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theological issue, the questions came up what power system should be Saghir, a cleric who preferred to preach in an atmosphere of peace. It was
adopted to regulate social life and whether the political system and the
kingdom were in line with Islamic teachings? A good look at history was in
order. The fall of Malacca had provided opportunities to Aceh Darussalam
and other Islamic power centers, but as al-Raniri narrated in his work
Bustanus Salatin, the sultanate experienced political stability and prosperity
under the reign of Sultan Iskandar Muda.
Could Iskandar Muda and his successors have learned from a text that
contained a theory on the state that had been generated before he
ascended the throne? A few years before the Sultan came into powers in
1602, Bukhari al-Jauhari had introduced the Tajus-Salatin, which may be
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regarded as the first text on political theory in the Malay world. This text not
only adopted the concept and attitude of justice as the foundation of ethics
and the wisdom of power but also saw it as a political strategy. The wisdom
that sparks from the Malay text caused it to have been repeatedly translated
into Javanese. Moreover, history noted also that the Tajus Salatin was the
favorite reading of Mangkubumi (Hamengkubuwono I) and Diponegoro. It
is thus interesting to learn that in the mid-19 century, Abdullah Abdul Kadir
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Munsyi, commonly considered a “barrier figure” between traditional Malay
and “modern” Indonesian literature, said that the weakness of the Malay
sultans (in the Peninsula) was the fact they had no longer understood the
Tajus Salatin’s messages.
That was towards the end of the 18 century. At the start of the 19 century
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tens or even hundreds of Islamic manuscripts in Malay, Javanese and other
languages in the archipelago were written. Different schools and religious
thinking tendencies were introduced. In this atmosphere debates were
common even severe ones especially when they focused on the relationship
between God and His creatures. The manuscript known as keropak Ferrara
(17 century), because it is stored in the library of Ferrara in Italy, shows a
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“fundamentalist” tendency, but the Serat Dharmagandul (20 century) which
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is not “fundamentalist” at all. So, we may understand also why the integrity
of the Islamic community is problematic.
It is not strange that the so-called ‘fundamentalist’ tendency showed its most
radical form in Minangkabau in the early of the 19 century during what is
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called the first phase of the “Padri War” (1803-1821). It was told that at that
time the supporters of this movement had launched an action of war that
was no longer a “war of throwing stones” at the village borders. A war of
conquest had broken out. “So it was called sabilillah, (lit. the way of God to
denote the Holy War), so that its legal status was clearly valid,” wrote Faqih
26. Taufik Abdullah, “ The Formation of a Political Tradition in the Malay World”, in Anthony
Reid (ed.), The Making of an Islamic Political Discourse in Southeast Asia, Clayton, Victoria:
Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1993, 35-58.
16 Indonesian Islamic Culture in Historical Perspectives
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on the basis of the principle saying “People who do not pray and who refuse
to practice the Qur’an carefully lose the right to life and to their property,
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according to the sacred books of fiqh.” In 1821, the Dutch intervened and
the Padri War (the second stage) ended in 1837 and Minangkabau land fell
into the hands of the Dutch. But, while this matrilineal ethnic group started
to formulate its identity --”Adat bersendi syarak. Syarak bersendi kitabullah”
(Traditions hinges on the Sharia, and the Sharia hinges on the Scripture
of God), the legends began to generate their Islamic spirited traditional
history. The cultural and historical reasons why the Minangkabau remained
its matrilineal kinship system, whereas the Islamic inheritance system is
patrilineal were also formulated. Since the mid-19 century many debates
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took place in Minangkabau about mystical orders, while the process towards
religious orthodoxy accelerated as well. At the beginning of the 20 century,
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the Minangkabau had replaced Palembang and Penyengat Island (Riau) as
the center of religious thought. “Islamic modernism”, which was near to the
“kaum muda” (lit. young people) movement aspired to become more and
more involved in the “developed world” as well.
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Indeed, since the end of the 18 and especially in the beginning of the 19
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century when the penetration of foreign power had become increasingly
widespread, religious thinking accelerated. The total number of Indonesian
pilgrims and Muslims who even resided in the Holy Land increased as
well. The number of Muslims connected in networks of teachers and
students and religious scholars in the centers of Islamic studies also
rose, as was the number of surau, meunasa, pesantren and madrasah
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in the country. Since the late 18 century and especially the 19 century
Palembang presented itself as one of the centers of Islamic thinking
together with Patani in the Malay peninsula, now part of Thailand. Sultan
Badaruddin II of Palembang was not only a very anti-Dutch king but
also a poet and thinker. Residing in Arabia and usually writing in Arabic,
Sheikh al-Palimbani sent his Islamic thoughts to his homeland. In the Aceh
War (1872-1904), Aceh, which saw itself as the “veranda of Mecca”, still
managed to generate a story about the holy war, but no longer written in
Malay but in the Acehnese language. Towards the end of the 19 century,
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Penyengat Island (Riau) also came up as a center for the production of
Islamic manuscripts. One might even say that in Penyengat, the palace of
the Raja Muda of the Sultanate of Johor-Riau had become the “capital” of
27. Sjech Djilal-eddin, Verhaal van de aanvang der Padri onlusten op Sumatra, ed. Dr. J.J. de
Hollander, Leiden, 1837.
28. S.A. Steyn Parve’, “Kaum Padari (Padri) di Padang Darat Pulau Sumatra” (1885) its
translation in Taufik Abdullah (ed.) Sejarah Lokal di Indonesia, Yogyakarta: UGM University
Press, 1985.
29. Taufik Abdullah, “Modernization in the Minangkabau World: West Sumatra in the Early
Decades of the Twentieth Century” in Claire Holt et al. (editors), Ithaca and London: Cornell
University Press, 1972, 179-245.
Indonesian Islamic Culture in Historical Perspectives 17