Hybrid histories: a framework for rethinking 'Islamic' architecture
The Adelaide Mosque (1888-1889), the first urban mosque built in Australia, was founded by Afghan cameleers whose contribution to the exploration of Australia’s vast desert interior is largely untold. The cultural significance of the mosque is recognised locally and it is identified as “one of...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand
2012
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| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/30121/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/30121/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/30121/1/SAHANZ_XXIX_2012_Full_Papers.pdf.pdf |
| Summary: | The Adelaide Mosque (1888-1889), the first urban mosque built in Australia, was
founded by Afghan cameleers whose contribution to the exploration of Australia’s
vast desert interior is largely untold. The cultural significance of the mosque is
recognised locally and it is identified as “one of the few relics of Afghan immigration
to South Australia and embodies in built form Afghan and Mohammedan culture
which is otherwise not significantly represented” (City of Adelaide Heritage Study
Item No. 159, Adelaide Mosque file, Heritage South Australia). However, despite
this recognition, this unadorned bluestone structure has failed to draw the attention
of architectural historians in surveys of ‘Islamic’ architecture. The scope of recent
surveys in this field is increasingly inclusive. However, very few studies focus on the
architecture of Muslim communities in regions where Islam is not the predominant
faith, especially in the southern hemisphere. The Adelaide Mosque, and many
others, is excluded from the historical record despite the instrumental role it played
in the life of Muslim settlers. This absence raises questions about gaps, or histories
untold, as well as myths received, in histories of ‘Islamic’ architecture that raise
questions about the truth-value of the past. There is a need to examine hybridised
forms and shared architectural narratives to counter the myopic but persistent
representation—or fabulation—of supposedly authentic, largely Arab-centric, forms
of ‘Islamic’ architecture. This paper argues, then, that new theoretical frameworks
are required to interpret this architectural hybrid that is, we argue, typical rather
than exceptional. Through a case study of the Adelaide Mosque, this paper critically
re-examines the reductive but pervasive conceptions of ‘Islamic’ Architecture that
obscure the historical processes of hybridization and its diverse morphological
outcomes to comprehend the process of resilience and assimilation through which
architecture is shaped in a particular context. |
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