ABSTRACT
Places or buildings may define a social relationship but also hint at attributes which reach beyond its spatial identity. Metaphorically rather than literally, then, the spatial contrast of inside and outside the mosque refers to the boundedness and coherence of Islam as against its fragmentary and contestable expression. Focusing on the Indian Ocean rim as an area in which to study Islamic prayer adds to the fiction, but is a useful heuristic device. The generic practice of prayer is a kind of paradigm into which are fitted both indigenous forms of invocation and the many other Islamic kinds of prayer and oral rite which exist alongside the main distinction between salat and dua. The use of the body in its relationship to prayer is otherwise of very powerful significance and can certainly be a political marker. The human body is often characterised in so-called western Cartesian epistemology as standing in opposition to the mind, soul or spirit.
