Page 27 - ISLAM Rock n Roll

Hadramis were members of the Ba ʿAlawiyya Su tariqa
(or, Tariqa ʿAlawiyya), which claimed direct descent from
ʿAli b. Abi Talib. It had been founded by Sayyid Ahmad
b. ʿIsa al-Muhajir (d. 956), who in around 930 migrated from Basra, via the Hijaz, to Yemen settling in Hadramawt, where his descendants were known as the Ba ʿAlawiyya sada (or Banu ʿAlawiyya). As the Ba ʿAlawiyya moved throughout the Indian Ocean using trade networks and family connec- tions, their lineage gave them a religious legitimacy wherever they settled, while the increasing number of Hadrami merchants from the 16th century onward guaranteed that they also had a signi cant impact on Islamic practice. In particular, the Ba ʿAlawiyya emphasised the external life (zahir), the cultivation of religious learning, ritual observances and plain living, in addition to the internal life (batin),
and achieving the various stations of spiritual knowledge through forms of prayer such as devotions (dhikr). The Ba ʿAlawiyya also regarded the visitation (ziyara) of tombs and shrines of saintly ancestors and the commemorative celebra- tion of the Mawlid al-nabi, the day of the Prophet’s birth,
as pious acts. The most famous of these mawlids was introduced to the Lamu Archipelago, in present-day Kenya, by the Ba ʿAlawi Sayyid Habib Saleh (d. 1936), in the 20th century and is still observed today.
Another important Su community that moved to India in the 16th century were the Siddhis, also known as Habshi (Arabic, Abyssinian). According to Siddhi beliefs and lore, their ancestral saint (pir) Bawa Gor (ca. 14th century), whose shrine is at Ratanpur, in Gujarat, was an Afro-Indian who was sent by the Prophet from Mecca to India to ght Hindu demons. Other traditions link Bawa Gor to the bead and agate trade between East Africa and India as well as the Rifaʿiyya tariqa. The Siddhis were particularly prominent in the Mughal period and served in the households of wealthy and in uential Muslim families as slave-attendants, sometimes serving in a particular household for several generations. Siddhi wandering mendicants (fakirs) were known for performing music in praise of their and other pirs. Devotees were also known to dance and drum (ngoma, Swahili, dance), o en during
the commemoration of their pir on the date of his death and thus union with the divine (ʿurs).
While Islam’s development and practices in India
are thus generally well documented, its early formation elsewhere in Asia is less well understood. During both the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and the Manchu dynasty (1644– 1911), Islam began to develop in west and southwestern China. The most celebrated of its followers included the admiral Zheng He (d. 1433–1435), from Yunnan, who made several voyages through Southeast Asia into the western Indian Ocean during the 15th century, while the writings of scholars such as Liu Chih (d. ca. 1739) sought to harmonise Confucian and Sunni Islamic ideas (Han Kitab) and were
Painting entitled The Arrest of Dieponegoro (or Dipanegara, d. 1855)
by Lieutenant-General Baron De Kock (d. 1845) by Nicolaas Pieneman, Java, ca. 1830–1835. Prince Dieponegoro of the Yogyakarta Sultanate (founded 1755) of Java led a rebellion against Dutch rule in Java (1825–1830) and was eventually
exiled to Makassar, Sulawesi (Indonesia). Dieponegoro became
an important hero in the Indonesian revolution (1945–1949) against s Dutch colonial rule.
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important in the development of Islam among the Hui Muslim community. Elsewhere, in Southeast Asia, there were thriving centres of Hinduism, Buddhism and animism before the advent of Islam. It is thought that the rst Muslims there, before the 12th century, were Arab or Persian and possibly of the Sha ʿi madhhab. There were
also preachers from Gujarat and China who are reported
to have later arrived in the 12th century. The earliest known Muslim kingdom in Southeast Asia was established in
the late 13th century at Pasai, on the island of Sumatra. More preachers arrived in the region in the 15th century, followed by Hadrami Su merchants in the 16th–17th century. Viewed as descendants of the Prophet, the Hadrami were held in high esteem and may have facilitated conver- sions among the local population. But, in general, how local people in Southeast Asia converted to Islam in the past remains the subject of scholarly debate.
More is arguably known about the spread of Islam in the region as a result of reaction to the presence of
Boats in the Lamu harbour, Lamu Archipelago (Kenya), one of the important centres of Islamic learning on the East African Coast.
Europeans. The arrival of the Portuguese in 1511 in Malacca, on the Malay Peninsula, later provoked resistance from Muslim communities in Aceh, in northern Sumatra, where a sultanate had been established in the early 16th century. Aceh’s de ant in uence spread to the rest of the Malay Peninsula, and the sultans there promoted Islamic learning and maintained ties with other Indian Ocean settlements. Muslim communities began to develop elsewhere, most notably the Sultanate of Mataram (1587–1755) in Java, o en accommodating many local belief systems, customs and practices. However, from the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company sought to control the lucrative spice trade of Southeast Asia, and through warfare and conquest ultimately replaced the independent Muslim sultanates of Southeast Asia with the Dutch East Indies colony (1800–1949). And as with this region, European colonisation would continue throughout the Muslim world in the course of the next century until the advent of independence movements and the rise of nation-states.