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                 Organizing Board and     are the Sair al-Salikin ila ‘ibadati Rabb al-  fi Dharf al-Yaman. In the list of works        Entering the 19  century, the          colonial government, especially Roorda     Organizing Board of the
                 participants in the second   ‘alaminwhich is also based on a work by   among ranked among 18  century book             development of Islam and the Malay     van Eysinga and A.F. von de Wall, two      second Youth Congress
                                                                                                        th
                 Youth Congress, 28 October   al-Ghazaliand the Lubab Ihya ‘Ulum al-  literature,one book should be included.           language came to be centered in Riau,   Dutch scholar who were very interested    chaired by Soegondo
                 1928.                    Dinalso written in Malay and completed   It waswritten by the great scholar from              precisely in the island of Penyengat, the   in language and culture. This work was   Djojopoespito, 28 October
                                          in the holy land of Mecca about ten years   Kalimantan, Muhammad Arsyad bin                   center of the Riau-Lingga Kingdom in the   lithographed in 1857 with the support of   1928.
                 Source: Perpustakaan
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                                                                                                                                                   53
                 Nasional (The National   after his first book. Inheriting the neo-  Abdullah al-Banjari. He wrote a very               19  century. The most prominent figure   Von de Wall (1807-73) and his German     Source: Perpustakaan
                 Library of the Republic of   Sufi intellectual tradition, al-Palimbani’s   famous book, Sabil al-Muhtadin li           who contributed to the development of   companions who composed a Dutch-          Nasional (The National
                 Indonesia).              works tried to stress the need for a    al-tafaqquh fi Amr al-Din, \ about the                the social-intellectual discourse and   Malay dictionary, and for whom Raja       Library of the Republic of
                                          reconciliation between Sufism and the   intricacies of the study of Islam.                    political Islam in Malayis Raja Ali Haji   Ali Haji played the role as informer and   Indonesia).
                                          Shari‘a for which he adopted many works                                                       (1808-1873) who wrote many influential   assistant. 54
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                                          by al-Ghazali, as he was the main figure   Thus, in the 18  century, Palembang                works, especially with regards to the   The discussion in the Kitab Pengetahuan
                                          behind this effort.                     played an important role in the                       development of Malay culture. Above    Bahasa is divided into two main parts.
                                                                                  development of Islam in the Indonesia
                                          Another scholar from Palembang is       archipelago. In this century, Palembang               all, Raja Ali Haji had a strong interest in   The first consists of a discussion of
                                          Shihabuddin bin Abdullah Muhammad.      produced many leading scholars who                    linguistics. This is evident from his work,   seven words that start with an alif, i.e.
                                          His works include the Sharh yang Latif   wrote influential works that would in                Kitab Pengetahuan Bahasa (Book of      Allah, Al-Nabi, Ashab, Akhbar, Al-
                                          atas Mukhtasar Jawharut Tauhid,.        part determine the intellectual and                   Language Knowledge). Although he did   Insan Al-Awali and Al-Akhirat. In this
                                          in form of a Malay translation on a                                                           not finish the work---possibly because   section, Raja Ali Haji offers a relatively
                                          review of Jawhar al-Tawhid by Ibrahim   social discourse of Islam in Indonesia.               he died before having been able to do   detailed and systematic description
                                          al-Laqani. Another work is a treatise   This is evident from the fact that the                so— the Kitab Pengetahuan Bahasa is    of these religious concepts (and their
                                          adopting the Risalah fi al-Tawhid . by   works authored by religious scholars                 strong evidence of Raja Ali Haji’s desire   history), so that the first part of the
                                          Walli Raslan al-Dimasyqi. Mention       from Palembang ---and also the works                  to promote the use of Malay. Raja Ali Haji   Kitab Pengetahuan Bahasa resembles
                                          also needs to be made here of Kemas     of the Banjar scholar in Kalimantan---                declared that his work was wanted as a   a religious textmore than a book onthe
                                          Fachruddin, another Palembang           have been reprinted numerous times.                   guide for those who intended to increase   Malay language. In the second part,
                                          scholar who contributed significantly   Thus, these religious works became the                their knowledge of language, religion,   though it has the same tendency as
                                          to the use of Malay in religious works   sources of the Muslims’ formation of                 and the right customs. Raja Ali Haji’s   the first part, Raja Ali Haji presents
                                          (book literature). He also translated   knowledge and their religious attitude.               interest in these areas can also be seen   discussions clearly meant as a
                                          and adapted a number of Arabic          These works were read not only by                     from the letters he wrote to officials in the   dictionary. It is organized systematically
                                          books into Malay: Zakariya al-Ansari’s   Malay-Indonesian Muslims, but also by                                                       and starts with words that start with alif,
                                          Fath al-Rahman, Futuh al-Sham,a         non-Malay Muslims in other regions in                 53.  Virginia Matheson, “Pulau Penyengat:   ‘ba’, ‘ta’, ‘nya’, ‘jim’, and ‘ca’. The book is
                                                                                                                                        Nineteenth Century Islamic Centre of Riau”,
                                          translation of Abu Ismail al-Basri’s    Indonesia. Therefore, the works of these              Archipel 37, 1989: 158-69, p. 153-72. See also   54.  Jan van der Putten and al-Azhar (1995) [annot.
                                          Mukhtasar Futuh al-Sham, and the        Palembang scholars strengthened the                   Palawa, Alimuddin Hassan, “The Penyengat   and introd.], Di Dalam Berkekalan Persahabatan:
                                          Tuhfat al-Zaman,translation of Ibn      spread of the use of Malay more widely                School: A Review of the Intellectual Tradition in the   Letters from Raja Ali Haji, Leiden: Department of
                                                                                                                                                                               Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia and
                                                                                                                                        Malay-Riau Kingdom”, Studia Islamika, vol. 10, no.
                                          Shaddad al-Himyari’sTuhfat al-Zaman     in Indonesia.                                         3, 2003: 95-123, pp. 97-121.           Oceania Leiden University, p. 5-113.

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