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.Immigrant Kelantanese scholars taught the Islamic sciences in schools and many practiced mysticism, in some cases becoming well enough known to be regarded as “blessed.” But in the early twentieth century, Islamic modernism laid stress on the fundamentals of religious action and eschewed mysticism as being “passive” and out of step with the times.Since there were ample opportunities for new religious expression and a new world filled with Western entertainment, the pool of people interested in mystical experience declined appreciably.In the category of “other specialists,” a number of activists in “antiauthoritarian” movements were prominent during the nineteenth century.The first case occurred early in the era and centered around Pangeran Diponegoro (d.1855), a secondary prince of the Yogyakarta palace.He rose in rebellion against the ruler and his Dutch allies because he held that the protocol and customs of the court, reflecting Hindu and Buddhist rituals, were contrary to Islam.He charged that the courtiers were so ignorant of religion that they were scarcely Muslims.He disliked, in particular, their use of Dutch styles in clothing, education, and general living.Leadership and military support for his rebellion came from individual Muslim teachers in the nearby private boarding schools, where he was regarded as a personification of the Islamic messiah (mahdi).The local agricultural population, which believed they were overtaxed and otherwise abused by royal authority, allowed Diponegoro and his supporters refuge and passage through their territory and occasionally fought with his forces.They regarded him as the personification of the Javanese messiah (ratu adil).His revolt, which he and his followers labeled a “holy war,” lasting from 1825 to 1828, was ultimately put down by Javanese, Makassarese, and Dutch troops after an intense and expensive military campaign.A second example of the “antiauthoritarian” leader was Matt Saleh (d.1901) in north Borneo.His rebellion, 1895 to 1905, was aimed against3Fed_89-158 10/29/06 10:21 AM Page 129The Muslim Community129the established political authority, although general conditions of social life may have been the real cause.He insinuated that he was the long-awaited Muslim messiah, and he gave his followers Islamic symbols—flags, standards, and parasols—as a means of identification with Islam and as holy relics capable of generating power to aid them in their endeavors.(As in the last chapter, intellectuals will be discussed in the sections on ideology and literature.)Education and Intellectual CentersIn the nineteenth century, the number of Islamic schools on Java grew from 1,853 Islamic boarding schools with 16,556 students to 14,929 schools with 222,663 students by the end of the century; of course, there were many more in other parts of the Muslim Zone of Southeast Asia.20 The schools varied in size.With minor exceptions, all these schools had a common outlook on religious matters: they followed Ashcarite theological doctrine and creed, adhered to the Shafici school in jurisprudence, and belonged to the al-Junayd (d.910) pattern of mystical belief and practice—all elements that constituted Sunni orthodoxy at the time.Teachers at these schools taught several of the Islamic sciences, usually the structure and orthography of the Arabic language (balagh or sharaf ), QurΩanic commentary (tafsir), sources of Islamic law (usul al-fiqh), sources of Islamic religion (usul al-din), Islamic philosophy (filasauf ), mysticism (tasawwuf ), and Islamic history (tarich).These standard “sciences” were essentially the same as in the previous period, although the availability of texts and the learning of the instructors were considerably improved.Much of the study was done in Arabic, but some subjects, and particularly the commentary on various texts, were in Malay or, sometimes, a local language such as Javanese.Education was pursued through the elucidation of old texts, usually reading them in a “circle” and having them explained by the scholar himself or, if the exercise was repeated, by one of the older students to the younger ones
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