Joll, C. M. (2012). Islam’s Creole Ambassadors. In P. Jory (Ed.), The Ghosts of the Past in ST -...

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Claims and counterclaims have been made concerning Patanis uniquenessvis--vis other Southeast Asian port city-states. Wayne Bougas arguesthat Patanis history and culture have been shaped by its location betweenthe Tai and Malaymandalaso Ayutthaya/Bangkok and Melaka.1 WhileIslam typically supplanted and eventually replaced Hindu-Buddhistpredecessors elsewhere in the Malay world (SM. dunia Melayu), these

aiths coexisted and interacted with one another in Patani. As such, Islamwas heavily inuenced by Buddhism, acquiring a unique character o itsown, quite dierent rom that encountered in the rest o the Peninsula andArchipelago.2 Less measured claims are made by Paul Dowsey-Magog,who argues or Patanis isolation rom the southern and eastern Malaystates, and the Tai kingdom to the north.3 While its current location is atthe northern extremity o the Malay world, Siamese inuence once extended

1

Wayne A. Bougas, Patani in the Beginning o the XVII Century,Archipel 39(1990): 115.2 Bougas cites an unnamed Dutch source rom the 1600s which claims thatBuddhists (who comprised 30 percent o the population) continued to worship intheir temples in Patani; Te Kingdom o Patani: Between Tai and Malay Mandalas(Bangi: Institute o the Malay World and Civilization, University KebangsaanMalaysia, 1994), p. 37. Ibrahim Syukri mentions that 60 Burmese slaves given to theRaja by the Tai king were allowed to remain Buddhist; Ibrahim Syukri, History othe Malay Kingdom o Patani, trans. C. Bailey and J. Miksic (Athens, OH: Center orInternational Studies, Ohio University, 1985), p. 20.3 P. Dowsey-Magog, Popular Culture and raditional Perormance: Conicts andChallenges in Contemporary Nang alung, in Dynamic Diversity in South Tailand,ed. Wattana Sungannasil (Chiangmai: Silkworm Books, 2005), p. 111.

Patani Chap6_Joll.indd 129 11/5/2012 11:01:25 PM


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130ChristopherM.Joll

into present-day Kedah, Kelantan, and rengganu. Patani should be viewedas more similar to, rather than distinct rom, other Southeast Asian portcity-states with which it was connected through trading networks. Patanis

harbor not only provided protection rom north-eastern and south-westernmonsoon winds, but was also located in close proximity to trans-peninsulatrading routes that linked it with the outside world. Te importance o theseroutes increased once sailing technology permitted Chinese ships to reachthe Malay peninsula directly rom southern Vietnam. Preerring ports closerto China, Patani became the avored port o Chinese traders.4 In addition tothe unreliable winds in the Straits o Melaka and the threat o pirates, thePortuguese presence ater 1511 led more traders to take overland routes to

Figure 6.1 Historical location o trans-peninsula trade routes in the Langkasuka/Pataniregion.

4 Bougas, Patani in the Beginning o the XVII Century, p. 115.



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east coast conduits such as Patani. Te all o Melaka in 1511, thereore, was

a signicant actor contributing to Patanis prosperity.5

As is well-known,goods were traded alongside ideas, the most important o which was Islam.During the period that Werner Kraus reers to as the magical epoch inPatanis history, Sheikh Said o Pasai convinced Raja Phaya u Antara toadopt Islam.6 Sheikh Sauddin al-Abbasi was another Arab rom Pasai,who advised the recently renamed Sultan Ismail Syah Zillulah Fil-Alam,o the need to construct a royal mosque.7 Te Hikayat Patanialso mentionswandering sages who visited Patani in the second hal o the 16th century.Tis included one o the amous wali sanga, Mawlana Malik Ibrahim, who

preached at an Islamic propagation center in Kruese beore proceeding toEast Java.8Neither Sheik Said nor Sheikh Sauddin al-Abbasi was rom Patani,

nor were they described as Malay. Te central contention o this chapteris that while Patanis most amous ulama besar Sheikh Daud al-Fatani(17691847), Sheikh Ahmad al-Fatani (18561908), and Haji Sulong(18951954) are routinely reerred to as Malays, they were no ordinaryMalays. Tese important personalities were distinguished rom the Malaypopulation in Patani by more than their Arab ancestry and Arabic literacy.

Tey were born into amilies possessing the nancial resources and amilyconnections required to travel across the Indian Ocean to Islams spiritualand intellectual centers. Tis chapter considers the creole credentials oPatanis best-known ulama and how they unctioned as ambassadors orIslam during a tumultuous period in both the Hijaz and on the Tai/MalayPeninsula. Te term creole ambassador was coined by Michael Laan todescribe Muslims born to parents rom either shore o the Indian Ocean

5 Francis R. Bradley, Moral Order in a ime o Damnation: Te Hikayat Patani inHistorical Context,Journal o Southeast Asian Studies40, 2 (2009): 281.6 Werner Kraus, Islam in Tailand: Notes on the History o Muslim Provinces TaiIslamic Modernism and the Separatist Movement in the South,Journal o Muslim

Minority Aairs5, 2 (1984).7 Hasan Madmarn, Te Pondok and Madrasah in Patani(Bangi: UKM, 1990), p. 23,Perayot Rahimmula, Te Patani Fatawa: A Case Study o the Kitab Al-Fatawa Al-Fataniyyah o Shaykh Ahmed Bin Muhamad Zain Bin Mustaa Al-Fatani, PhDdiss., University o Kent, 1990, p. 161.8 Azyumardi Azra, Te Origins o Islamic Reormism in Southeast Asia: Networkso Middle Eastern Ulama in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Honolulu:University o Hawaii Press, 2004), pp. 1234.



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who played prominent roles in the propagation o Islam in Southeast Asia.9

I use creole to denote mobile, multilingual members o cosmopolitancoastal trading communities who are inadequately described as simplyArab, Indian or even Malay.10 Such creole communities were createdthrough the circulation o Islam east and west o the Tai/Malay peninsula,and played a key role both in Islams initial Southeast Asian expansion andsubsequent consolidation.

Circulatng Islam and Creole Communites

Scholarship on how Islam was transmitted to and assimilated in SoutheastAsia has tended to dwell on the question o origins. Was Islam only capableo owing eastward to receptive markets? Did trading guilds and Su ordersresemble nothing more than supply chains?11 Recent studies into IslamsSoutheast Asian expansion that have moved rom a ocus on comparison toattention to connections are better equipped to comprehend the mediatednature o Islamic transmission and networking.12 Far rom acting as simpleconduits between the poles o supply and demand, the trading systemso Southeast Asian port-cities were complex and multi-circuited systems,

described by Ali as multiple circuits o cultural exchange rather than []unidirectional transmission.13 orsten schacher proposes the concept ocirculating Islam: the multi-directional movement o ideas, some o which

9 Michael F. Laan,Islamic Nationhood and Colonial Indonesia: Te Umma Below theWinds (London: Routledge, 2003), pp. 9, 400. On hybridity and cosmopolitanism,see: Carool Kersten, Islam, Cultural Hybridity and Cosmopolitanism: New MuslimIntellectuals on Globalization, Te Journal o International Studies 1, 1 (2009); R.

Michael Feener, Hybridity and the Hadhrami Diaspora in the Indian OceanMuslim Networks,Asian Journal o Social Science32, 3 (2004).10 On the vexed question o Malayness, see imothy P. Barnard, ed., Contesting

Malayness: Malay Identity Across Boundaries (Singapore: Singapore University Press,2004).11 See Daud Ali, Connected Histories? Regional Historiography and Teories oCultural Contact Between Early South and Southeast Asia, inIslamic Connections:

Muslim Societies in South and Southeast Asia, ed. R. Michael Feener and erenjitSevea (Singapore: Institute o Southeast Asian Studies, 2009), pp. 10, 14; R. MichaelFeener, Introduction: Issues and Ideologies in the Study o Regional Muslim

Cultures, in Feener and Sevea,Islamic Connections, p. xvi.12 Feener and Sevea,Islamic Connections, p. xiv.13 Ali, Connected Histories?, p. 14.



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were transormed by the people who transported them.14 Trough his

work on the connections between Mabar and Nusantara, schacher revealspatterns o convergence and divergence in Islamic texts, ritual practices, andmaterial culture that did not ollow ethnic, linguistic, or economic ault-lines.For example, Malay borrowed more Arabic words through amil than itborrowed actual amil words, and encounters between Arabic and South andSoutheast Asian languages had transormative eects on both.15

Replacing the model o one-way diusion with one o multi-directionalcirculation permits a more nuanced understanding o the development oIslamic traditions in South and Southeast Asia, where shared customs

were transormed and inected in divergent ways in dispersed geographicalsettings and ed back into the circulatory regime.16 Such connections andcirculations explain why the Malay worlds greatest Su poet, HamzahFansuri (d. 15901604), was in act a Persian hailing rom Barus (Fansur)in northwest Sumatra. From there, he traveled widely both east and west. Inaddition to having studied in the Middle East (which explains his uencyin Persian and Arabic), he also spent time in Ayutthaya, which was knownto its sizeable Persian population as Shahr-i Nav, Persian or city o boatsand canals. Whilst Marcinkowski claims that Hamzah Fansuri was born in

Ayutthaya, van Bruinessen argues that Ayutthaya was where he experiencedhis most proound mystical insights.17 He was uent in Persian, Malay, andArabic. As is well-known, Hamzah Fansuri was the rst scholar writing in

14 orsten schacher, Circulating Islam: Understanding Convergence and Diver-gence in the Islamic raditions o Mabar and Nusantara, in Feener and Sevea,

Islamic Connections, p. 49.15 Ibid., pp. 50, 556.16 Ibid., p. 62.17

See M. Ismail Marcinkowski, Selected Historical Facets o the Presence o Shiismin Southeast Asia, Te Muslim World 99, 2 (2009): 397; Martin van Bruinessen,Origins and Development o the Su Orders (arekat) in Southeast Asia, Studia

Islamika(1994): 114. For more on Hamzah Fansuri, see: Syed Muhammad NaguibAl-Attas, Te Mysticism o Hamzah Fansuri (Kuala Lumpur: University o MalayaPress, 1970); Syed Muhammad Naguib Al-Attas, New Light on the Lie o HamzahFansuri,Journal o the Malaysian Branch o the Royal Asiatic Society40 (1967); LobeBrakel, Te Birth Place o Hamza Pansuri, Journal o the Malaysian Branch othe Royal Asiatic Society42 (1969); Vladimir I. Braginsky, owards the Biographyo Hamzah Fansuri. When Did Hamzah Live? Data rom His Poems and EarlyEuropean Accounts,Archipel57, 2 (1999); Peter G. Riddell, Breaking the HamzahFansuri Barrier: Other Literary Windows into Sumatran Islam in the Late SixteenthCentury CE,Indonesia and the Malay World32, 93 (2004).



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Malay to have articulated the monist doctrine owahdat al-wujud(Ar. the

unity o being) associated with Ibn Arabi (d. 1240).18

Te doctrines that were established (or perhaps continued) by HamzahFansuri in Sumatra were amously opposed by Nur al-Din Muhammad b.Ali. b. Hasanji al-Hamid al-Shai al-Ashari al-Aydarusi al-Raniri, anothercreole personality produced by this circulating Islam. Scarcity o inormationabout Nur al-Din al-Raniri has led scholars to attempt to deduce somethingabout his background rom the large number onisba(Arabic reerences totribal or geographical afliation) in his name.19 A general consensus existsthat Al-Raniri belonged to a diasporic amily o the Hamid clan in Ranir(present-day Rander) in Indias state o Gujerat. Claiming to be a Hadramidescended rom the Quraysh clan, he also studied in the Hadhramaut. VanBruinessen proposes that al-Raniri represents the last documented caseo direct Indian inuence on the Ria`iyya Su order in the archipelago.Although other Indian branches o prominent Su orders subsequentlyreached Indonesia, they came via the Honjas, where Indonesians had beeninitiated.20 Riddell notes that Al-Raniri had traveled both west and east oIndia; he had journeyed to Mecca where he perormed the Hajj in 16201621 beore visiting the Hadhramaut, while Al-Raniris connections to theeast were through his uncle, Muhammad Jilani Hamid, who had visited the

Sultanate o Aceh in the 1580s.A number o claims have been made by scholars about Al-Raniris

contacts with the Malay world. Tese range rom his mastery o the Malaylanguage beore his residency in Aceh between 1637 and 1644, perhaps dueto the inuence o the signicant Malay community in Gujerat, to assertionsby Naguib Al-Attas that his mother was Malay.21 On the last point,Azyumardi Azra agrees. Al-Raniri is included in his study o 17th- and18th-century networks (Ar. silsilah) and chains o transmission (Ar. isnad)

18 Anthony H. Johns notes the monistic treatises by Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) beingamong the earliest extant manuscripts rom north Sumatra; A.H. Johns, Susm inSoutheast Asia: Reections and Reconsiderations,Journal o Southeast Asian Studies26, 1 (1995): 78, 169.19 Azra, Te Origins o Islamic Reormism in Southeast Asia, p. 54. For more on Al-Raniri and his rejection o Hamzah Fansuri, see Riddell, Breaking the HamzahFansuri Barrier.20 Van Bruinessen, Origins and Development o the Su Orders (arekat) inSoutheast Asia, p. 2.21

Peter G. Riddell, Sharia-Mindedness in the Malay World and the IndianConnection: Te Contributions o Nur al-Din al-Raniri and Nik Abdul Aziz binHaji Nik Mat, in Feener and Sevea,Islamic Connections, p. 176.



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that laid the oundations o Islamic reormism in Southeast Asia. Although

Azra claims that his Hadrami ather moved between South and SoutheastAsia, he insists that al-Raniri was neither an Arab nor an Indian alim (Ar.scholar), but a Malay-Indonesian.22

Highly ethnicized debates over the relative importance o Arab andIndian Sus in Islams Southeast Asian expansion have been engaged in byArab and Indian scholars such as Al-Attas and Sastri, and their respectivestudents.23 Absent in discussions o the personalities that played a rolein Islams expansion to and embedding in Southeast Asia, is the act thatmany o these gures are only inadequately described as Arab, Indian, or

Malay. Tey were mobile, multilingual members o cosmopolitan coastaltrading communities. Tey were creoles. Such gures also played importantroles in mediating the processes o Islams initial adoption and subsequentdevelopment. Tey were Islams ambassadors.

he origins o the irst Arab-Indian creole communities on thesouthwest coast o India were male Hadrami immigrants who marriedIndian women. Tese mixed communities were rejuvenated by new arrivalsrom the Hadhramaut. Tis dynamic distinguished them rom the Mappilacommunities located inland who practiced a more syncretic orm o Islam.Increased immigration during the 13th century caused the population toswell leading local Malabari Muslims and Hadrami immigrants to moveurther and urther east, which partly explains why southern Arabia,South India, and Southeast Asia all ollow the Shai school o Islamicjurisprudence.24 Far rom the pristine Islam o the Sala al-Salih, these

22 Azra, Te Origins o Islamic Reormism in Southeast Asia: Networks o Middle EasternUlama in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, p. 54.23 See Amri Baharuddin Shamsul, Islam Embedded: Religion and Plurality in

Southeast Asia as a Mirror or Europe,Asia Europe Journal3 (2005): 164. See also:K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, South Indian Infuences in the Far East(Bombay: Hind KitabLtd, 1949); Syed Muhammad Naguib Al-Attas, Preliminary Statement on a GeneralTeory o the Islamisation o the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago (Kuala Lumpur: DewanBahasa dan Pustaka, 1969).24 Andrew D.W. Forbes, Southern Arabia and the Islamization o the Central IndianOcean Archipelagoes,Archipel21 (1981). For more on the Hadrami Immigration,see: Ulrike Freitag and W.G. Clarence-Smith, Hadhrami raders, Scholars, andStatesmen in the Indian Ocean, 1750s1960s, in Social, Economic, and PoliticalStudies o the Middle East and Asia, v. 57 (Leiden and New York: Brill, 1997); Natalie

Mobini-Kesheh, Te Hadrami Awakening: Community and Identity in the NetherlandsEast Indies, 19001942 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Southeast Asia ProgramPublications, 1999).



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ambassadors introduced a range o interpretations o Islam that had been

embedded in the Arab-Indian-Malay creole communities. Te selectiveappropriation and application o a range o Islams resulted in the presencein Southeast Asia o all major streams o Islamic thought and practice,although oten in a mediated and modied orm. As a result, the ummabelow the winds resembled its Middle Eastern antecedents, but withdistinguishing local eatures.

While Islam was once regarded as peripheral to Southeast Asia, andthe region as peripheral to Islam, recent studies by Laan and Azra haveemphasized Southeast Asian Islams connection to not separation rom

the Middle East via the Indian Ocean. Te cosmopolitan characteristicso Southeast Asian port city-states that served as conduits or the spreado Islam rom the 14th century are well-known.25 Ali claims that rom the13th century, Arab traders and religious leaders active in Southeast Asiaoriginated not rom the traditional Arab heartlands but rom importantports along the Indian Oceans trading circuits. One o the earliest Westernaccounts o Southeast Asia is provided by Marco Polo, whose description oSumatra in 1291 mentions the manyIdrss(Indian Muslim middle-men),who were also observed by Ibn Battta (13041377) on the Malabar Coast.

Laan suggests that the toponyms used by Marco Polo may indicate thathe sailed with Sino-Muslim sailors.26 Jan van der Putten reers to SoutheastAsias coastal settlements as intermediary communities where creativeoreigners who were receptive to new inuences resided. In addition, to beactive in the localization o various activities, as polyglots they were able tomaintain contacts with people in the land o origin o their orebears.27

Te opening o the Suez Canal in 1869 and introduction o steamshipsgreatly increased the connectedness between the Middle East and SoutheastAsia that had circulated Islam and created these creole communities. Bythe 1890s, the small sailing vessels transporting independent pilgrims haddisappeared rom the Indian Ocean, replaced by steamers that made the

25 See Anthony Reids chapter in this volume.26 M.F. Laan, Finding Java: Muslim Nomenclature o Insular Southeast Asia romrvijaya to Snouck Hurgronje, WP 52 (Singapore: Asia Research Institute, 2005),p. 49. For a recent discussion o the role o Chinese in Islams Southeast Asianexpansion, see an a Sen, Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia(Singapore: Instituteo Southeast Asian Studies, 2009).27

Jan van der Putten, Wayang Parsi, Bangsawan and Printing: Commercial CulturalExchange between South Asia and the Malay World, in Feener and Sevea, IslamicConnections, p. 89.



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previously arduous trip in two weeks. Beore these developments, it was

not the orest dwellers o the interior, but the mobile, multilingual meno mixed ethnicity rom coastal towns who possessed the nancial meansto perorm the Hajj. Tese advances in transport had a number o eects.More Southeast Asian Muslims returned with greatly increased religiousknowledge, and consequently enhanced status and authority. More traveledto the Middle East, primarily to urther their Islamic education. Immigrationrom the Middle East to Southeast Asia also increased.28 Many o thesemainly Hadrami immigrants were revered as saints possessing supernaturalpowers that enabled them to rise to the highest ranks o Malay society.

Intermarriage with Malays and management o the Hajj trafc urtherstrengthened the Islamic element o Malayness.29 Finally, these advances intransport also coincided with developments in communication technology the most important o which was the printing press.

col ansis

Te circulation o Islam throughout the region between the Middle Eastand China created a range o communities populated by mobile, multi-

lingual Arab-Indian-Malay creole gures who played key roles in IslamsSoutheast Asian expansion. In addition to being a conduit o circulatingIslam, Patani both attracted and produced a range o such creole Muslimgures. Some became inuential ambassadors or Islam. In Figure 6.2 below,I delineate the genealogies o some o Patanis most amous scholars: SheikhDaud b. Abdullah b. Idris al-Fatani (Sheikh Daud al-Fatani) (17691847),Sheikh Zain al Abidin (uan Minal) (18201913), Sheikh Wan Ahmadb. Muhammad Zain Mustaa al-Fatani (Sheikh Ahmad al-Fatani) (18561908), and the modernist leader Shaykh Muhammad Sulong bin AbdulKadir bin Muhammad al-Fatani (Haji Sulong) (18951954). With theexception o uan Minal, I provide brie descriptions o these below. Tereputation o these great scholarly gures was bolstered by claims thatthey were descended rom Arab religious gures rom the Hadhramaut.For example, the daughter o Sheikh Ibrahim al-Hadhrami bin Abar, Wan

28 Laan,Islamic Nationhood and Colonial Indonesia, p. 36.29 See: Syed Mhd. Khairudin Aljunied, Making Sense o an Evolving Identity:A Survey o Studies on Identity and Identity Formation o Malays in Singapore,

Journal o Muslim Minority Aairs26, 3 (2006): 375; Syed Mhd. Khairudin Aljunied,

Te Role o Hadramis in Post-World War wo Singapore: A Reinterpretation,Immigrants and Minorities25, 2 (2007): 164.



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Sheikh Ibrahim al-Hadhrami b. Abar

Wan Jamilah al-Syandaniyah

1. Wan Syamsudin 2. Wan Senil

MHD. Dahhan 1. Wan Hasain 2. Wan Idris

Muhammad Wan Abdullah

Sheikh Zain al Abidin

(Tuan Minal) (1820

1913)

1. Sheikh Daud b.

Abdullah b. Idris al-

Fatani (17691847)

2. Sheikh

Wan Abd.

Kadir

3. Sheikh

Wan Adb.

Rahid

4. Sheikh

Wan Idris

5. ()?

Sheikh

MHD Salih

Sheikh

Umar

1. Wan Zainab ()

+ Nik Wan Ahmad b. Ismail

Daud al-Fatani

2. Wan Fatima

Sheikh Mhd. Sulung b. Abd Kadir b. Mhd. al-

Fatani (Haji Sulong) (18951954)

1. Sheikh Nik MHD b. Ismail Daud al-Fatani

2. Nik Wan Hitam

3. Nik Wan Siti ()

4. Nik Wan Aishah ()

5. Nik Wan Maryam () + Sheikh Wan Abdullah b.

Sheikh Wan Yusuf Janngut Putih

6. Haji Nik Wan Isa

1. Nik Wan Siti Saudah ()

+ Sheikh Ahmad b. Mhd. Zain b. Mustafa al-

Fatani (18561908)

2. ?

Figure 6.2 Genealogies o Patanis creole ambassadors.30

Jamilah al-Syandaniyah is said to have been the great-great-grandmothero a number o Patanis ulama besar. Another Hadrami involved in thespice trade by the name o Sheikh Usman had three sons, all o whomplayed important roles in Islamic education in Patani. Te eldest was thegreat-grandather o Sheikh Daud while the second eldest was the great-

30

Tis genealogy is based on inormation provided in the ollowing: Ahmad FathyAl-Fatani, Ulama Besar Dari Patani(Bangi: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,2002), p. 63; and Rahimmula, Te Patani Fatawa, pp. 201, 231, 355.



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grandather o Sheikh Ahmad.31 Sheikh Abdul Razak, the great-grandathero Sheikh Wan Mustaa al-Fatani, was another Hadrami. Having witnesseda miraculously overowing well on a night at the end o Ramadan, he askedAllah to bless his our sons and their descendants by making them greatulama. Patanis ulama besar shared three common attributes: Hadramiancestry; an early Islamic education provided by their athers and grand-athers; and the nancial means, connections, and linguistic skills whichenabled them to make the trip to Mecca via Aceh.

Sheikh Daud b. Abdullah b. Idris al-Fatani was born in Krue Se in1769 and died in ai in 1847.32 His grandather, Sheikh Wan Idris al-Fatani, and ather, Sheikh Wan Abdullah al-Fatani, are both known to havebeen involved in his early religious education. According to Rahimmula,

Figure 6.3 Site o the ormer location o the palace in Krue Se in relation to modern-dayPattani and Cabetigo.

31 Hasan Madmarn notes that Sheikh Ahmad al-Fatanis grandather was adescendent o a Hadrami missionary who settled in Patani; Hasan Madmarn, TePondok and Madrasah in Patani, p. 23.32 For a discussion o Sheikh Daud, see Francis R. Bradley, Te Social Dynamics oIslamic Revivalism in Southeast Asia: Te Rise o the Patani School, 17851909,PhD diss., University o Wisconsin-Madison, 2010, pp. 189337.



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the young Sheikh Daud had taken his traditional Islamic education in

Patani under Malay and Arabic ulama, many o whom were related to eachother.33 Following his early education in Patani, Daud al-Fatani spent timein a pondok beore traveling to Aceh where he studied or two years withMuhammad Zayn bin Faqih Jalal al-Din al-Ashi, a leading Acehnese scholarduring the period o Sultan Ala al-Din Mahmud Shah (r. 17601781). Azrabelieves that Sheikh Daud reached the Hijaz via Aceh in his late twenties.Although he joined other scholars rom Patani residing there, they were allhis seniors. He also joined the Shattariyyah tariqah.34 Interestingly, SheikhDauds earliest known work was only completed in Mecca in 1809. As one

o the leading Malay-Indonesian scholars residing in Mecca, he was honoredwith the title o al-Alim al-Allamat al-Ari ar-Rabbani by the Ottomanauthorities.35 His reputation was based on his output o more than 57works which covered many branches o the Islamic disciplines and whichwere printed not only in many parts o the Middle East but throughout theMalay-Indonesian world.36

Sheikh Dauds teachings are acknowledged as having been preservedand extended by another o Patanis best known scholars, his great nephewSheikh Wan Ahmad bin Muhammad Zain Mustaa al-Fatani (Sheikh

Ahmad). Te connection between these two amous ulama besarbegan withSheikh Ahmads ather, who, ater perorming the Hajj, settled in Meccato work as Sheikh Dauds copyist.37 Sheikh Ahmad was born in 1856 inKampung Sena Janjar, Patani, and died in Mina on January 14, 1908. LikeSheikh Daud, Sheikh Ahmad received his early Islamic education rom hisMecca-educated ather who taught at Pondok Bendang Daya, which wasrenowned as one o the largest pondok schools in Southeast Asia.38 Borna generation ater the nal subjugation o Patani by the Siamese in 1838,Sheikh Ahmad was, according to Rahimmula, deeply concerned with the

33 Rahimmula, Te Patani Fatawa, p. 202.34 Azra, Te Origins o Islamic Reormism in Southeast Asia, p. 126.35 Rahimmula, Te Patani Fatawa, p. 202.36 See Azra, Te Origins o Islamic Reormism in Southeast Asia, pp. 124, 126; V.Matheson and M.B. Hooker, Jawi Literature in Patani: Te Maintenance o anIslamic radition,Journal o the Malaysian Branch o the Royal Asiatic Society61, 1(1988).37 Rahimmula, Te Patani Fatawa, pp. 194, 258, 313.38

Mohammad Redzuan Othman, Te Role o Makka-Educated Malays in theDevelopment o Early Islamic Scholarship and Education in Malaya, Journal oIslamic Studies9, 2 (1998): 148.



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preservation o Malay identity, language, and culture in the Patani region,

and this motivated him to reprint the works o older scholars, such asSheikh Daud.39 Sheikh Ahmad traveled to Jerusalem and then Egypt where,according to Rahimmula, he was the rst Malay rom Patani to have studiedat Al-Azhar University. Upon completing his studies, he moved to Meccawhere his amily lived. Tere, he would eventually become one o the leadingscholars at Masjid al-Haram.40 Although Shaykh Daud is a better knownscholar, Shaykh Ahmads role as a mediator o the religious developments othe time in the Middle East through his work as editor, writer, and teacher,in act surpassed that o his elder relative. Sheikh Ahmads reputation was

such that the amous Dutch scholar o Islam, Snouck Hurgronje, reerred tohim as a savanto merit.41Sheikh Ahmads amily let Patani beore the opening o the Suez

Canal in 1869 and subsequent spread o steamers across the Indian Oceanthat by the 1890s led to the disappearance o smaller sailing vessels. Tisrevolution in transportation reduced the once arduous trip rom SoutheastAsia to the Middle East to just two weeks. Improved communication acrossthe Indian Ocean was crucial to Sheikh Ahmads work. Even beore steamersreplaced sailboats, scribes had also begun to become obsolete, replaced by

printing presses. Although the Egyptian publishing industry emerged asearly as the 1820s, it only began publishing kitab jawior the Malay-speakingworld in the late 19th century. Among the earliest and most active publisherso Malay books was Mustaa al-Babi al-Halabi. He began work in 1859in his publishing house near the al-Azhar Mosque where Sheikh Ahmadworked as a prooreader. In 1884, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fatani was appointedchie editor o the newly established Malay section o the Ottoman Press.42Sheikh Ahmad also established the Patani Ulama Association, which wasinvolved in correcting and publishing religious works written in Malay.Sheikh Ahmad would eventually serve as the Associations chie editor.

39 Rahimmula, Te Patani Fatawa, p. 191.40 Ibid., p. 309.41 C. Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka in the Latter Part o the 19th Century: Daily Lie,Customs and Learning, Te Moslims o the East-Indian-Archipelago, Slightly rev. 2nded. (Leiden: Brill, 1970), p. 286.42 See Rahimmula, Te Patani Fatawa, p. 321; Laan, Islamic Nationhood andColonial Indonesia, p. 25. Mohammad Redzuan Othman also notes that the Al-

Maktaba al-Fataniyya Press was established by Sheikh Ahmad in Qashashiyah;see Mohammad Redzuan Othman, Te Role o Makka-Educated Malays in theDevelopment o Early Islamic Scholarship and Education in Malaya, p. 149.



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Mohammad Redzuan Othman describes Sheikh Ahmad as the

prolic author o perhaps as many as 160 original and annotated worksin both Malay and Arabic. Tese covered a wide range o subjects in theIslamic sciences as well as medicine, history, and politics. Some are stillin print and available to this day, being widely used as religious texts intraditional education.43 Rahimmula claims that Sheikh Ahmad was therst Malay rom Patani to have written religious treatises in Arabic. EdwinWieringa observes that Sheikh Ahmads language in his Jawi work entitledNur al-Mubin, was deeply imbued with Arabic, a characteristic eatureokitab jawithrough which Arabic ideation entered the Malay lexicon.44

Nevertheless, most o his writings dealt with the Islamic sciences. Someo his works continue to be used in southern Tailands pondok today.45One o the most important o these, Kitab Al-Fatawa Al-Fataniyyah, isa 220-page collection o judgments (Ar. atwa) on a range o religiousquestions posed to him by Southeast Asian Muslims.46 Such question-and-answer exchanges on contemporary issues were made possible by thegreatly increased degree o communication across the Indian Ocean whichconnected Patani to the center o Islamic scholarship in the Middle East.Rahimmula claims that not only was Sheikh Ahmad the rst Mecca-based

Malay ulama to have established a didactic genre based on answers towritten questions received, but that most o the subjects that were addressedwere on issues that the Siamese authorities had begun to interere with inhis homeland. Indeed, Matheson and Hooker note that this 1903 work

43 Mohammad Redzuan Othman, Te Role o Makka-Educated Malays in theDevelopment o Early Islamic Scholarship and Education in Malaya, p. 148. For asummary o his main works, see: Matheson and Hooker, Jawi Literature in Patani,pp. 505.44 Edwin Wieringa, Some Light on Ahmad al-Fatanis Nur al-Mubin, in Lostime and Untold ales rom the Malay World, ed. Jan van der Putten and MaryKilcline Coby (Singapore: NUS Press, 2009), p. 191. For more on kitab jawi, see:Mohammad Nor Bin Ngah, Kitab Jawi: Islamic Tought o the Malay Muslim Scholars,v. 33, Research Notes and Discussions Paper (Singapore: Institute o Southeast AsianStudies, 1983); Ismail Hamid, Kitab Jawi: Intellectualizing Literary radition, in

Islamic Civilization in the Malay World, ed. Mohammad aib Osman (Kuala Lumpur:Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1997).45 Matheson and Hooker, Jawi Literature in Patani, pp. 2830.46 See Rahimmula, Te Patani Fatawa; Matheson and Hooker, Jawi Literature inPatani, p. 55.



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appeared a year ater the Siamese abolition o the shariah system o law

in the territory.47

Te inuence o Sheikh Ahmads publications on Islam was parto the wider impact o religious literature printed in the Middle Easton Southeast Asian Islam in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Forexample, the Egyptian modernist journal al-Manar[Te Lighthouse] editedby Muhammad Rashid Rida rom 1898, inspired Jawi publications suchas al-Imam [Te Leader] published in Singapore between 1906 and 1908.48Tat the goal oal-Imam was the dissemination o the reormist goals oal-Manarin the Malay world is demonstrated by the act that many o itsarticles were Malay translations o articles rom al-Manar.Al-Imam becamethe most widely read journal in the Malay-speaking regions o SoutheastAsia beore the Second World War, with a circulation reaching 5,000 atits height. Following Al-Imams demise in 1908, a number o modernistpublications were produced. One o these was al-Munir[Te Illuminating]published in Padang, West Sumatra, or ve years rom 1911.

Sheikh Ahmad was a leading scholar in Mecca in his own right andtaught at Masjid al-Haram. He was also one o ew non-Arab ulamato havebeen appointed by the Shari o Mecca to represent the Shaite madhhab.One o his most inuential students was a Malay rom Kelantan, Haji

Muhammad Yusu (18681933), better known as ok Kenali, who studiedwith Sheikh Ahmad or 17 years. Upon returning to Kelantan in 1908, okKenali became a prominent scholar, a ounding member o the KelantanReligious Council, and editor o its ortnightly journal.49 Rahimmula notes

47 Matheson and Hooker, Jawi Literature in Patani, p. 55. Although amily andinheritance cases were exempt rom Bangkoks replacement o Islamic law with Taisecular law, even in these cases, according to Wan Kadir, the decision o a Muslimjudge was not nal until it was agreed upon by the sitting Tai judge. Otherwise,

contending parties had the right to appeal to the Tai Superior Court, where thejudge was not a Muslim; see Wan Kadir Che Man, Te Tai Government andIslamic Institutions in the Four Southern Muslim Provinces o Tailand, Sojourn:

Journal o Social Issues in Southeast Asia5, 2 (1990): 256.48 For more on Al-Imam, see: Abu Bakar Hamzah, Al-Iman: Its Role in MalaySociety 19061908 (Kuala Lumpur: Pustaka Antara, 1991); Azyumardi Azra, Teransmission o al-Manars Reormism to the Malay-Indonesian World: Te Casesoal-Imam and al-Munir, Studia Islamika6, 3 (1999).49 Mohammad Redzuan Othman, Te Role o Makka-Educated Malays in theDevelopment o Early Islamic Scholarship and Education in Malaya, p. 151. On ok

Kenali, see Abdullah al-Qari bin Haji Salleh, ok Kenali: His Lie and Inuence,in Kelantan: Religion, Society, and Politics in a Malay State, ed. William Ro (KualaLumpur: Oxord University Press, 1974).



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that Sheikh Ahmad al-Fatani encouraged his students to become inormed

about politics and local events by reading newspapers, at the time somethingrelatively rare among the ulama o the Haramayn, which suggests theinuence o Muhammad Abduhs modernist ideas.50

Te most important ambassador or Muhammad Abduhs modernistagenda in Patani, however, was Shaykh Muhammad Sulong bin Abdul Kadirbin Muhammad al-Fatani, better known as Haji Sulong. He was born in1895 in the village o Lukson, Pattani, and died in mysterious circumstances,widely presumed to have been at the hands o Tai security orces, in 1954.51Like Sheikh Ahmad, Haji Sulongs relatives included a number o Patanis

creole ulama. Te most amous o these was his grandather, Sheikh ZainalAbidin bin Ahmad al-Fatani (uan Minal) (18201913). Ockey notes thatHaji Sulong came rom a wealthy amily which or generations had sentamily members to Mecca. His ather, Haji Abdul Qadir bin Muhammad,was wealthy enough to support three wives and to send his eldest son to thebest schools. Haji Sulong was born to Haji Abdul Qadirs rst wie, Sariah.He studied at apondok in Krue Se run by ok Guru Wae Muso, beore beingsent by his ather to study in Mecca in 1907.52 Tere he studied at the newlyestablished Maahad Dar al-Ulum, which was well-known among MeccasMalay-speaking residents, staying in a waka(boarding house).53 He did wellin his studies and later became a teacher.

Tat Haji Sulong was able to return to Patani or a brie period duringthe First World War testies to the increasing ease and aordability otraversing the India Ocean. In 1922, he married Sabiya, the daughter one othe teachers at Mecca. According to Ockey:

Along with his status as a teacher came increased wealth and, since hiswie was rom Mecca, a house or his new amily. Haji Sulong thus cameto occupy a privileged position at Mecca, and planned to spend his lie

50 Rahimmula, Te Patani Fatawa, pp. 259, 344.51 On Haji Sulong, see: Liow, Islam, Education and Reorm in Southern Tailand:radition and ransormation, pp. 818; Joseph Chinyong Liow, Religious Educationand Reormist Islam in Tailands Southern Border Provinces: Te Roles o HajiSulong Abdul Kadir and Ismail Lut Japakiya,Journal o Islamic Studies20, 3 (2009);Chalermkiat Khunthongpetch, Haji Sulong Abdul Qadir: A Rebel or a Hero o theFour Southern Province (Bangkok: Matichon, 2004); James Ockey, Te Religio-Nationalist Pilgrimage o Haji Sulong Abdulkadir al Fattani, in Pilgrims, Spectresand World-Reorming(University o Michigan Student Conerence, 2006).52

Ockey, he Religio-Nationalist Pilgrimage o Haji Sulong Abdulkadir alFattani.53 Liow,Islam, Education and Reorm in Southern Tailand, p. 81.



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there among the Jawi community. His marriage to a Meccan gave him a

certain status in relations with those rom Mecca, and with those romother communities. He was in a position to broker deals, to ease socialrelations, and consequently to gain considerable respect Tis prestige,and the role o intermediary, allowed many o the scholars who marriedMeccans entry to the business o providing guides or pilgrims, whichwas very lucrative nancially. 54

However, ater only one year, Sabiya died. Te ollowing year the sameyear that the Ibn Saud and the Wahhabi nally captured Mecca and Medina Haji Sulong married Khadijah, the daughter o Haji Ibrahim and sister

o Haji Mohammad Nor, who would later serve as the Muti o Kelantan.Ockey observes that while his rst marriage strengthened his network inMecca, his second reinorced that with the Jawah community. Tis enabledHaji Sulong, upon his return to Patani, to retain and reactivate a strong localMalay identity.55 Later, back in Mecca, Haji Sulong had begun teaching inthe al-Haram Mosque. Tis was a time o considerable political and religiouserment in the Middle East with the victory o Ibn Sauds orces. It issignicant that Haji Sulong was promoted at a time when many SoutheastAsian scholars were leaving Mecca due to the political turmoil and gradualenorcement o the religious orthodoxy o the Wahhabis who had supportedIbn Saud.

Following the death o Khadijah and his one-year-old son, Haji Sulongreturned to Patani in 1927. Soon ater his return, he encountered a religiouslie that to him resembled thejahiliyyao pre-Islamic Arabia. Initially as anitinerant preacher, he became an ambassador or Muhammad Abduhs projecto modernisation and reorm.56 Despite strong opposition rom the kaum tuain 1933, Haji Sulong established the Madrasah Al-Maari Al-Wattaniah,Patanis rst modern Islamic school, whose educational model sharplydeparted rom the traditionalpondok education that the city-state had beenamous or. His involvement in modernizing education and politics wasinormed by the belie that the role o an alim extended beyond the teachingo religion and into the socio-political sphere. Indeed, he is best known orthe seven demands or greater autonomy or the Malay Muslims that hemade to the Tai government in 1947. According to Liow, Haji Sulong

54 Ockey, he Religio-Nationalist Pilgrimage o Haji Sulong Abdulkadir alFattani.55

Ibid.56 Imtiyaz Yusu, Islam and Democracy in Tailand: Reorming the Ofce o theChularajamontri/Shaikh Al-Islam,Journal o Islamic Studies9, 2 (1998): 286.



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possessed an abiding interest in political and social activism which was to

preoccupy him or the rest o his lie, and catapulted him to a position oprominence as a leader o southern Tailands Malay community.57

conlusion

While Sheikh Said and Sheikh Sauddin al-Abbasi o Pasai were importantambassadors or Islam during Patanis magical epoch, Sheikh Daud, hisgrandnephew Sheikh Ahmad, and Haji Sulong inuenced Islam in Pataniduring the theological and modernist periods that ollowed. Similar

to such earlier luminaries as Hamzah Fansuri and Nur al-Din al-Raniri,they were members o a religious elite that generated the circulating Islamdescribed above. Although commonly reerred to as Malays, and proudlyclaimed by the residents o present-day Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, Ihave shown that they were more mobile and multilingual that other Malayso their time. Teir amilies possessed the nancial means and personalconnections that permitted both the long journey across the Indian Oceanand their long-term relocation to Mecca.

Te prominent role o Patanis creole ambassadors suggests that this

city-state resembled other Southeast Asian port city-states where peoples,goods, and ideas circulated via the Indian Ocean trade. It was this circulationthat created the religious intermediaries who selectively appropriated andmediated religious developments in the Haramayn, and through theirwritings and their students maintained and indeed deepened Patanisconnections to the Middle East across the Indian Ocean.

57 Liow,Islam, Education and Reorm in Southern Tailand, p. 81.

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