The Architectural Representation Of Islam - Muslim-commissioned Mosque Design In The Netherlands doc

ERIC ROOSE Eric Roose (1967) graduated with M.A. degrees in Public International Law, Cultural Anthropology, and Architectural History (the latter cum laude) from Leiden University. Between 2004 and 2008 he conducted PhD research at Leiden University, and between 2005 and 2008 was also an Affiliated PhD Fellow at the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) in Leiden. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (ASSR) of the University of Amsterdam. ISBN 978 90 8964 133 5 THE ARCHITECTURAL REPRESENTATION OF ISLAM This book is a study of Dutch mosque designs, objects of heated public debate. Until now, studies of diaspora mosque designs have largely consisted of normative architectural critiques that reject the ubiquitous ‘domes and minarets’ as hampering further Islamic-architectural evolution. The Architectural Representation of Islam: Muslim-Commissioned Mosque Design in The Netherlands represents a clear break with the architectural critical narrative, and meticulously analyzes twelve design processes for Dutch mosques. It shows that patrons, by consciously selecting, steering and replacing their architects, have much more influence on their mosques than has been generally assumed. Through the careful transformation of specific building elements from Islamic architectural history to a new context, they literally aim to ‘construct’ the ultimate Islam. Their designs thus evolve not in opposition to Dutch society, but to those versions of Islam that they hold to be false. ISIM DISSERTATIONS ISIM Eric roosE The ArchiTecTurAl represenTATion of islAm The ArchiTecTurAl represenTATion of islAm MusliM-coMMissionEd MosquE dEsign in ThE nEThErlands Eric Roose AUP-ISIM-PS-Roose-OM-DEF.indd 1 01-04-2009 12:06:55 The ArchiTecTurAl represenTATion of islAm MusliM-CoMMissioned Mosque design in The neTherlands Eric Roose Cover illustration: The first two sketches for the first purpose-built mosque in The Netherlands. Bashir/Wiebenga, 7-10/16-10-1951, Archive NAi Cover design and lay-out: De Kreeft, Amsterdam ISBN 978 90 8964 133 5 E-ISBN 978 90 4850 879 2 NUR 761 © ISIM / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2009 Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets uit deze uitgave mag worden verveelvoudigd, opgeslagen in een geautomatiseerd gegevensbestand, of openbaar gemaakt, in enige vorm of op enige wijze, hetzij elektronisch, mechanisch, door fotokopieën, opnamen of enige andere manier, zonder voorafgaande schriftelijke toestemming van de uitgever. Voor zover het maken van kopieën uit deze uitgave is toegestaan op grond van artikel 16B Auteurswet 1912 jº het Besluit van 20 juni 1974, Stb. 351, zoals gewijzigd bij het Besluit van 23 augustus 1985, Stb. 471 en artikel 17 Auteurswet 1912, dient men de daarvoor wettelijk verschuldigde vergoedingen te voldoen aan de Stichting Reprorecht (Postbus 3051, 2130 KB Hoofddorp). Voor het overnemen van gedeelte(n) uit deze uitgave in bloemlezingen, readers en andere compilatiewerken (artikel 16 Auteurswet 1912) dient men zich tot de uitgever te wenden. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. The Architectural Representation of Islam Muslim-Commissioned Mosque Design in The Netherlands p r o e f s c h r i f t ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof. mr. P.F. van der Heijden, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op woensdag 6 mei 2009 klokke 16.15 uur door Eric Reinier Roose geboren te Middelburg in 1967 Promotores Prof. dr. A.J.J. Mekking Prof. dr. M.M. van Bruinessen (Universiteit Utrecht) Overige leden Prof. dr. M.S. Berger Prof. dr. D. Douwes (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam) Prof. dr. A.C.A.E. Moors (Universiteit van Amsterdam) Prof. dr. P.J.M. Nas Dr. H.P.A. Theunissen Prof. dr. D.J. de Vries Contents Acknowledgements 7 Introduction: The Representation of Islamic Architecture in The Netherlands 9 On the Origin of Styles by means of Cultural Selection 9 Religious Construction, Mutual Contrasting and Reality Representation 26 Towards the Representational Analysis of Mosque Design 32 1. Hindustani-Commissioned Mosque Design in The Netherlands 39 Varieties of Islam among Hindustani Communities 40 The Mobarak Mosque, The Hague 50 The First Taibah Mosque, Amsterdam 66 The Second Taibah Mosque, Amsterdam 83 2. Moluccan-Commissioned Mosque Design in The Netherlands 93 Varieties of Islam among Moluccan Communities 94 The Wyldemerck Mosque, Balk 96 The Bait Ar-Rahman Mosque, Ridderkerk 107 The An-Nur Mosque, Waalwijk 120 3. Turkish-Commissioned Mosque Design in The Netherlands 131 Varieties of Islam among Turkish Communities 132 The Yunus Emre Mosque, Almelo 134 The Sultan Ahmet Mosque, Zaanstad 156 The Wester Mosque, Amsterdam 163 4. Moroccan-Commissioned Mosque Design in The Netherlands 181 Varieties of Islam among Moroccan Communities 182 The Al Fourkaan Mosque, Eindhoven 186 The El Islam Mosque, The Hague 198 The Essalaam Mosque, Rotterdam 210 Conclusion: The Architectural Representation of Islam in The Netherlands 237 Design Interpretation and Diverging Realities 237 Overcoming the Clash of Classifications 245 Towards a Dutch Mosque Design? 248 Notes 257 Selected Bibliography 295 Samenvatting in het Nederlands 309 Curriculum Vitae 316 Figures 319 Acknowledgements First: the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM), with its unique diversity of academic disciplines, methodologi- cal interests and regional specializations, formed a stimulating environment without which some of the ideas in this study would definitely not have developed. Next: I am hugely indebted to all the designing and commission- ing parties, or their representatives, who patiently answered my meticulous questions about the materials and information they so graciously provided. Without their cooperation, this dissertation would have been completely impossible. I would like to mention, in no particular order: Ergün Erkoçu, AbdelUahab Hammiche, Cihan Bugdaci, Hibatunnoer Verhagen, Abdul Hamid van der Velden, Abdul Rashid, Naeem Ahmad Warraich, Karim Mah- mood, H. Hendriks, Paul Haffmans, Roy Kasiem, Mohammed Yunus Gaffar, Peter Scipio, Frank Domburg, Ghani van den Berg, Sufyan Ollong, D. Gaaster- land, Hamid Oppier, Ismael Ririn, Hamid Samaniri, Boy Barajanan, Astorias Ohorella, Ibrahim Lessy, Türker Atabek, Nejat Sucu, Henk Slettenhaar, Ine Mentink, Ingrid Pelgrum, Ahmet Altikulaç, Bedri Sevinçsoy, Wim Vugs, Hans Florie, Kees Rijnboutt, Üzeyir Kabaktepe, Marc Breitman, Nada Breitman, Mohamed El Bouk, Piet Vernooy, Dolf Dazert, Haci Karacaer, David Boon, Jacqueline Slagter, Amar Nejjar, Ali Belhaj, Ahmed Arabi, Ahmed Ajdid, Joris Molenaar, and Wilfried van Winden. I also thank Marcel Decraene, Antje van der Hoek, Marcus Klomp, Henk van de Schoor, Jeroen Westerman, Marcel Maussen, Martijn de Koning, Nico Landman, Hans Theunissen, and Diana Wright for pointing me in the direction of crucial archives, articles, literature, websites, contacts, and organizations. Finally: a word of gratitude goes out to Berber den Otter, for enduring the four years of monomaniacal and near- obsessive behaviour that came along with this project. As meagre compen- sation, I dedicate this dissertation to her. 7 Introduction: The Representation of Islamic Architecture in The Netherlands On the Origin of Styles by means of Cultural Selection In 1950, the first plan for a Dutch mosque to be built as such was developed by a Pakistani Muslim missionary group to The Netherlands. At the time when this first mosque plan entered the scene, knowledge on the subject within architectural design schools was mainly produced by a small number of standard Dutch works on the history of world architecture, writ- ten by influential Dutch architects-cum-teachers in the preceding decades on the basis of international literature. Although the authors differed in their attitudes towards the desirability and application of Oriental elements in contemporary Dutch architecture, they generally assumed that it was the non-structural and non-functional aspects of Islamic buildings that gave the latter their place in history. One of the founding fathers of Dutch architec- tural education, E.H. Gugel, in a much-repeated architectural chronology, effectively placed ‘Arabian architecture’ just between what was thought of as the Byzantine and Romanesque style periods. He deemed it not to have added any ‘constructive’ elements to the historical development of world architecture: it merely copied classical forms, with only a further detailing of decoration patterns. 1 According to W. Kromhout, the main difference lay in the fact that ‘they [the Muslims] saw the conspicuously decorative in eve- rything, whereas we [the Dutch] saw the constructive. They used building elements because they thought them beautiful, providing the opportunity for hundreds of aesthetically pleasing decorative-architectural applications, while we used them in a purely constructive development’. 2 In H. Evers’ view, Islamic buildings had been created ‘from the passionate imagination of the fanatical Oriental’, the ‘uncivilized conqueror driven by the need to be con- 9 [...]... their leaders, the studies of their mosque designs as treated above seem to largely consist of a normative architectural critique of the objects involved They critically evaluate the quality of the objects from the perspective of the author, they draw their factual information on design processes mainly from the perspective of the designer, and they generally attempt to devise some kind of chronological... Further, the analyst should look at elements of the temple buildings of neighbouring culture groups, not as if they were either disconnected or simply borrowed, but as conscious transformations of each other: the whole of culture, including the built environment, is in a constant state of flux.42 When we translate Barth’s local analyses to the arena of mosque design in The Netherlands, the focus of. .. Indonesian mosque tradition and building style could be divergently vested with meaning by different Moluccan patrons for the sake of distinguishing their communities from each other, leading to diverging types in their minds, although to the observer there are many similarities in the formal characteristics of their respective buildings Instead of abstracting or typologizing the latter once more into... transcending all questions of style, design, technology, culture, history, or modernity, has now become the orthodox principle of a singular Muslim identity […] Since the minaret and the dome were claimed as divine properties of a mosque, any rejection of them was seen in opposition to Islam Indeed for most practicing Muslims, and particularly those living in the West, even the sheer idea of a mosque lacking... and theaters,7 from the turn of the century they came to be seen as useful for the newly invented cinemas as well Mixed with arcadian scenes in the façades of buildings called ‘Alcazar’, ‘Luxor’ or ‘Alhambra’, they were explicitly meant to evoke an idyllic atmosphere.8 Finally, in the 1950s, their capacity as outstanding representations of make-believe earned them a place in the fairy-tale forest of the. .. and in some to an interesting synthesis The fourth category is of being modern, the overriding concerns being originality and dealing with the twentieth century Design, image and technology point to a break with the past so as to portray the modern Muslim in a progressive light This is the domain of the formally trained architect (in the Western sense) and the educated client’.26 Khan elaborated on these... building style which is said to be representative for the culture group as a whole Instead of assigning certain Dutch mosques to the typological category of, for example, the Indian building style, we should study the divergent ways that individual Hindustani-Islamic community leaders imagine Islam to arise from their particular designs, playing out ever-present internal differences in Hindustani mosque. .. views in a publication with Renata Holod In the eyes of the authors, mosque designs in the West are characterized by ‘making references back to regional Islamic traditions, the external architectural form being influenced in most instances by a single dominant style from a particular country or region […]; in this sense, the design may reflect the self-identity and aspirations of the group that takes the. .. was in fact a contemporary politico-religious statement cast in stone, as the older meanings of the received building elements in the new prayer hall had been replaced by meanings attached to them in later times The large differences in character and completeness between the countless examples of reception of the one building in the other had nothing to do with a disinterested or flawed way of looking,... a view of the motives leading to these choices Thus, in the case of mosque design in The Netherlands one should be wary of the tendency to ‘explain’ a Dutch mosque merely by placing its architectural characteristics in the context of a ‘Hindustani region’, ‘Moluccan tradition’, ‘Ottoman period’, ‘Moroccan culture’, ‘Dutch modernity’, or ‘post-colonial Orientalism’ The conception of each building must . ArchiTecTurAl represenTATion of islAm The ArchiTecTurAl represenTATion of islAm MusliM-coMMissionEd MosquE dEsign in ThE nEThErlands Eric Roose AUP-ISIM-PS-Roose-OM-DEF.indd. minarets’ as hampering further Islamic -architectural evolution. The Architectural Representation of Islam: Muslim-Commissioned Mosque Design in The Netherlands