Islamic art in Southeast Asia: 830 A.D.-1570 A.D

This dissertation is about the history of Islamic art in 16 port cities of Southeast Asia, dating from the 9th to the 16th centuries. Each chapter deals with Champa, Patani, Trengganu, Pahang, Johore, Malacca, Perak, Kedah, Pasai/Acheh, Cerbon, Japara, Tuban, Ternate, Jolo, and Brunei. The art works such as coins, krises, slab inscriptions, tombstones, fortifications and mosques are divided into two categories. First, those which are mentioned in the indigenous sources such as the Sejarah Melayu and Hikayat Raja Pasai, as well as in Arabic, Chinese, and Portuguese texts. Second, those which are extant, and these have been analysed to provide an idea of how Muslims deal with visual forms. The extant works have also been interpreted so as to grasp the meanings they might or might not bear upon the ports and periods concerned.; The tradition of Islamic art is linked to trade, which initiated the Islamization process. The results of inter-port transactions as well as contacts with merchants from China, India, and the Middle East were evident in the borrowings and adaptations of Hindu-Buddist visual vocabulary such as the floral, animal, scriptal, and mythological motifs. In Java, where the role of the wali sangas typified a peculiar ethos, the Saka and sculptural dating systems on tombstones and mosques were frequently used. The method of pure and diluted dichotomy is adopted in this thesis as a way of coping with how the language of forms was affecting the formation of an Islamic visual tradition. Another level of formal manipulation was the selective use of Arabic calligraphy and language which decorated coins, krises and tombstones. In addition, Malay emerged as a language of inscription. Islamic art in the Malay archipelago would have evolved differently had it not been for the thwarting impact of the Portuguese who appeared upon the scene in the early decades of the 16th century.