Situated Prophethood: Reading the Sěrat Ambiya in Nineteenth-Century Java

Abstract

This chapter investigates one of Java's most popular yet little studied textual traditions, the Serat Ambiya. These 'Tales of the Prophets,' which appear in numerous manuscripts inscribed in palaces and villages, in poetry and prose and in various scripts, depict the lives of the many prophets of Islam leading up to Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets. The chapter examines two manuscripts produced in the mid-19th century Javanese pesantren milieu, focusing on scenes in which, I suggest, the life of an Ambiya figure echoes with that of a Javanese wali. Thus, for example, the episode of nabi Ibrahim constructing the first mosque in Mecca shares much with the wellknown story of Sunan Kalijaga's role in the erection of Java's first mosque in Demak. Hence the chapter points to a 'wali-Ambiya interface' through which two great Islamic traditions - those of the walis and nabis - were intertwined and mutually constituted in major Javano-Islamic pedagogical settings.