Religions and Missionaries around the Pacific, 1500–1900
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Religions and Missionaries around the Pacific, 1500–1900

Tanya Storch, Tanya Storch

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Religions and Missionaries around the Pacific, 1500–1900

Tanya Storch, Tanya Storch

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About This Book

This volume takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of religious cultural exchanges around the Pacific in the period 1500-1900, relating these to economic and political developments and to the expansion of communication across the area. It brings together twenty-two pieces, from diaries of religious exiles and missionary field observations, to studies from a variety of academic disciplines, so enabling a multitude of voices to be heard. The articles are grouped in sections dealing with the Islamic period, the Iberian Catholic period, the Jewish diaspora, the Russian Orthodox church, the epoch of Protestant culture and finally Asian immigrant religions in the West; a substantial introduction contextualizes these chapters in terms of both historical and contemporary approaches.

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Publisher
Routledge
Year
2017
ISBN
9781351904780
Edition
1

1
Islam in the Netherlands East Indies

Raden Abdulkadir Widjojoatmodjo

THE ADVENT OF ISLAM IN INDONESIA

UNTIL the arrival of the Europeans, sea traffic to the Indies was merely coastal. Sailing ships went from port to port along the coasts. As the Strait of Malacca was, of old, the gateway to the Indonesian Archipelago, it is no wonder that Islam was introduced first in the settlements along the coast of this Strait.
In all probability, Moslem merchants from Hindustan, especially from Gujarat, brought Islam to the Indonesian Archipelago. They arrived in the same way and by the same means as their ancestors who brought Hindu civilization twelve centuries earlier. Islam was introduced by merchants and not by conquering Arab legions, or even by missionaries.
Indonesian chronicles describe the first arrival of Islam in legendary form.1 They have no chronological order, and the development, lasting centuries, is ascribed to a miracle, to a Wali (a Saint, literally “a Lord’s friend”). The historical account can be derived from inscriptions, epitaphs and travel logs. In Leran, near Sourabaya, an epitaph was found corresponding to the year 1082 or 1102 a.d. It is an epitaph for a non-native Moslem woman. If this stone was not imported from abroad in later times, it is the oldest known monument of the presence of Moslems in the archipelago.2 A tombstone in Samudra (Atchin) mentions in the Arabic language that there lies buried Sultan Malik al Saleh, who died in 1297 a.d.3 In Trengganu (on the border of Malacca and Thailand) a stone inscription has been found, bearing a year corresponding to 1303 or 1387 a.d. It is a Malay inscription in Arabic characters, regarding some important religious law.4
Marco Polo in his itinerary related the presence of “Mooros” in Ferlec (in New-Atchinese: Peureula) in North Sumatra.5 The famous Morroccan traveller, Ibn Battutah, who was known to have lived for many years in the palace of the Sultan of Dihli, and who visited Samudra in the years 1345 and 1346 a.d., wrote that the ruler of Samudra was a Mohammedan, who performed his religious duties with the utmost zeal. He belonged to the madhab of Imam Shafi’i. Many customs reminded him of those he had seen in India.6
In his “General report of the coasts of the Oceans,” the Chinese Moslem Ma Huan relates, how he visited the archipelago in the period between 1405 and 1433 a.d. as Secretary Dragoman of one of the envoys of the Chinese Emperor Yung Lo. In the northern part of Sumatra the main state was already Islamic. In 1414 he visited the King of Malacca, Mohammad Sekandar Shah. Ruler and people were already Moslems and very strict believers in the faith. Malacca was the main starting point of Islam propaganda in the archipelago, as its trading relations to the east and to the west increased rapidly.7
By 1415 the whole of Sumatra’s north coast was islamized. Gujarat was in that period the origin of Islam culture. Ma Huan wrote, that on the island of Java there were “foreign Moslem colonies” in the harbors of East Java; the native population was still Hindu-Javanese. He saw many Chinese immigrants, amongst them Moslems.
The Javanese colony in Malacca, founded about 1300 a.d., soon became Moslems as we have seen. This colony influenced the newcomers from Java, who formed Moslem cells after their return to Java. Moslem families formed a community, and when the ruler embraced the new religion, there was a new Moslem state. Even nowadays we see the spreading out of Islam on this same pattern. Those Javanese traders too brought Islam to the Moluccas. In Ternate we find a Moslem sultan, as early as 1464.
One of the first Portuguese travelers, de Barros, gave a description of the Indies.8 He stated that to the East all belongs to pagans, with the exception of Malacca, a part of Sumatra, some harbours in Java and some Molucca islands, which belong to the Moores, “The pest,” as he added, “which spread from Malacca by the road of commerce.”
People in Java believe that the conversion to Islam was due to the “Nine Saints” (Wali Sanga). According to their belief, fitting to the harmony of the Universe, Islam must inevitably succeed Hindu-Javanism. The power of Hindu-Javanese Modjopahit must move to an islamized Demak. The reasons are beyond human judgment.
The further spreading of Islam in the archipelago was due to the natives themselves. Contact with the cradle of Islam, Arabia proper, took place only in the 17th century, when the first pilgrims from the Indonesian archipelago undertook the pilgrimage.
The situation at present is as follows: of the nearly 70 million native inhabitants of Indonesia 90% are Moslems. With the exception of a few thousand Bedouis andTenggerese, Java has been entirely islamized. In a few places in Java the Catholic and Protestant missions have been able to form a nucleus. With the exception of the Christianized Toba Bataks and the pagan Kubus and Mentawais, Sumatrans are Moslems. Borneo is a region where Islam is still in the process of penetration. The Malay inhabitants of the coastal regions are practically all Moslems. Along the rivers—the natural means of communications with the interior—Islam finds its way inland. South Celebes and Lombok are wholly islamized. The Minahassa, the Toradja-region and the Ambon-islands are preponderantly Christian. In the lesser Sunda Islands, the rest of the Moluccas, Catholic and Protestant missions have been very active. In Bali we still find Hindiusm, of an Indonesian character.

INDONESIAN SENSE FOR SYNCRETISM

One of the reasons why it was possible for Islam, and for Christianity too, to spread so easily in the Indonesian archipelago, is the great sense for syncretism of the inhabitants of Indonesia.9 But also as in other countries Islam had to adapt itself to the peculiarities of the Indonesian population. When Islam arrived in the Indies it had already reached its full growth. The system was fixed. Islam theoretically fixes human relations, from the crib to the grave. It intends not only to be a religious teaching, but also to regulate the social structure. But in Indonesia too there is a great difference between theory and practice. Religion and social life are difficult to divide in the Indonesian community. The society considers itself as a religious unity. The Almighty, already in pre-islamic ages, demanded the services of the whole man, in his personal as well as in his social life. Religion, therefore, is no private business. But the theory of Islam has not been able to conquer the Indonesian philosophical and spiritual life and the practice of the Indonesian customs and manners, known under the Arabic name “adat.”
In the whole history of the conversion of Indonesia there was no trace of any outward force. For the Holy War is not the only way to spread the true religion. According to the theory it is only allowed to resort to the use of force, when exhortation and preaching have proved to be in vain.
Islam knows no priests. In Islam there are no sacraments, the administering of which must be done by certain persons, authorized to do this. It is one of the most important moral duties of every Moslem “to encourage other co-religionists in doing things which are good and forbid the bad.” Religious authority is confined to the scribes, who become, because of their knowledge, naturally the teachers and informers of the less learned in their community. For those who look for a higher blessing in mysticism than the official religion offers, the leaders of the mystic fraternities become guides on the path to higher knowledge. But here also, religious authority comes only from the individual, the free choice of those who recognize it.

THE INDONESIAN MOSLEM

How intensive is the faith of Indonesian Moslems? Are they true Moslems? Many ethnologists used to compare Islam in Indonesia with a coat full of holes. Through these holes, they said, the pagan was peering out. It is difficult to evaluate the religious sincerity of the individual; but “Allah has full knowledge of all things.” (Koran S.LV—32). But there are external indications which can help us in judging the religious profession of a people, for instance: disposition towards the religion; the number of mosques; the number of Islamic schools, associations, etc.; and the number of pilgrims.
The Indonesians consider themselves good Moslems. As a whole they profess the religion not better, but also not worse than any other Moslem people. Indeed, there are many Indonesians who consider themselves to be Moslems just because their parents are Moslems; or because they have said the creed that “there is no God, but the only God, and that Mohammed is His Prophet,” or because they have been circumcised; because they are not allowed to eat pork nor to drink wine. But this knowledge constitutes also the greater part of the knowledge of Moslems in other countries.
In all Moslem countries I have visited, certain articles of faith are taught and defended in a uniform manner. These are: the belief in Allah as the only God; the belief in His Messengers, who have come to proclaim His will to humanity in different periods of history; the belief in His Angels who have transmitted the revelations to the Messengers and who are furthermore in this world and in the next the immediate executors of Allah’s commands; the belief in Allah’s books in which the revelations are recorded; the belief in the day of the resurrection of the dead, and in the universal world judgment, which Allah will hold over all his creatures; the belief in the predestination of all good and evil by the Almighty.
Of these matters only vague concepts and ideas penetrate to the illiterate mass of the people. In Indonesia the mass has not given up the adoration of the old “sacred things,” sometimes disguised as Islamic Saints. To obtain fulfillment of their wishes they continue to employ the old approved methods of magic and exorcism, even though they know that it is no longer permissible. They only add to the old Indonesian incantations, which today are called by the Arabic name “rafals,” the “bismillah” (in the name of Allah). The situation is not different in other Moslem countries, even where Islam has been taught for 13 centuries! The difference remains a difference of degree and colour, not of kind.
The Indonesian Moslems belong to the madhab of Mohammad Ibn Idris as Shafi’i. This is the same madhab of the first bringers of the faith in Indonesia. The class of the Kyashis and Gurus, especially in Banten and Cheribon, saw to it that Islam was professed in the manner of the ancestors. These orthodox said, that an individual “idjtihaad” (individual source study from the Koran and the Hadiths i.e., the Holy traditions) was not allowed. “The law comes to our generation on the authority of reliable theologians.”
The fikh-books, which are frequently used in the Indies are: Tuhfat al Muhladj bisarh al Minhadj, and I’anat al talibin, Minhadj al talibin.10 It often happens that the law does not give a decisive answer to certain problems. Generally in such a case, a question (su’al) is formulated in a meeting of theologians and answered in public on a certain day, usually in the mosque after the Friday salaat. Sometimes a question is sent to Mecca or to Cairo to be answered by the theologians there in the form of a “fetwah.”
The Reformed Movement of Mohammed Abduh in Egypt found also a response in the Indies. Students from Mecca and Cairo as well as books and newspapers brought new ideas to the Indonesian world. Especially “Mohammadiyyah,” an association, established by Kyahi Hadji Dahlan against the growing influence of the Christian mission in Java, took the stand of the Reformed Movement. Later on the movement was strengthened by the Egyptian Sudanese Ahmad Surkati, leader of the Al Irshad, by the Persatuan Islam in Bandung and the Persatuan Moslimin Indonesia (Union of Moslem Indonesians). They strove to study the sources for an interpretation of the law to gain authority for abolishing adat institutions, which were regarded as contrary to the true faith. They rejected the belief of the orthodox in the infallibility of the “idjma’” (consensus).11
Remarkable is the ascetic tendency of the Indonesian Islam as a consequence of the sense for tapas and for initiation rites of pre-Islamic times. The yearly fasting during the month of Ramadan is enforced very severely, and even more than the law prescribes. It is generally known by an Indonesian name puasa or pasa. Every desa or kampung has a mosque for the community. Many Indonesians have also a private small house of prayer in their garden (langgar or surau). The oldest mosques still show their Hindu architecture.12 The mosque of Panjunan, probably the oldest remaining one, (Cheribon) even has a wall adorned with Kala-heads.
Besides the general practise of reserving parts of mosques for women, there are in the Indies also, thanks to the work of Mohammadiyyah, special women mosques.13
The Indonesian woman is generally more devout than the man. If she is still pagan, then her religiousness is expressed in many sacred rituals, magic customs, feasts, offering of flowers and fruit. Many mosques have been established from the worshipper’s collections. As a peculiarity we have the bedug, a huge drum, and the tabuh, a split drum, made of wood to call the people to salaats. (In Arabia the transfer of the call is accomplished by persons, stationed at different points of the city.) With many of the old mosques we find cemeteries. Nowadays, separate cemete...

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