashed hopes of bringing Sukarno to Barus in Tapanuli.

Hizbul Wathan members, at the time based out of Ganting, went to retrieve Sukarno and bring him to Padang by cart.

[6][18] During the three-year Japanese occupation the mosque served as the military's headquarters in central and western Sumatra.

[6][19] After the Allies landed in Sumatra, many of the Muslim Indian soldiers brought by the English deserted and joined the native revolutionaries.

[9][15] Since 1950, after Indonesia's independence was recognised, the Ganting Grand Mosque has hosted numerous statesmen from both Indonesia and abroad, including Vice President Mohammad Hatta, Minister of Defence Sultan Hamengkubuwana IX, and General Abdul Haris Nasution.

Foreign dignitaries who have visited the mosque included people from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

[7][16][20] Three years later, the Ganting Grand Mosque was one of 608 places of worship severely damaged when another large earthquake struck the area on 30 September 2009.

The courtyard is surrounded by an iron fence, separating it from the busy streets on the eastern and northern sides of the mosque.

[17] On the eastern wall of the front veranda hangs a geometric carving created with square and rectangular panels.

There are also two square columns on the northern and southern sides, near a central, octagonal room which has one doorway from the east and one window.