Brick, Timber, and Stone: Building Materials and the Construction of Islamic Architectural History in Gujarat

Abstract

A challenge to the widely perceived notion that the architecture of Gujarat is a stone-based tradition, this article (based on extensive fieldwork in Gujarat supported by the Society for South Asian Studies of the British Academy and the Fondation Max van Berchem, Geneva) explores the full range of materials available across the region and the economic and technological factors that condition their circulation. It suggests that brick and timber construction actually constituted the norm of construction in the majority of the region, aided by the availability of hardwoods, imported from South India by sea. The Islamic religious architecture of the region is reviewed against this background and supported by the presentation of two previously unpublished 15th-17th century brick and timber mosques. This research has resulted in a reconceptualisation of the nature of Gujarati architecture, and the relationship of sea and land in the development and meanings of material culture.