Finished Summary Workshop “The Mufti of Mecca and Pontianak, Abdullah al-Zawawi: Networks and Manuscripts in the Arab Peninsula and the Southeast Asian Archipelago” (Sep. 8)
2022.09.08
Category： Workshop
Research Group： C01 Digital Humanities
The Workshop “The Mufti of Mecca and Pontianak, Abdullah al-Zawawi: Networks and Manuscripts in the Arab Peninsula and the Southeast Asian Archipelago” will be held by C01 “Analyses of Connectivities by Digital Humanities Methods”.
Date: Sep 8, 2022 15:00～17:00
Presentation:
Yuki SHIOZAKI（University of Shizuoka） “Abdullah al-Zawawi as the transregional Spiritual Leader of the Naqsbandi Sufi Order: The Publication of Risala al-Fawaid al-Wafiyya fi Sharh Ma‘na al-Tahiyya in Riau”
Ahmad Ginanjar Sha’ban (Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama) “The Meccan Mufti in “Negeri Jawi”: Sayyid Abdullah al-Zawawi (1850-1924), His Fatwas, Letters and Travels in Indonesia”
Detail:
Abdullah ibn Muhammad Salih al-Zawawi (1850 – 1924) was ulama from Mecca, known as the Mufti of Shafi‘i School. Through his life, his eminent scholarship attracted disciples from corners of the world. On the other hand, his stance on controversies in the transitional age forced him to exile from his home ground Mecca.
During his exile from 1893 to 1909, he traveled around Egypt, India, Japan, and Southeast Asia. As a result, his wandering was reported by rising Muslim journalism in Asia and formed network of hid supporters, especially in Southeast Asian Archipelago. In 1896 he was appointed as the Mufti of Pontianak, the Sultanate in Kalimantan Island.
This workshop is aiming to visualize Abdullah al-Zawawi’s network based on manuscripts such as letters, ijazah, and his Islamic literary works. While he was considered as the paramount scholar in Shafi‘i School, he was also a representative spiritual leader in the Naqsbandi Sufi Order.
The presentations show the acceleration of transregional integration in the ulama networks during the transitional period. Abdullah al-Zawawi was a node-person of plural networks. It is significant to trace how a scholar became a node of transregional Islamic networks.
Language: English
Venue: Online via zoom, Open to public, Pre-registration is required
Pre-registration: Please fill in the pre-registration form.
Co-organizer:
C01 Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A) “Connectivity Analyses by Digital Humanities Method” (Principal Investigator: Wakako Kumakura (ILCAA), 20H05830)
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) “Transregional Transmission of Islamic Knowledge in the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia” (Principal Investigator: Yuki Shiozaki, 22K00074)
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) ” The Formation of Islamic Legal Schools through Interactions between Southeast Asia and other Regions” (Principal Investigator: Yuki Shiozaki, 17K18179)
Contact:
Susumu SATO satos[at]aa.tufs.ac.jp
Summary
Yuki Shiozaki’s presentation was titled “Abdullah al-Zawawi as the trans-regional Spiritual Leader of the Naqsbandi Sufi Order: The Publication of Risala al-Fawaid al-Wafiyya fi Sharh Ma‘na al-Tahiyya in Riau”. His presentation explained about the life of Abdullah al-Zawawi (1850-1924), a noted Shafi’i Mufti of Mecca, and how he formed an extensive network stretching from the Middle East into Southeast Asia. The relevant factors in the formation of the ulama’s network include the teacher-student relationship, but also multiple other factors, such as family, Sufi sects, the sovereign’s retainers, and the publishing industry. The presentation covered a number of issues, such as how to visualize networks with such multifarious formation processes, and what new sorts of findings might be acquired with such visualizations.
Ahmad Ginanjar Sha’ban’s presentation was titled “The Meccan Mufti in ‘Negeri Jawi’: Sayyid Abdullah al-Zawawi (1850-1924), His Fatwas, Letters and Travels in Indonesia”. His presentation explained about the primary source materials needed for an empirical study of the formation process for Abdullah al-Zawawi’s network. Among the letters and fatwas Abdullah al-Zawawi sent from various places was a letter from Yokohama in Japan to Java. Using the succession charts (silsila) included as teaching credentials in legal texts, as well as descriptions in the works of Indonesian and Russian ulama, Ginanjar showed how Abdullah al-Zawawi and his relatives would have been able to trace the lineage of teachers and students and use this information in the formation of their network.
[The Post-Presentation Q&A Period]
First, an attendee asked for details about the letter Abdullah al-Zawawi wrote from Japan. Ginanjar said while it is known that Abdullah al-Zawawi visited Yokohama and several other cities in Japan from 1898 to 1899, there is currently only one letter confirmed to have been sent from Japan, and the contents of any other possible letters from Japan are unknown.
Next, there was a question about the ulama’s motives for expanding the network and what the benefits would have been. Abdullah al-Zawawi’s network shows a variety of factors that answer this question. Abdullah al-Zawawi, who resided in Southeast Asia for 15 years, was supported by regional royal families and ulama, a network he had cultivated since his grandfather’s generation, and was appointed as a Mufti of the Pontianak Kingdom. Generally speaking, the Mecca-based ulama of that era were mainly concerned with receiving pilgrims and guiding them during the Hajj, as well as running madrasas. The networks in Southeast Asia and India that sent those pilgrims to Mecca were essential. Shiozaki and Ginanjar also noted that these networks were vital in receiving the donations from regional persons of influence and royal families that allowed waqf facilities in Mecca to operate. (Yuki SHIOZAKI, uploaded on Oct. 4, 2022)