Page 259 - INDONESIA ISLAMIC CULTURE

Buton with the vizier ministers, waving showed, Imam Ahmad gave Snouck Mastering Religious Matters) regarding
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the paper a piece, coming down the a list of books the people read in the
Presence of His Majesty the Father eastern part of the countries under the
Company, Mr. Governor General and wind, the territory of Ternate, Tidore and
Raden van Indie in Batavia, Insha Bacan. In addition to the books in Arabic
Allah will continue his age, health and that were widespread in pesantren as
th
good fortune in peace. noted by van den Berg in the late 19
century, Imam Ahmad recorded a
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The presence of Malay in Buton is closely number of titles of Jawi books composed
linked with the history of the kingdom, by the ulama in the Archipelago from
where the process of the establishment the Malay speaking regions, among
to become an empire involving the them, the book composed by Abdurrauf
Malay Kingdoms of Johor and Sumatra Singkel, Mir’at al-Tulab, in form of a
who migrated there. However, the most Malay adaptation of Ansari’s book Fath
important thing to say here is that Butonis al-Wahab. Another book is the Dhur
a good example that Malay had been al-Thamim, which, according to Snouck
established well as a lingua franca in the Hurgronje, was probably written by
archipelago. Thus, Buton in the eastern Muhammad Nafis al-Banjari.
part of the archipelago was connected to
the people living in the other parts of the Books composed by the Patani scholar,
archipelago. Daud al-Fatani (Daud bin Abdullah bin
Idris al-Fatani) were also included in
The people of the archipelago were not Imam Ahmad’s list. Among them were
only connected to one-another through two of his books on jurisprudence: the
languages, but also though religious Fara’id ghayat taqrib fi al-irth wa al-tansib
thoughts recorded in books written (Statutes of the Final Approximation in
in Malay in Jawi script in addition to Inheritance and Consanguinity) on the
books written in Arabic, which were also laws about the division of an inheritance
widespread and sources of religious and the Idah al-bab li murid al-nikah
knowledge. A note written by someone bi al-sawab (Explanatory Chapter
called Imam Ahmad ---an Imam for the for Getting Married Correctly) about
Bacan islands in North Maluku who met marriage. Another book in Jawi was the
Snouck Hurgronje in Mecca in 1884--- Sabil al-Muhtadin li al-tafaqquh fi amr
is important to record here. As Laffan al-Din (the Path of the Guided People for
250 Indonesian Islamic Culture in Historical Perspectives
The royal palace of
the procedure for studying religion written Buton. The Buton
by Muhammad Arsyad bin Abdullah Sultanate in Southeast
al-Banjari and the Hidayat al-Salikin Sulawesi presents
(Manual for Searching Knowledge)--- a vital evidence of the
composition in Malay based on al- development of the
Ghazali’s Bidayat al-Hidayah--- written Malay language in the
by Abdussamad al-Palimbani. archipelago. The Malay
language was the formal
Conclusion language of the kingdom,
used for political and
The Malay language and Jawi books commercial diplomacy
aren ot only important from a historical as well as for a number
perspective ---that they have become a of socio-religious texts.
category in the study of Islamic culture
in Indonesia--- but also in terms of the Source: Directorate of
formation of ecumenical Islam in the History and Cultural
archipelago. Through Malay, Muslim Values, Ministry of
communities in various regions in the Education and Culture
of the Republic of
archipelago became connected to one Indonesia.
another, and, strengthened through the
use of Jawi books, these relationships
remained within limits derived from
the universal message of Islam. This
gradual and long historical process has
become the basis for the formation of
what Anderson called an “imagined
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community”. If the colonial government
might have inherited the Indonesian
state, the Malay language has laid a
solid foundation for the establishment
of Indonesia as a nation the process
when it adopted Malay as the national
language of Indonesia.
Indonesian Islamic Culture in Historical Perspectives 251