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 bywestern observers. Focusing on a period during which the Indonesian nationitself was being made – Dutch colonial times (c. 1800-1942) – Michael Laffansets out to investigate what makes Indonesian Islam and who has participatedin the processes by and through which it has been made (p. xi). Dipping alsointo earlier times, he argues that the makings of Indonesian Islam lie in interactionsspanning centuries involving Southeast Asian Muslims, Muslims fromother places, and the Dutch (p. xi). He draws on a wealth of archival and scholarlysources (especially Dutch material) to explore the role that Dutch Orientalistadvisors played in the history of Indonesian Islam and in its(mis)representation in western writings (pp. xi-xii). Complicating understandingsof Sufism in the region, he also focuses on “disputes about the place oftariqa praxis – the rituals of mystical reflection organized under the guidanceof a preceptor known as a shaykh – which represents but one aspect of Sufismas a field of Islamic knowledge” (p. xii). With its exploration of the makingsof Indonesian Islam on multiple levels, this book would be of particular interestto specialists (especially historians) of Indonesia, Southeast Asia morebroadly, Islam, and colonialism ...