Islam Behind the Court Wall

Abstract

The babad studies on Islamisation in Java are commonly based on historical analysis, but rarely on its ideological author or aesthetical strategy. This article figures out R. Ng. Yasadipura I's strategy of describing Islam in the Babad Tanah Jawi is based on allegorical (in Javanese term, pasemon) technique, a playful literary method of writing that reveals and conceals the events and characters in the manuscript. This strategy is 'political' as it presents a prophetic future, which possibly unveils a prophetic interpretation of Javanese courts. Using Levi Strauss's structural approach, this study aims to understand the structural model of Islam in Javanese worldview based on a series of events in Babad Tanah Jawi. The representation of Islam in Babad Tanah Jawi is at the position of 'in-between' space', intertwining between Javanese Islam and Arabian Islam, between peripheral Islam and central Islam. This unidentifiability is a logical consequence of Yasadipura I's multiple roles during Pakubuwana II to Pakubuwana IV, ranging from santri (Islamic student) to menteri (royal advisor) impact on his depiction of Islam in terms of illusion and allusion.