Part 1

• Revealing Sufi texts by Shams al-Din al-Samatra’i: MS 07-01436 from the Museum Aceh in comparison with later copies of his writings Zacky Umam UIII

  The ‘discovery’ of MS 07-01436 in the Museum Aceh has informed our understanding of the earlier copies of the writings by Shams al-Din al-Samatra’i (d. 1630), one of the earliest Malay scholars knowledgeable in Arabic and a range of Islamic sciences transmitted from the post-classical Islamic milieux. The surviving manuscripts of Samatra’i are copies from later periods anywhere outside Aceh, which are currently preserved in the libraries of the Malay world and in European libraries. MS 07-01436, which was probably written at the court of Sultan Iskandar Muda (r. 1607-1636), open a new window for the study of various aspects of textual culture in the early 17th century. As an addendum to Annabel Gallop’s contribution, this presentation will consider the textual elements of this manuscript and in particular examine its Sufi-philosophical lexicons and contexts by comparing it with selected manuscripts by the Sufi author copied in later centuries.

• An early 17th century manuscript of Shams al-Din al-Samatra’i: A codicological analysis of MS 07-01436 in the Museum Aceh Annabel Gallop British Library

  This panel takes as its point of departure a highly significant manuscript currently held in the Museum Aceh as 07-01436, which contains a selection of the Malay works of Shams al-D?n al-Samatr??? (d. 1630). The manuscript has been fully digitised and can be consulted through the Qalamos portal: https://www.qalamos.net/receive/ID13Book_manuscript_00001805
  This codicological analysis will be focus on the material aspects of the manuscript: the paper it was written on, the pigments and inks used, and the iconography of the illuminated elements, as well as a palaeographical analysis of the hands in the manuscript. Although the manuscript is undated, this study aims to show that this compilation of Shams al-Din’s works was written in Aceh at a very early date, probably in the second quarter of the 17th century, and possibly even during the author’s lifetime. However the manuscript undoubtedly has a complex biography, and evidences traces of many subsequent owners and writers, who added texts to the volume at later dates.

• Syamsuddin al-Sumatrani’s doctrine of martabat tujuh in Minangkabau manuscripts Pramono Pramono Universitas Andalas

  The doctrine of the dignity of seven was very popular in the 17th century in the archipelago. This existential teaching was developed by Sheikh Syamsuddin al-Sumatrani (1575-1630). This doctrine once sparked an Islamic polemic in Aceh. However, the teaching of the dignity of seven thrives in Minangkabau. Syamsuddin’s works have become the main reference among the Syattariyah scholars in Minangkabau. Fifteen texts by Syamsuddin al-Sumatrani were found in Minangkabau in one manuscript which also contains other tasawuf texts. This collection of texts is commonly referred to as the Kitab Tahqiq by scholars in the Syattariyah order. This kitab is the justification that followers of the Syattariyah order practice the teachings of Wujudiyyah (seven dignities). This is different from the conclusion of Oman Fathurahman (2008) who stated that there has been a phenomenon of dismantling wahdatul wujud among adherents of the Syattariyah order in Minangkabau. These works have also linked the intellectual dynamics of Acehnese Islam with Minangkabau Islam. Through these works, it also opens opportunities to study the relationship between the two before the time of Sheikh Burhanuddin Ulakan. A very important period for presenting the dynamics of Islamization in these two regions was in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. These works are enriched by bringing them together with the information contained in relevant works which are also found in suraus in Minangkabau.

Part 2

• Yusuf al-Maqasiri and His Indian-Gujarati Network in the Seventeenth Century Halim Khoiri Georgetown University

  Yusuf al-Maqasiri (b. 1626, d. 1699) is a seventeenth century Wujudi scholar from south East asia. While many works have been published on his socio-historical journey, only a few have been done on his intellectual-history. Having been a part of global Wujudi intellectual academia, his intellectual establishment is not separated from the Indian-Ocean and the Hijazi networks. al-Maqasiri was one of a few Nusantaran students of the Hijazi Wujudi intellectual giant, Ibrahim al-Kurani (d. 1690). Interestingly, he also inherited a few spiritual paths (tariqah) through his indian-Ocean connection that seemed to reject Nusantaran reception of Wujudiyya; a connection that seems to be understudied. This paper aims at discussing this connection by looking at it as al-Maqasiri’s intellectual context, especially through the controversies that took place in the court of Aceh Sultanate after the book al-Tuhfah al-mursalah was brought to the region in the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century. We will see by the end that al-Maqasiri received four tariqahs from his Gujarati connection, Nur al-Din al-Raniri (d. 1658), two of which are linked to al-Burhanpuri (d. 1620), based on al-Maqasiri’s own handwriting found in a rare manuscript preserved in the Library of the National Council of iran.

• A Malay Ramayana: Narrative, Historicality and Ethics in the Islamic Indian Ocean Muhammad Faris Bin Joraimi New York University

  This paper recovers the importance of historical narration to the making of Islam. In the Malay world, the recitational genre of hikayat - long-form accounts of dynasties, heroes, quests and magic - placed audiences in relation to past foundational events. Given the susceptibility of listeners to their captivating language and sound, these texts were taken seriously as sources of ethical cultivation that could lead either to piety or heresy. One example was the Hikayat Seri Rama, a Malay telling of the Ramayana. Combining multiple cosmologies to produce a theory of Muslim ethics and kingship, it was condemned by religious authorities in 17th-century Aceh, namely the Arab-Gujarati jurist Nuruddin al-Raniri. In contrast to the authoritative adab literature relied on by al-Raniri, the Hikayat Seri Rama engendered a way of being with the Islamic past that can be likened to what Ranajit Guha has termed “historicality”. The religious potential of the Hikayat Seri Rama was curbed by both formal Muslim juridical scholarship and European orientalism, both projects invested in the creation of a singular Islam rooted in a monolithic history. While jurists considered some hikayat texts antithetical to Islam, colonial schemes of literary canonisation remade them all as expressions of secular culture disentangled from religion. Colonial scholars, their nationalist disciples and subsequently, modern Muslims maintained this dualism that foreclosed the importance of historicality to being Muslim.

• Bid?yat al-hid?yah by Muhammad Zain bin Faqih Jalaluddin al-Asyi (d. 1170/1757): A Malay Reception of Ash?ar?sm Idris Masudi Nahdlatul Ulama University Indonesia/UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta

  Translation is more than just the transfer of a text from one language to another; it is to a large
  extent a cultural transformation. Every translated work embodies creativity of its translators
  who not only rely on the authors of original texts, the mut?n, but also exercise their independent
  interpretations. The translators, seen from this perspective, are also authors themselves. In
  many specific cases, translators as authors diligently produce interpretations that go beyond
  the content of the translated primary texts. Using this paradigm, this paper attempts to analyze
  the creativity of an 18th-century scholar from Aceh/Sumatra, Muhammad Zain b. Faqih
  Jalaluddin al-Asyi, in translating and commenting on Umm al-bar?h?n [The Foundation
  Proofs] by the influential North African theologian, Yusuf al-Sanusi (d. 940/1490). Drawing
  on reception theory, this paper aims to highlight al-Asyi’s textual/intellectual labor in
  composing Bid?yat al-hid?yah, which also incorporates commentarial explanations and is thus
  more than a mere literal translation of al-Sanusi’s theology. Finally, this paper demonstrates
  how translated works are inextricably linked to the historical, social and political contexts in
  which their authors lived.

• The Usul of Ibrahim al-Saffar: Making Sense of a Maturidi Catechism in an Ash’ari Milieu Fauzan Roslee SOAS University of London

  The discovery of an unpublished Maturidi theological text by Ibrahim al-Saffar (d. 532H/1138CE) at a Minangkabau surau of the Shattariya Sufi order offers new insights into Islamic thought in West Sumatra and beyond. The suraus of Minangkabau are local sites for religious instruction that are typically affiliated with a Sufi order. Al-Saffar’s Usul is significant for several reasons. First, the text may be Ibrahim al-Saffar’s only other known work that is still in existence today after his Talkhis al-Adilla li Qawa’id al-Tawhid. Second, there are no records of the text being found in other Minangkabau suraus – or other Islamic education sites in the region for that matter – in contrast to other common titles in Islamic theology. Third, while the existence of a Maturidi text in the Malay world is not exactly atypical – the Aqa’id of al-Nasafi (a Maturidi theologian and a contemporary of al-Saffar who died in 537H/1142H) is arguably one of the earliest theological texts to be translated into Malay in the 17th Century – it would be remiss not to contrast this text to other Ash’ari theological texts that are commonly found in Minangkabau suraus to understand the development of Islamic theological thought in the region. Using archival data and participant observation of the socio-religious role of the Minangkabau suraus, this paper explores the reception of al-Saffar’s Usul, and enriches existing discourses on Islamic theology in the Malay world.