The Makings of Indonesian Islam

Abstract

This rich, nuanced historical study effectively encourages (demands, perhaps) a rereading of much of what has been written about Islam in Indonesia by western observers. Focusing on a period during which the Indonesian nation itself was being made – Dutch colonial times (c. 1800-1942) – Michael Laffan sets out to investigate what makes Indonesian Islam and who has participated in the processes by and through which it has been made (p. xi). Dipping also into earlier times, he argues that the makings of Indonesian Islam lie in interactions spanning centuries involving Southeast Asian Muslims, Muslims from other places, and the Dutch (p. xi). He draws on a wealth of archival and scholarly sources (especially Dutch material) to explore the role that Dutch Orientalist advisors played in the history of Indonesian Islam and in its (mis)representation in western writings (pp. xi-xii). Complicating understandings of Sufism in the region, he also focuses on “disputes about the place of tariqa praxis – the rituals of mystical reflection organized under the guidance of a preceptor known as a shaykh – which represents but one aspect of Sufism as a field of Islamic knowledge” (p. xii). With its exploration of the makings of Indonesian Islam on multiple levels, this book would be of particular interest to specialists (especially historians) of Indonesia, Southeast Asia more broadly, Islam, and colonialism ...