The Origins of Islamic Reformism in Southeast Asia

Abstract

This book, an extension of Azra’s doctoral dissertation, explores the transmissionof Islamic knowledge from the Middle East to the Malay-Indonesian(Jawi) world. Making use of Arabic biographical dictionaries and scholarlytexts, he produces a historical account arguing that the region’s Islamicrenewal and reformism originated in crisscrossing networks of Islamic scholarsbased in the Haramayn (Makkah and Madinah) during the seventeenthand eighteenth centuries. Azra’s detailed historical research substantiates anearlier intellectual transmission than previously thought. He contends thatthe main ideas transmitted comprised a “neo-Sufism” characterized by harmonizingthe Shari`ah and tasawwuf (Sufism) and promoting a return toorthodoxy, purification, and activism. He makes these arguments in an introduction,seven chapters, and a brief epilogue ...