Filipinization of Islamic Architecture

From the Middle East to Southeast Asia, Islamic faith had dressed early Philippine setting with its divine
concept of space. The koran contains no special or specific instruction for the architectural form of its
worship space (Lico). For that reason, varied forms of Mosques and Muslim community had been built
throughout the past and current time in the Philippines which exhibit an evolutionary pattern. Early
Filipinos gave it two primeval images: one that conforms to the rest of prayer houses in Southeast Asia
called Langgal (Tausug and Yakan) or ranggar (Maranao) and the other, termed as masjid which is
commonly associated with any building that includes a dome and a minaret as an integral part of the
design regardless of period styles. These are being attended by Muslim converts every Friday to
worship and create a conceptual place of divine transcendence aligned with Islamic cosmos.
However, the process itself of place-making that had occurred in creating these devotional spaces is
dynamic product of the interplay of a wide variety of environmental and human factors (Knox,
Marston, Nash). These complex factors created the difference of function and character ( e.g. materials,
furniture lay-out) of spaces that had occurred in the Islamic worship place between Middle East Asia
and Philippines.
One example of the difference in space is the absence of sahn or wide enclosed courtyard furnished
with an ablution fountain: instead, a seating area with benches is provided outside the mosque where
worshippers may sit and talk while waiting for the next prayer. This shift of space happened due to: first,
the presence of nearby body of water; second, the inherent behavior of Filipinos. In Middle East Asia,
an ablution fountain play as an area where worshippers washes before entering the hall. It embodies
their aesthetic and liturgical philosophy of paradise, where an individual can become one with Allah.
Perhaps this notion is also shaped because most of the place there is desert; the presence of water is
like a paradisiacal oasis that breaks ones thirst. In the Philippines, bodies of water are abundant.
Instead of washing in a manmade ablution fountain, they used their rivers rather and created a natural
paradise. To further create a place with shared meanings, they build that seating area where they can
exchange thoughts while waiting for the next prayer. This space proves that Filipinos are innately
sociable. They wanted to be surrounded by people to talk and learn from conversations, even about not
faith.
Another characteristic that made Filipino mosques different is the elevation of mimbars (pulpit). Unlike
in Africa and Western Asia, mimbars in Filipino mosques are not high. An elevated platform, a chair or
any similar furniture can replace and function as a mimbar in some mosques. Filipinos, known by many
for its petite height, would not opt to use high mimbars since it is inappropriate for their stature.
Through time, minarets as well in Philippine mosques deviated from the Middle Eastern style because it
served merely as a display. Middle East uses it to call and gather people. However, it had been a local
Filipino practice to gather people by means of gongs. By this fact, we can see that the presence of
similar physical structures in the Philippines and Middle east doesnt assure if the other holds the same
place as the other. Because place within the same given space varies according to the human activity
being done there. It is by how these spaces are signified or given meaning, not by its outward physical
appearance.
Based from the peculiar points stated above, Ive realized that Philippine Islamic architecture has
become Filipino naturally. It simply follows its users and surroundings. In analogy, the architecture itself
becomes citizen to a certain nation when it is born in the territory of the related state just as the concept
of jus solis tries to give a nationality to an individual. An Islamic architecture raised inside the Philippine
territory automatically adapts its identity as a Filipino due to reasons such as: first, it is a requirement to

build structures appropriate to its users and environment (which eventually will make architecture a
reflection of its users); and last but not the least, it is Filipinos that creates a place of worship in these
spaces, not Arabic missionaries nor by any foreign who havent even set their foot on this archipelago.
To sum it up, Philippine mosques are Filipino because of the Islamic architectural elements adapted
and expressed in Filipino culture and country. This human and environmental factors included in the
place-making of Philippine mosques make it personally our own.

Bibliography
Knox, Marston, Nash. Human Geography.
Lico, G. Arkitekturang Filipino.