Puthenpalli (mosque) in Thekkumbhagum, Paravur (Kollam, Kerala)

Sara Mondini | Ghent University

 

Architectural forms and identities: the case of Malabar mosques

Summary The Symposium in honour of Prof. Ebba Koch was the occasion to present the project “The Mosques of Kerala: Artistic Vocabularies in the Identity-Building of Muslim Communities" (2023-2028), funded by the FWO, Research Foundation - Flanders. The project aims to study the mosques on the Malabar coast of India, from the initial spread of Islam in the 8th-9th century, their peculiar style, their recent transformation and their role in the processes of identity building of the local Muslim communities.

Some of the mosques – judging from local traditions, surviving sources, and the preliminary research conducted – would be among the oldest mosques in India: some of them according to legends would appear to date from the Prophet's time, even though they were touched up or rebuilt in later periods. Their construction would appear to be connected to the first communities of merchants settled in the region because of trade, who had converted to Islam and put down roots over the course of the following centuries.

Only some of Kerala’s mosques have been mentioned in scholarly publications or have been made the object of accurate studies (Shokoohy 2013). A full understanding of the monuments, from both a formal and contextual point of view, would have a significant impact on our knowledge of both art-historical and socio-religious scenes, in the region and in the Islamic world. The art historical study of these mosques would enable to trace out the transfer of forms and models, travelling along the trade networks, the dynamics behind the establishment of a new regional artistic vocabulary, and contribute to understand the process and directions of the penetration of Islam into the coastal region and the hinterland.

 

Bibliography

Shokoohy, M. (2013). Muslim Architecture of South India: The Sultanate of Ma'bar and the Traditions of Maritime Settlers on the Malabar and Coromandel Coasts (Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Goa). London: Routledge.