CHAPTER THREE
ARAB HADHRAMIS IN MALAYSIA: THEIR ORIGINS AND ASSIMILATION IN MALAY SOCIETY
Abdul Rahman Tang Abdullah
Introduction
The term ‘assimilation’ is loosely used in this chapter to describe the process of the integration or indigenisation of the Hadhramis into Malay society in Malaysia from the time of their advent into the region up to the present day.1 In this context, I may argue that this process of assimilation has a historical, social and political signifi cance due to the fact that it gave the Hadhrami migrants special respect in the indigenous society, where they dominated the political discourse and held a variety of key posts ranging from chiefs of villages to paramount rulers at the apex of the Malay political structure (kerajaan).2 The chapter exam- ines fi rst the signifi cance of their ideology of descent, and, second, the process of their adaptation and assimilation in the Malay environment. Special attention will also be paid to their role in Malay society with a particular emphasis on those who trace their origins to al- usayn ibn Alī ibn Abī ālib and are given the title of sayyid (pl. sāda).
Origins of the Hadhramis in Malaysia
The vast majority of the Arab Hadhramis in Malaysia migrated from Hadhramaut in southern Yemen, and the rest came from other parts of the Arab world.3 They are ethnically classifi ed into two major
1 Omar Farouk Bajunid, “The Arab Network in Southeast Asia: The Case of Pen- ang”, Paper presented at the 6th International Symposium on Population Movement in the Modern World: Population Movement Beyond the Middle East, Diaspora and Network”, 23–25 January 2005, Osaka, Japan; “The Arabs in Southeast Asia: A Pre- liminary Overview”, Hiroshima Journal of International Studies, vol. 2, 1996, 21–38. 2 For further details, see Othman, “Hadhramis in the Politics”, 82–94. 3 Huub de Jonge, “Dutch Colonial Policy Pertaining to Hadhrami Immigrants”, in Freitag and Clarence-Smith (eds.), Hadhrami Traders, Scholar and Statesmen, 96. 46 abdul rahman tang abdullah groups: sāda and non-sāda. The sāda trace their descent to the Prophet Mu ammad (s.a.w.) via his daughter Fā ima, the wife of Alī ibn Abī ālib and the mother of his sons, al- asan and al- usayn. This claim links them matrilineally with the Prophet while preserving their patrilin- eal descent to Alī ibn Abī ālib via his son, al- usayn. In 929, one of al- usayn’s descendants, known as A mad ibn Īsā, migrated from Iraq to Hadhramaut, where he was given the title “Al-Muhājir ilā Allah” or the migrant to Allah, and is regarded as the ancestor of the Hadhrami Sāda.4 Later in 1127, his descendant, Sayyid Alī ibn Alawī Khalaq Qassam, migrated to Tarīm in southern Hadhramaut and converted it into a prominent centre of Islamic education in the region. After him, the Hadhrami sāda were given the name of Bā Alawī or Alawī Sāda,5 and they widely spread in Hadhramaut and in the diasporas, forming various branches or clans such as al-Saqāff, al- A ās, al- Aydarūs (also known as al-Idrūs), Aydīd, al-Junayd, al-Qādrī, Āl Ya yā, al-Shā rī, Bā Rukbah.6 It is believed that most of those who came to Southeast Asia were descendants of Bā Alawī clan and its several branches.7 The second group of the non-Sayyid Hadhramis in Malaysia claims descent from the Quraysh tribe which had played a signifi cant role in the pre- and post-Islamic history of Makkah.8 It is historically known that the indigenous population of southern Yemen are mainly from the Qa ānī clan which has no direct link with the Quraysh. But since the manifestation of Islam, it became a kind of prestige for all Arabs to trace their descent back to the Quraysh, the tribe of the Prophet Mu ammad. Here, one may notice that the non-sayyid Hadhramis, who are mainly from southern Yemen, trace their descent to the Quraysh of northern Arabia.9
4 R. B. Serjeant, The Sayyids of Hadhramaut, London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1957, 7–8. 5 The main reference used by the Alawī Sayyids to legitimize their claim of origins is: Shallī, Kitāb al-Mashra al-Rawwī fī Manāqib al-Sadah al-Kirām Āl Bā Alawī, Cairo, 1901. 6 Interview with Sayyid Umar ibn Abdullah al-Shā rī, Subang Jaya, 8th July 2005. Sayyid Umar is currently compiling the genealogies of the Alawī Sayyids in Malaysia. 7 Serjeant, The Sayyids of Hadhramaut, 7. 8 Interview with Omar Farouk Sheikh Ahmad Bajunid, University of Malaya, in October 1991. 9 Freitag, Indian Ocean Migrants, 38–43; Camelin, “Refl ection on the System of Social Stratifi cation in Hadhramaut”, 148–149.