6. Publishing Publishing has been another important means for Indonesian Shi‘is to spread their teachings, and has gone hand in hand with the development of the madhhab in Indonesia. The publication of books and periodicals can, to a certain extent, be considered to be a form of da‘wa, but it is also a contribution to the intellectual and cultural life of the country. The discussion in this chapter is divided into five parts: first, I give a brief description of the general characteristics of Shi‘i publishers in Indonesia. The second and third parts deal with translations of Shi‘i books and books written by local Shi‘i figures. Fourth, I describe Islamic periodicals published by Shi‘i institutions of learning and da‘wa and finally, I explain the internal impact of publishing on the Shi‘i community and the relationship with religious authorities in Indonesia. A. The Shi‘is Publishers Over the past two decades, in congruence with the increasing number of followers of Shi‘ism in Indonesia, there have been more than sixty publishers1 producing hundreds of Shi‘i titles and publications. Shi‘i books, in a broad sense, are any books written by Shi‘i ‘ulama or intellectuals containing the teachings of Shi‘ism and Shi‘i thought. This steady growth in the number of publishers and of Shi‘i literature is a new and striking phenomenon in the history of Islam in Sunni-dominated Indonesia, and it has to some extent taken Muslim scholars and the country’s religious and political authorities unaware. In response to the proliferation of Islamic literature and the Muslim population’s thirst for this material, the late liberal Muslim thinker, Harun Nasution (1919-1998) wrote an article for Tempo, possibly the best-known Indonesian magazine, on its 60th anniversary in 1987 with a discussion of Islamic literature. Nasution’s essay deals with the origins, doctrines and development of Shi‘ism, and its inclusion in this special edition of Tempo indicates the significance of Shi‘i publications. Similarly, about a decade later, Azra noted the growth of Shi‘i publishers and literature as an unusual phenomenon in Islamic discourse in Indonesia.2 That said, the vast majority of these Shi‘is’ publishers are little or even completely unknown to the community of mainstream publishers, IKAPI (Ikatan Penerbit Indonesia, the Association of Indonesian Publishers).3 Most small publishing 1 This figure is derived from catalogues of the libraries of theMuthahhari Foundation, the Fatimah Foundation, the RausyanFikr Foundation, the Al-Jawad Foundation, and the ICC of Al-Huda. 2 Azra (1999). 3 Iwan Setiawan, the deputy head of IKAPI, quoted in Republika (28/3/2004:5) gives the total number of Islamic publishers as 50. Watson (2005:179) shows that this is an underestimation and the total number is in fact much greater. 163 The Struggle of the Shi'is in Indonesia houses are not registered with this professional organisation and they do not take part in the book fairs attended by the mainstream publishers. It is also the case that many of these Shi‘i’ publishers appear on the market with a number of books and then disappear, usually because their businesses cannot compete and survive in the open market. There are two types of Shi‘i publishers in Indonesia. The first is purely commercial, publishers whose core activity since establishment has been publishing and marketing. This category includes Shi‘i-owned firms which produce both Shi‘i and non- Shi‘i books. The three most important in this category are Mizan, Pustaka Hidayah and Lentera. All have become well- established publishing houses and are registered members of IKAPI. There are numerous others in this category, some of them no longer active. The second type includes Shi‘i institutions that undertake publishing as part of their wider activities, including da‘wa and education. Several big institutions such as ICC of Al-Huda, Muthahhari, Al-Jawad, YAPI (Yayasan Penyiaran Islam), YAPI (Yayasan Pesantren Islam) of Bangil and Al-Baqir of Bangil fall into this category. Other Shi‘i institutions have set up separate publishing houses, such as Pustaka Zahra, belonging to the Fatimah Foundation and Cahaya, belonging to IPABI. Quantitative data illustrates the popularity of the established Shi‘i publishing houses. In terms of quantity, figures provided byRaushanFikr, a Shi‘i foundation based in Yogyakarta, show that until 2001 the top four publishers were Pustaka Hidayah with 60 titles, Mizan with 56 titles, Lentera with 50 titles and YAPI (Yayasan Penyiaran Islam) of Jakarta with 31 titles.4 It is interesting to note that although Mizan is one of the largest and even enjoys the reputation of being the most popular Shi‘i publisher, its output is below that of Pustaka Hidayah. These rankings may change with the appearance of new firms such as Pustaka Zahra and Cahaya, which have been very active in recent years: figures up to March 2004 show that Pustaka Zahra produced more than 50 titles and Cahaya more than 40. The most active Shi‘i institution engaged in producing cultural material is the Iranian-sponsored Islamic Cultural Centre of Al-Huda (ICC). Figures up to March 2004 show that ICC of Al-Huda has published more than 30 books, including an imprint of the Qur’an. This act of publishing the Holy Book may have been an attempt to deny the accusation made in many Sunni polemical writings that the Shi‘is have their own Qur’an and that it is very different to that used by Sunni Muslims. (In fact, the contents do not differ at all from the copies printed by other publishers in Indonesia.) Other Shi‘i institutions also engaged in publishing but on a smaller scale are the Muthahhari Press, Al- Jawad, YAPI of Bangil, Al-Baqir of Bangil and Al-Kautsar of Jakarta, producing 4 Shafwan (http://rausyanfikr.tripod.com/makatul/sosio-agama.htm). 164 6 . Publishing fewer than 20 titles each. These numbers illustrate the limitations of the Shi‘i institutions in the field of publishing, which is not altogether surprising when one considers that for most of them publishing serves as an adjunct to their missionary activity. There is a stark contrast between the two types of publishers in terms of their orientation and management. The firms we have classified as purely commercial have a strong business orientation, while those which fall into the second category can be said to be da‘wa oriented, only interested in undertaking publishing as a part of their da‘wa programmes. The management of the ‘commercial’ publishers tends to be rational and modern, while that of those in the second group can be described as traditional. Both categories are distinguished by the types of books they publish. While the commercial firms produce only a small proportion of Shi’ite literature compared to their total number of publications, the Shi‘i da’wa institutions tend to confine themselves to the production of Shi‘i works alone. Furthermore, the books put out by the commercial publishing houses tend to be directed towards attracting a wider readership than those of the Shi‘i da’wa foundations. The latter are only likely to publish Shi‘i work of interest to the Shi‘i community in Indonesia, or works relevant to their current da‘wa programmes. This also corresponds to the non-profit purpose ofda‘wa . In order that we may fully understand the two categories of publishers, profiles of Mizan and YAPI (Yayasan Penyiaran Islam) now follow. Mizan is one of the biggest and most dynamic publishers of Islamic books in Indonesia today and it has played a great role in the development of Islamic intellectual life in the country. In 1982, Haidar Bagir, together with his friends Zainal Abidin and Ali Abdullah graduated from the Industrial Arts Department of ITB. With financial support from Bagir’s maternal uncle, Abdillah Toha and Toha’s associate, Anis Hadi the three established a publishing business in Bandung. Mizan has emerged with a distinctive product range, in striking contrast to the great Islamic publishers such as Al-Ma‘arif of Bandung. Its distinctiveness is the Shi‘i identity of its books, something that has both popularised and stigmatised it. The popularity of Mizan goes hand in hand with the popularity of its co- founder and chief director, Haidar Bagir. Though Mizan cannot be formally classified as a Shi‘i publisher, since its foundation it has been closely associated with Shi‘ism and is regarded as having made a significant contribution to its development in Indonesia on several counts: first, Mizan has published a number of Shi‘i works, although these are only a fraction of the Sunni works it has produced. Second, Mizan has published works written by Shi‘i ‘ulama and scholars, providing a platform for the teachings of Shi‘ism in Indonesia. This was a controversial step given that to the majority Muslim population, the name ‘Shi‘ism’ had - and still has - negative connotations and is regarded as heterodoxy. Such brave efforts were clearly 165 The Struggle of the Shi'is in Indonesia counter to the long-running tradition of Sunni Islam in the country. What is more, Mizan’s first book and one of its bestsellers,Dialog Sunni Syi‘ah (A Sunni- Shi‘i Dialogue), translated from al-Muraja‘at “summed up the purpose of Mizan […] and intended to present a more ‘balanced’ view of Shi‘ism”.5 Haidar Bagir admits that one rationale for publishing this book was the fact that his madhhab is so often misunderstood by large numbers of Muslims in Indonesia.6 Mizan went on to publish numerous works by Shi‘i scholars, including Ali Shari‘ati, Mutahhari, Khomeini and Husayn Tabataba’i.