Page 148 - INDONESIAN ISLAMIC CULTURE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

the coastal regions that created certain unity. The Islamization of Patani, Bugis- Spain imagined that if it could defeat the or the clergy, to maintain the integrity
traditions, supported by markets and Makassar, Sulu-Maguindanao and so Ternate-Sulu coalition, not only these two of each tradition. So, the traditions
boarding schools pesantren, had to find on show how each felt to be part of the areas that would be under its control but in their respective territories served
other ways to preserve their perspective larger cultural world. No matter how the Kalimantan and Java as well. as the mythical foundations of their
on cosmopolitan culture, if not their direct Islamization of Banjarmasin, Lampung In the 18th century, the atmosphere behavioral patterns. At the rational level,
trading relations. As the owners of the and Palembang went, it was not isolated of unity offered the possibility for the traditions emerged that could be used
legacy of the Wali Songo ---the saints from Mataram’s political domination. emergence of calls for para-Islamist- as yardsticks to determine what was
who originated from the north-coast--- the Subsequent developments showed inspirited jihad both in Java and in the reasonable and what not.
north coast cities, especially Cirebon, that they were part of the Malay Islamic Straits of Malacca. It also offered the
developed works on Islamic mysticism. In intellectual tradition. In fact, if the 17th opportunity for a “political adventurer” The declining power of the kings as the
rulers in possession of the monopoly
the central court in the hinterland, literary century was marked by Aceh’s leading to call for holy war in the Straits of
works and pre-Islamic philosophy were role in the development of intellectual Malacca and in the Sunda Strait under in taking initiatives because of the
re-used as the sources of in new cultural traditions, at the end of the 18th century his direction. He wanted to build a penetration of Western colonialism
ways of thinking. But political dominance it was Palembang’s turn to be given this palace founded on jihad against the (the 18th century in Java and the
48
49
was already the hands of the VOC. honor. Like Aceh, which has its own unbelievers. 50 19th century in other cultural-political
As a result, this development not only language, Palembang also produced areas), meant the loss of one of the
sharpened the differences in the maritime texts in the Malay language. The relationships between kingdoms tradition’s supporting institutionalizations.
and agricultural state systems, as Van Dynastic relations and religious unity or political entities that sometimes Meanwhile, modern bureaucratic
Leur said, or turned coastal life into a as well as shared political interests are showed their efforts to give meaning to systems and new styles of economic
distinctive north-coastal cultural pattern, various elements that can join various the concept of cultural unity in political exploitation potentially threatened the
but also strengthened the development areas into a political unity in a joint effort behavior were frequently marred by sustainability of both types of traditions.
towards the tradition of dialogue. against the penetration of economic conflicts. The triangle dispute between But, perhaps it is not a historical irony
Johor, Jambi and Palembang (17th
that these traditions evolved into the
The conceptualization of these two monopolism and Western expansion. In century), for example, cannot be bases of cultural identity on the one
traditions is necessary as an analytical this regard, for example, the initial phase explained by the two concepts of tradition hand and as the new foundations for
tool to understand the dynamics of Islam of the perpetual war between the Moros introduced above. Both traditions political conservatism, on the other.
in each political region. Meanwhile, and Spain was characterized by the ---the tradition of integration and that The mythologizing process that had
inter-state or regional inter-political involvement of Brunei and subsequently of dialogue--- can only explain internal taken place and was promoted by the
relationships and various historical Ternate. At that time too (the 16th century) conditions. It is in the interest of groups literati, clerical or not, and the continuing
events had turned Southeast Asia into 49. See for example G.WJ. Drewes, Direction for in power, whether the Sultan and his validity of the structure of plausibility,
51
a region bound by a shared sense of Travelers on the Mystic Path: Zakariyya al-Ansari’s court officials and local authorities,
Kitab Path al Rahman and its Indonesian Version. 51. On this concept see Peter L. Berger &Thomas
48. Theodore G.Th. Pigeaud, Literature of Java, With an Appendix on Palembang Manuscripts and 50. J. Kathirithamby-Wells, “Ahmad Shah Ibn Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A
Vol. 1: Synopsis of Javanese Literature, The Authors. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, (KITLV- Iskandar and the Late 17th Century Holy War in Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, New York:
Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1967. Verhandelingen 81), 1977. Indonesia”, JMBRAS XUI, 1, 1970, pp. 48-63. Doubleday 7 Company, 1966.

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