The purpose of this book is to describe the contributions of Malay Muslim scholars to development of Islamic studies and to investigate the Islamic thought of Malay Muslim schlolars based on their works.

This collection of essays on the worldviews of the people in Malaysia focuses on the three main ethnic groups - the Malays, Chinese and Indians - as well as the indigenous peoples of Sabah. Topics include the Islamic worldview of Man, society and nature, the traditional Malay socio-political outlook, the language and worldview of the Malay peasants, as well as Malaysian folk-tales and drama. The worldview of social belonging among the Chinese and Indians, and the traditional worldviews of the indigenous peoples of Sabah are also presented.

Lanka, Ceylon, Sarandib: merely three disparate names for a single island? Perhaps. Yet the three diverge in the historical echoes, literary cultures, maps and memories they evoke. Names that have intersected and overlapped - in a treatise, a poem, a document - only to go their own ways. But despite different trajectories, all three are tied to narratives of banishment and exile. Ronit Ricci suggests that the island served as a concrete exilic site as well as a metaphor for imagining exile across religions, languages, space and time: Sarandib, where Adam was banished from Paradise; Lanka, where Sita languished in captivity; and Ceylon, faraway island of exile for Indonesian royalty under colonialism. Utilising Malay manuscripts and documents from Sri Lanka, Javanese chronicles, and Dutch and British sources, Ricci explores histories and imaginings of displacement related to the island through a study of the Sri Lankan Malays and their connections to an exilic past.

In this monograph Philipp Bruckmayr examines the development of Cambodia’s Muslim minority from the mid-19th to the 21st century. During this period Cambodia’s Cham and Chvea Muslims established strong relationships with Malay centers of Islamic learning in Patani, Kelantan and Mecca. During the 1970s to the early 1990s these longstanding relationships came to a sudden halt due to civil war and the systematic Khmer Rouge repression. Since the 1990s ties to the Malay world have been revived and new Islamic currents, including Salafism and Tablighism, have left their mark on contemporary Cambodian Islam. Bruckmayr traces how these dynamics resulted inter alia in a history of local Islamic factionalism, culminating in the eventual state recognition of two separate Islamic congregations in the late 1990s.

This book offers an integrated study of the texts and images of illustrated Malay manuscripts on magic and divination from private and public collections in Malaysia, the UK and Indonesia. Containing some of the rare examples of Malay painting, these manuscripts provide direct evidence for the intercultural connections between the Malay region, other parts of Southeast Asia and the rest of the world. In this richly illustrated volume many images and texts are gathered for the first time, making this book essential reading for all those interested in the practice of magic and divination, and the history of Malay, Southeast Asian and Islamic manuscript art.

"Sebagai seorang ilmuan, Dr. Azhar Ibrahim menghayati isu-isu dalam Pengajian Melayu sebagai rangkaian yang kait mengait, memahami satu bidang memerlukan pengolahan bidang yang lain dalam wacana yang semakin meluas; sejarah menjurus ke tema kebebasan; orientalisme menilai kembali kesulitan dalam feudalisme; humanisme memperluaskan lagi makna dalam teks Melayu; multikulturalisme menyentuh pembinaan identiti; kekaburan akademik menyekat kefahaman masyarakat; neo-liberalisme menentukan arah pengajian seni dan sastera; idealisme diimbangi oleh perancangan dalam wacana pengajian yang baru. Dr. Azhar Ibarhim menyeru orang-orang muda supaya mengenali sejarah dan mengekalkan adab dan adat Melayu. Tema berpasangan ini yang dikupas begitu mendalam menaikkan lagi darjat Pengajian Melayu sebagai satu bidang ilmu yang sah dan berguna." Prof Dr Zakaria Ali Malaysia "Kelangkaan inteligensia Melayu Singapura yang peduli akan jatuh bangunnya bangsa Melayu Singapura, khususnya terhadap budaya yang menjurus mengenai seni sasteranya, menurut saya mula tumbuh kembali apabila kita mahu mengenal sosok peribadi Dr Azhar Ibrahim. Kegiatannya yang memunculkan pertemuan-pertemuan seperti CITA, KULIAH BUSTAN menjadi kenyataannya. Begitu pula dengan terbitnya buku Menyanggah Belenggu Keracunan Fikiran ini, mudah-mudahan akan lahir satu sosok ahli fikir yang berani mendobrak cara berfikir yang lazim membelenggu bangsa kita, insya-Allah." Suratman Markasan Sasterawan, Singapura

This book studies the political and institutional project of Al-Qur’an dan Terjemahnya, the official translation of the Qurʾān into Indonesian by the Indonesian government. It investigates how the translation was produced and presented, and how it is read, as well as considering the implications of the state’s involvement in such a work. Lukman analyses the politicisation of the Qurʾān commentary through discussion of how the tafsīr mechanism functions in this version, weighing up the translation’s dual constraints: the growing political context, on the one hand, and the tafsīr tradition on the other. In doing so, the book pays attention to three key areas: the production phase, the textual material, and the reception of the translation by readers. This book will be of value to scholars with an interest in tafsīr studies, modern and Southeast Asian or Indonesian tafsīr sub-fields, the study of Qurʾān translations, and Indonesian politics and religion more broadly.

The largely Arabo-centric approach to the academic study of tafsir has resulted in a lack of literature exploring the diversity of Qur'anic interpretation in other areas of the Muslim-majority world. The essays in The Qur'an in the Malay-Indonesian World resolve this, aiming to expand our knowledge of tafsir and its history in the Malay-Indonesian world. Highlighting the scope of Qur'anic interpretation in the Malay world in its various vernaculars, it also contextualizes this work to reveal its place as part of the wider Islamic world, especially through its connections to the Arab world, and demonstrates the strength of these connections. The volume is divided into three parts written primarily by scholars from Malaysia and Indonesia. Beginning with a historical overview, it then moves into chapters with a more specifically regional focus to conclude with a thematic approach by looking at topics of some controversy in the broader world. Presenting new examinations of an under-researched topic, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Islamic studies and Southeast Asian studies.

Drawing on previously unavailable archival material, this book argues that Indonesian nationalism rested on Islamic ecumenism heightened by colonial rule and the pilgrimage. The award winning author Laffan contrasts the latter experience with life in Cairo, where some Southeast Asians were drawn to both reformism and nationalism. After demonstrating the close linkage between Cairene ideology and Indonesian nationalism, Laffan shows how developments in the Middle East continued to play a role in shaping Islamic politics in colonial Indonesia.

Having experienced a large-scale reorganization of social order over the past decade, people of the Malay world have struggled to position themselves. They have been classified - and have classified themselves - with categories as bangsa (nation/ethnic group) and umma (Islamic network). In connection with these key concepts, this study explores a variety of dimensions of these and other 'people-grouping' classifications, which also include Malayu, Jawi, and Paranakan. The book examines how these categories played a significant part in the colonial and post-colonial periods in areas ranging from Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. It demonstrates the extent to which shifting social conditions interact with the contours of group identity. This is a collaborative work by scholars based in the US, Japan, Malaysia, and Australia. *** "Understanding the genealogy of people-grouping concepts provides valuable insight into the mechanics of power relations and how the agency of cultural identification constructs the continuity and the contentious in the political world". Pacific Affairs, Vol. 85, No. 4, December 2012.