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history has joined myths, then all of   of the kings of Pasai) and Sejarah                    information about various past events   ship. Mirah Silu dreamed in the night.    The cemetery of Sultan
                                          them would have been myths. If history   Melayu (the Malay Annals) are two of the             in the Malay world, and anthropologists   Prophet Muhammad had spat into his      Suriansyahin Banjar.
                                          has been covered by all sorts of stylistic   renowned traditional historiographies in         have examined the symbolic meanings    mouth. So he could read the Quran.         The arrival of Islam to
                                          values, assumptions and aspirations,    the Malay Islamic world,  by which the                as a tool to maintain the social unity and   Sheikh Ismail was then enthroned him as   Banjarmasin, as told in
                                                                                                       24
                                          says an historian, it should be called just   first may be older than the latter.  The        the power legitimacy. 27               the sultan with the name Malik as-Saleh.   the Hikayat Banjar, was
                                                                                                               25
                                          “the past”.                             importance of Sejarah Melayu, which                   Passages in the Sejarah Melayu and     Another version is found in Hikayat        driven by the emergency
                                          The real myth can be seen as the        may have been written by the Johor                    Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai outlines       Raja-Raja Pasai. On the night Mirah Silu   felt by Pangeran
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Samudera, the crown
                                          embodiment of a world view in form      court poet, Tun Sri Lanang, within the                some similar past events---such as the   dreamed. He was visited by the Prophet   prince of Negara Daha.
                                          of a story. Thus, by understanding      tradition of the Malay culture lies not               establishment period of Samudera Pasai,   Muhammad spatting into his mouth and
                                          the mythical structure we can expect    only in the literary value, but also on the           the change from a segmented state      teaching him to utter that “there is no    Source: Directorate of
                                          to get, on the one hand, the societal   wealth of information about the early                 to become an empire, which had the     god but Allah and Muhammad is His          History and Cultural
                                          conceptualization of the past, as an    days of the Malacca Kingdom as well as                conquered people and the sultan, as well   messenger”. The Prophet gave him the   Values, Ministry of
                                                                                                              th
                                          embodiment of cultural-concerns, and    social and political life of the 16  century          as the process of Islamization. The book   name Malik as-Saleh and forbade eating   Education and Culture
                                                                                                 26
                                          on the other hand, as a potential source   maritime empire.  It is understood that            shows that the heyday of Pasai stems   slaughtered meat without correct rituals.   of the Republic of
                                          of historyas past time events. The first   Malay traditional historiography has               from the conversion of Mirah Silu’s, “man   The Prophet also informed him that a   Indonesia, 2009
                                          gift of those who want to learn history   become one of the most popular subjects             of prowess” (if Wolters’  term can be   person named Sheikh Isma’il would
                                                                                                                                                            28
                                          is the accepted situation as such by the   in academic researches. Historians                 used) has attracted many followers as he   come to visit him. When Sheikh Ismail
                                          concerned people, while the second      regard the book as a potential source of              got wealthy suddenly.                  met Mirah Silu, how shocked he was to
                                          is materials to allow past events to be   24. A.H. Hill, “Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai”, JMBRAS,   So it was told in Sejarah Melayu that   know that Mirah Silu had been able to
                                          reconstructed. Therefore, to understand   33, P.4.2, 1960; see also T. Ibrahim Alfian, Kronika   a scholar from Mecca, Sheikh Ismail   recite the shahada smoothly. And people
                                                                                  Pasai:  Sebuah  tinjauaan  sejarah,  Yogyakarta:
                                          the process and the dynamics of early   Gadjah Mada University Press 1973; C.C. Brown,        sailed through Fansur, Lamuri, Ham,    also have known his title Malik as-Saleh.
                                          Islam in the archipelago, an overview of   “Sejarah  Melayu”  or  “Malay  Annals”,  Raffles’   Perlak, and finally arrived at Samudera.   Then, the performed duty by Sheikh
                                          the various traditional historiographies is   translation MS 18”, JMBRAS, vol. XXV Parts2&3.  He successfully converted the local    Ismail, scholars who come from the
                                          also necessary.                         25.   It  is  rather  a  general  argument,  but  Teeuw                                      “country above the wind” was simply to
                                                                                  otherwise assumed that Sejarah Melayu is brighter.
                                                                                  See  A.A.  Teeuw  “Hikayat  Raja-Raja  Pasai  and     authority, Mirah Silu, and returned to the   Islamize people. After that, he gave Malik
                                          Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai (the History    Sejarah  Melayu”,  in  John  Bastin  &  Roolvink  R.   27.   See  for  example,  P.E.  and  Josselin  de  Jong,   as-Saleh regalia he brought from Mecca.
                                          reconstruct the history of the process of Islamization   (eds.)  Malayan  and  Indonesian  Studies,  London:   “The Character of the Malay Annals” in John Bastin   Mirah Silu had been formally regarded as
                                          in Java, especially the early history of the sultanates   Oxford University Press, 1964.      &  R.  Roolvink  (eds.)  Malayan  and  Indonesian
                                          of Cirebon and Banten, but also clearly shows the   26.  In his efforts to discover the causes and process   Studies,  Oxford:  Clarendom  Press,  1964.  In  this   the sultan.
                                          research methodology he has used. Djajadiningrat’s   of the fall of Srivijaya empire, Wolters gets various   article  Josselin  de  Jong  explains  her  view  on
                                          view  about  local  sources  as  historical  sources,   signs of this manuscript, after he held an external   Sejarah  Melayuas  an  illustrated  concept  of  the   These differing versions show a
                                          see his writing, “Local Traditions and the Study of   criticism,  comparing  with  Chinese  sources.  See   Malay culture on power.  perception on the self and attitude
                                          Indonesian History” in Soedjatmoko et.al. (Eds.) An   O.W. Wolters, The Fall of Srivijaya in Malay History,   28. O.W.  Wolters,  History,  Culture  and  Region  in
                                          Introduction  to  Indonesian  Historiography,  Ithaca,   Kuala Lumpur Singapore: Oxford University Press,   Southeast  Asian  Perspective,  Singapore:  ISEAS,   to the outside elements. However,
                                          New York: Cornell University Press, 1965, 74-86.  1970.                                       1982, pp. 5-7.                         both versions represent not only the



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