is paper examines the Bāʿ Alawī-a group of Ḥaḍramī diaspora acknowledged as the descendants of Prophet Muḥammad-in post-colonial Indonesia. In particular, it observes the Bā ʿAlawī scholars' creative adaptation and manipulation of their Sufi path, ṭarīqa ʿalawiyya, in their attempt to secure their place within the wider imagination of Indonesian nationhood while protecting their distinctive genealogical eminence. In the twentieth century the ṭarīqa, which had long functioned to secure their identity, differentiate them from others and nurture their diasporic consciousness, proved incompatible with the assimilationist discourse of the nation. Further challenges came from Islamic reformism, preaching egalitarianism increasingly defined public articulation of Islam, confronting the Bā ʿAlawī's notion of Islamic authority. e Bā ʿAlawī scholars adapted by reshaping of the ṭarīqa rituals, shifting emphasis on Prophetic piety, expanding the Bā ʿAlawī textual community to include local scholars, and the projecting of a new form of Prophetic authority in a framework of ḥadīth studies. Such shifts were sustained by the construction of a new Bā ʿAlawī center in Kwitang, Jakarta, and the cultivation of scholarly networks connecting the Bā ʿAlawī and local kyais (Indonesian Islamic scholars). More specifically, this paper observes the career of three Bā ʿAlawī scholars and their efforts to reconfigure the discursive practice of the ṭarīqa in the early decades of the Indonesian republic. By presenting practices * is article is based on the first chapter of my Masters thesis which I submitted to the
This article examines dreaming as an Islamic practice of historical inquiry among traditionalist Muslims of Central Java, Indonesia. Combining insights from the anthropologies of Islam and history, it looks at alternative praxes of history, how they are interpreted through Islamic frameworks, and how they generate forms of religious authority. The article follows the work of a Sufi master, Habib Luthfi bin Yahya, in identifying old unmarked graves as saintly tombs through dreams. Successful history-making projects have resulted in the increasing -albeit contested -recognition of Habib Luthfi's role as a dreaming saint, a form of Islamic authority premised on his perceived ability to oneirically explore the past on behalf of others and arbitrate history. By observing the connection between praxes of history and the formation of religious authority, the article calls for the broadening of anthropological studies of Islam beyond their current preoccupation with the religion's prescriptive dimension.On 15 March 2017, Indonesia's second most circulated newspaper, Jawa Pos, published an article on the inauguration of a newly built saintly mausoleum in the village of Jagalan, in Kendal, Central Java. The mausoleum is built on top of an old grave that had recently been identified by one of Indonesia's most influential Sufi masters, Habib Muhammad Luthfi bin Yahya (b. 1947) of Pekalongan, Central Java, as belonging to a historical saint, Ahmad bin ʿAqil al-Munawwar. A villager interviewed by the reporter explained that the tomb was discovered in early 2017 when Habib Luthfi stopped by the village on his way to visit the tomb of a well-known saint nearby. He visited the village cemetery, stood by one particular unmarked grave, and prayed. He then identified the grave and advised the villagers to build a mausoleum over it and institute an annual commemoration for the saint. This report illustrates one of the many projects of history-making involving Habib Luthfi, a contemporary Indonesian Sufi master who has been engaged in identifying old unmarked graves as saintly tombs and instituting new pilgrimage practice, whether in his native town of Pekalongan, Central Java, or in far-flung places like West Java, East Borneo, and even a small Indonesian island off of Singapore.Javanese Muslims embark on pilgrimage (Ar. ziyāra, Ind. ziarah) for various reasons, including to seek divine blessings, magical powers, esoteric knowledge, and even
This article investigates the socio-discursive processes that have enabled the emergence and maintenance of pilgrimage practice by examining the rising popularity of the Ḥaḍramawt valley of southern Yemen as a pilgrimage destination for Indonesian Muslims. Pilgrimage to Ḥaḍramawt mainly revolves around visiting the tombs of Bā ʿAlawī (a group of Ḥaḍramīs who claim direct descent from the Prophet Muḥammad) Sufi saints and scholars scattered around the valley. Moving away from ritual analysis, I examine the roles of various actors involved in the production and consumption of pilgrimage. I analyze pilgrimage as a poetic project that frames travel as a transformative process. As a project, pilgrimage can be described as poetic because it hinges on the construction of multiple chronotopes that are juxtaposed, compared, contrasted, and assembled into meaningful alignments. The actors discussed are involved in producing chronotopes of Ḥaḍramawt as a spiritually idealized place, which are made to resonate with mass-mediated chronotopes of idealized Islam circulating among Indonesian Muslims, and contrasted with chronotopes of the modern world. Framed by such a poetic mediation, pilgrims comprehend their actual travel to Ḥaḍramawt as a cross-chronotopic movement that they believe transforms their own selves. The article observes the various mechanisms of attraction and seduction at work in pilgrimage practice, while demonstrating the structural similarities between pilgrimage and other forms of tourism.
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