http://englishkyoto-seas.org/ Lin Hongxuan English as an Islamic Cosmopolitan Vernacular: English-Language Sufi Devotional Literature in Singapore Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3, December 2017, pp. 447-484. How to Cite: Lin Hongxuan. English as an Islamic Cosmopolitan Vernacular: English-Language Sufi Devotional Literature in Singapore. Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3, December 2017, pp. 447-484. Link to this article: https://englishkyoto-seas.org/2017/12/vol-6-no-3-lin-hongxuan/ View the table of contents for this issue: https://englishkyoto-seas.org/2017/12/vol-6-no-3-of-southeast-asian-studies/ Subscriptions: http://englishkyoto-seas.org/mailing-list/ For permissions, please send an e-mail to:
[email protected] Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University English as an Islamic Cosmopolitan Vernacular: English-Language Sufi Devotional Literature in Singapore Lin Hongxuan* The key question this paper addresses is why Sufi devotional literature has been published and consumed in English, and the implications of this phenomenon. The material examined here focuses on literature that is consumed in Singapore: avail- able in bookstores, in institutional archives, online, distributed at Sufi events, and in the private possession of practicing Sufis. I argue that English is used as both a Singaporean vernacular and a cosmopolitan lingua franca, allowing Sufis across the world to communicate with one another. I also argue that the adoption of English is necessarily tied to the rise of digital media and the perception of English as a “modern” marker of prestige and sobriety. This paper is organized in three parts.