This talk discusses the methodological challenges in the study of mosques and tomb complexes in maritime Southeast Asia, specifically early modern Java. Building type/model choices and ornamental schemes will be read against questions of elite posturing and the agency of local and foreign builders, as far as these can be ascertained from textual clues and from a comparative analysis of buildings. The talk will compare four mosques for which there exist early modern architectural remains in their respective towns: fifteenth-century Cirebon’s Kasepuhan, and the sixteenth-century complexes at Banten, Kudus, and Mantingan.
Imran bin Tajudeen is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore. He works on architectural encounters and disciplinary categories across the local and the cosmopolitan in Southeast Asia from the vernacular architecture perspective.
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