Imran Bin Tajudeen, The Posturing of Mosque Architecture in Colonial Java: Local, European and Islamic References in the Making of New Mosques, 1800-1930s
8 March 2011
12.30-13.30 hrs.
IIAS Brown Bag Lecture Series
Venue: IIAS, Conference Room, Rapenburg 59, 2311 GJ Leiden
Abstract
The design of new civic and private community mosques in colonial Java together present an interesting record of the negotiation and projection of identity, or of socio-political posturing through built form. The terms ‘colonial’ and ‘vernacular’/’traditional’/‘indigenous’, meanwhile, are often employed as binary, mutually exclusive categories in discussing architecture and heritage. In this talk I present several examples of mosques built in the 19th and early 20th century in Java that defy any such neat categorisation; these examples have subsequently been inadequately discussed, or omitted altogether, in studies that deal with either category of historic buildings.
I will discuss the two objectives of my research. The first is to provide a chronological survey of these mosques, with a view towards collation, correction, clarification and synthesis of existing data and descriptions. The second is to analyse and discuss these examples in terms of the history of Java’s mosque architecture in relation to the categories ‘colonial heritage’ and ‘Islamic architecture’. We will look at four kinds of new mosques from the period 1800-1930s – those initiated in vernacular construction and subsequently renovated and expanded to produce a pronounced European and/or ‘Islamic’ outward form; those that were designed by colonial architects from the outset following the vernacular type; those that were built from the outset as European-type buildings adapted for use as mosques; and finally those built in the ‘Saracenic’ or pseudo-Islamic style. On the basis of preliminary findings on their initial design and of renovations and additions, I suggest that we can observe a deliberate posturing of these mosques at the intersection of local/indigenous, European and ‘Islamic’ architectural representations, which is significant when seen in light of the role played by regency mosques in civic pomp on the one hand, and of mosques in general as centres of daily social and religious life of the colony on the other.
About the Brown Bag Lecture Series
IIAS is pleased to introduce the 2011 Brown Bag Lecture Series. Every second Tuesday of the month one of the IIAS researchers will present his/her work-in-progress in an informal setting to their colleagues and other interested attendees. The brown bag lectures are organized to give the research community the opportunity to freely discuss ongoing research and to exchange thoughts.
Please bring your own lunch. IIAS will provide coffee, tea, cold drinks, and possibly a snack. Reservation is not required, but space is limited.
2011: 8 February, 8 March, 12 April, 10 May, 14 June, 12 July, 9 August, 13 September, 11 October, 8 November, 13 December.
For more information, please contact Sandra van der Horst at a.e.l.van.der.horst@iias.nl.