Uncovering the Geo-Location of the Grand Mosque of Melaka Sultanate

Abstract

Historical records make note of a magnificent stone-built mosque, renowned throughout the region, within the city of the Melaka Sultanate. According to these accounts, the mosque was said to have been dismantled after the 1511 war, and its stones were repurposed. Scholars have debated its likely form, ornamentation, and symbolism based on the visual precedents of mosques from that era. However, until now, there has been limited effort to pinpoint its exact location within the contemporary geographical context. This study represents a crucial step towards its objective of furnishing vital data for potential empirical investigations, using ground-penetrating scanning technology to explore the mosque's remains for the first time in over five centuries. The rationale for this research is rooted in the belief that a grand stone-built mosque would almost certainly have an extensive stone-built foundation, making its complete removal an exceedingly challenging task. This study employs two methods of analysis: i) Narrative analysis, which examines historical texts containing descriptive clues about the mosque's nature, location, and its significants. ii) Visual anthropological analysis, which investigates historical visuals pertaining to city planning during the colonial era. The latter phase of the investigation is centered on a singular objective: the identification of structures depicted in the municipal plans of Portuguese and Dutch Melaka, guided by the 'qibla test,' a geospatial mapping technique that scrutinizes the alignment between (i) structures in the municipal plans, (ii) satellite imagery of the location, and (iii) the qibla direction. This research has unveiled a corresponding structure in a relatively uncommon Dutch Melaka municipal plan. It comprises two square shapes that exhibit remarkable accuracy in alignment with the qibla: (i) a larger square site, conceivably representing the primary structure of the mosque, and (ii) a smaller square site, potentially indicative of the minaret. The identified geographical location corresponds to the parking lot of Melaka's History and Ethnography Museum. Nonetheless, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of this study, which include reliance on English translations for Portuguese ancient manuscripts, as well as the utilization of colonial Melaka municipal plans instead of those from the Sultanate period. Nevertheless, the study presents a compelling case for identifying the specific site of the historical mosque, which warrants further verification and reconstruction studies aimed at historical tourism, aligning with Sustainable Development Goals 8.9 and 11.4.