Changes in the Islamic Religion and Their Effects on the Built Environment: Two Cases from Indonesia

When Islam spread to various parts of the world, it did so solely as an ideology, with little, aside from language, of its Arabic origins. Wherever it took hold, it utilized various local forms for its identity. ¹ How did this process of combining Islam and local culture work? What effect did the shift from pre-lslamic religions to Islam and from Islamic to a more orthodox version have on the built environment? The following study will try to answer these questions, using two cases from Indonesia: the first describes the transformation from a pre-lslamic to an Islamic society, and the second the re-Islamization of an already Islamic society.