This mosque has a minaret that looks like the tower of a Hindu-Javanese temple. It is the Menara Kudus Mosque, in Central Java, Indonesia.
Nine saints, the Wali Songo, are remembered for spreading Islam across Java. One of them, Jafar Shadiq, or Sunan Kudus, founded this mosque. An inscription dates it to 1549.
He named it Al-Aqsa, like the mosque in Jerusalem, and Kudus is said to come from al-Quds, the Arabic name for Jerusalem.
The tower is built of red brick, laid without cement, and stands about eighteen to twenty metres high. A large drum, called a bedug, hangs in a pavilion at the top to call people to prayer. Reportedly, no other mosque in Java has a tower like it.
The design blends Islamic and Hindu-Buddhist styles. Split gates, like those of temples, lead into the courtyards, and the roof rises in three tiers, like a Hindu meru.
Some scholars think the tower may be an older temple that was adapted for the mosque. Others say it was built in this style from the start.
Tradition says Sunan Kudus asked people not to slaughter cows, out of respect for their Hindu neighbours, a custom still remembered in Kudus.
He is buried in the cemetery behind the mosque, and pilgrims visit his tomb, especially in Ramadan. Later buildings added a prayer hall with a modern dome, but the red-brick tower is still its best-known feature.
It preserves pre-Islamic architectural forms such as old Javanese split doorways, ancient Hindu-Buddhist-influenced Majapahit-style red brickwork, and a three-tired pyramidal roof. The most unusual feature is the brick minaret on which a pavilion shelters a large skin drum (bedug), which is used to summon the faithful to prayer instead of the more common muezzin. Whereas a bedug normally hangs under the eaves of a mosque veranda, in the Kudus Mosque it sits in a tower like a Balinese Hindu temple kul-kul or signal drum used to warn of an impending attack, fire, or communal event. No other mosque in Java is known to have a drum tower of this type.
In front of the minaret and around the compound are walls and gateways in the old candi bentar (split gate) and kori agung (main gate) styles. Inside are two gateways—a smaller, inner gate with relief panels on either side similar to those found in Mantingan, and an outer gate that is reminiscent of the 14th-century Bajang Ratu gate at Trowulan. Other pre-Islamic touches include 8 kala-head water spouts in the ablution area and Ming porcelain plates set in the walls.
The pre-Islamic elements suggest the complex has incorporated a pre-existing Hindu-Javanese structure. The mosque has been rebuilt several times removing evidence of what the original structure looked like. The Majapahit style gates, walls, and minaret that appear so incongruous today may have blended more harmoniously with the main structure (which probably had a meru roof supported by large pillars, as in Cirebon and Demak). The peaked roof is a 1920s renovation with terracotta tiles replacing wooden tiles, with glass windows inserted between the roof tiers. The roof is topped with a mastaka crown roof element. An inscription over the mihrab says the mosque was founded by Ja'far Shodiq in AH 956 (AD 1549). He is believed to be the venerated Sunan Kudus, one of the nine Islamic saints of Java (Wali Sanga) who lies buried in an elaborately carved mausoleum behind the mosque. The complex includes a Mogul-style mosque with a silvery onion dome and concrete pillars.
The History, Architecture and later sections are adapted from the Wikipedia article “Menara Kudus Mosque”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full article. Text has been shortened.
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