Page 315 - INDONESIA ISLAMIC CULTURE

Endnotes
1. Jajat Burhanudin, “Islamic Knowledge, Authority and Political Power: The Ulama in
Colonial Indonesia” Ph.D. Dissertation (Leiden: Leiden University, 2007), p. 200.
2. Jajat Burhanudin, “Ulama dan Politik Pembentukan Umat: Sekilas Pengalaman
Sejarah Indonesia” (Ulama and the Political Formation of Community: A Quick
Look at the Indonesian Experience) and introductory remarks in Jajat Burhanudin
and Ahmad Baedowi (eds.) Transformasi Otoritas Keagamaan: Pengalaman
Indonesia (The Transformation of Religious Authority: the Indonesian Experience
(Jakarta: Gramedia, 2003), p. 28.
3. Sayid Sheikh b. Ahmad al-Hadi was born in Malacca and he had a Malay mother
and a Malay-Arab father of Hadrami descent. After completing his elementary
education in Kuala Trengganu, he moved to Pulau Penyengat in Riau, where his
father had royal ties. He was appointed as the son of Raja Ali Kelana bin Raja
Ahmad, a member of the ruling elite of the Riau-Lingga Kingdom. Consequently,
he continued his education as a member of the royal family. Sayid al-Hadi
witnessed the emergence of Pulau Penyengat into the center of revival of Malay
culture at the end of the 19 century which gave him a chance to be close with
th
the Islamic discourse of prominent ulama, especially those who were grouped into
the Persekutuan Rusydiyyah in 1890. See also Virginia Matheson (1989), “Pulau
Penyengat: Nineteenth Century Islamic Centre of Riau”, Archipel 37, 153-172;
Alimuddin Hassan Palawa, “The Penyengat School: A Review of the Intellectual
Tradition in the Malay-Riau Kingdom”, Studia Islamika, vol. 10, no. 3: 2003, 97-
12. It has been noted that his relation with Islamic reform began when he visited
Mecca and Cairo, together with Thaher Djalaluddin, as the guide of the royal family
of Riau-Lingga kingdom who registered at the preparation school in Cairo. From
there, he had not only become attracted to, but was also involved in the Islamic
reform in Southeast Asia. For Sayid al-Hadi’s title and carrier see William Roff, The
Origin of Malay Nationalism, (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1967), 62-3;
Michael F. Laffan, Islamic Nationhood and Colonial Indonesia: The Umma below
the Wind, (London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003), 19-30; Abu Bakar
Hamzah, Al-Imam: Its Role in Malay Society 1906-1908, (Kuala Lumpur: Pustaka
Antara, 1991), 5.
4. Haji Abbas bin Muhammad Taha was born in Singapore in 1885, and was probably
of Minangkabau descent. After studying in Mecca, he returned to Singapore
in 1905 where he became a religious teacher and then in 1906 published his
collection of homiletic quotes from works on Education in Egypt and Syria, the
Sempoerna Pelajaran (1906). He was involved in al-Imam as an assistant editor
and in 1908 as editor. After al-Imam stopped publishing in 1908, his carrier
continued as in the same year he was appointed as kadi at the District of Tanjong
Pagar in Singapore. Meanwhile, his reform concern also continued; in 1911 he
published Neratja and then Tunas Melayu in 1913. In 1940 he was appointed as
the Mufti of Pahang. See Roff, The Origin of Malay…, 63-64.
5. Another important figure behind the publication of al-Imam was Sheikh Muhammad
Salim al-Kalili. He was born in Cirebon and a citizen of Singapore. His role in al-
Imam was as a businessman who financially supported its publication rather than
as a scholar or writer. There was also a person called Encik Abdullah bin Abdul
Rahman of Muar but little known about him. See Roff, The Origin of Malay…,
32-9, 64; William Roff, Bibliography of Malay and Arabic Periodicals Published in
the Straits Settlements and Peninsular Malay States, (London: Oxford University
Press, 1972), 75-89; Laffan, Islamic Nationhood…, 150; Hamzah, Al-Imam: Its
306 Indonesian Islamic Culture in Historical Perspectives
Role…, 28-29.
6. Roff, The Origin of Malay…, 56-57; Laffan, Islamic Nationhood…, 148-60. See also
A.C. Milner, The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya: Contesting Nationalism
and the Expansion of the Public Sphere (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1995).
7. Roff, The Origin of Malay…, 59.
8. See al-Imam, I, July 1906. For a discussion on the purpose and goal of al-Imam
see also Roff (1967: 56), Hamzah (1991: 28-29).
9. See al-Imam, No. 4, vol. 3, 1908.
10. It must be noted here that ‘Abduh wrote explanations on a number of Quranic
verses. Rashid Rida, who was present and took notes of ‘Abduh’s lectures in al-
Azhar, continued the work after ‘Abduh died in 1905. The complete title is Tafsīr
al-Qur’ān al-Hakīm al-Mushtahar bi Tafsīr al-Manār and it was first published in
1925. For a discussion on the origin of this Quran commentary see J.J.G. Jansen,
The Interpretation of the Koran in Modern Egypt (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1974), 20-21,
23-24. See also Charles Adams, Islam and Modernism in Egypt, (London: Oxford
University Press, 1933), 273.
11. Martin Van Bruinessen, “Kitab Kuning: Books in Arabic Script Used in the
Pesantren Milieu,” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 146 (2/3), 253-
254.
12. See al-Imam, vol. 2, No. 3, 1908.
13. See al-Imam, vol. 2, July, 1908.
14. See al-Imam, vol. 1, July, 1906.
15. Mustafā Kāmil, al-Shams al-Mushriqa (Cairo: 1904).
16. For a discussion on this see Michael F. Laffan, “Watan and Negeri: Mustafā
Kāmil’s ‘Rising sun’ in the Malay World’, Indonesia Circle 69, 1996, 156-175;
Laffan, Islamic Nationhood…, 160-165. This indicates the rising influence of the
Japanese Meiji restoration in the formation of Indonesian nationalism, as also on
the case of Cairo. For the Tokyo-oriented voices in al-Imam, see Barbara Watson
Andaya, “From Rūm to Tokyo: The Search for Anticolonial Allies by the Rulers of
Riau, 1899-1944”, Indonesia 24, 1977, 123-156.
17. See al-Imam, 5, October, 1908.
18. On this see Francis Robinson, “Technology and Religious Change: Islam and
the Impact of Print”, Modern Asian Studies, 27, I, 1993, 229-351; Barbara D.
Metcalf, Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband 1860-1900, Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1982), 198-234. See also Adeeb Khalid, “Printing, Publishing,
and Reform in Tsarist Central Asia”, IJMES, 26, 2, 1994, 187-200.
19. Mukti Ali, Interpretasi tentang Amalan-Amalan Muhammadiyah, (Jakarta:
Pimpinan Pemuda Muhammadiyah Daerah Djakarta, 1958), 28.
20. Roff, The Origin of Malay…, 66.
21. For a discussion of this school see al-Imam, vol. 21, no. 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9,
Indonesian Islamic Culture in Historical Perspectives 307