The project aims to study the mosques on the Malabar coast of India, particularly those erected along the coastline of the modern state of Kerala and southern Karnataka, in southern India, from the initial spread of Islam in the 7th century (according to legends) to the 19th 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 – are among the oldest mosques in India and in the Islamic world: some of them 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. At the same time, the structures to be investigated generally display unique formal elements. They differ considerably from those found in other areas of India and of the Islamic world. They seem to be the result of a remarkable combination of artistic vocabularies apparently borrowed from other Muslim regions – the Arabian Peninsula and Central Asia – and fused with elements drawn from local and South East Asian vernacular and temple architecture. The Indian Ocean trade network that brought Islam to these shores also contributed to defining the identity of the first Islamic communities, which seems to be reflected in architectural choices. Both aspects, the models chosen for these mosques and the Indian Ocean network continued to play a key role in the transformation of artistic vocabularies and in the development of structures. Nevertheless, the mosques’ originality and historical value is today jeopardised by increasing renovation, demolition, and reconstruction work.
Only some of Kerala’s mosques have been mentioned in scholarly publications or have been made the object of accurate studies. There is a lack of exhaustive surveys charting the mosques and analysing their layout, decorative plans and inscriptions, so as to define their formal elements and functions. 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.
Lines of investigations and research hypothesis. To answer these research questions, the proposed project is structured along four main lines of inquiry, which are complementary and interconnected, and which aim to meet four research objectives.
- Identification of mosques.
To date, only a fraction of the mosques in Malabar have been studied and written about. Although some structures are occasionally discussed in publications dedicated to the history, politics or socio-religious aspects of the region – suffice it to think of the mentions of the famous Cheraman Masjid in the studies by Miller (2015) and Prange (2018) – the only relevant works in the field of art and architecture are certainly those of Shokoohy (1991, 19913, 2003) and Tulsa Fels (2011, 2020); they constitute the first attempts to create an albeit partial survey that could serve as a prelude to a systematic study of the structures in the region. However, even these works have by no means sifted through all the structures in the region, or considered and examined in depth the recent phenomenon of their transformation and destruction. Moreover, it is still necessary to create a taxonomy examining the different mosques in the region according to their structure, their location in the area and their functions – suffice it to think of the differences that emerged during the preliminary surveys for the project between masjid/mosque, jami masjid/congregational mosque and srambia or niskarappalli (a kind of little mosque found in the region, usually located near cultivated fields and far from the main settlements).
- Mapping
Once the sites and structures of interest in the region have been identified, it will be fundamental to carry out a mapping of their location, documenting their reciprocal relations and their connection to urban centres or other religious sites. A complete documentation of these buildings and of their location will certainly make it possible to reach conclusions concerning the development of the centres of Muslim communities over the centuries and it will help to understand the directions (and perhaps chronology) of the penetration of Islam into the coastal region and the hinterland. At the same time – also in the light of the crucial role of the early Islamic communities in the trade along the ocean routes and in the exchanges with the more inland areas and populations of the region –if confirmed, the peculiar location of the mosques along the coast, in the main harbour cities, or at the mouths of rivers and canals leading to inland areas, would prove the role that mosques played from both a religious and socio-economic point of view, serving as caravanserais (funduq) – a function which would also explain the two or more plans the structures often present
- Art-historical and typological study.
As the identification of the structures of interest proceeds, the research team will begin the documentation process aimed at tracing the plans of the mosques and at completing a detailed evaluation of the materials and formal elements that characterise them. This analysis will bring out any changes in the original conception of the buildings and help define the main phases of construction. This thorough analysis will also make use of the written information available concerning some of the mosques, and will collect as much data as possible on the monuments yet to be examined in scholarly publications. Only such a detailed documentation of models and formal elements found will enable an extensive and in-depth reflection on their use and origins, and on the merging of different vocabularies in the region. Obviously this type of interpretation will proceed hand in hand with a detailed analysis of plans, models and formal elements adopted. In this sense, a comparative approach combined with the study of trade and relations with other regions, will be essential in order to recognise the origins of formal elements and models imported into the area, their development, and the relations and fusion with the vernacular and temple architecture of the Malabar coast. Last but not least, particular attention will be devoted to the interpreting of decorative programmes and inscriptions.
- Identity-building and the role of mosques