Stylistic Influence of Mughal Architecture on Malaysian Mosques

Art and architectural historians categorize styles, such as Gothic, Roman and Greek, based on the perceptual similarity of distinguishable features repeatedly used by a group or an individual in a region or during a particular period — however, style changes with time, socio-political and cultural contexts and customs. The changed features, when repeated, emerge or create a new style; moreover, one style influences the other. This study aims to measure the degree of Mughal architectural stylistic influence on colonial mosques in Malaysia based on the similarity model and feature matching. To achieve the aim of this research, three case studies were selected from North India representing early, high and late Mughal periods, and they were compared with three mosques from the British colonial period in Malaysia. Eight repeatedly used Mughal architectural features were recognized in Malaysian mosques. Their perceived stylistic similarity was measured on a Likert scale by showing the photographs of each pair of architectural features from Malaysian and Mughal case studies. The respondents were forty-three architecture students who had already studied Mughal architecture at their undergraduate level. Mughal influence on Malaysian mosque architecture has been recognized by several scholars in their work. However, most of these research projects are typological studies. Early Southeast Asian architecture was vernacular, and over time, it had been influenced by foreign architectural styles. During the British colonial period, Mughal architectural features were incorporated into Malay buildings, especially in public and religious structures. The result shows the Mughal stylistic influence on British colonial Malaysian mosques through five features of Mughal architecture (finial, dome, chhatri, façade and pishtaq) of the high and late Mughal period.