Routledge Handbook on Islam in Asia

384 Pages·2021·74.496 MB·English

by  Chiara Formichi (ed)

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ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK ON
ISLAM IN ASIA
Edited by Chiara Formichi
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First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Chiara Formichi; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Chiara Formichi to be identified as the author of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 22528- 5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 032- 10664- 9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 429- 27536- 4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/ 9780429275364
Typeset in Bembo
by Newgen Publishing UK
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CONTENTS
List of figures x
Editorial board xii
Notes on contributors xiii
Acknowledgements xvii
PART I
Frames 1
1 Studying Islam: The view from Asia 3
Chiara Formichi
2 Minoritization, racialization, and Islam in Asia 16
Ilyse R. Morgenstein Fuerst
3 The five pillars and Indonesia’s musical soundscape 31
Anne K. Rasmussen
4 Islam and Sanskritic imaginaires in southern Asia: Mount Meru
in Arabia 51
Torsten Tschacher
5 Islamic feminisms in Asia: Trials and tribulations for Muslim women 66
Huma Ahmed- Ghosh
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Contents
PART II
Authority and authorizing practices 79
6 Eastern African doyens in South Asia: Premodern Islamic intellectual
interactions 81
Mahmood Kooria
7 The making of Qīz Bībī in Central Asia’s oral shrine traditions: From
the Great Lady to a fourteen- year- old virgin 94
Aziza Shanazarova
8 The Ismailis of Badakhshan: Conversion and narrative in highland Asia 109
Daniel Beben
9 Islamic law in Xinjiang 125
Eric Schluessel
10 Major turning points for Shiʿi Islam in modern South Asia: Princely
states, partition, and a revolution 138
Simon Wolfgang Fuchs
11 Making Islamic finance in South Asia: The state, the seminary, and the
business corporation 154
Sohaib Khan
12 In the halal zones of Malaysia and Singapore 168
Johan Fischer
PART III
Muslim spatialities 181
13 South Asian Shi’i sacred geography: Tracing ʿAli’s footprints 183
Karen G. Ruffle
14 Muslim pilgrimage in Southeast Asia: Saints among the rice fields 196
Sophia Rose Arjana
15 Ḥaḍramī Sufi- scholars and their shrines in Southeast Asia: A geography
of sanctity 209
Ismail Fajrie Alatas
16 Sacred spaces and the making of Sufism in Sri Lanka: Between violence
and piety 225
Merin Shobhana Xavier
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Contents
17 Muslim interactions between Central Asia, China, and imperial Japan 241
Kelly A. Hammond
18 Mosque architecture and decoration in China 253
Nancy S. Steinhardt
PART IV
Imaginations of piety 267
19 Mapping the trajectory of Islam in Chinese terms: Community matters 269
Roberta Tontini
20 The “moral background” of work in Central Asia: The sacred in the
mundane 282
Jeanine Dağyeli
21 Pious lives of Soviet Muslims 296
Eren Tasar
22 Two Deobandi views on being Muslim in India: Indian bodies,
Meccan hearts 310
Brannon D. Ingram
23 The Tablighi Jama’at movement in maritime Southeast Asia: Piety in
motion 323
Farish A. Noor
24 A tree enrooted: African Sufi saints as “lineage deities” of a Muslim
community of East African ancestry in Western India (Gujarat and
Mumbai) 335
Jazmin Graves
Glossary 351
Index 353
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FIGURES
1.1 Advertisement for “Malaysia Drink” in Turfan (Xinjiang, China)
(© Chiara Formichi). 4
3.1 Poster for a competition (lomba) in Ramadan “wake- up” music, or
patrol. Note that the person depicted is wearing traditional Javanese
Muslim dress, the sarong and peci (cap), is beating a kentongan with a stick
and proclaiming “sahur sahur,” the word for the Ramadan pre- dawn
breakfast. Courtesy of Leo Zainy. 39
3.2 The group Trisula warms up before their turn on the competition
stage at Malang Town Square. Instruments R to L: xylophone (calung),
snare drum, cymbal, anklung, ketongan (held by musician seated facing
the camera) plastic water jug, bass drum (jidor). Photo by Anne K.
Rasmussen. 40
3.3 A Ramadan card from the public relations manager for the National
Zakat Agency (Badan Zakat Nasional) Yudhiarma and his family. “Happy
Idul Fitri 1441 H [Hijri calendar, aka 2020]. Let us hope that the
struggle of Ramadhan, fasting, and Zakat will make us tougher and
always grateful throughout our lives. Forgive me, body and soul.” Used
by permission. 41
3.4 The qasida moderen group, Nasida Ria performs at the Dugderan
Festival in Semarang, Spring 2017. Hj. Nadhiroh, violin; Hj. Hamidah,
mandolin; Hj. Afuwah, drums/kendang; Hj. Rien Jamain, vocalist and
emcee; Titik Mukaromah, guitar; Siti Romna keyboard. Photo by
Anne K. Rasmussen. 45
6.1 A thirteenth- century bilingual inscription (in Arabic and Malayalam)
kept at the outer wall of the Muccunti Mosque in Calicut. The Arabic
part says that Shihāb al- Dīn Marjān (or Rayḥān), freed slave of the late
Masʿūd, endowed the land and commissioned the construction of the
mosque. Photo by Aghin Komachi, printed with permission. 85
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List of figures
7.1 The courtyard of the Qiz Bibi shrine complex. Photo by Aziza
Shanazarova. 100
7.2 The marble tombstone. Photo by Aziza Shanazarova. 102
7.3 The ḥavż inside the shrine complex. Photo by Aziza Shanazarova. 103
7.4 The recently installed tombstone. Photo by Aziza Shanazarova. 104
10.1 The Bara Imambara complex in Lucknow, built during the reign of
Nawab Asaf al- Dawla (r. 1775– 1797), was meant to underline the
power of the Shiʿi dominated state of Awadh. The Asfi mosque is
visible on the left. Picture Credit: Simon Wolfgang Fuchs. 143
13.1 Koh- e Moula ʿAli, Hyderabad. Photo by Karen G. Ruffle. 190
13.2 Banner celebrating ʿAli’s birthday, Hyderabad. Photo by
Karen G. Ruffle, 2013. 191
15.1 Pilgrims visiting the tomb of Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh al-ʿ Aṭṭās in
Pekalongan, Central Java. Photo by Ismail Alatas. 218
15.2 The minaret of Masjid al-Riyāḍ built by ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-Ḥabashī
in Sayʾūn, Ḥaḍramawt. Photo by Ismail Alatas. 219
16.1 Entrance to Kataragama Mosque and Shrine. Photo by Merin
Shobhana Xavier. 233
16.2 Tomb of Hussein Bee Bee. Photo by Merin Shobhana Xavier. 236
18.1 Entrance to Flourishing of the Prophet Mosque, looking outside,
Guangzhou, Guangdong province. Fourteenth century; restored in
twentieth century. Steinhardt photograph. 257
18.2 Entrance to the Mosque of the Companions, Quanzhou, Fujian
province. Fourteenth century. Steinhardt photograph. 258
18.3 Courtyard of Huajuexiang Mosque, Xi’an, 1392 with later repairs.
Steinhardt photograph. 262
18.4 Entrance to Prayer Hall, Zhuxian Mosque, Kaifeng, Henan province,
sixteenth century with twenty- first century repairs. Steinhardt
photograph. 263
19.1 Exchange on the content of Han Kitab writings between Chinese
academic and religious professionals (2012). Photo by Prof. Hu Long,
printed with permission. 276
24.1 Mai Misra’s kalas in Bhavnagar shrine. Image by Jazmin Graves. 342
24.2 “Rifai Initiation Lineage of ‘His Holiness’ Mubarak Baba Gor Nubi,”
photographed in the home of a high- ranking Sidi Rifai Sufi in Gujarat.
Image by Jazmin Graves. 345
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Khairudin Aljunied, Associate Professor, Department of Malay Studies, National University
of Singapore.
William Gervase Clarence- Smith, Professor of the Economic History of Asia and Africa,
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK.
Devin DeWeese, Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana
University, Bloomington, USA.
Jonathan Lipman, Professor Emeritus of History, Mount Holyoke College, USA.
Karen Ruffle, Associate Professor of Historical Studies and the History of Religions,
University of Toronto, Canada.
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CONTRIBUTORS
Huma Ahmed- Ghosh is a Professor in the Department of Women Studies and the Director
of the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies at San Diego State University. Her edited books
on Contesting Feminisms: Gender and Islam in Asia and Asian Muslim Women: Globalization and
Local Realities were published in 2015. She is President on the Board of License to Freedom, a
refugee NGO serving Iraqi, Afghan, and Syrian women.
Ismail Fajrie Alatas is Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York
University. His research explores the intersections of religious authority, social formation, and
mobility in Indonesia and Yemen. He is the author of What is Religious Authority? Cultivating
Islamic Community in Indonesia (2021).
Sophia Rose Arjana is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Western Kentucky
University. She is the author of four books, including her latest, Buying Buddha, Selling
Rumi: Orientalism in the Mystical Marketplace (2020). Her fifth book focuses on gender, material
religion, and sacred space in Indonesia.
Daniel Beben received his Ph.D. in History and Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University
and is currently Assistant Professor of History and Religious Studies at Nazarbayev University
in Kazakhstan. His current research projects include a monograph on the history of Ismailism
in Central Asia and a co- authored book on genealogical traditions in the Badakhshan region.
Jeanine Dağyeli is Assistant Professor and works at the Institute of Turkic Studies, University
of Vienna and the Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences. Her research
interests include the (historical) anthropology of Central Asia, labor, human–e nvironment
relations, popular literatures, disease, and death.
Johan Fischer is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Business,
Roskilde University, Denmark. His work focuses on human values and markets. More specif-
ically, he explores the interfaces between class, consumption, market relations, religion, and the
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Notes on contributors
state in a globalized world. A central focus in this research is the theoretical and empirical focus
on the globalization of religious commodities and services.
Chiara Formichi is Associate Professor in Asian Studies at Cornell University. Her research
focuses on the intersection of Islam and politics in late- colonial and post- colonial Southeast
Asia, and especially Indonesia. She has also published on the politics of knowledge production
on Islam in Asia. Her publications include Islam and the Making of the Nation: S.M. Kartosuwiryo
and Political Islam in 20th Century Indonesia (2012) and Islam and Asia: A History (2020).
Simon Wolfgang Fuchs is a lecturer in Islamic and Middle East Studies at the University of
Freiburg in Germany. He completed his Ph.D. at Princeton University’s Department of Near
Eastern Studies in 2015 and was a Research Fellow in Islamic Studies at Gonville & Caius
College, Cambridge, from 2015– 2017.
Ilyse R. Morgenstein Fuerst is Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Vermont.
Her research centers on Islam and Muslims in South Asia, histories of imperialism, and theories
of religion and race. Her first book is Indian Muslim Minorities and the 1857 Rebellion (2017). She
is co- editor of Words of Experience: Translating Islam with Carl W. Ernst (2021).
Jazmin Graves is Assistant Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her dissertation, “Songs to the African Saints of
India,” centers upon the Sidi (African Indian) Sufi devotional tradition of Gujarat and Mumbai.
Jazmin’s research has been published in the Journal of Africana Religions. She has also co-e dited a
three- volume series, Afro- South Asia in the Global African Diaspora. In 2018, Jazmin was named
one of the MIPAD Global Top 100 Most Influential People of African Descent Under 40.
Kelly A. Hammond is an Assistant Professor of East Asian History in the Department of History
at the University of Arkansas. Her first book, China’s Muslims and Japan’s Empire: Centering Islam
in World War II, was published in 2020.
Brannon D. Ingram is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Northwestern University.
He works on Islam in South Asia, with a particular interest in how Muslims have debated
Sufism, Islamic law, and politics in the modern era. His first book appeared in 2018, Revival
from Below: The Deoband Movement and Global Islam. Ingram is currently working on a second
book, examining how Muslims in modern South Asia have theorized, debated, and contested
the category of “religion.”
Sohaib Khan is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kamel Center for the Study of Islamic Law
and Civilization at Yale Law School. He earned a Ph.D. (2020) from Columbia University’s
Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS). As a scholar of
interdisciplinary Islamic studies, Sohaib studies and writes about connections between reli-
gion and finance. Currently, he is working on his first monograph, tentatively titled Translating
Capital: Sharī‘a Compliance and the Financialization of Islam.
Mahmood Kooria holds a research position at Leiden University and is a visiting faculty
at Ashoka University. He read his Ph.D. at Leiden University Institute for History in 2016,
authored Islamic Law in Circulation (forthcoming), and co- edited Malabar in the Indian Ocean
World (2018) and Islamic Law in the Indian Ocean (forthcoming).
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