Building Communities in Gujarat: Architecture and Society During the Twelfth Through Fourteenth Centuries (Brill's Indological Library, Vol. 22) (Brill's Indological Library, V. 22)

The Indo-Islamic architecture subject of this book is not the result of a ‘clash of civilizations’, but to be seen as innovations of the local architectural tradition, a product of local craft traditions. Alka Patel here brings together two architectural corpora in a careful analysis of the 12th- through 14th-century Islamic ritual buildings of southeastern Sindh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. The new social and ritual demands of Islam led local craftspeople to initiate rejuvenation and expansion of their skills and knowledge. Moreover, the commonality of building practices among "religions" led to the intertwining of various Muslim and non-Muslim communities. The work's analysis of epigraphical evidence will be seminal to reorientations of historical methods investigating interactions among socio-religious groups in the region. Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements Note on Transliteration List of Plates Foreword Chapter One. The Contours of Examination Chapter Two. Integrating the Buildings and Communities of Gujarāt and Western India I. Frameworks II. Communities according to Inscriptions Chapter Three. The Maru-Gurjara Style as a Source for the Islamic Ritual Buildings in Western India Chapter Four. The Maru-Gurjara Style in Buildings of Islamic Worship Chapter Five. Islamic Ritual Buildings of Gujarāt and Its Vicinity of the Fourteenth Century I. The Background II. The Buildings III. Materials of Construction: Pragmatism and Propaganda IV. Conclusions Chapter Six. Conclusions and Future Directions Glossary of Architectural Terms Works Cited and Selected Bibliography Index Plates BRILL’S INDOLOGICAL LIBRARY Focusing on the era spanning the mid-12th through the 14th centuries, Patel examines the architectural styles of non-Muslim temples and Muslim mosques in Gujarat, finding in them a distinct, shared regional style that belies narratives of Hindu/Muslim dichotomies. Basing her argument on the epigraphic evidence, she also contends that the development of a shared building style helped lead to the social construction of communities in which Muslims and non-Muslims interacted in many ways not generally acknowledged by those who focus on religious difference