Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world and has the largest Islamic population of any country in the world. There are more Muslims in Indonesia than in all of the Middle East. Yet Indonesian Islam is a mosaic that weaves together threads of local spiritual practices, village rituals, performing arts, and influences from India and the Middle East that have been percolating throughout the archipelago for over 800 years. On the island of Java, where over half of Indonesia’s 260 million people live, oral traditions attribute the spread of Islam to nine sufi saints (practitioners of Islamic mystical traditions) who are believed to have brought Islam to Java. Scholars have long suggested that sufi practices combined with older Hindu-Buddhist beliefs to produce an eclectic religious tradition that was outside of the mainstream of orthodox Islam. But continued research on Islamic traditions has shown that the idea of “normative” Islamic practice is outdated. Islamic beliefs and practices have combined with local traditions to produce unique religious systems in every part of the Islamic world. Beginning with the coming of Islam to Java, this course will show how Islam interweaves with politics, performing arts, literature, and history in 19th and 20th century Indonesia.
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