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Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47718-5 — Miracles and Material Life Teren Sevea Frontmatter More Information Miracles and Material Life In this groundbreaking new study, Teren Sevea reveals the economic, environmental and religious significance of Islamic miracle workers (pawangs) in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Malay world. Through close textual analysis of hitherto overlooked manuscripts and personal interaction with modern pawangs, readers are introduced to a universe of miracle workers, uncovering connections between miracles and material life. Sevea demonstrates how the production and extrac- tion of natural resources, as well as the uses of technology, were inter- twined with the knowledge of charismatic religious figures in Malay society, and locates the role of the pawangs in the spiritual economy of the Indian Ocean world, across maritime connections and Sufi net- works, and on the frontier of the British Empire. teren sevea is a historian of religion in South and Southeast Asia at the Harvard Divinity School. He is the author of publications on Islamic connections of the Indian Ocean world, Sufism and Sufis of the Malay world, Islamic reform movements and Islamic erotology. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47718-5 — Miracles and Material Life Teren Sevea Frontmatter More Information ASIAN CONNECTIONS Series Editors Sunil Amrith, Harvard University Tim Harper, University of Cambridge Engseng Ho, Duke University Asian Connections is a major series of ambitious works that look beyond the traditional templates of area, regional or national studies to consider the trans-regional phenomena which have connected and influenced various parts of Asia through time. The series will focus on empirically grounded work exploring circulations, connections, conver- gences and comparisons within and beyond Asia. Themes of particular interest include transport and communication, mercantile networks and trade, migration, religious connections, urban history, environmental history, oceanic history, the spread of language and ideas, and political alliances. The series aims to build new ways of understanding funda- mental concepts, such as modernity, pluralism or capitalism, from the experience of Asian societies. It is hoped that this conceptual framework will facilitate connections across fields of knowledge and bridge histor- ical perspectives with contemporary concerns. A list of books in the series can be found at the end of the volume. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47718-5 — Miracles and Material Life Teren Sevea Frontmatter More Information Miracles and Material Life Rice, Ore, Traps and Guns in Islamic Malaya Teren Sevea Harvard Divinity School © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47718-5 — Miracles and Material Life Teren Sevea Frontmatter More Information University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India 79 Anson Road, #06–04/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108477185 DOI: 10.1017/9781108569781 © Teren Sevea 2020 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2020 Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd, Padstow Cornwall A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Sevea, Teren, 1979- author. Title: Miracles and material life : rice, ore, traps and guns in Islamic Malaya / Teren Sevea. Description: New York : Cambridge University Press, 2020. | Series: Asian connections | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019042008 (print) | LCCN 2019042009 (ebook) | ISBN 9781108477185 (hardback) | ISBN 9781108702126 (paperback) | ISBN 9781108569781 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Miracles (Islam) | Miracle workers–Malaysia–Malaya. Classification: LCC BP166.65 .S48 2020 (print) | LCC BP166.65 (ebook) | DDC 297.2/114–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019042008 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019042009 ISBN 978-1-108-47718-5 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47718-5 — Miracles and Material Life Teren Sevea Frontmatter More Information Dedicated with utmost humility to Wak ‘Ali Janggut Wak ‘Ali standing by the demolished grave of Siti Maryam al-‘Aydarus (d. 1853), April 2010. Photograph by Nurul Huda Rashid © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47718-5 — Miracles and Material Life Teren Sevea Frontmatter More Information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47718-5 — Miracles and Material Life Teren Sevea Frontmatter More Information Contents List of Maps and Figures page viii Prologue ix Acknowledgements xxii Notes on Transliteration xxvi List of Abbreviations xxvii An Introduction: The Magic of Islam and Modern Malaya 1 1 Compendia of Forest Patois and Agrarian ‘Ilmu 42 2 Pawangs and Munshis in Muhammad’s Ricefields 78 3 The Pawang’s ‘Wonderful Nose’ for Ore 111 4An‘Ilmu of Violence: The Elephant Bomohs of Modern Malaya 152 5 Gun Gurus and Sufi Shooters 180 Conclusion 211 Glossary 219 Bibliography 235 Index 252 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47718-5 — Miracles and Material Life Teren Sevea Frontmatter More Information Maps and Figures MAPS I.1 The Malay world and Java page 7 I.2 Malaya and Sumatra 20 FIGURES 0.1 Wak ‘Ali standing by the demolished grave of Siti Maryam al-‘Aydarus (d. 1853), April 2010 page v I.1 A village bomoh from Kelantan (1906) 12 I.2 A ‘spirit-raising’ bomoh from early twentieth-century Kelantan 13 1.1 Siti Maryam’s shrine complex, Kampung Kallang, Singapore 43 1.2 Page from KPP showing the head and foot of the dry rice plant 55 2.1 Page from ‘Chapter on the Naga’s Orbit’, SFPAB 101 3.1 Opencast tin mine in Selangor 122 4.1 Page from hemerology manual, Maxwell 15; divination from day of the month symbolised by the elephant 159 5.1 Page from Maxwell 24 including incantations and depicting location of malaikat on flintlock rifle 201 5.2 Page from KT including incantations for guns, bullets, aiming and shooting 204 viii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47718-5 — Miracles and Material Life Teren Sevea Frontmatter More Information Prologue 8 March 2014. Malaysian Airlines passenger flight MH370 departed as usual from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 12:41 a.m., only to disappear from air traffic control radar screens at 1:19 a.m. The Boeing 777-200R was heading east, en route to Beijing, when it appeared to turn around and fly west towards the Indian Ocean. Over the next three years, search operations were carried out across 46,000 square miles of the southern Indian Ocean in an attempt to find the wreckage of the aircraft or the corpses of its 239 passengers. Only a wing flap and flaperon were ever found. By August 2015, as investigations by ‘the world’s leading aviation experts’ seemed increasingly futile, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak bemoaned the fact that MH370’s ‘disappearance remained a mystery’.1 The search for flight MH370 was eventually called off on 17 January 2017. Questions about why the aircraft ‘went dark’, why it ‘veered off course’ and why it appears to have ‘tragically ended’ in the southern Indian Ocean have never been answered officially.2 Shortly after MH370 went missing, however, a miracle worker and spirit medium (bomoh, pawang) from the Malaysian state of Perak claimed to know what had happened. Ibrahim Mat Zin enjoyed multiple appellations as the Raja Bomoh (Chief Miracle Worker), Dato’ (Elder) of aSufi lineage and Mahaguru (Great Teacher) of an Islamic martial arts organisation.3 On 10 March 2014, he visited KLIA to join the search for flight MH370. While at the airport, he chanted Qur’anic verses and searched the skies for the missing aircraft with bamboo binoculars. He also used a rattan replica of the plane supplemented by coconuts, fish traps and hooks to conduct his investigation.4 He then 1 ‘Prime Minister Najib Razak Statement on MH370’. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibrahim Mat Zin had also founded and was president (pendiri) of the Malay Islamic martial arts (silat) organisation, Persatuan Seni Silat Gayung Ghaib (Association of the Fine Art of Silat tethered to the Unseen). 4 Amongst online articles on the Raja Bomoh’s rites at the KLIA, see ‘Raja Bomoh Turut Bantu Cari Pesawat MH370’, and Sevea, ‘Malaysia’s Rajah Bomoh: Throwback to an Earlier Age?’. ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47718-5 — Miracles and Material Life Teren Sevea Frontmatter More Information x Prologue declared that the flight had been hijacked by spirits and had entered an unseen world (‘alam ghaib). The Raja Bomoh called upon the 100,000 members of his cult to read the thirty-sixth chapter of the Qur’an (Yasin), and encouraged believers to pray as he continued his search for MH370 and its spirit-hijackers using his esoteric vision and bin- oculars.