Abstract
It is often said that the Shafiʿi school of law was the main source of the Malay-Indonesian Islamic legal tradition and codes during the last couple of centuries. However, one may wonder if further Islamic legal schools were welcomed in the archipelago and, if so, how and under what circumstances. On this subject, the author examines a rare, thick, fragile, and rare Persian manuscript. Copied in the seventeenth century, the manuscript in question is a work that was not only in the possession of Malay-speaking people. The manuscript clearly shows an attempt to translate it into local languages and to expand its jurisprudential clauses. Being a comprehensive source for the study and practice of Islamic law, it includes both Sunni and Shiʿi classical legal treatises, their Qurʾanic commentaries on “legal verses,” and relevant theological comments. This source has the potential to invite scholars to re-examine the context of seventeenth and eighteenth-century Southeast Asian manuscripts which used to be known as the turning point towards “Shariatization” by means of Arabo-Sunni legal and theological treatises, and to raise a more robust conjecture about the cosmopolitan nature of the Indonesian archipelago.
1 Introduction
This article is a study of a rare legal manuscript housed in the Leiden University Library, a manuscript that has the potential to test, corroborate, and correct literature on the development of the Islamic legal tradition in Southeast Asia. This manuscript, catalogued as Or.5656, is a specific example of cosmopolitan Islamic legal thoughts, in the sense of a world-openness towards a plurality of legal discourses.1 Here, the term “cosmopolitanism” is applied in close relation to plurality and inclusion of the “other” and “minority texts.” This source demonstrates that foreign materials were read, translated, revised, and circulated in Southeast Asia. The manuscript was copied in Persian with sporadic Malay marginal and interlinear accounts and legal statements. The significance of this examination should be considered in the light of previous studies which take no account of non-Arabic, Shiʿi, and Persian Shiʿi materials in Malay-Indonesian Islamic law. Here, two scholarly problems are highlighted.
First, most studies revolve around the dominance of the Sunni-Shafiʿi school of law and fiqh among the Muslim inhabitants of the Malay-Indonesian world. It is to a large extent true that Shafiʿis were the most energetic legal activists in the Malay-Indonesian world in the past (see Kooriah 2022), as evidenced by some of the older manuscripts copied in Southeast Asia. One manuscript, titled “A Very Old Malay Islamic Manuscript,” discovered in Aceh and kept in Leiden University Library (Or.7056) includes particular forms of supplication which were clearly only later inserted by Shafiʿis (Daneshgar 2022a).2 Another reference to the population of Shafiʿis in Indonesia is found in the travel account Safinih-yi Sulaymani (The Ship of Solomon), whereby an Iranian delegation leaves the Safavid court for Siam (Thailand). Through this report, Islamic legal systems used in the southern islands of Siam (“Java and Macassar”) are introduced, among which the most important is the Shafiʿi fiqh (Muhammad Rabiʿ ibn Muhammad Ibrahim 1977, 132). The accounts of Ibn Battuta, on royal discussions about the Shafiʿi fiqh in the fourteenth century also deserve mention (Ibn Battuta 1858, iv, 235). Furthermore, there are various primary and secondary literature sources which confirm the existence of this Sunni branch of fiqh in the Malay-Indonesian world for centuries,3 and that it could have contributed substantially to the formation of Malay-Indonesian classical Malay law codes, legal systems, and even the contemporary Shariʿa court procedures. One of the oldest Malay law codes4 is the Undang-Undang Malaka (or Risalat Hukum Kanun; Winstedt 1969, 167) from the fifteenth century, revised in subsequent centuries and divided into forty-four chapters under five main categories: “the core text of the Undang-undang [and customary law]; maritime laws; matrimonial laws; sales and procedures; state laws; and the laws of Johor” (Fang 2013, 415; also Fang 1976).
Being divided into different sections and being mixed with local customs and culture are among the particular features of such classical codes in the archipelago. Further, Pattani and Acehnese versions were produced based on the Malaccan one in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, respectively (Fang 2013, 420–412). And this source was welcomed in different communities across the archipelago, where Muslim rulers were active.
It has survived in manuscripts written at Riau, some of them in the time of Sultan Sulaiman Shah, who reigned a puppet of Bugis overlords from 1721 to 1760. Later copyists ascribe the digest to Mahmud, last Sultan of Malacca (1488–1511), but the Malay Annals and five manuscripts of the laws are almost certainly right in saying that it was compiled by Muzaffar Shah (r.1446–56) who would have had every reason to try to adapt Islamic law to the diverse practice of his ancestors. (Winstedt 1969, 167)
In addition, further Islamic and Islamized legal codes, in relation to the Malaccan one, were systematically produced in different regions of the Malay-Indonesian world. Examples include the Pahang Laws (c.1596), Kedah Laws (c.1650), Perak Laws (c. mid-18th century), and Laws of Johor (c.1789) (Winstedt 1969, 169–170).
More textual evidence proves that Malay-Indonesians were taking a large part of their fiqh material from the residents of the Middle East by means of translation,5 for the sake of pedagogy, piety, and marriage (see e.g., the Ms_Or_15 in the Marburg University Library and Gg. 5. 22 and Dd.9.55 in the Cambridge University Library).6 The popularity of Shafiʿi fiqh in South-East Asia does not mean that other schools of thought and law were absent in the region or were neglected in Malay legal traditions.
The second problem detected in extant academic literature is the contribution of non-Arabic works in Malay legal texts. A limited number of studies discussed whether non-Arabs were linked with Malay Islamic law. For example, the TK214 manuscript of Kerinci, one of the oldest known Malay legal codes, dating from the late-fourteenth and early-fifteenth centuries, demonstrates possible connections this legal source might have with South Asians or possibly Persians, while having their own indigenization and legal self-deduction (see Kozok 2015). We may also add the Perak Law7 brought to “Malaya in the seventeenth century by Sayid Husain al-Faraz of the great Hadramaut house of Ahmad ibn Isa al-Mohajir” (Winstedt 1969, 170) was influenced by Persian sources.8
However, our textual evidence, Or.5656, confronts extant studies. It demonstrates that Malay-Indonesians were interested in a cosmopolitan form of legal material, written in Persian and including legal and theological statements from different schools of thought. It suggests that local inhabitants of Southeast Asia were curious to learn about others and about materials of others, regardless of their origin and background. This inclusive approach to the diversity of Islamic thought makes more sense when one reads it through a cosmopolitan perspective: that people have their own place, voice, text, and right in a large multicultural context.9 Historical reports and archives confirm that Malay-Indonesia was used as a “safe land” for a large number of communities coming from different parts of the world. Extant literature is also replete with accounts of the social, political, and religious interaction of Southeast Asians with Arabs (e.g., Riddell 2001; Azra 2004; Burhanudin 2005; Laffan 2007; Tagliacozzo 2013), Persians (e.g., Attas 1970; Bausani 1968; Wieringa 1996; Braginsky 2004; Daneshgar 2021b), Indians and South Asians (e.g., Winstedt 1969; Feener and Sevea 2009; Ricci 2011), Turks (e.g., Kadı and Peacock 2019) and Africans (e.g., Mayson 1861, Hornell 1934). The archipelago was as cosmopolitan as West, Central, and South Asia, accommodated diversity and became a new home for Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and Nestorian Christians, among others (e.g., Colless 1969, 41), or a shelter for refugees fleeing threats and death, who left Eastern Persia (mainly Khorasan) to reach South-East Asia.10 Here, cosmopolitanism is mixed with pluralism, both enriching each other and giving voice to every local or foreign community in the archipelago. The accounts of Ibn Battuta and Safinih-yi Sulaymani (Muhammad Rabiʿ ibn Muhammad Ibrahim 1977, 173–180), among others, confirm the importance of western Indonesia for foreigners and how they integrated into the local court as well as society.11
2 Manuscript Evidence
I became more seriously engaged with fundamental questions about the history of Islamic law in Southeast Asia after visiting various libraries. I always pondered that as much as creedal statements (Islamic theological creeds) by al-Samarqandi and al-Nasafi could have shaped a major part of Islamic doctrine in non-Arab and non-Persian speaking communities (al-Attas 1988), there should also have been some other Islamic legal works with a high level of importance for them. And by “high level of importance” I mean a form of Islamic literature which penetrates different layers of a community and is referred to by people for the sake of understanding and/or practicing Islam as both a religion and a way of life.
Among many Islamic legal texts in different libraries, one example has the potential to provide an answer for such historical questions. I came across Or.5656 (measuring 20.5 cm × 14.5 cm; 232 ff.) in Leiden University Library, whose “origin” and “identity” had not been identified by former cataloguers and scholars. This manuscript was in the possession of Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (d. 1936) and was initially collected from Banten. His Bantenese collection including eighty-three manuscripts was given to Leiden University in 1906 (Voorhoeve 1980, xvii). This manuscript was copied on European laid paper (Iskandar 1999, 212–13) which was popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Apart from being written in Persian (ff. 1r–228r),12 another highly intriguing and thought-provoking observation is that it includes partial, or sporadic, Malay interlinear translations and further additional sections in Malay. It was listed as “an unidentified Persian text on Islamic law, occasionally with interlinear explanation in Malay” (Witkam 2007, 175–176). Being fragile and having large holes confirms that it was not kept under appropriate conditions for a considerable amount of time (Fig 1a and 1b). Nonetheless, on occasion various dates (or colophons) are shown, a style which used to be applied in other legal texts from Banten (see, e.g., Cod. Or.5598 in the Leiden University Library; see Ayang Utriza Yakin 2016, 373).
Or. 5656 (fl. 1). Preface including Malay interlinear translation and minor editorial comments by the same Malay-speaking reader
Citation: International Journal of Islam in Asia 2, 2 (2021) ; 10.1163/25899996-20223006
Courtesy of the Leiden University LibraryOr. 5656 (fl. 18). A fragile manuscript with large holes
Citation: International Journal of Islam in Asia 2, 2 (2021) ; 10.1163/25899996-20223006
Courtesy of the Leiden University LibraryThe main colophon is dated early Dhu al-Hijjah 1090 (January 1680) and was in the possession of Muhammad Sadiq, son of Shaykh Habib (fl. 228a) (Fig 2). A large part of this volume was written in the nastaʿlīq style of script which suggests that it could have been copied in South Asia (e.g., India) or by someone coming from there; both alternatives are entirely possible.
Another dated section is a short treatise in Malay about the significance and reward of cultivation (ff. 228v–229v) from 1176/1763 (Fig 3).
Or. 5656 (fl. 228). Main colophon dated early Dhu al-Hijjah 1090/January 1680
Citation: International Journal of Islam in Asia 2, 2 (2021) ; 10.1163/25899996-20223006
Courtesy of the Leiden University LibraryOr. 5656 (fl. 229). A Malay treatise on cultivation dated 1176/1763
Citation: International Journal of Islam in Asia 2, 2 (2021) ; 10.1163/25899996-20223006
Courtesy of the Leiden University LibraryThe other dated part is found under a supplication whose identity is not mentioned in former catalogues, either;13 “it is the supplication of the Prophet Jonah” (īn[i] duʿā nabiyyullāh yūnus ʿalayhi al-salām) (fl. 230r) dated 1176/1763 (Fig 4). Its last part is a numerical table14 or chronogram (?) with a specific note about the table (ff. 231–232v):
Or. 5656 (fl. 230). Supplication of the Prophet Jonah with Malay title dated 1176/1763
Citation: International Journal of Islam in Asia 2, 2 (2021) ; 10.1163/25899996-20223006
Courtesy of the Leiden University LibraryOn the 22nd day of the month of Ramadan 1173 (7 May 1760) on Thursday at 10 O’clock
2.1 Is Or.5656 a Rare Manuscript?
As will be seen, the manuscript was in the possession of Malay readers from the late seventeenth century, one of the most important periods in Malay Muslim court history (see, e.g., Riddell 2017). Apart from being a fruitful period for local Malay Islamic literature, marginalization of Persian literature (not necessarily from Persia) also occurred. This is mainly evident through the works of al-Raniri (d. 1658), whose usage of Persian quotations was taken from Arabic materials (Jelani ibn Harun 1999, 86–95). Of course, we now know that the Persian language used to be read and copied in the Malay-Indonesian world up until the late nineteenth century (Daneshgar 2021a); however, it does not mean that they could achieve the status of works from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The reduced production and reproduction of Malay-Persian literature may suggest that Or.5656 is one of the rarest extant Islamic legal works in Persian which has been translated, read, and circulated in the Malay-Indonesian world since the late seventeenth century. Although Sumatra (and mainly Aceh) and Malacca were often understood to be the main hubs of Persian materials (see Bausani 1968; Iskandar 2011; Braginsky 2004; Feener 2011, Formichi, and Feener 2015; Peacock 2018; Daneshgar 2020), recent studies show that the Bantenese origin of Or.5656, as a Persian-Malay manuscript, may no longer be a surprise. Another manuscript in the Leiden University Library, Or.5658, copied in the late seventeenth century was read and held by Muhammad Qahir, the son of Sultan Mawlana ʿAbd al-Fattah, and the son of Sultan Ahmad in Banten. This work is replete with Persian melodic systems, Indo-Persian Shiʿi poems and supplications, and obvious references to Shiʿi concepts of ʿAli’s leadership – and is replete with Malay handwriting (Daneshgar 2021a). On this subject, we may claim that Bantenese (and readers of Or.5656 and Or.5658) were also familiar with Persian, the same as the residents of Aceh, Malacca, and even Siam. More importantly, the existence of occasional Malay interlinear translation15 throughout the text may suggest that Malay readers were able to comprehend a large part of the Persian text.
3 Origin of the Text
During the last couple of years, I have had enough time to check our legal text (Or.5656) along with a set of different legal works in Persian and Arabic. The fragile nature of the manuscript does not allow us to easily figure out the origin of the work. However, the preface (fl. 3) has the title as Majmuʿih-yi Khani fi Bahr al-Maʿani16 (The Collection of the Khan on the Ocean of Meanings and Phrases) – being written in complicated handwriting on a fragile paper was a main reason for its not being detected in former catalogues or stated in P. Voorhoeve’s list (1980). This work refers to the well-known Persian work produced by Kamal Karim Naguri (or Kamal al-Din ibn Karim al-Din al-Naguri; al-Hasani 2014, 103) in the Dawlatabad17 of Persianate India. In Or.5656 (fl. 2) as well as Ms.032 of the Congress Library, which has the highest similarity with the Leiden copy, the name of the author is shown as “Kamal Karim” (f1.1).18 Kamal Karim’s work is “dedicated to ʿIzz al-Din Ulugh Qutlugh Bahram Khan, governor of Dawlatabad”19 and includes a laudatory phrase about the conversion of the region of Devagiri/Deogiri (
most probably it was compiled in the reign of Sultan Muhammad Ibn Tughluq (1325–1351) as it is evident from the preface of the work in which the Sultan is being praised for founding Daulatabad and adding to the glory of Islam. (Islam 2005, 9)
The gradual development of Islam in India by means of Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi (d. c.1030) raised some particular concerns about Islamic foundational teachings among newly-converted Muslims. This is why a good number of early Islamic literature works in India are about Islamic legal verdicts (fatāwā). One of the first fiqh materials formed in Persianate India is Majmuʿih-yi Sultani “complied by several of the most esteemed Lawyers of Ghazna, at the desire of the famous Sultan Mahmud … about the commencement of the Eleventh Century, principally as a Guide for his decisions while engaged in War and the Tumults of a Camp, where these Learned persons did not wish to attend him” (Stewart 1809, 154). One may also name “Fawaʾid Firuz-shahi” (Legal Instructions/Lessons dedicated to Firuz Shah) which was a Persian text about the Hanafi school of law divided into one hundred and fifteen chapters,20 Tuhfat al-Nasaʾih, and Matalib al-Muʾminin, among others.21
Various notes on these manuscript copies have introduced the work as Fiqh-i Parsi. Although Fiqh-i Parsi can be literally translated as “fiqh in Persian,” it may contextually and linguistically, given that it was produced in Persianate India, be translated as “Persianate fiqh.” Likewise, Muhammad Taqi Danishpazuh (d. 1996) compiled a helpful Persian source in 1368/1989 about the “Descriptive Catalogue of Persian Books of Fikh through 1400 years.” This work clarifies to what extent fiqh became a main part of Persian Islamic literature, and that a large number of Persian materials were shaped beyond the borders of Iran, across the Persianate Zone. Therefore, I think “Persianate fiqh” could be a proper translation.
4 Majmuʿih-yi Khani: Content and Outline
Kamal Karim provides us with the status of the court of Daulatabad and the reason why he collated a manual of Islamic law:
While travelling and residing [in different places … it was seen that] authentic Arabic works were also read and received in the Arabic language. As long as the assembly of the royal court includes both Arabs and non-Arabs (ʿajam), people are simply not able to become privileged from general and particular instructions of [complicated] Arabic books. [As such,] I have compiled this collection in Persian, in a simple language and avoided repetitions and did not over explain obvious and explicit phrases … rubāʿī: “People are bound to share old grief with new fellows, thus, it must be done with the fellow’s mother tongue; the [Arabic phrases for] “do not do” and “do” does not work, as non-Arabs only understand [the Persian equivalent of] “do” and “do not do”.” … This compiled volume has anyway been named as Majmuʿih-yi Khani fi Bahr al-Maʿani (The Collection of Khan on the Ocean of Meanings and Phrases). (Or.5656, ff. 2–3)
Although both Arabs and non-Arabs were in the court, this work was produced for people with little or no knowledge of Arabic literature and grammar but adequate familiarity with Persian in India. More importantly, this preface demonstrates that Kamal Karim did not restrict himself to earlier Persian materials of fiqh produced in India.
Most copies of Majmuʿih-yi Khani, including the Or.5656 of Leiden, are divided into fifty-five parts, each addressing various verdicts or legal issues about purification, ablution, qualified water, prayers, acquiring knowledge, supplications, and so forth, along with theological, eschatological, exegetical, and supplicatory arguments. Naturally, the result of a great deal of content is a book of great physical proportions which is why its early editions published in late nineteenth-century Lahore were printed in two volumes.
The striking point about this legal work is the diversity of materials from which it is comprised. As there are many copies available throughout the world, it is rather hard to list the number of works cited in this legal collection. Most available copies are silent about the number of cited works. The only exception, to my knowledge, is Ms.528171 kept in the National Library of Iran, Tehran. This copy includes a different preface beginning with the number and list of works cited in this collection:
فهرست اسامی کتابها که در «مجموعه خانی» مذکورست که جمله یکصد و سی ویک کتابست
The list of books cited in the Majmuʿih-yi Khani are one hundred and thirty-one in total. (fl. 1, Ms.528171)
A close look through different sections of the work confirms that Naguri has referred to a wide range of Islamic materials in Arabic and Persian. His approach to both sources and the type of materials is comprehensive and plural; covering both Sunni and Shiʿi legal treatises from different periods, and also Ashʿari, Muʿtazili, and Sufi commentaries on the Qurʾan and Hadith, and in the Qurʾanic sciences, in Arabic as well as Persian. In this regard, it can be said that a classical understanding of “Islamic law” in Persianate India was somewhat dependent upon a wide range of classical materials not limited only to fiqh and fatāwā but also tafsīr, hadith, kalām, qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, among others.
5 A Global Reception of Majmuʿih-yi Khani
The diversity of materials used by Naguri made his work well known not only in Persianate contexts but also in China. Although recent studies show the circulation of a wide range of Persian works in Eastern Turkistan among the Uyghur people, very few works survived in Far East regions like Beijing. The Chinese philosopher and thinker Liu Zhi (see Lee 2015) had consulted Majmuʿih-yi Khani, along with many other Persian and Arabic materials, in order to author two Islamic philosophical and legal treatises in Chinese, T’ien-fang Hsing-li (in c.1704) and T’ien-fang tien-li (in c.1710) (Leslie and Wassel 1982, 78). Not only did Liu Zhi use Naguri’s work, but also many materials used by Naguri in his Majmuʿih-yi Khani. It is not far-fetched to assume that Majmuʿih-yi Khani was actually the main source consulted by Liu Zhi about Islamic rites, rituals, and law. More importantly, the list of materials available to Liu Zhi confirms that Majmuʿih-yi Khani was read and cited along with other well-known Islamic texts in seventeenth-century China, such as the Qurʾan, Tafsir al-Baydawi (in Arabic), Tafsir-i Zahidi (in Persian), Tafsir-i Basaʾir Yamini (in Persian), al-Kafi (a Shiʿi traditional collection by al-Kulayni, d. c.328/939), al-Hidayah (a Hanafi legal source by al-Marjinani, d. c.593/1197), al-Sajawandi’s (d. c.600/1203) legal work known as al-Sirajiyya, and al-Tanbih by al-Samarqandi (d. c.373/983) (Leslie and Wassel 1982, 96–100). Interestingly, a letter written by an American Christian missionary in Beijing, the Rev. Henry Blodget to Professor H. A. Newton22 dated “Feb. 19 1863” suggests that a number of Islamic works were found in mosques in Beijing and “throughout the country” in the nineteenth century. A list of twenty-four works can be found, one of which is Majmuʿih-yi Khani; other works include those used by Liu Zhi and cited by Naguri (American Oriental Society Proceeding 1863, xxi–xxii). Furthermore, Danishpazhuh also stated that he found a copy of Naguri’s works in the mosque of the Dongcheng district of China (1989, 49). The thought that I would like to share at this point is about the lasting presence of this fiqh text in the “Chinese empire” for about three centuries. This may explain the popularity of this work where Persian is actually rarely applied … let alone its presence where Persian and Arabic are known as the main “languages of Muslim communities in this world and in paradise” (as clearly mentioned in Or.5656, fl. 57).
6 References and Themes
Majmuʿih-yi Khani presents a comprehensive overview of the Islamic religious sciences (ʿulūm al-dīn). To aid the reader’s comprehension of legal verdicts and issues, different commentaries about the occasions of revelation early codex (musḥaf) types and their production, hadith compendia, and theological schools are offered.
6.1 Islamic Principles and Theology
The chapters on namāz (prayer) and namāz-i jināzih (funeral prayer) include some accounts about the Day of Judgement and the hereafter. This part is not only about prayer but also about the status of a person upon death and various postmortem events and experiences. A number of classical sciences are drawn upon in order to shed light on the status of the deceased as well as their life after death. A discussion on the heavenly pool/pound, al-Kawthar, serves to illustrate the breadth of exposition in Majmuʿih-yi Khani.
God Almighty has stated “Indeed, We have granted you, [O Muhammad], al-Kawthar” [Qurʾan 108:1]. It takes one month to measure around the size of the Pool of Kawthar, and the water of the Pool of Kawthar is whiter than milk [is as white as milk (?)] and its smell is more fragrant than musk. And according to a traditional report, the watering places of the pool are as many as the heavenly stars, and that whoever drinks from this pool will no longer be thirsty. And both paradise and hell are created and will never be destroyed. Muʿtazilis say that “paradise and hell are not created yet,” and the Jahmiyya say that “paradise and hell are already created but will be perished”; our denomination is the right one and that of the heretics (bad madhabiyyān) is false. (Or.5656, fl. 139)
Through this text, an interpretation of the verse of the Qurʾan is combined with traditional reports (hadith) and discussed by means of theological doctrines, one of the Muʿtazilis and the other of the Jahmiyya, which is a theological school ascribed to Jahm ibn Safwan (d. c.128/746) and which was rejected by [some] Sunni leaders and scholars.23
6.2 Islamic Principles, Theology, and Qurʾan Exegesis
In the chapter on zakat a number of theological and exegetical works are used to clarify the importance of almsgiving. For instance, we read:
It is said in Madarik al-Tanzil [by al-Nasafi], and in ʿUmdat al-Tafsir [?], and in al-Kashshaf [by al-Zamakhshari], and in Mashariq al-Anwar [by al-Saghani] that “whoever has not paid the alms of gold, silver, and dirham, then those golds, silvers, and dirhams will be weighted and/or heated up on the Day of Judgement and will be branded on their forehead, abdomen, and back. (Or.5656, fl. 146)
Three of the four abovementioned sources are exegetical works and commentaries on the Qurʾan (tafsīr), and the last one by al-Saghani (d. c.1251) is a traditional source. Among the exegetical works, al-Kashshaf of the Muʿtazili scholar al-Zamakhshari, was quite well known in South Asia in general and among various Indian Muslim circles in particular.24 Al-Nasafi is a representative of the Hanafi–Maturidi approach to Islam, hugely significant all over the Muslim world (see, Bruckmayr 2009). This composition, including the works from different groups of Muslim scholars, may point to the cosmopolitan context in which Majmuʿih-yi Khani was produced. This realization leads us to another conjecture, specifically, that the warm reception of this collection in Banten is because Banten was also a cosmopolitan environment in the seventeenth century.
6.3 Shiʿi Legal Texts and Accounts
Or.5656 includes allusions to al-Kafi. This book was popular in China from the late seventeenth century and was in the possession of Liu Zhi. Although there are a couple of works by the name of al-Kafi the work being alluded to is the Shiʿi book of al-Kulayni (d. c.328/939) that was read in different mosques in the Far East in the seventeenth century.25 The citing of al-Kulayni’s al-Kafi should not be surprising as Majmuʿih-yi Khani is discussions on the legal and theological differences between Sunnis and Shiʿa among other differences between Muslim groups and denominations. For instance, towards the end of the Majmuʿih-yi Khani there is a section dealing with tasbīḥāt va adʿiyyih (invocations and supplications) in which the virtues of reciting different Qurʾanic chapters is mentioned. In this section the Bustan al-ʿArifin of Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi is quoted with regard to the number of chapters in the Qurʾan. However, after comparing the Persian text of Or.5656 with the original Arabic work of al-Samarqandi it appears that the quotation of the Bustan al-ʿArifin was somewhat embellished with references to the codex of ʿAli so as, highly likely, to appeal to a Shiʿa readership.
و ز بستان فقیه ابی اللیث میگوید «زید ثابت گفته است تمام سورتهای قرآن صدوچهارده است و این قول بیشتر یاران پیغامبران است علیهم السلام رضي اللّٰه عنهم». مصحف امیرالمؤمنین نیز صدوچهارده سورت است. فقیه ابي اللیث میگوید که «تمام آیتهای قرآن شش هزار و دویست سی و شش آیت است» و این قول امیرالمؤمنین علي است. فامّا نزدیک بیشتر علماء تمام آیتها قرآن شش هزار و ششصد و شست و شش است.
According to the Bustan treatise by the jurist Abu al-Layth, “Zayd ibn Thabit has stated that the Qurʾanic chapters are one hundred and fourteen altogether, and this is the opinion of most Companions of the Prophet(s), may Allah be pleased with them.” The codex of the Commander of Believers (amīr al-muʾminīn) also includes one hundred and fourteen chapters. The jurist Abu al-Layth states that “The number of Qurʾanic verses is six thousand and two hundred and thirty-six altogether.” And this is what the Commander of Believers, ʿAli, reported. Nonetheless, a large number of scholars approved that the Qurʾanic verses are six thousand six hundred and sixty-six. (Or.5656, fl. 207–8)
A concise translation from Arabic of the original Bustan al-ʿArifin by Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi in fact reads as follows:
And Zayd ibn Thabit stated that the Qurʾanic Chapters are one hundred and forty altogether, and this is the account of the majority of the Prophet’s Companions […] And this is also based on the codex of ʿUthman, may Allah be pleased with him, as well as the codices of the garrison cities [i.e., Kufa, Basra, Egypt], and the majority of scholars have agreed upon this, and this must be taken into account. And God knows best. (al-Samarqandi 2000, 117)
Further references to wearing kohl (surma), a traditional mascara, while fasting is mentioned in the light of Shiʿi traditions. Whether it should be done on the day of ʿAshuraʾ (the tenth of Muharram), a controversial issue in Sunni and Shiʿi legal discourse, is discussed as follows:
It is said in Rawdat al-ʿUlamaʾ and in Kubra that applying surma on the day of ʿAshuraʾ is not permissible for some [schools/people], because of the [statement of the] Commander of Believers (amīr al-muʾminīn). Husayn, may Allah be pleased with him, was martyred by Yazid on the day of ʿAshuraʾ. Yazid used the blood of Husayn, Commander of Believers, may Allah be pleased with him, as surma. … Thus, the surma of the day of ʿAshuraʾ should not be done. Nonetheless, the fatwa is that applying surma on the day of ʿAshuraʾ is permissible because the Prophet peace be upon him, applied surma on both the day of ʿAshuraʾ and during Ramadan. As such, applying surma is permissible and does not invalidate the fasting. (Or.5656, fl. 172)
6.4 Persian Tafsīr
Or. 5656 suggests that Malays were able to read lengthy passages of Qurʾanic exegesis written in Persian and originating from different parts of the Middle East and Central Asia. For example, the “supplications and invocation” chapter presents the account of the Hikayat (Story) “Light of Muḥammad” (Nur-e Muḥammad or, Nur-Muḥammad) based on Tafsir-e Zahidi by Imam Ahmad bin Hasan Darvazajaki from Bukhara, the Great Khorasan in the 6th/12th century. This tafsīr was one of the controversial commentaries of the “Khorasan school” and was widely circulated across the Orient, including China (see Daneshgar and Rizvi, 2022b).
The Light of Muhammad which is about the greatness and holiness of the light of Muḥammad before Muḥammad’s own physical and biological birth used to be the cornerstone of Islamic theological and folk-story literature in different parts of the world. However, Nāgūrī draws the readers’ attention to this story through the lens of legal discourse, about the divine value of particular daily invocations which are compared with the greatness of the world and universe. Then, the greatness of the universe is measured. Subsequently, the origin of the universe and the creation process is outlined through different exegetical and hagiographic works:
The exegesis of Imam Zahid states that there is a report from Ibn ʿAbbas that “God first created the Pen … the Pen will not exist until the Day of Judgement. After the Pen, God created fish on which the Earth was placed. And some stated that the whole universe was made of water before the creation of the Earth. Then, the water foam (?) was collected and formed like a mountain where the Kaʿba is now located. This happened on Sunday. Then the water vapor evaporated like smoke and went up to the sky. God, then, made a green door [out of the water vapor] that became the door of heaven. And on Monday, the Sun and the Moon and the stars were created. Later, God opened up the Earth like a carpet/circle [?]. And on Tuesday, God created terrestrial and aquatic animals and birds. On Wednesday, rivers and trees were created by God, and the provisions of [every] servant were determined. The Earth was in turbulence after its creation, and was not stable. As such, God created mountains after which the Earth became stable. And on Thursday, God created paradise and hell. On Friday, God created Adam.” … In the Qissas-i Bukhari it is mentioned that “The Prophet peace be upon him states that ‘God created my Light first of all … Then the Light prostrated before God, as God wanted it to do so. Then, God divided the Light into four parts. God created from one of them the Throne, from the second one the Pen, and from the third one Paradise. And God divided again the fourth piece which already remained. The first piece of the fourth part was great and noble, from which the Prophet, peace be upon him, was created. From the second part of it the intellect was created. And from the third part of it chastity was created. And from the fourth part, the maʿrifa [recognition of God] was created (Or.5656, fl. 214).
This account of the Light of Muḥammad and the creation of the universe read by Malay-Indonesians of the late seventeenth century demonstrates that (1) Malays had competence in reading Persian folk stories; (2) Malays were familiar with influential Persian or Persianate commentaries from Khorasan in the past, a point which has often been neglected in Islamic exegetical studies (see Daneshgar and Rizvi 2022); and (3) Malays read legal notes with Islamic folk stories in order to have a better sense of their religion. The latter point also explains why the manuscript Malay 2 on the Legal Code of Minangkabau in the John Rylands University Library includes a section on “Creation (Nur Muhammad) and the Origin of Minangkabau Law” (see Ricklefs, Voorhoeve, and Gallop 2014, 130).
7 Malay Notes and Elements in Or.5656
Regardless of being found in Banten, a number of Malay notes written by different hands throughout the Persianate fiqh treatise confirm the reception of this text in Southeast Asia. The Malay notes and elements in Or.5656 written in Jawi script can be divided into the following categories (1) interlinear translations (Persian-Malay); (2) Bilingual glosses and super-commentaries (Persian with Malay); (3) Arabic sentences with Malay hand; (4) additional handwriting in Arabic-Persian-Malay; (5) inscription of Persian with Malay hand; and (6) a Malay treatise. I now turn to these categories, sequentially.
Firstly, the interlinear Malay notes are used as the translation of a number of Persian words. They are found in different places with no consistency. Fl. 109, for instance, shows the marginal Malay-Jawi term “
Or. 5656 (fl. 109). Malay marginal translation of Persian text, showing yakni beri makan and kau serahkan kepada Allah taʿala
Citation: International Journal of Islam in Asia 2, 2 (2021) ; 10.1163/25899996-20223006
Courtesy of the Leiden University LibrarySecondly, it is clear that the Malay reader(s) of Or.5656 paid close attention to the text as there are several places where both Persian and Malay terms can be found written in the same hand. One marginal gloss clearly demonstrates that the Malay reader was quite familiar with Persian. While writing a Persian sentence about performing Friday Prayer at home, the Malay term “
Thirdly, on fl. 177, an Arabic sentence on a blank folio has been written in the same hand as the Malay interlinear and/or marginal points.
Fourthly, on fl. 169, there is a note in the three languages of Arabic, Persian, and Malay, before the chapter titled “Ramadan Crescent Observation.” This part is clearly written by someone trying to practice both Persian and Arabic. This piece also shows the innovation of the Malay reader while conjugating Persian terms based on Arabic grammar, and writes the Persian term “agar” (
Fifthly, on different folios (e.g., ff. 36, 106, 111, 119, 138), the Malay reader has added Persian words or phrases in the margin with the same hand. For example, fl. 36 shows mawara nahr (“
Or. 5656 (fl. 36). Malay-speaking reader has added Persian phrase of māwara al-nahr yaʿni/yakni Balkh-e Būkhārā
Citation: International Journal of Islam in Asia 2, 2 (2021) ; 10.1163/25899996-20223006
Courtesy of the Leiden University LibrarySixthly, the most obvious element showing the Malay interest in circulating the Persianate fiqh manuscript is an additional legal note in Malay-Jawi placed after the Persian colophon, copied on the same paper. This treatise is dated 1176/1763. The handwriting of this treatise is very different from the Malay marginal notes found throughout the treatise, which suggests this text (and other parts of the manuscript) passed through different hands in the Malay- Indonesian world (see the appendix). In line with the theme of the Majmuʿih-yi Khani, the Malay reader has added one more clause to the end of the manuscript about the significance of cultivation and agriculture and the way peasants, as well as farmers, will be “rewarded in this world and in the hereafter, as farming used to be admired by God and the Saints.” The main reference for this short account is a number of Prophetic statements about farming. And given the crucial role of the Bantenese crop in people’s nutritional plan, it is no surprise to see that such a clause, which is not found in Majmuʿih-yi Khani, has been added to the collection. This is also confirmed through other manuscripts like Raffles Malay 75 “Fragment of Malay laws” in the Royal Asiatic Society and studies by Waardenburg (1936), in which the influence of agriculture on morality, language, and the culture of Indonesia is displayed.26 This may also demonstrate that this manuscript was in the possession of people who were in contact with peasant communities or were members of this social group. Either way, it sheds light on a form of innovation by Malays, adding a particular section about things which were not fully discussed in the work of Naguri.
8 Final Remark
To the extent that Majmuʿih-yi Khani was welcomed in the heartlands of Persianate India as well as in China, this work was also warmly received in Banten, Indonesia at different times, when other Persian works were also read. This allows us to rethink the close connection between the Malay and Persianate contexts. More importantly, it shows to what extent Malays used to welcome various forms of teaching from different corners of the world, a phenomenon which rarely happened in the Middle East. Few works produced in fourteenth and fifteenth-century Persianate India and Central Asia were reproduced and circulated in the main cities of Iran or in Arabic-speaking regions, rather, the direction of literary travel usually happened the other way around. Apart from a few exceptions, most works from Persianate India were accepted where Persian was not a native language but widely considered as the language of science, politics, arts, and literature. Majmuʿih-yi Khani is one of those works. Aside from being written beyond the main centers of the Sunni and Shiʿi fiqh schools, its pluralistic approach to Islamic law and rituals was perhaps a reason for its obscurity in the heartlands of Arabo-Sunnism and Persian-Shiʿism. Instead, its pluralistic theme was welcomed where pluralism, despite its challenges, was a crucial issue in the cosmopolitan context of Indonesia.
9 Appendix27
[fl. 229] Ini suatu fasal pada menyatakan kelebihan orang yang bertanam-tanaman. Telah bersabda Nabi Salla Allah Alayh wa-sallam kelebihan orang yang bertanam-tanaman atas segala manusia yang tiada bertanam-tanaman seperti kelebihan bulan atas segala bintang. Barang daripada malaikat yang lalu atas tanam-tanaman melainkan berkata ia telah debar berkata Allah Ta’ala atas kamu dan atas tanam-tanaman kamu. Dan telah menjadikan Allah Ta’ala segala malaikat, tiada mengetahui manusia akan bilangan mereka itu melainkan Allah Ta’ala, lagi akan minta ampun mereka itu akan Allah Ta’ala [dengan tiap-tiap malah?]. Dan sayang bagi segala orang yang bertanam-tanaman. Maka bahwasanya orang yang bertanam-tanaman itu sangat […] dan pahalanya amat banyak […] Nabi Allah Adam dan Nabi Allah Edris dan [fl. 230] Nabi Allah Musa dan Nabi Allah Dawud dan Nabi Allah Sulaiman atas mereka itu sejahtera. Dan apabila memakan segala burung daripada tanam-tanaman [yang dari tanam-tanaman] itu dan memintalah doa ia bagi yang mempunyai tanam-tanaman itu, [dan] tiada balas akan sekalian bertanam-tanaman itu melainkan syurga. Telah bersabda Nabi kita Salla Allah Alayh wa-sallam telah menuntut ilmu itu. Dan orang perang sabil dan orang yang bertanam-tanaman bersamaan sekalian mereka itu maka yang menuntut ilmu itu kekasih Allah ta’ala. Dan orang yang berperang wali Allah dan orang yang bertanam-tanaman itu kepercayaan kepada Allah taʿala. Bermula Allah taʿala terlebih mengetahui akan pahalah segalanya mereka itu – 1176 Tahun.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Mirjam Lücking for reading earlier drafts of this article and providing me with her helpful comments. I also thank Peter G. Riddell, Radman Rasooli Mehrabani and all three anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. My thank also goes to Chiara Formichi for her prompt and supportive responses. I also thank my colleagues at Cambridge University Library for providing me with all sorts of facilities to complete this study. The majority of this study has been completed during a Drewes Research Fellowship at Scaliger Institute, Leiden University Library; my special thanks go to the coordinator of the Scaliger Institute, Kasper van Ommen, among other colleagues, for granting permission to access their collections and use images of the manuscripts. Of course, any remaining errors in this study remain mine.
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My thanks to Mirjam Lücking for drawing my attention to this point.
“There is a 70.5 per cent probability that the manuscript’s paper was collected for processing between 1450–1521 AD; while there is also a low probability of 24.9 per cent that it was collected between 1586–1623 AD” (Daneshgar 2022).
As Kooriah demonstrates, Shafiʿis had to move to other parts of the world after the emergence of the Safavid dynasty in Persia, when they had either “to convert to Shi’ism; to flee their homeland to preserve their faith; [or] to face death” (2022, 58).
Malay law codes should not be considered as fiqh, even though the latter may be a substantial part of the former. Regarding the history and development of the Islamic legal system in Indonesia, see Cammack and Feener 2012.
Regarding the interlinear translation of Arabic materials, see Ricci 2020; regarding the formation and reception of classical fiqh in northern Sumatra (Aceh), see Chambert-Loir 2017.
My new analytical catalogue of oriental manuscripts at Cambridge University Library (especially those of Erpenius) and Marburg University Library is forthcoming.
About the transformation of law and Islamic law in Perak since the nineteenth century, see Hussin 2007.
On the literal and lexical influence of Persian, see Bausani 1964 and Petru 2016, respectively.
For a thorough analysis of the concept of “cosmopolitan,” see Lücking’s introduction to this special issue.
This is, for example, outlined in Jamiʿ al-Hikayat (the Collection of Stories) of ʿAwfi (d. 1242), see Cod. Pers. 184, fol. 308 in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, Germany.
It should be mentioned that this integration was challenging, having side effects such as insecurity and corruption. See, Muhammad Rabiʿ bin Muhammad Ibrahim 1977, 173–80.
The manuscript numbering system is not fixed. Therefore, throughout this study, I have desisted from indicating the recto and verso sides of folios.
I.e., those of Iskandar and Witkam.
This table is accompanied with some Malay formula (e.g., in the shape of a square) perhaps used by farmers or villagers in unofficial trading.
Regarding Malay-Indonesian materials including Malay and/or Javanese interlinear translation, kitab jenggotan, see Ricci 2016, 77.
The title is found differently and can be translated differently. Given the Indo-Persian origin of the text, we may propose another form of transliteration as: Majmūʿa-ye Khānī fī Baḥr al-Maʿānī.
Also, Daulatabad.
Also, see Ms.16177 (fl.5) in the Parliamentary Library of Iran.
Danishpazuh (1989, 40) has, to my knowledge, wrongly ascribed this source to the period of Bahram Shah of Saljuk, Kirman (r. c.565–570/1170–1175).
Al-Hassani (2014, 103); also Danishpazuh (1989, 60).
For more see, Islam 2005, 8.
Possibly, the famous Hubert Anson Newton (d. 1896).
Such theological debates are found in some very old Malay manuscripts. For example, see Ms_Or_14 at Marburg University Library.
Sayyid Muhammad ibn Sayyid Yusuf Husayni Shah Raju Qattal known as Banda Nawaz (d. c.825/1422) from Delhi produced the first gloss on al-Zamakhshari’s Arabic Qurʾanic commentary in India (Nasir-ud-din Chiragh of Delhi and Hamid Qalandar 1959, 65).
Al-Kafi’s Chinese translation was produced in the first half of the twentieth century (Leslie and Wassel 1982, 97).
The influence of Chinese literature dealing with agriculture on Malay-Indonesian sources needs to be examined.
My full transliteration and English translation of the text in this section will be published in my forthcoming study of Majmuʿih-yi Khani.
