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2 R O N I T R I C C I

Among Muslim communities in South and Southeast Asia practicesof reading, learning, translating, adapting, and transmitting helpedshape a cosmopolitan sphere that was both closely connected with the

broader, universal Muslim community and rooted in local and regionalidentities.1

The examples in the following pages are drawn from a range oftexts written in Javanese, Malay, and Tamil between the sixteenthand early twentieth centuries, and preserved in manuscript and printforms. I look at a series of what I envision as citation moments orcitation sites in an attempt to explore one of the many modes ofinter-Asian connections. I wish to highlight how citationssimple orbrief, as they may often seemare sites of shared memories, history,

narrative traditions, and in the case of Islamic literature, are also sitesof a common bond with a cosmopolitan and sanctified Arabic.

Studying translated circulating texts, written in local languagesinfused with Arabic words, idioms, syntax, and literary forms, pointsto contact and interactions not only among particular people butalso between and among languages such as the cosmopolitan Arabicand vernaculars like Javanese or Tamil. Such interactions in turnproduced works in which pre-Islamic traditions were infused with

new meaning as well as compositions that inaugurated an era of newliterary expression.

Citationfrom the Quran, religious treatises, histories of theprophets, and in the form of Arabic expressionscreated sites ofshared coherence and contact for Asian Muslims from differentlocalities. Retelling, translating, and citing common episodes andbeliefs set the stage for connecting through transmission, individualcontacts between scribes and translators, and a broad and sometimes

elusive sense of belonging to a trans-local community. Citation rangedfrom direct quotation to more general and less precise forms ofadopting and adapting prior sources. The familiarity of shared stories,ideas, and vocabulary contributed to the rise of similar educationalinstitutions, life cycle rites, titles, names, and modes of expression andcreativity across great geographical and cultural spaces, and sustainedmultiple, shifting interactions among languages, individuals, andcommunities.

1 For a discussion of the idea of an Arabic-centred cosmopolitanism in South andSoutheast Asia, see Ronit Ricci, Islam Translated: Literature, Conversion, and the ArabicCosmopolis of South and Southeast Asia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011).
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C I T I N G A S A S I T E 3

Citing sanctity: the shahada

When we consider citation as a site of contact between Muslim

communities across Asia, there is perhaps no citation more pivotalthan the shahada, the Muslim profession of faith. By reciting its twobrief sentences, the believer testifies to his or her faith that there isno God but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger. The shahadaprovides a point of contact between human and divine, and betweenMuslims of all regions, languages, and cultural backgrounds who utterthe same words attesting to their ultimate religious conviction.

As a mode of citation the shahada takes several forms and is, ina way, emblematic of larger patterns of citation.2 Most broadly, itcan be considered as a trope appearing in narratives depicting earlyIslamic history whose retelling introduced audiences to a distant pastthat came to be owned by all Muslims. It is cited almost universallyas a component of conversion rituals in depictions of individuals andcommunities embracing Islam; it is translated into local languages,making its translated citation a site of accessibility and familiarity;and it is cited as an indication of a particular allegiance within diverseIslamic societies.

The shahada is cited in historical chronicles that recount thestruggles, challenges, and successes of early Islam. It is often depictedas a powerful means symbolizing and containing divine power. Thistrend is apparent in the 1792 Javanese Serat Pandhita Raib.3 Hereis found a rather fantastic retelling of the Prophet Muhammadsearly struggle with the people of Kebar, the oasis (known as Khyabarin Arabic) where a large Jewish population resided, one eventuallyeliminated by Muhammad. The central figure, Pandhita Raib, is a

Jewish leader and teacher who persuades kings already converted toIslam to forsake their new faith and battle the Prophets armies. Oneday, when Pandhita Raib is about to go on a journey, a letter fallsout of the sky. Upon opening it and realizing that it contains theshahada, Pandhita Raib is aghast. He commands that a great fort,surrounded by moats, be built around the letter, barring entrance toall. However, when Pandhita leaves for his journey, his son Saib-saibis drawn irresistibly to the fort and, through divine intervention, is

2 I refer here to textual citation, and do not address prayer and Quranic recitation,which could be analysed in a similar way.

3 Serat Pandhita Raib, Mangkunagaran Library, Surakarta, 1792, copied 1842. MS.MN 297.


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able to enter it, finding the letter with the luminous words of theshahada magically appearing in his hand. From that day onwards heis sick with longing for the Prophet and will not rest until he reaches

him and embraces Islam. The narrative contains additional episodes,but the appearance of the shahada marks a turning point that leadsultimately to Saib-saibs conversion, Kebars fall, and Pandhita Raibsdeath. It is a sign of the futility of defying Islam, an object of beautyand light, and a set of words so powerful that it conquers even themost wise, strong, and cunning.

In an undated Malay variant of this story from West Sumatra,Hikayat Raja Rahib, discussed by Van Ronkel, the king of Kebars wifegives birth to a son, who, after fasting for three months, swallows

a scrap of paper fallen from the sky, upon which the shahada waswritten. Knowing that their son is destined to destroy their religion,his father tries to throw him into the sea, but the son is rescued by theangels and survives many adventures, finally reaching Mecca, meeting

Ali, and returning to convert his land and his people.4

It is noteworthy that in both cases we find the shahada in writtenform: although it is meant to be recitedits briefness and frequentuse making it easy to commit to memoryin writing it conjures

special powers and is associated in this form with a great threat tothe non-believers and an irresistible draw. The written shahada hasalso long been associated with healing practices, as when a note withits words is kept as an amulet or even ingested as a cure. In Java andSumatra, where most people could not read or write at the time thesemanuscripts were inscribed, the power of the written word depictedin these stories must have had particular resonance, magnifying theshahadas importance.

The shahada is also referred to and cited in multiple narratives thatdepict conversion to Islam and its recital constitutes a prerequisitefor anyone who wishes to become a Muslim. At times it is the onlyelement of a conversion ritual that is explicitly depicted, while atothers, additional elements like circumcision, a change of name, andprayer are also included. Even when the latter is the case, the shahadaremains the most prominentand often onlycitation that signifiesthe transformation of the new believer and his entry into the Muslimcommunity. The shahada doesnt have to be cited in full, and is oftenonly mentioned by the designation shahada, kalimah or kalimah

4 Ph. S. van Ronkel, Malay Tales About Conversion of Jews and Christians toMuhammedanism, Acta Orientalia, 10, 1932, p. 59.


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kalih, and such mention is sufficient to evoke its two phrases andtheir multiple resonances in the minds of all listeners.

In a textual example I employ throughout this paper, the shahada

consistently appears. I am referring to a corpus known acrosslanguages as the Book of One Thousand Questions, which depicts aquestion-and-answer dialogue between the Jewish leader AbdullahIbnu Salam and the Prophet Muhammad in seventh-century Arabiathat ends with Ibnu Salam and all his followers converting to Islam.The conversion scene always includes a recitation of the shahada. Thesame is true in many other conversion narratives found in South andSoutheast Asia.5

Next I wish to consider the question of the shahada cited with or

without translation within Islamic texts written in local languages. Inan undated Malay One Thousand Questions, known as Hikayat Seribu

Masalah, Ibnu Salam asks the Prophet whether all Muslims enterparadise on account of their dedicated religious service. The questionrefers to a debate about whether Muslims enter paradise by default ormust follow certain prescriptions to attain this goalin other words,a question is raised over the importance of faith versus deeds. TheProphet replies [Malay, Arabic in boldface]:

Hai Abdullah segala orang yang masuk syurga tiada dengan kebaktian. Barang siapamenyebut la ilaha illallah Muhammad rasulullah itulah yang beroleh syurga tiada

dengan kebaktian. Jikalau Yahudi dan Nasrani sekali pun jika ia menyebut dua kalimatitu atau orang menyembah berhala sekali pun jika ia masuk Islam syurga baginya.

O Abdullah, all those who enter paradise, it is not due to their religiousdeeds. Anyone who says la ilaha illallah Muhammad rasulullah will gain[entry to] paradise, without practicing their religious duties. Even if a Jew ora Christian says these two sentences, or even if an idolator embraces Islam

[by saying the above], he attains paradise.6

Beyond the central doctrinal issue addressed, it is noteworthy thathere the shahada appears untranslated. It is clear from the passagethat its two sentences are crucial ones, as they allow anyone who saysthemincluding non-Muslims, even those who bow to idolsto enterparadise. But what do they literally mean? Whereas in Javanese texts(discussed below) special care was taken to parse and translate the

5 See, for example, Russel Jones, Ten Conversion Myths from Indonesia, inNehemia Levtzion (ed.) Conversion to Islam (New York and London: Holmes and Meier,1979), pp. 12958.

6 Edwar Djamaris (ed.), Hikayat Seribu Masalah (Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan danPengembangan Bahasa Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 1994), p. 24.


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confession of faith that allows one to embraceor, as expressed here,to enterIslam, an opportunity of transformative power, in Malaythis Arabic phrase is left as it is. Appearing as a mantra, with its

power unrelated to semantic meaning, it offers salvation to anyone whocommits an act of faith by uttering it. To consider this phenomenon,a word on Malay translation practices is warranted.

Some early translations from Arabic into Malay were interlinear innature.7 As Islam spread, more texts were produced and Malay wasmore widely used as an Islamic language, interlinear works and shorttracts in Malay gradually gave way to texts with varying proportionsof Malay and Arabic. Malay became infused with an Arabic vocabulary

which appeared in all literary works, including texts of an explicitly

non-Muslim nature, like the Ramayana (M. Hikayat Seri Rama). Textswith a focus on Islamic religious ideas or practices, such as the OneThousand Questions, tended to include Arabic vocabulary as well asquotes from the Quran, hadith, and other sources, but did not providea dual-language version as did interlinear translations.

The point of transition from interlinear to Malay translation wasnot clear-cut and interlinear translations continued to be produced.Perhaps because many readers of the time were exposed to interlinear

translations while studying and to the Arabic of daily life in tradingtownsor at least to its religious terminology often heard in mosquesand Quranic recitationsthe One Thousand Questions in Malay appearsto assume a better knowledge of Arabic on the part of its audiencethan the Javanese and Tamil tellings do. At the very least, conceptsand expressions of great importance, like the confession of faith andGods creative powers, conventionalized ways of referring to bothGod and the Prophet, and selected quotes from the Quran were

thought to be familiar enough not to require translation. An additionalexplanation is that understandingwhen defined semanticallydidnot matter much, or at least was not considered the most crucial formof knowledge. As is often the case presently among non-Arab Muslimcommunities, a reading knowledge of Arabic among Malay Muslimsis quite prevalent, and certain words, phrases, and idioms are usedon a regular basis. Some of this vocabularyand especially where

7 The practice of interlinear translation of the Quran originated in the earlytranslations from Arabic to Persian, which, according to the Hanafi school, werepermitted only if the Persian was accompanied by the Arabic original, with a word-for-word translation (A. tarjamah musawiyah, equal translation). Later translations byMuslims into other languages tended to follow this pattern. See A. L Tibawi, Is theQuran Translatable?, The Muslim World, 52, 1962, p. 16.


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reciting the Quran is entailedwould be only vaguely accessible tomany readers and speakers if they were asked to explain the literalmeaning of single words or complete sentences. Nevertheless, there

are important functions to these uses, which are strongly linked to thestatus of Arabic and to its sanctity, and which are independent of itsknowledge in a conventional, scholastic, and semantic sense.

If we consider this possibility, the appearance of the untranslatedshahada in the midst of a paragraph promising redemption to anyoneat all who will recite its words no longer seems surprising. Like the pre-Islamic mantras in Sanskrit, valued for their powers of sound ratherthan their lexical meaning, in a similar fashion Arabic phrases toogained much esteem. Such phrases were often referred to, in Malay

and Javanese, as lapal or rapal. They consisted most often of formulas,prayers or spells that exerted power by virtue of their Arabic sound,even while their meaning was foreign, esoteric or enigmatic.

Arabic, whether understood or not, was clearly a language of powerand prestige because of its status as the language in which the Quran

was revealed to Muhammad. When left untranslated, the power of thelapal, quotes from scripture, and the hadith tradition exemplify this

well, pointing to the authority residing in the use of Arabic even when

listeners were often unable to judge its grammatical correctness orthe accuracy of a quote. In this way even an erroran approximatedQuranic citation, for examplewas accepted as potent speech.8 Inthe specific example of the shahada, a combination of sacred languageand meaning probably played a role, as the message of Gods onenessand Muhammads mission was indeed a pivotal one. But in the case ofthe many other lapal, scattered untranslated in this text and others,

Arabic bestowed on the text the authority of Gods words. Indeed,

such words are often preceded by: As God commanded in the Quran(M. seperti firman Allah Taala di dalam Quran), followed by a lapal-typequote.

Returning to the shahada, it can also appear in Arabic along witha translation. In the Javanese One Thousand Questions (Serat Samud or

8 The question of corrupt or false citation is a loaded one in general, and isalso specifically relevant to the One Thousand Questions. There are at least two types ofcorruptionaccusations: those (mostly by Muslim scholars) discussingthe relationshipof the Prophets words as presented in the text to his real words, and those (mostlyby Western scholars) discussing spelling, grammatical, and syntactical mistakes. See,respectively, Ismail Hamid, The Malay Islamic Hikayat (Bangi: Universiti KebangsaanMalaysia, 1983), and Guillaume Frederic Pijper, Het boek der duizend vragen (Leiden: E.

J. Brill, 1924).


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Suluk Samud) tradition, it is almost invariably translated. Sometimesit appears in Javanese only, without the Arabic original.

In an 1884 Serat Samud from Yogyakarta, immediately following a

reply about Islam as the true religion, the Jewish protagonist IbnuSalam asks what the word Islam, in fact, means. The reply is that themeaning of Islam (or becoming, being Muslim) is saying the sadat (A.shahada). Then the Prophet explains what one must say (Javanese inboldface):9

Ashadu ala prituwinilaha ilalah lawanashadu ana lan manehMukamadarrasul Allah

sun nakseni tan anapangran lyaning Hyang AgungMukamad utusan ing Hyang

The profession of faiththe two most sacred sentences attesting tothe oneness of God and to Muhammad being His messengerappearsin Arabic but is interspersed with Javanese (in boldface in translation):

I bear witness [that there is] no and alsoGod but Allah andI bear witness in additionMuhammad is Gods messenger.

This is the Arabic quote within whicheven before reaching thetranslated portionthe author inserts some Javanese words to parsethe two sentences that comprise the sadat, so that it makes more senseto the listener and is more readily memorized. Again, due to its utmostimportance, special care is taken that it will be clearly understood

not just its general meaning, but also the specifics of each segment.The translation into Javanese follows, using the same divisions of

meaning:

I bear witness there is noGod but Hyang AgungMuhammad [is] Hyangs messenger.

The translation is accurate, with an interesting variation: the word

Allah is not used for God in the Javanese rendering, but rather itemploys two Javanese terms: Pangran, means God, Lord, and is also a

9 Serat Samud, Pura Pakualaman Library, Yogyakarta, 1884. MS. PP St. 80. 1.34.


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royal title, and Hyang or Hyang Agung, a title often reserved for localor Hindu deities. We find here, to borrow A. K. Ramanujans terms,a translation that combines the iconic mode (retaining structural and

content elements of the original) with an indexical one (the translatedtext is embedded in a locale, a context, refers to it and would not makemuch sense without it).10

Looking to the example of the confession of faith, as was donefor Javanese and Malay, in the 1572 Tamil Book of One ThousandQuestions ( Ayira Macala), we find it appears several times, either inits complete form in Arabic without translation, or mentioned as the

kalima without further detail.11 For example, the angels, standing inrows, are described as endlessly reciting la ilaha illallahi Muhammaturacululla. Ibnu Salam, when embracing Islam, is said to have recited

the kalima along with his 700 followers.12 Interestingly, despite theTamil texts general emphasis on local context to convey the story andits message, there is no instance of the shahada translated into Tamil.

Since the One Thousand Questions is an early example of Muslimwriting in Tamil, it is likely to have inspired writers of subsequentperiods. Discussing the later, undated, Tamil Muslim text Tammancari

Malai, David Shulman notes the impressive infiltration of Arabic,

Persian and Urdu words into the Tamil text, finding it more strikingthan the reverse trend, the use of non-Muslim Tamil terminologyto convey Muslim concepts.13 Tamil literary tradition links the OneThousand Questionswith Umar

uppulavar and his famous Cr

a (biography

of the Prophet), written a century later in the mid-seventeenthcentury. Many of the miracles only hinted at in the One ThousandQuestions were depicted at length in the Cr

a, some expanded to fill

entire chapters, and much of the same Arabic terminology used

in the One Thousand Questions was incorporated into the writing ofthe later text. Umar

u, author of this most prominent of TamilMuslim literary works, is known as a direct descendant of the One

10 A. K. Ramanujan, Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and ThreeThoughts on Translation, in Paula Richman (ed.), Many Ramayanas. The Diversity

of a Narrative Tradition in South Asian (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991),p. 45.

11 Van. n. apparimal.appulavar, Ayira Macala, 1572, (ed.) Cayitu HassanMuhammatu. (Madras: M.Itris Maraikkayar/Millat Press, 1984).

12 Van. n. apparimal.appulavar, Ayira Macala, Verse 254 for the angels; 1052 for theconversion.

13 David Shulman, Muslim Popular Literature in Tamil: The Tammancari Malai,in Y. Friedmann (ed.), Islam in Asia (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1984), Vol. 1, pp. 174207;p. 207, note 114.


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Thousand Questions author Van. n. aparimal.appulavar.14 This example

shows how early citationsof Arabic phrases, stories, figures, andeventscontinued to circulate and to be cited anew in later works,

their meaning reinforced and rearticulated.I have explored the way in which the shahada has been cited as

a potent message, able to overcome great kings and warriors with itspowers and to draw non-believers to Islam in narratives of the religionsearly spread; its consistent appearance in conversion narratives, oftenas the single most important element of the ritual; and its full,partial, and non-translation in local contexts. Finally, the citation ofthe shahada could also point to a particular affiliation among diverseMuslim communities. For example, Pijper notes a copy of the OneThousand Questions in Persian which contains a shahada stating thatAli is Gods wali, its inclusion suggesting Shii allegiance.15 In allthese instances, as well as in the frequent recitation of the shahada inprayer and Quranic reading, it became a shared site of memory andidentification for Muslims in Asia.

A cosmopolitan scriptcontact and interaction throughshared orthography

Yet another site of citation, in a very literal sense, is found in theadoption of the Arabic script by Muslim communities in South andSoutheast Asia to write their own languages, a strategy that wasof paramount importance to the emergence of a shared Muslimaffiliation in these regions. It was a critical aspect of contact with

Arabic, one that transformed local languages and defined them

anew, as changing a script has far-reaching cultural implications. AsA. L. Becker observed in the context of transliterating Burmese intoLatin script, writing systems. . . are among the deepest metaphors ina language. . . they resonate richly throughout a culture, and so for usto substitute one technology of writing for another is not a neutral act,a mere notational variation. It means to re-imagine language itself.16

Writing in the cosmopolitan Arabic script was an act of reimagining

14 Van. n. apparimal.appulavar, Ayira Macala, Introduction, p. 3.15 Pijper, Het boek, p. 60.16 A. L Becker, Beyond Translation (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995),

p. 234.


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and reformulating the languages of Malay-, Javanese-, and Tamil-speaking Muslims.

The employment of Arabic script for writing these languages

significantly enhanced other aspects of translating Islamic materialsinto these languages. Known as jawi for writing Malay, pgon forJavanese, and arwi for Tamil, using Arabic script allowed for an easierand more accurate rendering of important Arabic terminology. Itsustainedas far as possible, considering the vastly different soundsystemsa correct pronunciation of Arabic words, thus decreasing thechance of misunderstanding and error, and it bestowed upon theseSouth and Southeast Asian languages a presence that echoed that ofthe most sacred of languages, placing them on a par with many other

Islamic languages and making their texts, including translated works,into revered objects.

In some instances, like Persian, the Arabic script replaced an earlierform of writing. Malay was written in local scripts that were graduallyovershadowed by Arabic writing until they all but disappeared aroundthe sixteenth century. In many other casesof which both Tamiland Javanese are examplesan older script continued to be usedalongside the new Arabic script. Whether Arabic script came to be used

exclusively or not, the shift from a prior writing system was significant.Scripts are embedded in particular cultures and histories, and areoften associated with creation narratives, mystical calculations, andeducational and social practices. Many of these are lost or transformed

with changes in script. With the adoption of the Arabic script bycommunities in South and Southeast Asia, older writing traditions

were lost or marginalized, while a certain degree of standardizationwas achieved. As the cross-regional use of Arabic terms gave rise to

a shared religious vocabulary, so the use of a common script acrosscultural and geographical distance contributed to the consolidation ofan orthographically unified religious community.

The adoption of the Arabic script, wholesale or in part, by Muslimspeakers of Tamil, Javanese, and Malay, constituted a pivotal elementof their literary cultures, including citation and translation practices.The script adopted in all three cases was somewhat modified by usingexisting Arabic letters with diacritics for the purpose of expressingthe particular sounds of each language. Although the three scriptsdiffered somewhat from one another, they allowed for many similaror identical Arabic citations to appear within Javanese, Tamil, andMalay works. They also facilitated the production of multi-language

volumes written in Arabic script. An untitled collection of anonymous


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mystical poetry and praise for the prophets and saints, written circa1800and used as a textbook for performingdhikr, provides an example.Several copies, resembling one another in content and sequence, were

written in Indonesia: a copy from Banten includes a text in Arabic andPersian; a copy from Aceh contains sections in Arabic, Persian, and asingle page in Malay; a third copy has notes in Malay accompanyingpoems in Arabic and Persian. Yet a fourth copy includes many poemsin Arabic, some in Persian and a few in Urdu, Tamil, Malay, and anunidentified (possibly Indian) language.17

Among the three languages mentioned, the one most profoundlyinfluenced by Arabic was Malay. The Dutch scholar Van Ronkelstudied an additionaland significantdimension of Arabics

influence on this language, discussed in his pioneering study On theInfluence of Arabic Syntax on Malay.18 It is not enough, Van Ronkelargued, to examine how Arabic vocabulary has changed Malay: inorder to better understand the impact of the contact between the twolanguages on Malay, we must also look beyond vocabulary to its deepersyntactical structures, which were so significantly shaped by Arabic.

How texts were translated from Arabic to Malay provides keyevidence for what Van Ronkel saw as a systematized translation

method, through which various works, whether theological or morenarrative in form, employed the same syntactical constructions toconvey Arabic prepositions, gender, tense, and plural markers inMalay. Although translations existed in several forms (inter-linear,partial, Malay text with some Arabic citations), translation of specific

Arabic constructions was consistently followed, creating uniform usagethat deeply influenced Malay grammar and syntax.19

For example, Van Ronkel found that the Arabic preposition bi was

consistently translated as Malaydengan. Thus when writing the phrasedengan nama (rather than the grammatically conventional atas nama),Malays were borrowing the Arabic phrasebi ism (in the name of). TheMalay term setengah orang (literally half a person or half the people,

17 Petrus Voorhoeve (ed.) Handlist of Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the Universityof Leiden and Other Collections in the Netherlands (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 1980),pp. 45658.

18 I have used the Indonesian translation of this work, originally published inDutch in 1899. Ph. S. van Ronkel, Over de Invloed der Arabische Syntaxis op deMaleische, Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, 41, 1899, pp. 498528.

A. Ikram (trans.), Mengenai Pengaruh Tatakalimat Arab Terhadap Tatakalimat Melayu.Vol. 57(Jakarta: Bhratara, 1977).

19 Van Ronkel, Over de Invloed, pp. 1516.


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meaning many people) derives from Arabicbad al-nas.20 In some casesthere is an intrinsic similarity in the way in which both languages usea preposition or other grammatical marker. In most cases, however,

the Arabic form was foreign to Malay and was adopted in an attemptto imitate the Arabic as precisely as possible in translation. In thismanner Arabic citation was internalized and absorbed into Malay,gradually transforming it.

Another site for assessing this process of internalization andaccommodation, and quite concretely at that, is in the pages of both

Arabic script and transliterated (rumi) Malay works. Reading theMalay One Thousand Questions in transliteration, with Arabic quotesitalicized by the editor and thus jumping out of the page, is theprint equivalent of Arabic wordsor, more commonly, quotes orexpressionsappearing in ink of a different colour (usually redor grey) among Malay words written in black, as was the case inmany manuscripts. These techniques allowed for a differentiationby scribe, reader, and reciterof the perceived linguistic identityof certain words and whether the scribe considered them to be

Arabic or Malay, since the two languages were written in scriptsthat were almost identical. Both methodsin manuscript and print

allow an examination of the way in which many words of Arabicorigin appear side by side with the highlighted quotes, unobserved,taken as an integral part of the Malay language by the time theOne Thousand Questions manuscript was inscribed. A similar analysiscan be carried out for Javanese manuscripts written in Arabicscript.

Beyond the realm of manuscripts and books, Arabic script was tobe found above all in the Indonesian Archipelago on tombstones, with

the earliest instance in Java dating from the fourteenth century.21

In the Tamil region, Arabic epitaphs in Kayalpattinam, dating fromthe fifteenth century, record names and Hijri death dates. Someinclude sections of religious text, genealogies, and occupations likeqad.(judge), amr (military title), and tajir (learned merchant), employingthe Arabic titles of the kind routinely adopted by rulers, membersof the nobility, and literary figures in both southern India and the

20 These examples appear in Van Ronkel, Over de Invloed, pp. 25 and 37,respectively.

21 M. C. Ricklefs, Mystic Synthesis in Java. A History of Islamization from the Fourteenthto the Early Nineteenth Centuries (Norwalk: EastBridge, 2006), p. 12.


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In such instances it not only provides a fitting frame in terms of itscontent and religious significance but also blends in orthographicallyin a seamless manner. The bismillah can appear in Arabic, in both

Arabic and translation, or in translation only, but in all these cases itmaintains its prominent initial position in a text, the very first wordsto be read or heard by its audience.

The 1884 Serat Samud provides an example of how the bismillah(in a somewhat Javanized form) is highlighted and negotiated intranslation. In this case it appears as the opening line of a text withina texta letter addressed by the Prophet to the Jewsreminiscent ofhis letters to other leaders and communities:27

Wit ing surat bismillahi rahmani rakimi ika.The letter opens with bismillahi rahmani rakimi

This line is directly followed by a translation, or rather anexplanation, of the Arabic phrase:

Teges miwiti ingonganebut naming suksmaingkang murahing dunyanora nana kwan luput

temb asih ning akrat

This means I beginby speaking the name of God

who is merciful in this worldtowards all living creatures[and] compassionate in the next world.

Here the Javanese author expands and expounds on the literalmeaning of this important and familiar Arabic phrase. In the

translation not only is God described as merciful and compassionate,as in the Arabic original, but these attributes are infused with contextand life, stressing that all creatures are beneficiaries of His mercy andinserting, quite subtly but forcefully, the notion that human existencedoes not end with death but rather continues in another world whereGods compassion reigns. In the context of Muhammad sending hisletter within the narrative framework, this depiction is important asit stresses for the Jews the omnipotence of Muhammads God; in the

larger context of a Javanese audience listening to the Serat Samud,the bismillah is recited in Arabic, translated, and given meaning that

27 Serat Samud, Pura Pakualaman Library, Yogyakarta, 1884. MS. St. 80.1.9.


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is relevant, on several levels, to all present. This small paratexta common citation echoing the Quran and hadithfunctions as aguide to Muslim letter-writing codes, a reminder of Gods powers, and

a brief lesson in Arabics sacred terminology.In the Tamil rendering of the same narrative, the Ayira Macala,the letter to the Jews opens similarly with the bismillah. Thearchangel Jipur

ayl (Gabriel) arrives as Muhammad is sitting with

his companions and tells him to write a letter to the wise Jewishleader Ipun

u Calam. Muhammad immediately asks that a scribe be

summoned so that the letter, dictated by Jipur

ayl, can be inscribedand delivered.28

The letter is then dictated by the Prophet, who has already received

its content from the archangel:

First write: bismillahi rahumanil rahmthe words of Gods messenger are writtenI am MuhammadI [teach] Gods exalted wayIn this world, to all.

All will be blessedThose who take the right path that of the mustakm, steadfast in itWill gain prophet and sorkkamListen to my words and you will succeed.29

At the other end of such texts is found yet another, even briefer,paratext: many Malay hikayat (from A. h.ikaya)a broad genre thatencompasses romances, adventures, theology, and historyend withthe statement tamat al-hikayat: thus ends thehikayat, or simply the end.Other typical endings for Malay writing are tamat al-qalam and tamat

al-kitab. Tamat ends Javanese works as well. Although these phrasesare not endowed with any of the sanctity of the bismillah they arenevertheless Arabic phrases, and as such carry an echo of a distant,foreign literary cultureits genres, idioms, and soundsthat hascome to be experienced as familiar and close to Muslim audiencesin Asia. The tamat phrase is sometimes followed by brief mention ofa manuscripts author or the name of the scribe who copied it, andthe time and place of writing. Even when these identifying details donot appear, there is often mention of the blessings to be incurred onthose engaging with the text, through writing, copying, listening or

storing it. The following three examples are intended to point to the

28 Van. n. apparimal.appulavar, Ayira Macala, p. 14.29 Van. n. apparimal.appulavar, Ayira Macala, p. 17.


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prevalence of this brief paratext, a citation that is repeated acrosscultures and sites, connecting them through its multiple appearances,always in a texts significant closing lines.

In the late seventeenth/early eighteenth centurySamud, a Javanesemanuscript likely written along the north coast of Java:

Tamat carita nira Samud tinulisyku tandha nirayn nabi utusan luwihsaking sakhing dumadya

Thus ends the story written about Samudit is your sign (it signifies)

that the Prophet (and) Messenger is bestAmong all living creatures.30

In the late nineteenth century Hikayat Tuan Gusti, a Malaymanuscript from Sri Lanka:

TamatHikayat Tuan Gusti tengari bulan Saaban21bulan Inggris 22Januari hijrah1897menulis Subidar Mursit pension Selon raifil rajimit jua adapun aku pesan pada

sekalian tuan yang suka membaca hikayat ini jangan saka qalbunya supaya dirahmatkan

Allah subhanahu wa-taala dari dunya sampai keakirat

Thus ends Hikayat Tuan Gusti at midday on the 21st of Saaban the 22nd ofJanuary1897. It was written by Subidar Mursit, a retiree of the Ceylon RifleRegiment. I ask all those who found pleasure in reading this hikayat: do not(let it fade) from your hearts so that you will be granted mercy by AlmightyGod praise be upon Him in this world and the next.31

InHikayat Patani, copied in Singapore in1839 by Abdullah bin Abdul

Kadir on behalf of the missionary Alfred North, and likely to havebeen based on a manuscript from Kelantan in Northeast peninsularMalaysia, near the border with Thailand:32

Tamat alkalam. Bahawa tamatlah kitab Undang-Undang Patani ini disalin alamnegeri Singapura kepada sembilan hari bulan Syaaban tahun 1255sanat, iaitu kepada

enam belas hari bulan Oktober tahun Masihi 1839 sanat. Tamat adanya.

30 Samud, Leiden University, Oriental manuscripts collection, late seventeenthcentury [?]. MS. LOr 4001.

31 Hussainmiya Collection, National Archives of Sri Lanka, Colombo, reel 182.32 Hikayat Patani, Malay Concordance Project. See: , [accessed 17 December 2011].


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The End. Thus ends the Patani Book of Laws copied in Singapore on the ninthof Syaaban AH 1255, namely the sixteenth of October AD 1839. The End.33

As Genette emphasized, the paratext is a kind of undefined zone

between inside and out, an edge or fringe of the text that in factcontrols ones whole reading of it. We might consider the bismillahand tamat phrases in light of Genettes words: Indeed, this fringe,always the conveyor of a commentary that is authorial or more or lesslegitimated by the author, constitutes a zone between text and off-text, a zone not only of transition but also of transaction: a privilegedplace of a pragmatics and a strategy, of an influence on the public, aninfluence thatwhether well or poorly understood and achievedis

at the service of a better reception of the text and a more pertinentreading of it.34 The paratexts in a works beginning and end (printedor otherwise) are of special importance in that they frame it for thereader or listener, setting the tone at the outset, and highlighting aparticular message or mood in the closing lines. In the cases I haveexplored, texts of diverse linguistic and geographical provenance wereframed by, or contained within, shared Arabic sounds and phrases.These reminded audiences of their broad affiliation with a trans-regional community.

Defying translation: sites of untranslated citation

Despite the somewhat different approaches to incorporating Arabicand employing translation within the texts, in all three languagesmentioned, certain words defied translation. I have already notedthe appearance of the untranslated shahada but there are many

additional examples. There is room for speculation on why certainArabic words were adapted verbatim into these languages, whileothers were rendered in the local language. It is likely that some

words expressed concepts novel to the society into which they wereintroduced, so word and idea were accepted together. A certain powerassociated with the incomprehensible can also explain why some words

were left untranslated. This includes both the idea that words can

33 The repetitive use of tamat in this citation is somewhat unusual. Its finalappearance, tamat adanya, may emphasize that this is the end of the entire text ratherthan an end of a section. I am grateful to the late Ian Proudfoot for discussing theuses oftamat with me.

34 Genette, Paratexts, p. 2.


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effect change and alter reality regardless of their semantic meaningand the notion that foreign concepts subordinate local ones throughthe retention of the foreign terminology. The Arabic word munafiq that

appeared as such, untranslated in the Malay, Tamil, and JavaneseBookof One Thousand Questions, provides an example.The munafiqunmentioned over three dozen times in the Quran

were residents of Medina in the seventh century who ostensiblyconverted to Islam but did not adhere to the Prophet and his newreligion. Officially Muslim, but in fact ridiculing and disobeyingthe Prophet, they constituted a threat and a nuisance. Commonlytranslated into English as hypocrites, the term in the Quran isstronger and has a wider semantic range. In surah 63 the munafiqunare described as liars, obstructers, ignoramuses, enemies, arrogant,and deviant. They were clearly dissenters within the umma, theemerging Muslim community, refusing to fight at the Prophets sideand deserving of hellfire.

In contrast to the mostly general terms in which the munafiqun arereferred to in the Quran, later Islamic literature in Arabic tendedto ascribe the term to specific persons and groups, and used the

word in a sense that came closer to hypocrite. Still, the best English

approximation of the term may be dissenter, dissent being possibleboth in private and public, and carrying the connotation of religiousschism.35

In the One Thousand Questions tellings discussed, this group, referredto as munapik, appears as a category of people who are surelydestined for hell. In all three languages a question arises as to theirnature and the same reply is offered by the Prophet: a hypocrite isoutwardly Muslim but inwardly an infidel (kapir, from A. kafir, another

untranslated term). Clearly, even many centuries after the historicalmunafiqun betrayed the Prophet, this groupor anyone resembling itsmembersstill connoted deceit and hypocrisy, and was portrayed inthe most negative light. The torments they will suffer were vividlydepicted in the One Thousand Questions tellings. But why was a Tamil,Malay or Javanese word not used to name this group? It may bethat certain terms remain untranslated because they are so deeplyembedded in a particular historical and cultural event that their

35 A. Brockett, al-Munafik. un, in P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E.van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds) Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill,2010) Vol. VII, p. 561.


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mention arouses an entire set of images and reactions that wouldno longer be accessible in translation.

This phenomenon of the untranslatability of certain words or terms

is related in turn to the notion of prior text as discussed by Becker:the ways in which thoughts, writing, and speech derive from, or drawupon, texts that are shared by members of a particular culture.36 ManyMuslims are familiar with important Quranic quotes and scenes, of

which the citations on the munafiqun are examples. The scenes of theProphets conflicts with the munafiqun or their approaching doom wouldnot be evoked in the same manner in the minds of listeners familiar

with the Quran if a (more neutral) Javanese word were substituted forthe Arabic. The importance of conveying the full weight of the original

term was in part due to the fact that the text dealt with conversionand was likely to have been discussed with the recently converted, for

whom it was crucial to understand that their acceptance of Islam mustnot be in appearance only, but total.

The second explanation is more culturally specific: the notion ofreligious hypocrisy or dissent, of believing inwardly in one thing butposing externally as another, was foreign to the three local culturesbefore the arrival of Islamic notions of faith. Earlier belief systems

in the Archipelago included indigenous systems, in addition to Hinduand Buddhist traditions that had acquired a local character. Similarly,that which is today referred to as Hinduism in the Tamil region, as wellas worship of local warrior gods, goddesses, and saints, prevailed at thetime the text was composed. The strict Judeo-Islamic notion of a single,clearly defined belief that must be followed exclusively and must notconflict with appearances or words was not a component of theseearlier and concurrent traditions and, therefore, a word conveying the

charged significance ofmunapik was unlikely to have existed.Leaving words like munafiq, kafir (infidel), nab (prophet), qiyama(Judgment Day), and others untranslated (although their spelling andpronunciation were somewhat modified) contributed to the creationof a trans-regional, standardized Islamic vocabulary across South andSoutheast Asian Muslim societies. Such standardization, along withthe common use of titles, epithets, and stories, in turn helped shapea religion-based community that was culturally and linguisticallydiverse. It allowed Muslims from places distant from the Muslimheartland, like Java, to take part in and belong to the life of a global

36 Becker, Beyond Translation, pp. 28593.


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community that was defined, in part, by its adherence to the Arabiclanguage.

In light of the tendency to leave certain words untranslated, it is

tempting to suggest a typology of words that continued to be usedin Arabic rather than translated into the local languages. Followingthe munapik paradigm, there would be a host of terms that couldbe expected to remain untranslated within the texts. The situation,however, is far from consistent: many words that fit into the munapikcategory of novelty, forcefulness, and linkage to prior texts, did in factappear in translation. Not only were they translated but, as in the caseof using Tamil mar

ai (veda) for the Quran or Javanese hyang for Allah,

they were expressed through the use of religious concepts belonging

to a different belief system.A clear example is found in the case of the terminology for paradise

and hell, both key concepts in Muslim thought which are discussedand portrayed in many texts. Often teachings and warnings regardinglife in this world in fact focus on the prospect of residing in eitherhell or paradise in the future. In the case of such central concepts,an adoption of Arabic terminology that would powerfully enhance thedepictions impressed upon the faithful might be expected. However,

in the Tamil, Malay, and Javanese One Thousand Questions, the older,Sanskritic terms swarga (paradise) and naraka (hell) are employedexclusively and consistently.

Notions of swarga and naraka in non-Islamic texts differ markedlyfrom their use within a Muslim context. Swarga was the world of thegods and demi-gods who enjoyed lives of pleasures before recurringrebirths; naraka, often depicted as a netherworld of suffering, wasteeming with demons and other creatures and was, yet again, a

temporary stop in the cycle of reincarnation. In contrast, in Muslimteachings, these two realms came to signify the two mutuallyexclusive, eternal fates for the good and the evil. This prospect meantthat the terms swarga and naraka assumed new, dramatically loadedmeanings with the transition to Islam. Keeping old terminology

within the context of a new systemreligious or otherwisecarriesthe risk of misunderstanding, confusion, and conflation. Creatinga neologism or bringing in foreign, and sacred, vocabularyas wasoften done with Arabicallows for a distancing from old ideas anda more detached introduction of the new. The break with the past isnot necessarily smooth but is more radical.

The cases of Javanese, Tamil, and Malay are interesting preciselybecause of an inconsistency, a combination of terminology and


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metaphors that does not fully relinquish the old for the new. Forevery case where an Arabic word entered these languages and wascited untranslated, a counter-example is found of a term associated

with earlier (or concurrent) beliefs, seemingly without anxiety aboutpossible confusion and blurring of definitions. In some texts, likethe Javanese Babad Jaka Tingkir, explicit mention is made of hownames of categories of learned religious persons of an earlier age

were exchanged with the new, rising Islamic names. The change inroles and attitudes was reflected in a shift in terminology.37 But inmuch of the literature, terminologies of old and new seem to blendeffortlessly without authorial comment. In the case of the termsswargaand naraka an older Sanskrit citation systemprevalent for centuriesin the Indonesian-Malay world and India, and gradually coming tooverlap with, or at times be replaced by, the Arabic-Islamic systemcontinued to exert its influence on terminology, even as meanings andaffiliations had shifted.

Concluding thoughts

Various forms of citationwhether single Arabic words, direct quotes

from the Quran or paraphrases of well-known histories of theprophets, episodes from Muhammads life or commonly used hadithappeared widely within Islamic literary sources in Tamil, Malay, and

Javanese. I have examined such practices of citation as creating andsustaining sites of connection and interaction across Muslim societiesin Asia and beyond.

The shahada (in Arabic and in translation), for example, as well asfamous sayings of the Prophet, can be viewed as loci of authority that

exerted power and bound readers and listeners from all walks of lifeto a shared core of ideas, stories, and beliefs. Theseand additionalcitationsformed the basis for common educational models, authoritystructures, a shared imagination, and historical consciousness.

Citations in the textual sources discussed were not always correct.38

Rather, they were often truncated, had words missing or sounds

37 Nancy K. Florida, Writing the Past, Inscribing the Future: History as Prophecy in ColonialJava (Durham: Duke University Press, 1995), p. 155.

38 Pijper discussed the use of Quranic quotes in the Malay One Thousand Questionsand, noting their frequent corruption, assumed they were cited from memory. Theresult was a form of Arabic that drew more heavily on soundthe way words wereheard by a Malay earthan on accurate spelling, as may be expected in the contextof a predominantly oral literary culture. Also, frequent Quranic recitations in which


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misrepresented in local scripts or pronunciation. Their appearancein such forms represented the many interactionsacross time andplacethat had transpired prior to the moment they were put down

in writing in towns along the Coromandel coast, Java or Sumatra.In the case of the Book of One Thousand Questions, my main textualexample, I proposed that much significance lay in the fact that citationssounded familiar and authoritative, and were also embedded within animportant story set in the Prophets time and proclaiming his victoryover an earlier religion.

These connections occurred at several, sometimes overlapping,levels: through a familiarity with the same words, terms, and phrases;a common use of the Arabic script for writing diverse languages; a

shared repository of names and titles as they appear in books, ontombstones and mosques, and in lived experience. These enhancedcontact between individuals, communities, languages, scripts, andideas. Translators, scribes, patrons, and audiences of readers andlisteners all participated in various ways in these multiple processes,bringing about profound linguistic and cultural change. One way toarticulate the richness and variety that resulted from these processesis to consider, as I have suggested, the prevalence of literary networks

with citation-sites along their paths.

Arabic was heard but not necessarily seen by many meant that attempts to recaptureit in writing had to be made via aural memory. See Pijper, Het boek, p. 82.

riccironit citing as a site

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