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Pesantren (Islamic kyais were prominent actors in of Javanese texts that were increasingly 1998: 15). Three Javanese texts were Therefore, like in the Malay world,
Boarding School) resurrections against colonial power. Islamized like the mystical genre of suluk written under her directive: Carita the text attempts to position Islam at
Lirboyo in Kediri) as a (Florida 1995: 14-5; Soebardi 1971). Iskandar (1729), Carita Yusuf (1730), and the heart of Javanese royal politics.
center of Islamic leaning. Particular Cases of Boarding the Kitab Usulbiyah. In these “sacred However, it should be emphasized that
Schools in Java This development was particularly books”, Islam is the main foundation of Islam as presented in these texts was
Source: Directorate of obvious during the reign of Pakubuwono
History and Cultural Pesantrens in Java deserve particular II (1726-49) when the translation process Javanese cultural formula. Not only the clearly Javanese in nature. We may also
Values, Ministry of attention in this study, especially their of Islam into Javanese culture gained relationship with Ratu Kidul, the native point to another Javanese text written
Education and Culture relations with the Mataram kingdom. momentum. As explained by Ricklefs goddess and supernatural wife and under Ratu Pakubuwono’s direction,
of the Republic of Pesantrens in Central and East Java (1998), Islam and pre-Islamic Javanese protector of the Javanese kings, began Suluk Garwa Kencana (1730). Like the
Indonesia, 2013. were part of the Javanese political literature were both very influential. In to disappear from these texts, the works Malay Taj us-Salatin and al-Mawahib, the
culture of Mataram, where regulating line with the Javanese belief system, also showed a strong desire to turn Islam suluk strongly emphasizes that the notion
into the main source of inspiration as well
of an ideal king should be formulated in
religious matters was an important Islam gave meaning to the real politics of as the cultural paradigm of the Javanese relation with Sufi teachings as defined
aspect. the Javanese ruling elites. Partly driven kingdom (Ricklefs 1998: 90). by the Sufi concept of the “perfect man”
Sultan Agung’s anti-coastal policies by the ascent of the young Pakubuwono The non-Javanese contents of various (insan kamil) (Ricklefs 1998: 122-3).
should not be understood as being to the throne in April 1726, when he was stories in the texts, such as countries At the same time it also underlines the
“anti-Islamic”. At the end of his reign, only 16 years old, cultural efforts to make in the Middle East, were adapted to importance of the sharia in the royal
Sultan Agung was increasingly involved him recognized politically had become a Javanese atmosphere so that the political practice. Included into the series
in strengthening the study of Islamic very important. As a result, in addition to texts could teach the Javanese rulers of works by Ratu Pakubuwono is the
teachings in his kingdom. In 1633 he acknowledging the presence of the VOC about Islam-based ethical behavior. renowned Serat Cabolek, in which the
paid a visit to Tembayat, to the tomb in Batavia, the Javanese-based ideology Some examples from the Usulbiyah king is considered responsible not only
of Sunan Bayat, one of the saints in for the newly appointed king began to be will be presented here. The text tells of in politics, but also in the field of religion.
Java. At that time he also changed the formulated. the Prophet’s migration from Mecca to Most importantly, the king is presented
Javanese calendar from the solar system The role of Ratu Pakubuwono, the king’s Medina, which is presented in a way in the text as the defender of the faith,
of the Hindu-Saka year to a mixed grandmother, in the cultural affairs of the very similar to the realities in a Javanese whose job, along with that of the clergy,
system of the lunar Islamic-Javanese royal palace cannot be underestimated. palace. In addition to describing Medina is to keep the world from danger and to
calendar (Anno Javanico) (Ricklefs 2001: Under her direction, Javanese texts as a commercial city, as it is, the text instate the sharia (Soebardi 1975: 41-2).
53-5; 1997: 237- 52). His successors were written to provide the king with a also says that Medina “is a wilderness In addition to what has already been
intensified the Islamization of Javanese new ideology and she used the glory of inhabited by wild animals and poisonous mentioned, the important role of Islam in
culture and Mataram witnessed the Sultan Agung and Javanese culture but snakes”, which reminds us of the Babad Javanese culture is also manifest in the
translation process of Islam into the particularly Islam as her main sources. Kraton when it describes the founding relationships patterns between the king
core of Javanese culture, as can be She “endeavored to turn her grandson of the Kartasura kingdom in 1680 in the and pesantren, the domain of religious
seen in the increase in the production into a pious Muslim monarch” (Ricklefs forest of Wanakerta (Ricklefs 1998: 78-9). scholars. In this case, the king pioneered

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