270
J.M.Rogers, ‘Seljuk influence in the monuments of Cairo’,
Kunst des Orients
7: 40 ff., 1970–1.
Sumatra
Most westerly large Indonesian island located west of the
Malay peninsula and east of Java.
The first evidence for Islam in Indonesia comes from
late thirteenth-century accounts of Marco Polo and
Chinese documents which state that the region of
Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra was ruled by
Muslim kingdoms. At this time the southern part of
Sumatra was ruled by the Javanese kingdom of
Majpahit which came to control most of the area of
present-day Indonesia. Nevertheless,
the Muslim
states in the north of Sumatra began to spread,
converting first the coastal peoples and only later
the central area of Melayu. It was from Sumatra that
Islam reached the Malay peninsula and gradually
spread into Java itself. The Portuguese victory over
Malacca in the early sixteenth century meant that
Aceh once again became the main centre of Islam in
the area. During the seventeenth century Sumatra
was dominated by the ruler of Aceh, Iskandar Muda
(1607–36)
who had artillery, elephant and horse
cavalry and a navy capable of carrying 700 men. The
rule of Iskandar Muda’s successor Iskandar Thani
Alauddin Mughayat Syah (1636–41) was a period of
cultural renaissance with several books written about
the life of the court.
Unfortunately few early Islamic buildings
survive in Sumatra probably because they were built
of wood and frequently replaced. The earliest
mosque of which records survive is the Masjid
Agung Baiturrahman at Banda Aceh on the northern
tip of Sumatra. It is likely that the present building
stands on the site of one
of the earliest mosques in
Indonesia; however, the first records of the building
(1612) describe an Indo-Islamic structure designed
with the help of Dutch engineers. The building had
three domes which were increased to five after a fire.
However, it is likely that most early mosque forms
were related to the traditional Sumatran house
design. A recent example is the Rao-Rao Mosque in
Batu Sangkar (west Sumatra) with an Indo-Islamic
façade behind which is wooden mosque with a
complex Sumatran roof-type known as rumah-
adhat. This consists of a three-tiered pyramid roof
construction with a small
kiosk on top crowned with
a tall finial.
The houses of Sumatra are one of the most
distinctive features of the island and are world
famous as examples of vernacular architecture. There
are many regional house forms representing different
cultural traditions, many of which predate Islam. The
basic form of a Sumatran house consists of a building,
set on upright piles driven into the ground, above
which is a huge pitched roof. Wood is used for the
piles and framework of the house, bamboo poles for
the roof and the walls. Distinc-tively Islamic house
types
include the houses of Aceh, Minangkabu, Batak
Mandailing and Lampung regions. The traditional
Aceh house has a fairly basic design consisting of a
rectangular platform resting on piles with a
longitudinal gabled roof. Aceh houses are usually
divided into three with the central area reserved for
sleeping. The entrance is usually in the middle of
one of the long sides and the gable ends are often
decorated with geometric or other non-
representational designs. The designs are either
painted
or carved, sometimes as fretwork panels. The
most celebrated Sumatran house type is that of
Minangkabu which has the entrance set in the middle
of the long side. The roofs of the house are made up
of a succession of pointed gables resembling the
prow of a ship; the decoration is similar to that of
the Aceh houses but may also include inset mirror
work. The Batak Mandailing houses are similar to
those of Minangkabu with roof ridges that sag in
the middle and point upwards at the ends. The
southern part of Sumatra,
the Lampung area, is
heavily influenced by neighbouring Java and
Malaysia, and its houses are mostly of the coastal
type.
Several palaces survive on Sumatra, the oldest of
which is the seventeenth-century Aceh palace known
as Dar al-Dunya. The building shares many
characteristics with the Javanese palaces, or kratons,
with many references to Hindu cosmology and little
relationship to Islamic design. The Dar al-Dunya
palace has the same
north-south axis and three
successive courtyards found in Java and, like the
palaces of Yogyakarta and Surakarta, has a large
formal garden. In the centre of the garden is a
mountain-shaped structure with caves and ledges
for meditation similar to the mountain
representations of Java (e.g. Sunya Ragi). Nineteenth-
century palaces show increasing Islamic and
European influence, although there is still little
relationship to the traditional
wooden architecture
of the island. The palace of Istana Maimun at Medan
Sumatra
