Kitab Kuning: Books in Arabic Script
Used in the Pesantren Milieu
(Comments on a New Collection in the KITLV Library)
A research project on the Indonesian ulama gave me the opportunity to
visit pesantren in various parts of the Archipelago and put
together a sizeable collection of books used in and around the pesantren,
the so-called kitab kuning. Taken together, this collection
offers a clear overview of the texts used in Indonesian pesantren and madrasah,
a century after L.W.C. van den Berg’s pioneering study of the Javanese
(and Madurese) pesantren curriculum (1886). Van den Berg compiled, on
the basis of interviews with kyais, a list of the major textbooks
studied in the pesantren of his day. He mentioned fifty titles and gave
on each some general information and short summaries of the more
important ones. Most of these books are still being reprinted and used
in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, but many other works have come
into use beside them. The present collection contains around nine
hundred different titles, most of which are used as textbooks. I shall
first make some general observations on these books and on the
composition of the collection. In the second part of this article I
shall discuss a list of ‘most popular kitab’ that I compiled
from other sources. All of the books listed there are, however, part of
the collection.
Criteria and representativeness
In order to judge how representative this collection is, a few words on
my method of collecting are necessary. I visited the major publishers
and toko kitab (bookshops specializing in this type of religious
literature) in Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, Purwokerto, Semarang, Surabaya,
Banda Aceh, Medan, Pontianak, Banjarmasin, Amuntai, Singapore, Kuala
Lumpur, Georgetown (Penang), Kota Bharu and Patani (Southern Thailand),
and bought there all available Islamic books in Arabic script printed in
Southeast Asia. The last two criteria may at first sight seem rather
arbitrary, but I found them to be sociologically significant besides
being the most convenient ones. It is true, most toko kitab also
sell limited numbers of Arabic books printed in Egypt and Lebanon (an
agent representing the Lebanese publishing house Dar al-Fikr has special
shops for these books in Jakarta and Surabaya), but the price
differential between such books and Southeast Asian editions guarantees
that they are bought by a relatively small minority only. They include
works of reference for the advanced scholar and works by modern authors
that have not yet been accepted by the mainstream of Indonesian Islam.
Any book for which there is a sizeable demand will sooner or later be (re)printed
by one of the regional publishers.
Similarly, the script in which a book is printed carries symbolic
meaning and differentiates rather neatly between two different types of
reading public. Indonesian Muslims use even different words for books in
romanized script (‘buku’) and those in Arabic script,
irrespective of the language (‘kitab’). Up to the 1960’s a
well-defined line divided the Muslim community in ‘traditionalists’
and ‘modernists’ (with as their major socio-religious organizations
the Nahdlatul Ulama and the Muhammadiyah, respectively). The former used
to study religion exclusively through kitab kuning (called kuning,
‘yellow,’ after the tinted paper of books brought from the Middle
East in the early twentieth century), while the latter read only buku
putih, ‘white’ books in romanized Indonesian. The authors of the
latter usually rejected most of the scholastic tradition in favour of a
return to, and in some cases new interpretation of, the original
sources, the Qur’an and the hadith. This may have contributed
to the negative attitude towards buku putih that long existed in
the pesantren milieu. In a few old-fashioned pesantren such books are
not allowed until this day. Traditionalist ulama writing books or
brochures, whether in Arabic or in one of the vernacular languages,
always used Arabic script, and many continue to do so. Nowadays,
however, the dividing line between ‘modernists’ and ‘traditionalists’
is not so sharp and clear anymore, and many of the old antagonisms have
worn off. The ‘modernists’ have generally become less radical in
their rejection of tradition — significantly, there are now several
Muhammadiyah pesantren offering a combination of the traditional
curriculum (kitab kuning) and that of the modern school. Not only
have most ‘traditionalist’ kyai, on the other hand, become more
catholic in their reading, many of them write now in Indonesian as well
as in Arabic, Malay or Javanese. The Arabic script, though still the
most unambiguous symbol of a traditionalist orientation, is no longer a
sine qua non for it. I have therefore not applied the criterion of
script too rigidly, and have included in the present collection a number
of works in (romanized) Indonesian, that logically belong to the kitab
tradition: annotated translations of, or commentaries on, classical
texts by ‘traditionalist’ ulama.
The
criterion of Arabic script has excluded one category of texts otherwise
quite similar to those collected. Ulama in South Sulawesi (the most
prolific of whom are Yunus Maratan and Abdul Rahman Ambo Dalle) have
written religious texts in Buginese for use in madrasah and schools,
employing not, as earlier generations of scholars did, the Arabic but
the Buginese alphabet. A good number of these works are already in the
KITLV library, and several bibliographies exist (Departemen Agama
1981/1982, 1983/1984).
The
collection could, for a number of reasons, not be complete. Most
publishers have very limited storage facilities, and only a fraction of
the books published by them are actually available at their sales
departments. When a kitab is (re)printed, almost the entire edition is
immediately sent off to toko kitab throughout the country. It is only
through visiting many such shops and patiently combing the shelves that
one can collect at least most of the important works from major
publishers. Virtually all works mentioned in published sources or heard
about have been collected, some even in several editions, in various
translations or with different glosses. But some of the less important
works were simply out of print and sold out in all shops visited.
Furthermore, there are numerous minor local publishers bringing out
works of secondary importance, often by local ulama. There are not a few
of such works in the collection, but it is likely that many others were
overlooked. In spite of these limitations, however, the collection
represents a fair cross-section of the study materials used in
Indonesian (and Malaysian) pesantren and madrasah, as well as of the
intellectual output of Indonesian ulama.
Statistics
Out of some nine hundred different works, almost five hundred, or just
over half, were written or translated by Southeast Asian ulama. Many of
these Indonesian ulama wrote in Arabic: almost 100 titles, or around
10%, are Arabic works by Southeast Asians (or Arabs resident in the
region). Those in Indonesian languages were, of course, all written by
Southeast Asians (including some of Arab descent). If we count
translations as separate works, the approximate numbers of kitab in the
various languages are as follows :
|
Language
|
Approximate
number of kitab
|
Percentage
of total number
|
|
Arabic
|
500
|
55
%
|
|
Malay
|
200
|
22
%
|
|
Javanese
|
120
|
13
%
|
|
Sundanese
|
35
|
4
%
|
|
Madurese
|
25
|
2.5
%
|
|
Acehnese
|
5
|
0.5
%
|
|
Indonesian
|
20
|
2
%
|
These works can be roughly classified according to subject matter. The
largest categories are:
|
jurisprudence (fiqh)
|
20
%
|
|
doctrine (`aqida, usul al-din)
|
17
%
|
|
traditional
Arabic grammar (nahw, sarf, balagha)
|
12
%
|
|
hadith collections
|
8
%
|
|
mysticism (tasawwuf, tariqa)
|
7
%
|
|
morality (akhlaq)
|
6
%
|
|
collections
of prayers and invocations, Islamic magic (du`a, wird,
mujarrabat)
|
5
%
|
|
texts
in praise of the prophets and saints (qisas al-anbiya’,
mawlid, manaqib, etc.)
|
6
%
|
A few important changes have taken place in the composition of the
pesantren curriculum, and these are only partly reflected in the table
above. A century ago, the Qur’an and the traditions were rarely
studied directly but mainly in the ‘processed’ form of scholastic
works on jurisprudence and doctrine. According to van den Berg, only one
tafsir, the Jalalayn, was studied in the pesantren, and no hadith
collections at all. In this respect, a significant change has taken
place during the past century. There are no less than ten different Qur’anic
commentaries (in Arabic, Malay, Javanese and Indonesian) in the
collection beside straightforward translations (also called tafsir) into
Javanese and Sundanese. The number of compilations of hadith is even
more striking. There is almost no pesantren now where hadith is not
taught as a separate subject. The major emphasis in instruction remains,
however, on fiqh, the Islamic science par excellence. There have been no
remarkable changes in the fiqh texts studied, but the discipline of usul
al-fiqh (the foundations or bases of fiqh) has been added to the
curriculum of many pesantren, allowing a more flexible and dynamic view
of fiqh.
These and other categories of kitab kuning will be discussed in greater
detail in the second part of this article, where the most popular of
each are listed. But here are first some observations on kitab
publishing and major authors.
The publishing of kitab kuning in the Archipelago
Printed books are a relative novelty in the pesantren. In van den Berg’s
time, many of the kitab in the pesantren were still in manuscript, and
were copied by the santri in longhand. But it was precisely in this
period that printed books from the Middle East began entering Indonesia
in significant numbers, one of the side effects of the increased
participation in the haj (due in turn to the arrival of the steamship).
There had, by then, been a century of bookprinting in the Middle East
already, but of particular relevance for Indonesians was the
establishment of a government press in Mecca in 1884, which printed not
only books in Arabic but also in Malay. The latter part of its
activities was placed under the supervision of the learned Ahmad b.
Muhammad Zayn al-Patani, who is also the author of several treatises
himself.
(the present collection contains seven of them in recent reprints). His
selection of books was rather biased in favour of those by compatriots,
and it is partly due to him that many works of Da’ud b. `Abdallah al-Patani
and Muhammad b. Isma`il Da’ud al-Patani are still widely available, in
reprints of his original editions. In these and other reprints, the
imprint of the original publisher has been replaced, but many of the
works published by Ahmad b. M. Zayn may still be recognized by the
verses that he wrote as introductions and placed on the title pages.
This was not the very first Malay press, although the first one of
importance. Zayn al-Din al-Sumbawi, another Jawi scholar resident in
Mecca, had a short treatise lithographed as early as 1876 (Snouck
Hurgronje 1889: 385) and several of Da’ud b. `Abdallah al-Patani’s
works were printed in Bombay before the 1880s too. Bombay was also the
major source of printed (lithographed) Qur’ans entering Indonesia in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Publishers in Istanbul and Cairo soon followed the Meccan press in
establishing Malay sections. It was especially Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi
of Cairo who, in the course of time, was to publish many a Malay kitab.
Two studies by Mohd. Nor bin Ngah (1980, 1983) discuss a more or less
representative sample of these Malay kitab and of the worldview that is
reflected in them.
These
publishing activities in the Middle East, as well as the example of
British and Dutch lithograph presses, stimulated Islamic publishing
efforts in the Archipelago too. The first presses there that printed in
vernacular languages were operated by government and missionary
organisations.
They were soon followed by the first enterprising Muslim publishers. One
of the pioneers was Sayyid Usman of Batavia, that prolific ‘Arab ally
of the Dutch Indies government,’ many of whose simple works are still
in use, primarily among the Betawi and Sundanese. He had a first version
of his Al-qawanin al-shar`iyya lithographed in 1881; by 1886, at least
four other booklets of his hand were mentioned and many more were to
follow.
Even Sayyid Usman was not the first Islamic publisher in the Indies;
that title probably belongs to Kemas Haji Muhammad Azhari of Palembang,
who in 1854 made his first lithograph prints of the Qur’an,
calligraphed by himself. He had bought a press in Singapore a few years
earlier, on the return journey from the hajj, and taught himself to
operate it. His Qur’ans — to which he had written a 14-page Malay
introduction on pronunciation and style of reading — found ready
buyers.
In Singapore too, there must have been lithograph presses occasionally
printing in Malay by that time, but very little is known about them as
yet. In the 1880s and 1890s, several presses published Malay newspapers
and occasionally books, but it remains unclear whether these included
more than one or two small religious tracts.
In
1894, the junior ruler of Riau, Muhammad Yusuf, established a printing
press, the Matba`at al-Ahmadiyya, on the island of Penyengat in 1894,
which in the following years printed several religious treatises by the
contemporary Naqshbandi shaykh Muhammad Salih al-Zawawi, the spiritual
preceptor of Muhammad Yusuf and his relatives.
These
promising beginnings found little follow-up. Many books and journals
were published in the Archipelago in the first half of the 20th century,
but very few of them were kitab (in the wide sense defined above)
and almost none were texts of the classical kind. West Sumatra was
probably the only region where a significant number of kitab (written by
local `ulama) were printed during the first decades of the century. Some
of these were simple textbooks, in Malay and Arabic, for the then new
madrasah, meant to replace the rather difficult classical works on
Arabic grammar, doctrine and fiqh. Several of these books are still
widely used.
Others were polemical writings, weapons in the religious debates between
kaum muda and kaum tua then raging in West Sumatra.
Here
as elsewhere, most of the modernists, who were by far the more prolific
writers and publishers, soon adopted the romanized script, which brought
them closer to the secular nationalists but reinforced their social
separation from the kaum tua. They did write religious textbooks, but in
style and contents these differed rather much from traditional kitab.
It was only after Indonesia’s independence that kitab began to be
printed on any serious scale there. As the present major publishers
remember, before the Second World War there were only booksellers, no
actual publishers of kitab in the Archipelago (the largest being
Sulayman Mar`i in Singapore, `Abdullah bin `Afif in Cirebon, and Salim
bin Sa`d Nabhan in Surabaya, all three of them Arabs).
They ordered virtually all books - including works in Malay - from
Egypt, where book production was then considerably cheaper than in
Indonesia. There was one exception, but it had only local significance:
the (Malay-owned) Patani Press as well as Nahdi (Arab) in southern
Thailand began printing Malay kitab in the late 1930s, for use in the pondok
of Patani and the contiguous Malay states.
In
the first half of the century, Indonesian demand was still low, and the
only commercially interesting kitab was the Qur’an itself. Both Mar`i
and bin `Afif made their first attempts to have it printed locally in
the 1930s; they were later followed by Al-Ma`arif of Bandung,
established late in 1948 by Muhammad bin `Umar Bahartha, a former
employee of `Abdullah bin `Afif. By mid-century, Mar`i had several kitab
kuning printed as well; one of the more conspicuous was `Abd al-Ra’uf
al-Fansuri (al-Singkili)’s Malay adaptation of the tafsir Jalalayn,
published in 1951. In the course of the 1950s, Al-Ma`arif followed suit
with cheap prints of oft-used kitab, and so did `Abdullah bin `Afif and
various relatives of Salim Nabhan. (Larger and therefore more expensive
works, such as the four-volume I`anat al-talibin by Sayyid Bakri b. M.
Shatta’, the latest great compendium of Shafi`i fiqh, were only
published from the 1970s on, reflecting a growing affluence in santri
circles). In the course of the 1960s Toha Putra of Semarang also
ventured onto the kitab market. Still later, the publishing house Menara
of Kudus joined the competition: the first non-Arab publisher of this
type of literature in Indonesia. Both Toha Putra and Menara have
published numerous classical texts together with Javanese or Indonesian
translations, as well as original works by Javanese `ulama. In 1978, a
former associate of Al-Ma`arif established the house Al-Haramayn in
Singapore, which in a few years put out a wide range of classical Arabic
texts, many Malay and even a few Sundanese works. Singapore was
apparently no longer an advantageous location to serve the Southeast
Asian kitab market from, for Al-Haramayn closed shop after a few years
(although its books could still be found all over the Archipelago in
1987), and the owner established a new house in Surabaya, called Bungkul
Indah.
In number of titles, al-Haramayn and its successor Bungkul Indah are the
largest publishers of kitab; in sheer volume of sales, however, they lag
far behind Al-Ma`arif. Another new publisher with a wide range of
(exclusively Arabic) titles is Dar Ihya’ al-Kutub al-`Arabiyya in
Surabaya.
There
are no signs yet of strong centralization in the publishing of kitab
kuning. Surabaya boasts the largest number of publishers; the most
conspicuous, beside those already mentioned, are the houses of Sa`d bin
Nasir bin Nabhan and Ahmad bin Sa`d Nabhan (ten other members of the
same family also publish kitab). On Java’s north coast we find further
publishers (besides those mentioned) in Semarang (Al-Munawwara),
Pekalongan (Raja Murah), Cirebon (Misriyya, the old establishment of `Abdallah
bin `Afif) and Jakarta (Al-Shafi`iyya and Al-Tahiriyya, belonging to the
large Betawi pesantrens of these names, and putting out textbooks used
there besides simple books by authors beloved to the Betawi community).
`Arafat in Bogor mainly produces works on Arabic grammar (over twenty
titles); Toko Kairo in the small West Javanese town of Tasikmalaya
publishes both Arabic classics and simple Sundanese kitab.
In
Sumatra there are at present, surprisingly, no important publishers of
kitab. The public there is served by publishers in Java, Singapore and
Malaysia. Publishing in Singapore has, as said, declined; in Malaysia
too, publishing of kitab is on the wane (in contrast to the publishing
of modern books, in which the country’s output is above that of its
ten times more populous southern neighbour). Georgetown (on the island
of Penang) still has three active publishers, of which Dar al-Ma`arif
and Nahdi are the most productive. In Kota Bharu (Kelantan), the Pustaka
Aman Press is very active, but it publishes mostly modern Malay books,
not classics.
There
are also several publishers in Patani (Southern Thailand), the eldest of
which, Patani Press, began publishing the works of Patani `ulama in the
late 1930s.
At present their books do not receive a wider distribution than Patani
and the contiguous Malay states. One of the other publishers here, Nahdi,
has moved most of its activities to Penang, where the political climate
is more favourable to Islamic publishing, and whence the books receive a
wider distribution. Besides these, there are a large number of small
local publishers putting out religious tracts, brochures and books for
strictly local markets.
A
high proportion of the books printed by these Southeast Asian publishers
are photomechanical reprints of works first published in Mecca or Cairo
around the turn of the century. Many even still carry the imprint of the
original publisher on the title page. In other cases, this imprint has
been replaced by that of the new publisher. Borrowing continues freely
meanwhile. Thus it can happen that a book originally published by
Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi of Cairo appears with the name of the most
recent publisher, Bungkul Indah, on the jacket while the title page
still bears the imprint of the previous publisher, Al-Ma`arif. Some
cheap reprints of more recent Egyptian or Lebanese books are only
distinguishable from the original by the quality of the paper and the
binding: a nightmare for the bibliographer. Thus Bungkul Indah has
recently brought out a series of modern works with the imprint of Beyrut
publisher Dar al-Thaqafa still on the cover and title page.
The common format of kitab kuning
Most of the classical Arabic kitab studied in the pesantren are
commentaries (sharh, Ind/Jav: syarah), or glosses (hashiya,
hasyiyah) upon commentaries on older original texts (matn,
matan). The printed editions of these classical works usually
have the text that is commented or glossed upon printed in the margin,
so that both may be studied together. This has perhaps been the reason
of occasional confusions between related texts. The name Taqrib,
for instance, is used both for this short and simple fiqh text itself
and for the Fath al-qarib, a more substantial commentary on it
(van den Berg, in fact, believed these two works to be identical). If
one asks for the Mahalli, a popular advanced fiqh work, one is
given the voluminous super-commentary on it by Qalyubi and `Umayra, that
has Mahalli’s Kanz al-raghibin in a modest position in the
margin, etc.
Many
of the basic texts are manzum, i.e. written in rhymed verse (nazm,
nadham), to facilitate memorization.
Perhaps the longest manzum text is the Alfiyya, a text on
Arabic grammar so called because it consists of thousand (alf) bayt.
Many generations of santri have, patiently chanting, committed this
entire work to memory, along with a whole range of other texts.
Commentaries of such manzum works commonly incorporate the
original verse in the (prose) commentary rather than placing it
separately in the margin.
A
small fraction of the (Javanese, Madurese and Sundanese) translations
simply consists of word-by-word, interlineary translations - written
obliquely in a finer hand under each word of the bold Arabic text, and
therefore graphically dubbed jenggotan, ‘bearded.’
In most cases, however, there is in addition a freer translation and/or
commentary, usually printed on the lower half of the page. Malay
translations sometimes follow another pattern: the Arabic text is broken
up into small semantic units, each of which is then followed by a rather
literal Malay translation between brackets. But more often the Malay
translation and/or commentary is printed separately, without the Arabic.
The
most common format of the classical kitab for pesantren use is just
below quarto size (26 cm), and not bound. The quires (koras) lie
loose in the jacket, so that the santri may take out any single page
that he happens to be studying. This is another physical characteristic
that seems to have largely symbolic value: it makes the kitab look more
classical. Kitab by modern authors, translators or commentators are
never in this format. Many users of classical kitab are strongly
attached to it, and the publishers oblige. Some even print kitab on
orange-tinted (‘kuning’) paper (produced especially for them
by Indonesian factories) because this too is more ‘classical’ in the
users’ minds.
Popular authors of kitab
As might be expected, there have been no great shifts in the popularity
of classical authors during the past century. Virtually all kitab
mentioned by van den Berg are still available in Indonesia, in recent
reprints. But there has been a noticeable increase in relatively recent
commentaries on these works. A few authors stand out, in that numerous
works by them are widely available and have been generally accepted into
the pesantren curriculum. The most influential of them flourished in
Mecca in the late 19th century.
Ahmad
b. Zayni Dahlan, the Shafi`i mufti of Mecca during Snouck Hurgronje’s
stay there, is represented by seven works in this collection, and his
younger contemporary Sayyid Bakri b. Muhammad Shatta’ al-Dimyati by
four, that are very widely used.
The
most ubiquitous presence, however, is that of the Indonesian author
Muhammad b. `Umar Nawawi al-Jawi al-Bantani (Nawawi Banten), who has
twenty-two titles in the collection, all of them in Arabic.
Eleven of them occur in the list of most frequently used kitab below —
he has more titles among these top hundred than any other author. Nawawi
wrote on virtually every aspect of Islamic learning. Most of his works
are comments on well-known texts, explaining them in simple terms. He is
perhaps best regarded as a popularizer of, rather than a contributor to,
learned discourse.
Another commentator comparable to Nawawi Banten in scope and popularity
is the earlier Egyptian author Ibrahim al-Bajuri (or Bayjuri, d.
1277/1861), several of whose works were already widely used in van den
Berg’s time. The collection contains six of works of his hand, on fiqh,
doctrine and logic.
Besides Nawawi, several other southeast Asian authors have acquired
lasting places in the pesantren or madrasah curriculum. An earlier, very
prolific author is the said Da’ud b. `Abdallah al-Patani (d. ca.
1845), who also wrote on a wide range of subjects, always in Malay.
Fourteen of his works were found in recent reprints. They are widely
used in Patani, Malaysia and parts of Sumatra. The major works of his
contemporaries Muhammad Arshad al-Banjari and `Abd al-Samad al-Palimbani
(who wrote in Malay too) are also regularly reprinted. Another author of
still popular Malay works is the said Sayyid Usman (`Uthman b. `Abdallah
b. `Aqil b. Yahya al-`Alawi).
An
important Javanese author of the late 19th century is Saleh Darat (Salih
b. `Umar al-Samarani, d. 1321/1903). He wrote commentaries (in Javanese)
on several important works of fiqh, doctrine and tasawwuf.
K.H.
Mahfudz of Termas (Mahfuz b. `Abdallah al-Tarmasi), who lived and taught
in Mecca around the turn of the century (he died in 1919), wrote a few
highly regarded works (in Arabic) on fiqh and the science of hadith.
Another highly respected `alim is the late K.H. Ihsan b. Muhammad Dahlan
of Jampes, Kediri, who wrote (in Arabic) a much admired commentary on
Ghazali’s Minhaj al-`abidin, titled Siraj al-talibin.
The names of all these authors (except Kyai Mahfudz) occur in the list
of most popular kitab below.
A
more recent, and highly prolific Javanese author is Bisri Mustofa of
Rembang (Bishri Mustafa al-Rambani), represented in the collection by
over twenty works, including a three-volume tafsir (a translation of
rather than commentary on the Qur’an).
Misbah b. Zayn al-Mustafa of Bangilan, Ahmad Subki Masyhadi of
Pekalongan and Asrori Ahmad of Wonosari translated numerous classical
texts into Javanese; the first moreover wrote a voluminous Javanese
tafsir.
Other
productive Javanese authors include Kyai Muslikh of Mranggen (Muslih b.
`Abd al-Rahman al-Maraqi, d. 1986), who wrote several treatises on his tariqa,
the Qadiriyya wa Naqshbandiyya, and related matters, and Ahmad `Abd al-Hamid
al-Qandali of Kendal, who wrote various treatises on doctrine and
religious obligations as well as texts of practical use (methods of da`wa,
NU affairs).
In the 19th century, pesantren in Madura and West Java did not use their
own regional languages but Javanese as a medium: when Arabic texts were
translated it was into Javanese. This too has changed, there are now
kitab kuning in Madurese and Sundanese as well. `Abd al-Majid Tamim of
Pamekasan translated over ten books into Madurese, covering almost all
branches of learning.
There
is a wider range of Sundanese kitab, and more of them are original works
rather than simply translations. Three authors stand out in the
collection: Ahmad Sanusi of Sukabumi (founder of the organization Al
Ittihadiyatul Islamiyah, which which merged into the Persatuan Ummat
Islam in 1952) wrote a translation/tafsir of the Qur’an; Rd. Ma’mun
Nawawi b. Rd. Anwar various edifying booklets, and the great `alim and
poet `Abdallah b. Nuh of Bogor works of sufi piety, based on Ghazali.
Besides their books, there are numerous simple booklets in Sundanese,
for use in the lower grades of the pesantren, published by the bookstore
Toko Cairo in Tasikmalaya.
Of
the Minangkabau authors, whose polemics in the beginning of this century
have drawn some attention (Schrieke 1921), almost no works are still in
print. Even the once influential Ahmad Khatib seems hardly to be read
anymore; only two of his works were found in print and these are not
generally available. Two other Minangkabau, however, who were associated
with Sumatera Thawalib, have reached the top hundred, and are well
represented in the collection: Mahmud Yunus and Abdul Hamid Hakim. Both
have written numerous textbooks, in Malay and Arabic, for use in the
madrasah, and several of these are very widely used, also in pesantren.
A top 100 of pesantren literature
The present collection represents to date the most complete overview of
literature used in and around the pesantren and madrasah. But it cannot,
of course, by itself tell us which works are the ones most frequently
used, at which levels, and where. The curriculum of the madrasah,
especially those owned or subsidized by the state, is more or less
standardized, and is not so strongly oriented towards the classics as
that of the pesantren. The collection contains a fair number of modern
books written for the Egyptian madrasah, that are also used in the
similar Indonesian institutions, besides books especially written by
Indonesian authors, in simple Arabic.
The pesantren
differ from the madrasah, among other things, in the lack of
uniformity in curriculum.
Many kyais specialize in one particular branch of learning, or even in
one particular text,
and many santris move for this reason from one pesantren to another in
order to study a certain range of texts thoroughly. No single pesantren
offers a ‘representative’ curriculum all by itself. We have to take
a number of pesantrens together in order to establish with which works
the average santri is confronted in the course of his studies.
I
have the strong impression (based on what I found in stock in toko kitab
in the various regions) that the ‘average’ curriculum in Sumatra,
Kalimantan and on the mainland still differs to some extent from that in
Java. Kitab originally written in Malay, by such ulama as M. Arshad al-Banjari,
Da’ud bin `Abdallah al-Patani and `Abd al-Samad al-Palimbani long had,
and to some extent still have, precedence over the classical Arabic
works and their 19th century Arabic commentaries that constitute the
bulk of the Javanese curriculum. The establishment all over Sumatra and
Kalimantan, from the 1920’s on, of pondok pesantren on the Javanese
model and madrasah of the West Sumatran type has resulted, however, in
the gradual displacement of these Malay kitab in favour of standard
Arabic works.
Van den Berg’s study (1886), although dated, is still the most
detailed survey of kitab commonly used in Javanese pesantren. The
catalogues of Arabic, Malay and Javanese manuscripts in the Jakarta and
Leiden libraries also give an elaborate impression of what was in use in
the 19th century, although it remains doubtful how representative these
collections are for the pesantren milieu. The Serat Centini, probably
compiled in the early 19th century, refers to a large number of kitab;
there is a close correspondence with van den Berg’s list (see Soebardi
1971). For an earlier period, Drewes (1972, appendix) has compiled an
interesting list of works in use in 18th century Palembang.
There
are a few more recent surveys claiming a degree of generality, but these
are still far from satisfactory.
We learn more, in fact, from an anecdotal autobiography such as that of
K.H. Saifuddin Zuhri (who was NU’s minister of religion under Guided
Democracy), with its glimpses of the texts he read (or had read to him)
in the pesantren, the way these were studied and the impact they had on
him.
There exist now a good number of monographs on individual pesantrens,
most of which contain shorter or longer lists of the texts studied
there.
These lists, compiled by different researchers, vary in length and
quality, and none of them is complete; well-known works are undoubtedly
over-represented in them at the expense of less popular texts equally
studied. Taken together, however, they give a reasonable indication of
which are at present the most frequently used kitab. I have added to
these a small number of similar lists compiled by Indonesian researchers
in the course of a recent research project on the Indonesian `ulama,
and thus compiled aggregate data on 42 pesantren, of which 18 are in
East Java, 12 in Central and 9 in West Java, and 3 in South Kalimantan.
I add some data on Sumatra, although these are not really comparable
because they do not refer to individual but to four idealized, ‘average’
pesantren. They consist of two aggregate lists of kitab used in
pesantren and by traditional `ulama in Riau and Palembang, respectively;
the curriculum of an ‘average’ PERTI madrasah in West Sumatra; and
the curriculum of one conservative surau in Pariaman, West Sumatra.
The
number of Kalimantan pesantren on which data has been gathered is
unfortunately too low to lay claims to being representative. These data
confirm the general impression of the Banjarese pesantren as
old-fashioned.
The Sumatra and Kalimantan columns in the tables give an indication, but
not more than that, of minor but systematic differences in curriculum
with Javanese pesantren; the differences between the Sundanese and
Javanese parts of Java are, because of better data, brought out more
clearly.
I
have lumped together texts (matan) and untitled commentaries on
them; only commentaries generally known by a different title were listed
separately. Even so, the total number of texts mentioned is well over
350; the tables below list only those that occur most frequently,
grouped according to subject. Within each table, genealogically related
works (i.e. those based on a common original text) are placed together;
otherwise the titles are roughly in order of popularity, not in the
order in which they are studied. The latter is vaguely indicated by
notes in the final column on the level of education at which the books
are usually studied. Ibtida’i, tsanawi and `ali (‘primary’,
‘secondary’ and ‘high’) are really the names of the three levels
of madrasah education (of three years each), and not always adequate to
describe traditional pesantren. Khawass (‘the special ones’)
indicates a more advanced level.
The tables give the titles of kitab in their commonly used short form,
transliterated in Indonesian style; in the text the full names are
given, in a transliteration closer to English usage.
The instrumental sciences (Table I)
The instrumental sciences, ilmu alat, are in the first place the
various branches of traditional Arabic grammar: nahw (syntax), sarf
(inflection), balagha (rhetoric), etc. There is a bewildering
array of different texts on these subjects. We can, in this case,
compare our entire collection and the list of most popular titles not
only with van den Berg’s list but also with a list of the manuscripts
of such grammatical texts in the Leiden and Jakarta libraries compiled
by Drewes (1971). Although Drewes has more titles than van den Berg, the
latter’s list corresponds in fact more closely with ours.
This is another indication that the manuscript collections are certainly
not representative of what was actually used, and that one should be
careful in drawing conclusions on the bases of these collections alone.
In
the traditional system, the student usually began with the basics of
sarf, which meant that he had to commit the first tables of verbal and
nominal inflection to memory. The simplest work of this category is the
Bina (Al-bina’ wa’l-asas, by a certain Mulla al-Danqari);
having mastered this, the student would turn to the Izzi (Al-tasrif
li’l-`izzi, by `Izzaddin Ibrahim al-Zanjani, see GAL I, 283; S I,
497) or to the Maqshud (Al-maqsud fi’l-sarf, an
anonymous work often attributed to Abu Hanifa). Having arrived at this
stage, the student would turn to the first works on nahw before
going on to more difficult sarf works (if he ever got so far).
One of the simplest, and most widely popular works of this kind was the Awamil
(Al-`awamil al-mi’a, by `Abd al-Qahir b. `Abd al-Rahman al-Jurjani,
d. 471 AH), a list of the situations determining the case endings of
nouns and the vowel following the final consonant of verbs. After this,
the student was likely to proceed to the Jurumiyah (Al-muqaddima al-ajurrumiyya,
by Abu `Abdallah Muhammad b. Da’ud al-Sanhaji b. Ajurrum, d. 723 AH).
This
introductory curriculum was accepted in regions wide apart; the same
texts were studied, in this order, in traditional madrasa in Kurdistan
(apart from the last named work, which is not known there), in 19th
century Javanese pesantren and West Sumatran surau.
The same works are still in use, but a certain shift has taken place.
The Bina and the Izzi are most certainly under-reported in
the curriculum lists in favour of more advanced works, but they seem to
have retained their place better in West Java and Sumatra than in Java
proper. A recent (but also traditional) introductory work quite popular
in Javanese pesantren is Amtsilatut Tashrifiyah (Al-amthilat
al-tasrifiyya li ‘l-madaris al-salafiyya, consisting of inflection
tables), by the Javanese author Muhammad Ma`sum b. `Ali of Jombang.
Other introductory texts are also widely available.
In
the next stage, instead of, or together with, the Maqshud, one
studies the sharh written by the Egyptian Muhammad `Ullaysh (d.
1881), Hall al-ma`qud min nazm al-maqsud (see GAL S II, 738).
This is commonly followed by an extensive commentary on the Izzi,
the Kailani (named after its author, `Ali b. Hisham al-Kaylani,
about whom no further details are known to me), which is now the most
frequently used work on sarf.
A
common order in which nahw texts are studied is, after the Jurumiyah,
the Imrithi (a manzum version of the Jurumiyah) and
next the more elaborate commentary Mutammimah or directly the Alfiyah,
usually together with a commentary. The Imrithi (Al-durra al-bahiyya,
by Sharaf b. Yahya al-Ansari al-`Imriti), the Mutammimah (of
Shams al-Din Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Ru`ayni al-Hattab), and the Alfiyah
(of Ibn Malik) with its best known commentary Ibnu Aqil (so
called after the author, `Abdallah b. `Abd al-Rahman al-`Aqil) have long
been in common use and are described by van den Berg and Drewes,
together with various commentaries that are still available but
apparently less popular. Not mentioned by them, but frequently
encountered, is the Asymawi, a commentary on the Jurumiyah
by a certain `Abdallah b. `Ashmawi (no further details known), while a
popular late 19th century commentary on the Alfiyah is that by
the Shafi`i mufti of Mecca, Ahmad b. Zayni Dahlan, commonly called Dahlan
Alfiyah.
Qatr
al-Nada’ [wa ball al-sada’], by Ibn Hisham
(d.761/ 1360), which was very popular in the 19th century, is also still
widely used. The same author’s Qawa`id al-i`rab is mainly used
in a versified (manzum) Javanese translation (by Yusuf bin Abdul
Qadir Barnawi); there exists also a Madurese translation.
To
some extent, these classical works are giving way to more modern
teaching methods. In 1921, the Dutch consul in Jeddah, E. Gobée,
observed that in government schools in the Hijaz the Alfiyah was
no longer part of the language curriculum but had been replaced by the
modern Qawa`id al-lugha al-`arabiyya, a series of textbooks by
the Egyptian author Hafni Bak Nasif et al. (Gobée 1921). In the 1930s,
these books were in use in the more modern madrasah of Sumatera
Thawalib in West Sumatra, along with other modern Egyptian textbooks and
books by local `ulama who had studied in Egypt (see Yunus 1979: 77).
These textbooks are now widely used in madrasah and the state
schools for religion teachers (PGA); growing numbers of pesantren are
following suit, which is reflected in Table I.
The
other modern grammar textbook appearing here is Nahwu Wadlih (Al-nahw
al-wadih fi qawa`id al-lughat al-`arabiyya), written by two Arab
authors, `Ali Jarim and Mustafa Amin (widely available in
photomechanical reprints of Lebanese and Egyptian editions). This too
already was used in West Sumatra in the 1930s, along with Al-balagha
al-wadiha by the same authors.
This brings us to the final major branch of Arabic grammar, rhetoric (balagha,
with its subdivisions of bayan, ma`ani, and badi`).
Two classical kitab dominate this part of the curriculum:
Jauharul Maknun
(Al-jawhar al-maknun / Al-jawahir al-maknuna fi al-ma`ani wa al-bayan
wa al-badi`), written by `Abd al-Rahman al-Akhdari (b. 920/1514, see
GAL S II, 706). The
same title often refers to a sharh on this work by Ahmad al-Damanhuri
(1101-1177/1689-1763, see GAL II, 371) and further glosses by Makhluf
al-Minyawi, widely available in Indonesia (also called Makhluf).
The Jawhar was translated into Javanese by K.H. Bisri Mustofa of
Rembang.
Uqudul Juman (Al-murshidi `ala `uqud al-juman fi `ilm al-ma`ani
wa al-bayan), finally, is a manzum text on rhetoric by Jalal
al-Din al-Suyuti, based on Siraj al-Din al-Sakkaki’s `Ilm al-ma`ani
wa al-bayan (GAL I, 294-6). The only other balagha text
widely available, with various commentaries, is Abu al-Qasim al-Samarqandi’s
Al-risala al-samarqandiyya, which, however, does not score high
on our list.
The total number of texts in our collection, of course, far exceeds that
of those mentioned here. It should perhaps be mentioned that three of
the texts listed by van den Berg were not found in print: ‘Innola’
(an untitled commentary on the Awamil), Ibn al-Hajib’s Kafiya,
and Burhan al-Din Abu Fath Nasir al-Din’s Al-misbah.
A different auxiliary ‘science’ (although not commonly subsumed
under the label of ilmu alat but rather under that of the Qur’anic
sciences) is that of tajwid, the proper articulation and
intonation of Qur’anic Arabic. It is among the very first subjects to
be studied (as the titles of the listed texts, meaning ‘Gift for
children’ and ‘Guidance for little boys’, emphasize). The Tuhfat
al-atfal by Sulayman Jumzuri and the anonymous Hidayat al-sibyan
both are short elementary texts on this subject. They are both available
in several collections of short texts, usually together.
The third auxiliary science is mantiq, Aristotelian logic (which
will prove its usefulness when the student proceeds to fiqh,
jurisprudence). The most widely used textbook is Sullamul Munauraq
(Al-sullam al-munawraq
fi `ilm al-mantiq), written by al-Akhdari (the author of Al-jawhar
al-maknun, see GAL S II, pp.705-6). Ahmad al-Damanhuri (who also
annotated Akhdari’s Jawhar) wrote a commentary on it, that is
also well-known in Indonesia: Idah al-mubham min ma`ani al-sullam.
In the margin of the printed edition we find another sharh on the Sullam,
by al-Akhdari himself. The latter sharh is also available together with
the glosses written by Ibrahim al-Bajuri. Two other, untitled,
commentaries often encountered are those by Hasan Darwish al-Quwaysini
(c. 1210/1795) and by the Azhar scholar Ahmad b. `Abd al-Fattah al-Mullawi
(d. 1181/1767), with glosses by M. b. `Ali al-Sabban. There is also a manzum
Javanese translation by Bisri Mustofa.
Widely available, too, is another fundamental manual of logic, Isaghuji,
by Athir al-Din Mufaddal al-Abhari (d. 663/1264; see GAL I, 464-5; S I,
839-41). Despite its title, this work is not a translation of Porphyry’s
Isagoge, as had often been assumed (see Arminjon 1907: 215-7 and the
summary by Calverley 1933).
Jurisprudence (fiqh) and its principles (Table
II)
Fiqh is still considered as the Islamic science par excellence. It has
the most concrete implications for everyday behaviour, for it tells us
what things are forbidden and which actions recommended. Works on fiqh
form the real substance of the pesantren education, and this is
reflected in the composition of the top 100 list.
The
fiqh work mentioned by van den Berg as the most important work of
reference, the Tuhfa (Ibn Hajar’s Tuhfat al-muhtaj) does
not occur in this list, and an Indonesian edition of this text does not
even exist. Nevertheless, leading (traditional) `ulama agree that this
is the ultimate work of reference to which they have recourse in
difficult cases. For everyday use, however, more easily accessible works
are preferred, such as the Fath al-wahhab (said to be more
systematic in its approach than most other works) and the I`anat al-talibin,
which, being the most recent of the great traditional fiqh works, is
often found the most adequate to contemporary concerns. For educational
purposes, the introductory Sullam al-tawfiq, the Taqrib / Fath
al-qarib and the Fath al-mu`in are preferred.
Under
modernist influence, fiqh works of a different genre are coming into use
in the pesantren as well. There are several pesantren now where Ibn
Rushd’s Bidayat al-mujtahid is taught beside or instead of the
Shafi`i classics (recently also printed in Indonesia, which indicates a
growing interest). The multi-volume Fiqh al-sunna by the modern
Egyptian author Sayyid Sabiq is rapidly gaining a wider acceptance too
(so far, only an Indonesian translation is locally printed, suggesting
that the work appeals primarily to a modernist audience). These works
have, however, not yet reached the list of most popular works, all of
which are squarely within the Shafi`i tradition.
The
relations between the major works of traditional Shafi`i fiqh can be
represented in the form of genealogical trees. Three ‘families’ of
kitab stand out, descending from respectively Rafi`i’s Muharrar,
Abu Shuja’ al-Isfahani’s Taqrib (or Mukhtasar) and
Malibari’s Qurrat al-`ayn. In the accompanying graphs showing
these family trees, bold print indicates the works of which Indonesian
printings exist (and have been collected).
The
first of these families is the one with greatest prestige. Indonesian `ulama
confirm Snouck Hurgronje’s observation (1899: 142) that Ibn Hajar al-Haytami’s
and Shams al-Din al-Ramli’s commentaries on Abu Zakariya’ Yahya al-Nawawi’s
Minhaj [al-talibin] are considered as the most authoritative, and
that in cases of differences between these authorities, the Indonesians
prefer Ibn Hajar.
Important fatwas frequently refer to these works for their authority,
especially the Tuhfa. In everyday practice, however, the Tuhfa
is not all that often consulted, and it is very hard even to find a copy
in the shops. The senior kyai no doubt own copies of it, but they too
have more frequently recourse to other books. The only printed version I
have ever seen is in the margin of the ten-volume commentary by `Abd al-Hamid
Shirwani (who taught in Mecca in the mid-nineteenth century). An
abridged Javanese translation must have been around in the early 19th
century but has apparently fallen into disuse with the improved
availability of other texts.
Ramli’s Nihayat al-muhtaj is also occasionally encountered, in
an eight-volume edition with the glosses by `Ali Shabramalisi and Ahmad
al-Maghribi al-Rashidi in the margin. Some younger `ulama, especially
such as have studied in Egypt, claim to use the Mughni’l-muhtaj,
by Khatib Sharbini, as well besides Ramli and Ibn Hajar.
The
only works of this family that are universally available are Jalal
al-Din al-Mahalli’s commentary (commonly known as ‘the’ Mahalli)
in an edition with extensive glosses by Qalyubi and `Umayra, and the Fath
al-wahhab, a commentary by Zakariya’ Ansari on his own Manhaj
al-tullab, which is a summary of the Minhaj. An early Malay
translation of the Fath al-wahhab, titled Mir’at al-tullab,
was made by `Abd al-Ra’uf of Singkel (edited in part in Meursinge
1844), but it is no longer used or even known.
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Muharrar
(Rafi`i, d. 623/1226)
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Minhaj
al-talibin
(Nawawi, d. 676/1277-8)
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Kanz
al-raghibin
(Mahalli, d. 864/1460)
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Manhaj
al-tullab
(Ansari, d. 926/1520)
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Tuhfat
al-muhtaj
(Ibn Hajar, d.
973/1565-6)
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Mughni’l-muhtaj
(Sharbini, d. 977/1569-70)
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Nihayat
al-muhtaj
(Ramli, d. 1004/1595-6
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[sharh]
(Qalyubi & `Umayra)
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Fath
al-wahhab
(Ansari)
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[hashiya]
(Shirwani)
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[hashiya]
(Shabramalisi, d. 1087/1676)
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[hashiya]
(Maghribi)
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[hashiya]
(Bujayrimi, d. 1221/1806)
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[hashiya]
(Jamal, d. 1204/1789-90)
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The second family derives from the highly popular fiqh works Taqrib
(Al-ghaya wa’l-taqrib, also known as Mukhtasar, by Abu
Shuja` al-Isfahani) and its commentary Fath al-qarib (by Ibn
Qasim al-Ghazzi). There is hardly a pesantren where not at least one of
these texts is studied. Both have been translated into various
Indonesian languages. Other works of the same family are also widely
used in Indonesia. The Kifayat al-akhyar, by Taqi al-Din Dimashqi
(GAL I, 392), which was not yet mentioned by van den Berg’s
informants, now ranks second only to the Fath al-qarib among the
commentaries. A more difficult text is Khatib Sharbini’s Iqna’,
which is printed together with the commentary Taqrir by a certain
`Awwad, on whom I have found no further information. Bajuri’s glosses,
much used a century ago (see Snouck Hurgronje 1899), appear to have lost
their attraction nowadays.
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Taqrib
= Mukhtasar
(Abu Shuja`, d. 593/1197)
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Sundanese
trl
numerous Indonesian trl.
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Iqna’
(Sharbini, d. 977/1569-70)
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Kifayat
al-akhyar
(Dimashqi, d. 829/1426)
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Fath
al-qarib
(Ibn Qasim, d. 918/1512)
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Madurese
trl.
Indonesian trl.
Javanese trl.
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Taqrir
(`Awwad)
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Tuhfat
al-habib
(Bujayrimi, c.1100/1688)
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[hashiya]
(Bajuri, d. 1277/1860-1)
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The central text of the third family is Fath al-mu`in, which has
long been popular in Indonesia (as well as in Kurdistan).
It was written by the sixteenth-century South Indian scholar Zayn al-Din
al-Malibari, a student of Ibn Hajar. This work is a commentary on, or a
reworking of, an earlier text by the same author, Qurrat al-`ayn;
neither is directly based upon Ibn Hajar’s Tuhfa. The Qurra
itself never became popular in Indonesia, but in the 19th century,
Nawawi Banten wrote another commentary on it, titled Nihayat al-zayn,
that is widely used.
Two
of Nawawi’s younger contemporaries in Mecca wrote extensive glosses on
the Fath al-mu`in. Sayyid Bakri b. Muhammad Shatta’ al-Dimyati’s
I`anat al-talibin is a four-volume work, that incorporates the
author’s notes on many subjects, as well as a number of fatwa
by the contemporary Shafi`i mufti Ahmad b. Zayni Dahlan. In the author’s
lifetime it already became the most frequently consulted work of Shafi`i
fiqh (cf. Snouck Hurgronje 1887: 346), and it has maintained its
position as a major work of reference. Tarshih al-mustafidin is a
more modest and less well-known work (2 vols), whose first Indonesian
reprint has only recently appeared. The author, `Alwi al-Saqqaf, was a
younger contemporary and colleague of Sayyid Bakri in Mecca (GAL S II,
743; `Abd al-Jabbar 1385: 156).
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Qurrat
al-`ayn
(Malibari, c. 975/1567)
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Fath
al-mu`in
(Malibari, c. 975/1567)
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Indonesian
trl.
Javanese trl.
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Nihayat
al-zayn
(Nawawi Banten)
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I`anat
al-talibin
(Sayyid Bakri, d.1893)
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Tarshih
al-mustafidin
(`Alwi al-Saqqaf, d.1916)
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Van den Berg mentions a fourth family of fiqh works, which used to be
quite popular but is now represented in our present top 100 by only one
text, Minhaj al-qawim. It derives from the 9th/15th century
elementary work known in Java as Bapadal, i.e. `Abdallah b. `Abd
al-Karim Ba-Fadl’s Al-muqaddima al-hadramiyya (GAL S II, 555).
None less than Ibn Hajar al-Haytami wrote a commentary, Minhaj al-qawim,
on which the late 18th century Shafi`i mufti of Madina, Sulayman al-Kurdi,
wrote extensive glosses, Al-hawashi’l-madaniyya. Ibn Hajar’s Minhaj
is used all over Java; the Hawashi, long hard to find, were very
recently reprinted in Surabaya. These fiqh works differ from the first
three families in that they only deal with fiqh al-`ubudiyya, the
prescriptions concerning worship (i.e., ritual cleanliness, prayer,
zakat, the fast and the hajj), and not with mu`amalat (economic
transactions), family and inheritance law, penal law, etc., which make
up some 60% of the other texts.
Two
other commentaries on Ba-Fadl’s Muqaddima, which are not listed
in GAL, deserve mention. The first of these sharh was written (in
Arabic) by the great East Javanese `alim Mahfudz bin Abdullah of
Termas (d. 1338/1919-20; see `Abbas 1975: 460). This work is highly
praised but it is not available in print now. Another commentary on
Ba-Fadl’s text is, however: Bushra’l-karim [bi-sharh masa’il
al-ta`lim `ala muqaddimat al-hadramiyya], by a certain Sa`id b. M.
Ba`shin (no further information known).
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Al-muqaddima
al-hadramiyya
(`Abdallah Ba-Fadl, 10th/16th century)
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Minhaj
al-qawim
(Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, d.973/1565-6)
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sharh `ala Ba-fadl
(Mahfuz al-Tarmasi, d.1338/1919-20)
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Bushra’l-karim
(Sa`id b. M. Ba`shin)
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Al-hawashi-l-madaniyya
(Sulayman al-Kurdi, d.1194/1780)
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Two of the remaining works that are high on the
list are the short introductory texts Sullam al-tawfiq (by `Abdallah
b. Husayn b. Tahir Ba`alawi, d. 1272/1855), and the Safina[t al-naja’],
by Salim b. `Abdallah b. Samir, a Hadrami `alim resident in Batavia in
the mid-19th century. Two much-used commentaries on the Sullam are Mirqat
su`ud al-tasdiq by Nawawi Banten and Is`ad al-rafiq by his
contemporary and colleague in Mecca, M. Sa`id Ba-Basil. Nawawi Banten
also wrote an Arabic commentary on the last-named very popular text,
called Kashifat al-saja’, which is available in several
editions. The Kashifa has also been translated into Javanese.
Besides this, there are several other adaptations and commentaries by
Indonesian `ulama.
I shall only give only a few short explanatory notes on the remaining
titles in the list, in the order of frequency in which they occur.
The Tahrir
(Tahrir tanqih li’l-lubab fi fiqh al-imam al-Shafi`i) is a work
by Zakariya’ al-Ansari, based on al-Mahamili’s (d. 415/1024) Lubab
al-fiqh. Ansari himself wrote a commentary on his Tahrir,
titled Tuhfat al-tullab; the two are usually printed together.
Further glosses on this Tuhfa were written by `Abdallah al-Sharqawi
(d. 1127/1812, see GAL II, 479-80): Hashiya `ala sharh al-tahrir.
This text too (colloquially known as Syarqawi ala Tahrir) is
widely available in Indonesia.
The Riyadlul
Badiah is one of the texts introduced to Indonesian Muslims by
Nawawi Banten that are little known elsewhere. As its title, Al-riyad
al-badi`a fi usul al-din wa ba`d furu` al-shari`a, indicates, it
deals with selected points of doctrine and religious obligations. The
author is a certain Muhammad Hasballah, perhaps an older contemporary of
Nawawi; the work has only been printed in the margin of the sharh
that Nawawi wrote, Al-thamar al-yani`a (cf. GAL II, 501; S II,
813).
Sullam
al-munajat is another work by Nawawi Banten, a commentary on the
guide for worship Safinat al-salah by `Abdallah b. `Umar al-Hadrami.
Uqudul
Lujain (`Uqud al-lujjayn fi huquq al-zawjayn) is another work
by Nawawi Banten, on the rights and especially duties of the married
woman. Two Javanese translations and commentaries are in circulation: Hidayat
al-`arisin by Abu Muhammad Hasanuddin of Pekalongan, and Su`ud
al-kawnayn by Sibt al-`Uthmani Ahdari al-Janqalani al-Qudusi.
The Sittin
(in full: Al-masa’il al-sittin), by Abu al-`Abbas Ahmad al-Misri
(d. 818/1415), a short text of the perukunan type (i.e. dealing
with basic doctrine and the five pillars), was very popular in
19th-century Java; it receives mention in the Serat Centini (Soebardi
1971, p. 336). By now it has gradually fallen in disuse, and many santri
do not even recognize its name.
Muhadzab
(Al-muhadhdhab) is a work of Shafi`i fiqh by Ibrahim b. `Ali al-Shirazi
al-Firuzabadi (d. 476/1083; see GAL I, 387-8; S I, 669).
Bughyat
al-mustarshidin is a collection of fatwa by 19th/20th century
`ulama, compiled by the mufti of Hadramawt, `Abd al-Rahman b. M.
b. Husayn Ba`alawi.
The
following two are recent texts in simple Arabic, specially written (by
Indonesian authors) for madrasah: Al-mabadi al-fiqhiyya `ala madhhab
al-imam al-Shafi`i (4 tiny volumes) was written by `Umar `Abd al-Jabbar;
Al-fiqh al-wadih by the well-known Minangkabau scholar Mahmud
Yunus.
I add one important Malay text in spite of its low rating in the present
frequency list with its heavy Javanese bias: the Sabil al-muhtadin.
This is Muhammad Arshad al-Banjari’s major opus and the most important
Malay work of fiqh (although dealing with fiqh `ubudiyya only).
It was written, the author says, because the earlier Malay fiqh handbook
Sirat al-mustaqim by al-Raniri (printed in the margin) contained
too many regionalisms and was therefore hard to use. Chief sources of
the Sabil are Malibari’s Fath al-mu`in and Zakariya’
Ansari’s Manhaj al-tullab. Al-Banjari’s work is rarely found
in Java but still quite popular in the Malay-speaking zone, and several
recent editions (including an Egyptian one) are available.
usul al-fiqh
Van den Berg mentions no works at all on the principles of fiqh. This
may be due to oversight, for van Ronkel’s catalogue of the Jakarta
library (1913) mentions several copies of commentaries on the Waraqat
and the Jam` al-jawami` (see below), which suggests that these
works must have been relatively well-known, at least around the turn of
the century. They were, however, probably not part of the ordinary
pesantren curriculum. K.H. Mahfudz of Termas (d. 1919) was probably the
first Indonesian scholar who was an expert on the subject and taught it
to his advanced students in Mecca. In Indonesia itself, usul fiqh
first received serious attention from the kaum muda, who often
had recourse to it in their struggle against alleged bid`a. In
the 1920s, the reformist journal Al-ittifaq wa al-iftiraq wrote
much about usul fiqh, quoting from Suyuti’s Al-ashbah wa al-naza’ir,
Shafi`i’s Risala and especially Ibn Rushd’s Bidayat al-mujtahid,
which compares the different schools of jurisprudence.
At
present, usul fiqh is an obligatory subject in almost all
pesantren for santri at the middle and higher levels. The range
of works used is not very wide, however. The collection contains
fourteen different titles, many of which are related to one another (as
commentaries or glosses). Only eight of these are sufficiently popular
to warrant inclusion in the list.
Jam`
al-Jawami`, by Taj al-din `Abd al-Wahhab al-Subki, is one of the
major texts on the foundations of Muslim law. The current printed
edition contains besides this text also the sharh by Jalaladdin
al-Mahalli, glosses thereon by Bannani and further glosses (taqrir)
by `Abd al-Rahman Sharbini. Zakariya’ Ansari summarized the Jam`
in his Lubb al-usul, also used in Indonesia.
Al-waraqat
fi usul al-fiqh by the imam al-haramayn `Abd al-Malik al-Juwayni
(d. 478/1085, see GAL I, 388-9) is one of the other major works on the
subject. Various commentaries on this work are generally available in
Indonesia (the collection contains five different ones, one of which is
by the Minangkabau reformist Ahmad Khatib: Al-nafahat `ala sharh al-waraqat).
The Lata’if al-isharat, by `Abd al-Hamid b. M. `Ali al-Qudsi
(from Kudus in Central Java, d. 1334/1916, see al-`Attas 1979, vol. II,
pp. 619-26) is a further commentary on one of these, Sharafaddin Yahya
al-`Imriti’s Tashil al-turuqat.
Al-ashbah
wa al-naza’ir fi al-furu` is a compendium by the prolific
Jalaladdin Suyuti (see GAL II, 152).
Al-luma` [fi usul al-fiqh] was written by Ibrahim b. `Ali al-Shirazi
al-Firuzabadi, the author of the Muhadhdhab (see GAL S I, 670).
Al-bayan is the last in a series of three simple textbooks on usul
al-fiqh (titled Mabadi Awwaliyya, Al-sullam and Al-bayan)
for use in madrasah, written by the Minangkabau author Abdul Hamid Hakim.
Ibn
Rushd’s Bidayat al-mujtahid, which compares the rulings of the
four ‘orthodox’ and various other madhhab, was again first
used by the Minangkabau kaum muda. It is actually taught in very
few pesantren, but many of the more learned kyai use it as a work of
reference.
Doctrine (tawhid,
`aqida, usul al-din) (Table III)
Compared to the number and sophistication of fiqh works studied in the
pesantren, doctrine is given a much less prominent place in the
curriculum. Whereas earlier generations of Indonesian Muslims showed
great interest in cosmology, eschatology and metaphysical speculation -
witness the writings of Raniri, `Abd al-Ra’uf of Singkel and `Abd al-Samad
of Palembang - these subjects are now largely kept out of the pesantren
curriculum. Perhaps this is because of the old adagium that to great an
interest in matters of doctrine can only lead to unbelief?
Be
that as it may, the works on `aqida in Table III are, without exception,
straightforward expositions of Ash`ari doctrine on the attributes (sifat)
of God and the prophets. The most popular group of texts is that based
on Sanusi’s two famous works on doctrine. (It is remarkable that
Nasafi’s work and Taftazani’s commentary, equally if not more
influential elsewhere, seem to be unknown in Indonesia was among the
first works to be translated into Malay. A sixteenth-century manuscript
with interlineary Malay translation is still extant (Al-Attas 1988). The
basic text of this group is Umm al-barahin (also called Al-durra)
by Abu `Abdallah M. b. Yusuf al-Sanusi (d. 895/1490, see GAL II, 250, S
II, 352-3). The text commonly called ‘the’ Sanusi[yah] is a
somewhat more substantial commentary written by Sanusi himself. In the
most frequently encountered edition it is printed in the margin of the
highly popular hashiya by Ibrahim al-Bajuri, which is, by
extension, also known as Sanusi[yah]. Other frequently used
commentaries are the hashiya on the Sanusi by Muhammad al-Dasuqi
(d.1230/1815, see GAL II, 353), and a more substantial text by `Abdallah
al-Sharqawi (d. 1127/1812, see GAL II, 479-80), which is itself a hashiya
on an 11th century commentary by a Muhammad b. Mansur al-Hudhudi (in
Indonesian editions, it is printed together with Hudhudi’s text). All
these texts are commonly known by the names of their authors.
Another work partially based on the Sanusi is the Kifayat al-`awamm,
by M.b.M. al-Faddali (d. 1236/1821, see GAL II, 489), which is highly
popular in Indonesia.
Our collection contains also a version of this work with an interlinear
Madurese translation (by H.M. Nur Munir b.H. Isma`il). Faddali’s pupil
Ibrahim Bajuri (d. 1277/1861) wrote a commentary on it, Tahqiq al-maqam
`ala kifayat al-`awamm (printed together with the Kifaya in
the Indonesian editions), and this was glossed upon by Nawawi Banten in
his widely read Tijan al-durari.
`Aqidat
al-`awamm is a simple, versified text for the very young, memorized
long before the santri even begins to understand Arabic. Its
author, Ahmad al-Marzuqi al-Maliki al-Makki, flourished around 1864.
Brockelmann (GAL S II, 990) mentions a Malay version by Hamza b. M. al-Qadahi
(i.e., of Kedah); our collection contains translations in Javanese (by
Bisri Mustofa of Rembang) and Madurese (by Abdul Majid Tamim of
Pamekasan). Nawawi Banten, who must have known the author, wrote a
well-known commentary on it, titled Nurudh Dhulam (Nur al-zalam).
Jawharat
al-tawhid, the concise versified text by Ibrahim al-Laqani (d.
1041/1631), is still highly popular. Santris commit the entire matan
to memory and study various commentaries on it. One of these is Ibrahim
al-Bajuri’s Tuhfat al-murid. An anonymous Malay scholar and two
Javanese `ulama, Saleh Darat of Semarang and Ahmad Subki Masyhadi of
Pekalongan, wrote extensive commentaries in their regional languages,
that are commonly known by the same title of Jauharatut Tauhid.
Saleh Darat’s Javanese commentary, especially, is interesting in that
it reflects contemporary Javanese views and concerns.
Fath
al-majid is yet another text by Nawawi Banten, a commentary on the Durr
al-farid fi `ilm al-tawhid (printed in the margin) by a certain
Ahmad al-Nahrawi, on whom I have found no further information.
The
remaining three titles are modern works, that were first adopted by the
Egyptian-influenced madrasah and from there are gradually penetrating
the pesantren world.
Jawahir
al-kalamiyya [fi idah al-`aqida al-islamiyya] was written by the
Syrian Tahir b. Salih al-Jaza’iri, who died in Damascus in 1919.
Husunul
Hamidiyah (Al-husun al-hamidiyya li al-muhafaza `ala al-`aqa’id
al-islamiyya) is a work by the moderate modernist and rationalist
Husayn [b. M. al-Jasr] Efendi al-Tarabulusi (d. 1909) on sifat,
prophecy, miracles of the prophets, the angels and life after death. The
author was renowned as the editor of a journal, in which he attempted to
reconcile Islam with modern science and philosophy (GAL S II, 776; see
also the remarks in Hourani 1962: 222-3). This book was first used in
Indonesia in the 1930s, in Sumatera Thawalib madrasah (Yunus
1979: 77).
Aqidatul
Islamiyah, finally, is a modern question-and-answer catechism for
pupils of the lowest grades of madrasah, by Basri b. H. Marghubi (no
further details known).
The subject of tawhid gradually shades into what is usually
classified as tasawwuf in Indonesia. Ghazali’s Ihya,
which is by far the most popular tasawwuf text here, could with
equal (or perhaps greater) right be listed among the works on doctrine.
There
is yet another, quite popular, category of books that should be
mentioned here, although they are rarely part of the official pesantren
curriculum. This is the works on traditional (and often quite fantastic)
cosmology and eschatology.
A typical (and widely popular) example is Daqa’iq al-akhbar fi
dhikr al-janna wa al-nar, by `Abd al-Rahim al-Qadi (see GAL S I,
346), which is available in Arabic as well as in Malay, Sundanese and
Madurese translations; another is Al-durar al-hisan, attributed
to Suyuti. Indonesian authors have contributed a number of simpler texts
similarly designed to inspire in the reader a wholesome fear of the
hereafter. These works are not used as textbooks, but they constitute
popular reading in the santri environment.
Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir) (Table
IV)
Van den Berg lists only one tafsir as part of the regular
curriculum, the ubiquitous Jalalayn. Baydawi’s tafsir
was also known by name, but it was highly exceptional to find a kyai
explaining this text (van den Berg 1886: 555). A few minor additions may
be made: In the Malay-speaking part of the Archipelago the Tarjuman
al-mustafid, a Malay translation by `Abd al-Ra’uf of Singkel of
the Jalalayn, with some interposed material from other tafsir,
must have been rather well known (it is still available in various
editions).
Nawawi Banten, moreover, had already written his Al-tafsir al-munir
li ma`alim al-tanzil, but this, like his other works, had perhaps
not yet come into use because of the general conservatism of the
pesantren curriculum.
Van
den Berg’s impression is probably generally correct: in the late 19th
century, tafsir was not yet considered a very important part of the
curriculum. Under the impact of modernism, with its slogan of return to
the Qur’an and the hadith, the interpretation of the Qur’an
obviously assumed a more central importance. Many traditionalist `ulama
simply felt forced to follow suit and began taking tafsir more
seriously. Our list shows, however, that the range of tafsir studied in
the pesantren is still very narrow. Two classics, Tabari and Ibn Kathir,
have been added to the list, along with Nawawi’s Tafsir al-munir.
The two modern tafsir, the Tafsir al-manar by Muhammad `Abduh
and Rashid Rida and Ahmad Mustafa al-Maraghi’s Tafsir al-Maraghi,
occur in our list only because of two modernist-oriented pesantren in
West Java; they are not yet widely accepted in the pesantren milieu.
(It is not a coincidence that there are no Indonesian editions of the
Arabic texts of these two works, although the latter has very recently
appeared in translation.) The last tafsir on the list is a
10-vol. Translation of the Qur’an in Indonesian, prepared under the
auspices of the Ministry of Religious Affairs by a committee of
Indonesian scholars.
Five
other tafsir in our collection, by Indonesian and Malaysian
authors, deserve mention here although they have not gained wide
popularity. Ahmad Sanusi b. Abdurrahim of Sukabumi wrote a tafsir
(a rather straightforward translation) of the Qur’an in Sundanese, Rawdat
al-`irfan fi ma`rifat al-Qur’an, and Bisri Mustofa of Rembang a
three-volume (2250-page) Javanese tafsir, Al-ibriz li ma`rifat
tafsir al-Qur’an al-`aziz. The latter, too, is more a translation
than an exegesis proper; since translations of the Qur’an necessarily
involve a certain amount of interpretation they are usually called tafsir
too. The amount of commentary is greater in another Javanese tafsir,
Al-iklil fi ma`ani al-tanzil by Misbah b. Zayn al-Mustafa (30
volumes, 4800 pp.) and in the three-volume (950-page) tafsir in
Malay, Tafsir nur al-ihsan, by Muhammad Sa`id b. `Umar Qadi al-Qadahi
(of Kedah, Malaysia). The most recent is an Indonesian commentary in six
volumes, Adz Dzikraa: terjemah & tafsir Alqur’an, by
Bachtiar Surin.
The
interest in tafsir is markedly increasing. Several other tafsir
have very recently been printed in Indonesia in Arabic; others again
(modernist ones, as one might expect, such as Sayyid Qutb’s Fi
zilal al-Qur’an and Maraghi) in Indonesian translation. Imports
nevertheless go on increasing; in several toko kitab in Surabaya
and Bandung I found no less than twenty different tafsir in
stock, imported from Egypt and Lebanon.
Of the works on the principles of tafsir, only two classics are
listed, both by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti: Itmam al-diraya li qurra` al-nuqaya
and Al-itqan fi `ulum al-Qur’an. The collection contains
various simple introductions to this subject.
Hadith (Table V)
Even more than tafsir, the hadith are a relatively new subject matter in
the pesantren. Van den Berg does not even mention hadith at all. The
santri did encounter many hadith in the course of his studies - no work
of fiqh is thinkable without hadith supporting its argument - but these
were, as it were, already processed, selected and quoted according to
the needs of the author. Collections of hadith as such - either the six
canonical collections or popular compilations like the Masabih al-sunna,
which was very popular in India - seem hardly to have been used in the
Archipelago of a century ago.
An
exception should perhaps be made for the small collections of the ‘Forty
Hadith’ type, of which Abu Zakariya’ Yahya al-Nawawi’s Arba`in
is one of the models. Various Indonesian ulama have, from the 19th
century, compiled or translated such collections of forty, and Djohan
Effendi has shown how the contents of these collections changed
according to the needs of the times.
The present wider interest in hadith - now an obligatory subject in most
pesantren - is probably again due to the impact of modernism.
The
two great collections of ‘authentic’ (sahih) hadith by
Bukhari and Muslim are now standard reference works in many pesantren.
The teaching curriculum often includes selections from these works,
usually with a commentary. Two popular selections from Bukhari are Al-tajrid
al-sarih by Shihabaddin Ahmad al-Sharji al-Zabidi (d. 893/1488) and Jawahir
al-Bukhari by Mustafa M. `Imara (GAL S I, 264). The most popular and
ubiquitous hadith collections are, however, the Bulugh al-maram
and the Riyad al-salihin.
Bulugh
al-maram [min adillat al-ahkam], a collection compiled by Ibn
Hajar al-`Asqalani (d. 852/1449, see GAL II, 67-70), has been translated
into Javanese (by A. Subki Masyhadi of Pekalongan) and Indonesian (by
Bisri Mustofa of Rembang), and partially also into Malay. Subul al-salam,
by Muhammad b. Isma`il al-Kahlani (d. 1182/1769) is a commentary on the Bulugh.
Riyad
al-salihin [min kalam sayyid al-mursalin] is a larger
collection of hadith, mainly dealing with devotional matters,
collected by Yahya b. Sharafaddin al-Nawawi, the compiler of the most
famous ‘Forty’. Two different Javanese translations (by Asrori Ahmad
and Ahmad Subki Masyhadi), as well as Malay and Indonesian translations
exist. This may well be the most popular collection of hadith
worldwide.
Nawawi’s Arba`in are used in many pesantren for the less
advanced santri, and they are also popular as non-curricular religious
literature, in Arabic as well as in Indonesian translation. A rather
well-known commentary on these Forty is Al-majalis al-saniyya, by
Ahmad b. Hijazi al-Fashani.
Durrat
al-nasihin [fi’l-wa`z wa’l-irshad] was compiled by `Uthman
b. Hasan al-Khubuwi (d.1224/1804, see GAL II, 489).
Tanqih
al-qawl [al-hathith fi sharh lubab al-hadith] is another work
by Nawawi Banten, a commentary on Suyuti’s collection Lubab al-hadith
(which is printed in the margin of Nawawi’s work).
Mukhtar
al-ahadith is a selection compiled by the modern Egyptian author,
Ahmad al-Hashimi Bak.
The Ushfuriyah,
finally (named after its author, Muhammad b. Abu Bakr al-`Usfuri), is
another popular ‘Forty hadith’ collection, with edifying stories
added to each hadith.
Critical study of the hadith is as yet almost unknown in
Indonesia, certainly in the pesantren environment. Understandably, the
Indonesian modernists have shown a greater interest in the (traditional)
science of distinguishing false from authentic, ‘weak’ from ‘strong’
traditions (`ilm dirayat al-hadith) than the traditionalists. The
two titles occurring in our list (with a few derivatives of the first
one) are in fact the only ones to be found in toko kitab.
Minhat
al-mughith is a modern text by an Azhar scholar, Hafiz Hasan Mas`udi,
and was apparently written for use in Egyptian state-supervised madrasa.
The
name Baiquniyah, as usual, refers both to an original work (matan),
an untitled short versified text by Taha b. Muhammad al-Fattuh al-Bayquni
(d. after 1080/1669, see GAL II, 307), and to various commentaries on
it. Most popular among the latter is that by `Atiya al-Ajhuri (d.
1190/1776, see GAL II, 328); this is the work one usually gets when
asking for ‘the’ Baiquniyah. Another much encountered
commentary is the Taqrirat al-saniyya, by Hasan Muhammad al-Mashshat,
who taught in Mecca’s Masjid al-haram in the nineteen thirties and
forties, and had many Indonesian students.
Morality and mysticism (Table VI)
The borderline between the subjects of akhlaq and tasawwuf
as taught in the pesantren is extremely fuzzy. The same work may be
studied under the heading of tasawwuf in one pesantren, and under
that of akhlaq in another. The subject of akhlaq also
shades into tarbiya, ‘[the imparting of] good manners’; it
has connotations of proper, respectful behaviour and unostentatious
piety. As the titles in Table VI show, the works on mysticism studied in
the pesantren all belong to the orthodox school that also stresses these
attitudes. We find here no works of wahdat al-wujud Sufism or
other less domesticated brands of mysticism and metaphysics. This may at
first sight seem surprising, given the strong mystical strain in
traditional Indonesian Islam, and the penchant for metaphysical
speculation especially among Javanese. On the other hand, it was not
only speculative cosmogonic and mystical theories that appealed to
earlier generations of Indonesian ulama, but also rules of proper
conduct and hierarchy. Shaykh Yusuf of Makassar, one of the 17th century
propounders of wahdat al-wujud, not only describes various dhikr
techniques and obliquely refers to mystical doctrines but also, and with
greater insistence, stresses unquestioning and unconditional obedience
to the teacher as the single most important step on the mystical path.
He thus foreshadowed the ‘good manners’ strain of present Indonesian
mysticism.
Wahdat
al-wujud texts and other ‘heterodox’ works may not be taught in
many pesantren anymore, that does not mean that they are not read at
all. In several places I found `Abd al-Karim al-Jili’s Al-insan al-kamil
(still part of the curriculum of several West Javanese pesantren half a
century ago), in Surabaya even Al-futuhat al-makkiyya. These
rather difficult Arabic works are at best read by a small elite, but the
case is different with some Malay works, such as M. Nafis al-Banjari’s
Al-durr al-nafis, which expounds a popular version of wahdat
al-wujud and is found in great numbers in the bookshops of South
Kalimantan, Aceh and Malaysia.
Similarly, Ghazali may have replaced the more adventurous mystics, but `Abd
al-Samad Palimbani seems to have smuggled some of the rejected doctrines
into his Malay adaptations of Ghazali’s major works (see below). These
Malay works are read in West Java as well as on the outer islands. In
contradiction to common assumptions about the religious attitudes of
Javanese and non-Javanese Indonesians, it is the Javanese pesantren that
is the locus of orthodoxy, while other, speculative mystical doctrines
still persist in the outer regions.
The
collection contains almost hundred different titles on akhlaq and
tasawwuf, but the basic texts that are widely used are relatively
few:
Ta`lim
al-muta`allim [li tariq al-ta`allum], by Burhan al-Islam al-Zarnuji
is a famous (some would say: notorious) work on the proper obedient
attitude of the student towards his teacher. For many kyai, this work is
one of the very pillars of pesantren education; at a recent discussion
of kitab organized by the NU, one of the participants suggested that
this is the sort of book that should really be banned because of the
passive and uncritical attitudes it inculcates. The reactions give
reasons to believe that this work will long remain part of the
curriculum. Also available with Javanese and with Madurese translation.
Wasaya
[al-aba’ li’l-ibna’], by the Egyptian author Muhammad
Shakir (shaykh `ulama al-Iskandariyya, according to the frontispiece),
and with a Javanese translation by Bisri Mustofa, is a short text
explaining how nice boys wash themselves well, take care of sick
relatives, repair their own bicycle tyres, etc.)
Al-akhlaq
li’l-banat and Al-akhlaq l’l-banin, in three thin volumes
each, are moral lessons for girls and boys, meant to be read at (state)
madrasah, written by a `Umar b. Ahmad Barja.
I
have rather arbitrarily placed the following three texts also into this
category, although they are sometimes labeled as works of fiqh `ubudiyya
(i.e., concerning the obligations of worship) or (the first) as a hadith
collection.
Irshad
al-`ubbad [ila sabil al-rashad] is a work by Zayn al-Din b. `Abd
al-`Aziz al-Malibari (the grandfather of the author of Fath al-mu`in).
Various printed editions of the Arabic text exist, and there is a recent
Javanese translation by Misbah b. Zayn al-Mustafa.
Nasa’ih
al-`ubbad is yet another work by Nawawi Banten, a sharh of Ibn Hajar
al-`Asqalani’s Al-nabahat `ala isti`dad. It focuses on the
rules for personal conduct, and is often used as an introductory work,
for the younger santri, on akhlaq.
Al-adhkar
[al-muntakhab min kalam sayyid al-abrar] by Abu Zakariya’ Yahya
al-Nawawi contains prescriptions for worship and pious conduct. A
Javanese, and recently also an Indonesian translation are available.
The section on tasawwuf is strongly dominated by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
and his Ihya, Bidayat al-hidaya and Minhaj al-`abidin.
There are various pesantren that specialize in the teaching of the Ihya;
all three works mentioned have been translated, at least in part, into
several Indonesian languages.
`Abd
al-Samad al-Palimbani, who flourished in the mid-18th century, wrote
well-known Malay adaptations of the first two, entitled Sayr al-salikin
and Hidayat al-salikin, respectively. Without any noticeable
awareness of conflict, `Abd al-Samad admitted into these works,
especially the Sayr, elements of wahdat al-wujud doctrine
from other sources, that seem quite alien to Ghazali’s Sunni
mysticism.
These works remain popular especially in Sumatra and West Java.
Nawawi Banten wrote an (Arabic) commentary on the Bidaya,
entitled Maraqi’l-`ubudiyya, which, judging from the numerous
editions existing, is more popular than is suggested by its low score in
our list.
The Siraj al-talibin is a two-volume Arabic commentary on the Minhaj,
by Ihsan b. Muhammad Dahlan of Jampes, Kediri (d. 1952). This work has a
high reputation in East Java, despite its low score on the list.
Beside these books, the Sundanese translations of important parts of
Ghazali’s works by the great scholar `Abdullah bin Nuh of Bogor (d.
1987) deserve mention.
The Hikam
is the well-known collection of Sufi aphorisms by Ibn `Ata’illah al-Iskandari.
Numerous translations and commentaries exist in Indonesia: the Hikam
Melayu (anonymous), the Syarah Hikam (by M. Ibrahim al-Nafidhi
al-Rindi) and the Taj al-`arus by `Usman al-Pontiani in Malay; a
Javanese Hikam by Saleh Darat of Semarang, and various modern
Indonesian versions, among which the four-volume commentary by the
Achehnese K.H. Muhibbuddin Waly deserves mention.
Hidayat
al-adhkiya’ [ila tariq al-awliya’], a didactic versified
text on practical mysticism by Zayn al-Din al-Malibari, written in
914/1508-9, has long been popular in Java; it is mentioned in the Serat
Centini, for instance. Many commentaries are in use in Indonesia.
One of the better known is Kifayat al-atqiya’ wa minhaj al-asfiya’
by Sayyid Bakri b. M. Shatta’ al-Dimyati. The prolific Nawawi Banten
also wrote a commentary, Salalim al-fudala’, which is printed
in the margin of Sayyid Bakri’s Kifaya. There are also Javanese
translations and commentaries by Saleh Darat (Minhaj al-atqiya’)
and by `Abd al-Jalil Hamid al-Qandali (Tuhfat al-asfiya’), as
well as an interlineary Madurese translation (by `Abd al-Majid Tamim of
Pamekasan).
The
final two works are both by the pious Hadrami author and mystic `Abdallah
b. `Alwi al-Haddad, well known in Indonesia as the composer of the ratib
Haddad and other pious formulas (d. 1132/1720, see GAL II, 408; S
II, 566). He wrote around ten books, mostly on Sufi piety, several of
which have come to enjoy popularity in the Archipelago. His Al-risala
al-mu`awana [wa’l-muzahara wa’l-muwazara] has for some
time been one of the standard texts on proper behaviour and devotional
attitude used in Javanese pesantren. It has been translated into
Javanese (by Asrori Ahmad) and Malay (by Idris al-Khayat al-Patani), and
more recently into Indonesian (by Muhammad al-Baqir, under the title Thariqah
menuju kebahagiaan). His other popular work, Al-nasa’ih al-diniyya
[wa’l-wasaya’ al-imaniyya], contains further pious
admonitions. It has been translated into Malay by one of his
descendants, `Alwi b. M. b. Tahir al-Haddad, under the title of Al-silat
al-islamiyya.
There
is a marked revival of interest in `Abdallah al-Haddad, both in Egypt
and, more recently, in Indonesia.
Al-risalat al-mu`awana was printed in Egypt in 1930 (and
presumably became known in Indonesia in the following decades), while
other works were published in the 1970s due to the efforts of the former
chief mufti of Egypt, Hasanayn M. Makhluf. In Indonesia, al-Haddad and
his works are actively propagated by his fellow Hadrami sayyid, notably
the learned Muhammad al-Baqir, who translated several of his works into
Indonesian. These books sold surprisingly well, and saw several reprints
within the first years after appearance.
Recent translations of several works by Ghazali also were a commercial
success. Quietist, orthodox Sufism apparently has a wide appeal beyond
the pesantren milieu as well — which seems to be a response to the
political decline of Indonesian Islam over the past decades.
History of Islam / Texts in praise of the Prophet
(Table VII)
The history of Islam is a new subject, not often taught in pesantren,
and the range of kitab available is still very limited. Most santri
derive their knowledge and awareness of the history of Islam largely
from devotional works on the prophet and saints. Of the titles in Table
VII, only Nur al-yaqin is a textbook proper; this and the
abbreviated Khulasat nur al-yaqin are almost the only serious
works of sira (biography of the Prophet) used in the pesantren.
The author of the original work is the modern Egyptian Muhammad Hadari
Bak; the Khulasa was prepared by `Umar `Abd al-Jabbar, the Meccan
author of many madrasah textbooks. These books were at first typical
madrasah literature, but are now also studied in quite a few pesantren
as well. Two other historical works by the same Muhammad Hadari Bak have
been printed in Indonesia and are gaining in popularity: Itmam al-wafa’
fi sirat al-khulafa’, a history of Muhammad’s successors, and Ta’rikh
al-tashri` al-islami, a substantial history of the development of
Islamic law.
The
other two texts listed are well-known devotional works having the
Prophet’s birth and ascension to heaven as their topics. The Barzanji,
Ja`far al-Barzinji’s Mawlid, is in Indonesia perhaps the most
beloved text after the Qur’an itself; the Dardir is Ahmad al-Dardir’s
commentary on Najm al-Din al-Ghayti’s version of the Mi`raj.
Besides their ritual uses (see the next section), these texts also serve
in a number of pesantren as teaching materials. The range of such
devotional texts on the Prophet found in the bookshops is much wider
than the two listed here: the collection contains over twenty-five of
them.
The primary use of these books is not educational but devotional and
ritual: they are read privately as an act of piety or, more typically,
recited communally or at least in public at various ritual occasions.
There are other kitab too that serve such non-educational purposes; to
conclude our survey, a few words need to be said about the various types
and uses of such extra-curricular kitab.
Extra-curricular kitab: devotion, ritual, magic
Not all kitab in the collection belong to the official pesantren
curriculum. A considerable number (well over 10%) serve other purposes,
which may be roughly lumped together as devotional, ritual and magical:
collections of prayers and other pious formulas (wird, pl. awrad)
to be recited at particular occasions, guides to the spiritual exercises
of various mystical orders, texts in praise of the Prophet or one of the
saints to be recited at particular occasions, books for divination,
magical handbooks. Such books are extremely popular and are sold in
larger numbers than most others.
In
many Javanese villages the weekly communal recital of the Burda,
the Diba`i or the Barzanji, poems in praise of the
Prophet, constitutes one of the major social occasions. The Barzanji
and other similar texts are also read at certain life cycle rituals, in
fulfillment of vows or to ward off danger. The various manaqib
(hagiographies) of `Abd al-Qadir Jilani are used for similar ritual and
sometimes exorcistic purposes.
This
is not to say that these texts are not used as pious reading matter too;
but even when read privately, the emphasis is often upon the merit
accumulated or spiritual and material benefits to be gained through this
private act rather than on the information contents of the texts. For
these purposes, a full understanding of the texts is of course not
essential; they are usually recited in Arabic only.
Several of the texts have, however, long been available in translations
beside the Arabic originals. Busiri’s Burda received a Malay
translation as early as the 16th century (Drewes 1955). Javanese, Malay
and Sundanese translations of manaqib of `Abd al-Qadir were in
use at least from the 19th century on (Drewes & Poerbatjaraka 1938),
along with similar Malay texts on the Prophet and on such saints as [M.
b. `Abd al-Karim] Samman.
These are all still available, and in addition there are many new
translations and commentaries by Indonesian `ulama on the better known Mawlid
and Manaqib.
Another important category consists of the books of ‘Islamic magic’.
According to close observers, the number of people seeking supernatural
support to overcome spiritual, psychological or material problems has
increased rather than decreased over the past two decades. The number of
dukun seems to have grown, and so has that of kyai and others
offering Islamic variants of magical healing and supernatural
assistance. Whereas one part of the Muslim community strongly opposes
such ‘superstitions’, the mystical-magical remains to perhaps the
majority an integral part of the Islamic heritage.
Santris commonly make a strict distinction between tibb (‘medicine’)
and hikma (‘occult sciences’), although to most modernists
both are magic and unacceptable. Hikma contains explicitly
pre-Islamic elements, such as magical squares (wafaq), whereas
the amulets of tibb only employ Qur’anic texts. Defenders of tibb
proudly argue against modernists that it was one of Ibn Taymiyya’s
chief disciples, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, who wrote a major work of this
discipline, Al-tibb al-nabawi. And even hikma is not so
far from the orthodox mainstream as modernists would have it: the great
Ghazali wrote a book on magical squares, Al-awfaq, that is still
widely used in Indonesia, and the prolific Jalal al-Din Suyuti wrote Al-rahma
fi’l-tibb wa’l-hikma. The most influential works of hikma,
however, are those by the 12th/13th century North African Shaykh Ahmad
b. `Ali al-Buni: Shams al-ma`arif al-kubra and Manba` usul al-hikma.
These and similar works (available in local editions) are widely used in
Javanese pesantren, although they are not part of the formal curriculum
and are rarely taught by the kyai himself. They take a central place in
peer learning, however. Older santris experiment together in the various
magical techniques set out in these books.
Popular booklets based on these works of hikma, called mujarrabat
(‘traditional wisdom’, lit. ‘what has proven effective’), are
available in growing numbers and in various languages. They offer
prayers, magical formulas and amulets for a long and heterogeneous list
of different purposes: health, love, career, protection from evil
spirits and traffic accidents. Related popular works list the specific
beneficial effects of reciting certain Qur’anic verses and prayers.
There is no clear line dividing mujarrabat booklets from the primbon,
collections of ‘useful knowledge’, which may consist of the same
sort of magical formulas, beside lists of auspicious days and hours,
rules of thumb for divination (from dreams, the day on which a woman’s
period begins, etc.), lists of supererogatory prayers, etc. Books of
these types, catering for a simple and uneducated public, are printed in
enormous numbers. Some are in romanized Indonesian now, but the majority
are in Malay, Javanese or Sundanese with Arabic characters and seem to
target, therefore, the periphery of the pesantren world, the people who
have some knowledge of the Arabic script. These simple texts may be of
greater influence in shaping popular religious attitudes than the more
serious works studied in the pesantren.
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Appendix: The top 100 kitab kuning
Table I. Arabic grammar,
tajwid, logic
|
region:
|
Sumatra
|
KalSel
|
JaBar
|
JaTeng
|
JaTim
|
total
|
|
|
number of pesantren
|
4
|
3
|
9
|
12
|
18
|
46
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
level
|
|
sarf
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kailani/Syarah Kailani
|
2
|
1
|
7
|
0
|
4
|
14
|
`ali
|
|
Maqshud/Syarah Maqshud
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
5
|
11
|
|
|
Amtsilatut Tashrifiyah
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
4
|
7
|
tsanawi
|
|
Bina’
|
1
|
0
|
4
|
1
|
0
|
6
|
ibtida’i
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
nahw
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jurumiyah/Syarah Jurumiyah
|
3
|
1
|
8
|
9
|
16
|
37
|
tsanawi
|
|
Imriti/Syarah Imriti
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
6
|
12
|
21
|
tsanawi
|
|
Mutammimah
|
0
|
1
|
5
|
0
|
7
|
13
|
tsanawi
|
|
Asymawi
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
|
|
Alfiyah
|
0
|
0
|
8
|
11
|
11
|
30
|
`ali
|
|
Ibnu Aqil
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
10
|
14
|
`ali
|
|
Dahlan Alfiyah
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
4
|
`ali
|
|
Qathrun Nada
|
3
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
tsanawi
|
|
Awamil
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
ibtida’i/
tsanawi
|
|
Qawaidul I`rab
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
tsanawi
|
|
Nahwu Wadlih
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
5
|
tsanawi
|
|
Qawaidul Lughat
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
4
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
balagha
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jauharul Maknun
|
2
|
0
|
4
|
5
|
7
|
18
|
`ali
|
|
Uqudul Juman
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
4
|
7
|
`ali
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
tajwid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuhfatul Athfal
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
6
|
tsanawi
|
|
Hidayatus Shibyan
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
4
|
5
|
tsanawi
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
mantiq
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sullamul Munauraq
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
1
|
5
|
10
|
`ali
|
|
Idlahul Mubham
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
7
|
`ali
|
Table II. Fiqh and usul al-fiqh
|
region:
|
Sumatra
|
KalSel
|
JaBar
|
JaTeng
|
JaTim
|
total
|
|
|
number of pesantren
|
4
|
3
|
9
|
12
|
18
|
46
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
level
|
|
fiqh
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fathul Muin
|
2
|
1
|
7
|
6
|
16
|
32
|
`ali
|
|
Ianatut Thalibin
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
`ali
|
|
Taqrib
|
2
|
0
|
6
|
5
|
7
|
20
|
tsanawi
|
|
Fathul Qarib
|
2
|
1
|
4
|
7
|
9
|
23
|
`ali
|
|
Kifayatul Akhyar
|
1
|
0
|
6
|
4
|
7
|
18
|
tsanawi/`ali
|
|
Baijuri
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
|
|
Iqna’
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
7
|
|
|
Minhajuth Thalibin
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
5
|
`ali
|
|
Manhajuth Thullab
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
|
|
Fathul Wahhab
|
0
|
1
|
5
|
4
|
10
|
20
|
`ali
|
|
Mahalli
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
9
|
`ali
|
|
Minhajul Qawim
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
7
|
|
|
Safinah
|
1
|
0
|
6
|
7
|
7
|
21
|
tsanawi
|
|
Kasyifatus Saja
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
4
|
|
|
Sullamut Taufiq/
Syarah Sullam
|
0
|
1
|
5
|
2
|
13
|
21
|
tsanawi
|
|
Tahrir
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
5
|
9
|
`ali
|
|
Riyadlul Badiah
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
6
|
|
|
Sullamul Munajat
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
5
|
|
|
Uqudul Lujain
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
4
|
tsanawi
|
|
Sittin/Syarah Sittin
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
|
|
Muhadzab
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
|
|
Bughyatul Mustarsyidin
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
|
|
Mabadi Fiqhiyah
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
5
|
8
|
tsanawi
|
|
Fiqih Wadlih
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
tsanawi
|
|
Sabilal Muhtadin
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
usul
al-fiqh
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Waraqat/Syarhul Waraqat
|
2
|
1
|
6
|
1
|
2
|
12
|
`ali/khawass
|
|
Lathaiful Isyarat
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
6
|
10
|
|
|
Jam`ul Jawami`
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
7
|
khawass
|
|
Luma`
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
7
|
`ali/khawass
|
|
Asybah wan Nadhair
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
4
|
5
|
khawass
|
|
Bayan
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
tsanawi/`ali
|
|
Bidayatul Mujtahid
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
khawass
|
Table III. Doctrine (usul al-din,
tawhid)
|
region:
|
Sumatra
|
KalSel
|
JaBar
|
JaTeng
|
JaTim
|
total
|
|
|
number of pesantren
|
4
|
3
|
9
|
12
|
18
|
46
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
level
|
|
tawhid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ummul Barahin
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
5
|
`ali
|
|
Sanusi
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
11
|
tsanawi
|
|
Dasuqi
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
7
|
`ali/khawass
|
|
Syarqawi
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
|
|
Kifayatul Awam
|
4
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
8
|
17
|
tsanawi/`ali
|
|
Tijanud Durari
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
2
|
3
|
11
|
tsanawi
|
|
Aqidatul Awam
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
9
|
13
|
ibtida’i/tsanawi
|
|
Nurudh Dhulam
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
tsanawi
|
|
Jauharut Tauhid
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
7
|
tsanawi
|
|
Tuhfatul Murid
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
tsanawi
|
|
Fathul Majid
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
8
|
khawass
|
|
Jawahirul Kalamiyah
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
5
|
9
|
tsanawi
|
|
Husnul Hamidiyah
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
5
|
2
|
8
|
tsanawi
|
|
Aqidatul Islamiyah
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
4
|
tsanawi
|
Table IV. Qur’anic
exegesis
|
region:
|
Sumatra
|
KalSel
|
JaBar
|
JaTeng
|
JaTim
|
total
|
|
|
number of pesantren
|
4
|
3
|
9
|
12
|
18
|
46
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
level
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
tafsir
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jalalain
|
4
|
1
|
9
|
9
|
16
|
39
|
`ali
|
|
Tafsirul Munir
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
2
|
5
|
11
|
`ali
|
|
Tafsir Ibn Katsir
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
3
|
7
|
`ali
|
|
Tafsir Baidlawi
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
4
|
`ali
|
|
Jamiul Bayan (Tabari)
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
khawass
|
|
Maraghi
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
`ali/khawass
|
|
Tafsirul Manar
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
khawass
|
|
Tafsir Dep. Agama
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
tsanawi
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
`ilm
tafsir
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Itqan
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
`ali
|
|
Itmamud Dirayah
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
|
Table V. Hadith and the science of
hadith
|
region:
|
Sumatra
|
KalSel
|
JaBar
|
JaTeng
|
JaTim
|
total
|
|
|
number of pesantren
|
4
|
3
|
9
|
12
|
18
|
46
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
level
|
|
hadith
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bulughul Maram
|
1
|
0
|
6
|
5
|
12
|
24
|
tsanawi
|
|
Subulus Salam
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
|
|
Riyadlus Shalihin
|
1
|
0
|
7
|
6
|
9
|
23
|
`ali/khawass
|
|
Shahih Bukhari
|
2
|
1
|
6
|
7
|
5
|
21
|
khawass
|
|
Tajridush Sharih
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
6
|
`ali
|
|
Jawahir Bukhari
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
6
|
|
|
Shahih Muslim/Syarah Muslim
|
1
|
0
|
7
|
2
|
7
|
17
|
khawass
|
|
Arbain Nawawi
|
3
|
0
|
5
|
1
|
6
|
15
|
tsanawi
|