INDO-PERSIAN KINGSHIP AND ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE IN MALAYSIA – TAASA Review March 2009

Matt Cox D iscussion on the appearance of Indian and Persian elements in the Islamic architecture of Malaysia usually focuses on the 20th century influences brought about by English intervention.

Within Malaysia the general understanding is that Indian Islamic architecture arrived on the peninsula as a peripheral consequence of British involvement such as the large-scale transportation of Indian workers and the creation of a British-Malaya national architecture.

Prior to the establishment of the Malay sultanates as independent polities in the early 15th century, the Indianised Hindu empire of Sri Jaya centred in Palembang, Sumatra held considerable cultural and political influence over the Malaysian peninsula...