Newsletter Sekolah Pascasarjana UIN Jakarta

@spsuinjkt ISSN 2354-7952 RESENSIUlasan Buku dan Artikel Jurnal No. 43/Th. VIIMaret-April 2019 www.graduate.uinjkt.ac.id Interpreting in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab

This excellent and eminently well- communicate their locality within the researched book systematically elu- Judul Buku larger Muslim community” (p. 7). cidates the contextual development Interpreting : Pilgrimage, Scrip- This preoccupation with human of the fascinating Sino-Islamic philo- ture, and Language in the Han Kitab agency and the ability to re-express sophical tradition known as the Han ideas permeates Interpreting Islam in Penulis Kitab. Oft-neglected within the field China. Reading each of his three au- Kristian Petersen of Islamic Studies as a whole, the Han thors through the prism of their specific Kitab tradition represents a unique, Penerbit historical contexts, Petersen attempts Chinese-language reconceptualization New York: Oxford University Press 2018 to identify the stimuli underlying a se- of Islam set within the context of tra- Jumlah Halaman ries of discursive shifts that ultimately ditional Chinese thought. Focusing on 304 helped define a uniquely Chinese form three particularly prominent Han Kitab of Islam. This historical context is the writers – (1590–1658), ISBN subject of the first two chapters of the (1670–1724), and Ma Dexin 9780190634346 book, which trace the establishment (1794–1874), the latter of whom has Peresensi and development of the Sino-Muslim never been studied in depth before – Alexander Wain community in Imperial China (Chapter Petersen seeks to not only facilitate a 1) and the Arabic and Persian literary better understanding of this tradition, networks underpinning the Han Kitab but also subvert conventional essential- tradition (Chapter 2). While much of the ized notions of Islam. information presented in these chapters As Petersen outlines in his intro- will be well known to specialists, it lays a duction, scholars of Islam, whether useful foundation for the subsequent and Muslim or non-Muslim, often work far more substantive discussion. to a common assumption: that Islam In Chapters 3 through 5, Petersen exists (whether now or in the past) in examines three broad issues identified a “true” or “pure” form represented by him as central to Han Kitab intel- by an authentic center (Arab Islam), lectual history: religious pilgrimage, the around which a deviant periphery significance of scripture, and linguistic revolves. In consequence, Islamicists authority. Firmly grounding his discus- concerned with those Muslim com- sion in the work of his chosen authors, munities resident at a distance, whether Petersen attempts to establish that by geographically or culturally, from this “the nineteenth century, Sino-Muslims perceived center tend to speak in terms [had] fostered greater engagement with of divergence. Utilizing terminology the broader Muslim world” by partici- like “syncretic,” they characterize their pating more fully in international travel, chosen communities as a product of resulting in a desire to “incorporate the corruption of two or more original themselves in cosmopolitan Muslim components (Islam and an indigenous environments” (p. 22) by shifting toward non-Islamic culture) to form another (a a more “universal” form of Islam that “vernacularized” Islam). For Petersen, stressed increased ritual observance, however, such essentialized notions of constructs in the eyes of their adher- knowledge of scripture, and Arabic Islam are both simplistic and unrealistic; ents. With regards to the Han Kitab, competency. all Muslims are social actors who build this “Sino-Islamic tradition is based In Chapter 3, Petersen begins this upon prior narratives to produce a vari- on exchange, movement, conversation, analysis with an examination of shifting ety of structured around specific negotiation, and dialogue” (p. 3) and Sino-Muslim attitudes toward the Hajj. geographic and cultural circumstances, ultimately functions as a means by Although for all three chosen authors which in turn serve to legitimate those which Sino-Muslims can “identify and the Hajj “represented characteristics of No. 43/Th. VII/Maret-April 2019 RESENSI Hal 2 the origins of the cosmos and exempli- praxis, he transitioned toward more time, Petersen deepens our understanding fied features of the collective memory precise and accurate translations. This of how Sino-Islamic thought evolved. of the Muslim community, thus com- approach was then perfected by Ma, For these reasons alone, Petersen is to be municating a sense of communal who attempted the first complete and applauded for his efforts. For the sake of identification” (p. 121), Petersen detects faithful Chinese-language translation a rounded picture, however, let me con- fluctuating understandings of precisely of the entire Qur’anic text (interrupted clude this review with consideration of how the Hajj should be fulfilled. For by his death). For Petersen, these several limitations to his approach. Rather Wang Daiyu, the Hajj was primarily shifting approaches belie how “each than detracting from the overall value of a symbolic act geared toward “under- author built atop the foundation of his Interpreting Islam in China, these should standing one’s place in the cosmos” intellectual ancestors, thus creating a be seen as possible avenues for future re- (p. 121); rather than feeling obliged to dynamic tradition . . .” (p. 156). Once search, capable of extending the advances physically complete the journey, Mus- again, Petersen sets this development Petersen has already made. lims need only appreciate its spiritual within the context of increased con- As we have seen, for the most part significance. While Liu Zhi largely re- nectivity with the wider Islamic world. Petersen rests his reconstruction of Han iterated this position, he also expended This, he argues, created within the Sino- Kitab intellectual evolution on a single considerable effort on delineating the Muslim community a desire to better supposition: as Sino-Muslim participation physical act of pilgrimage, encouraging understand the Qur’an in its entirety in a globalized Muslim world increased, his readers to undertake it. More than in order to facilitate engagement with a desire evolved to understand Islam in Wang, therefore, he emphasized the other Muslim communities. more orthodox terms, increasing levels importance of physically completing In his fifth and final chapter, Pe- of ritual observance, scriptural awareness, the Hajj. It was only with Ma Dexin, tersen outlines the increasing role of and Arabic competency. While there can however, that this emphasis morphed Arabic in the work of each author. be little doubt that Petersen adequately into an obligation; for Ma, the Hajj was After arguing that Wang and Liu uti- demonstrates this shift toward orthodoxy as “an example of a religious duty to lized Arabic primarily as “a source of over the stated period (at least outwardly be performed by all Muslims” (p. 122) personal inspiration and authority” (p. and among the selected authors), when without exception, provided circum- 196), Petersen establishes a far more identifying the cause of that shift he stances allowed. Indeed, unlike Wang central role for the language within arguably underplays the degree of con- and Liu, Ma successfully accomplished Ma’s discourse; unlike his predecessors, nectivity pre-nineteenth-century Sino- the Hajj, leaving a detailed account of Ma wrote original works in Arabic and Muslims enjoyed with the wider Islamic his journey. Petersen interprets these actively encouraged Arabic proficiency world. For instance, Petersen seemingly varying interpretations as evidence of a amongst his students. According to underestimates pre-modern Sino-Muslim gradual intellectual evolution prompted Petersen, this shift evinces how over participation in the Hajj. Although he by technological innovation; as steam the nineteenth century greater interna- readily acknowledges the existence of ships and railways began to facilitate tional connectivity meant “networks of a long Sino-Muslim Hajji tradition, he international travel over the course of knowledge were beginning to be created confines his reconstruction of that phe- the nineteenth century, Sino-Muslims between Muslims in China and those nomenon to a brief description of just came to understand the Hajj as not living in the Middle East, South Asia two eighteenth-century pilgrims, Ma merely a symbolically important ritual, and Southeast Asia,” creating a need Laichi (c.1681–1766) and Ma Mingxin but a realizable physical objective. for a “discursive space where Arabic (1719–1781) (p. 94). By contrast, he pays In Chapter 4, Petersen expands his was central” (p. 197). scant attention to all earlier Sino-Muslim discussion to consider each author’s Throughout the above chapters, Hajjis, most notably Hu Dengzhou approach to the utilization and repro- Petersen systematically contextualizes (c.1522–1597). A formative figure in duction of the Qur’anic text. For Wang, Sino-Muslim thought to a degree not Sino-Islamic thought, Hu established the rendering the underlying spiritual seen before, allowing him to effectively Chinese-language Islamic education sys- meaning of individual Qur’anic verses and insightfully illuminate the process of tem responsible for producing many Han was more important than any attempt tradition creation within the Han Kitab Kitab writers; his experience of the Hajj, at literal translation. This prompted while, simultaneously, demonstrating the including how it informed his worldview him to eschew faithful renderings in value of localized interpretations of Is- and impacted upon those who learnt favor of loose translations capable of lam. Petersen’s comparative treatment of under him, has obvious implications here expressing the inner complexity of his three authors is also a refreshing inno- but, sadly, is not considered beyond a few specific verses. While Liu subsequently vation; by allowing three prominent but lines (p. 44).* reproduced this approach in his mysti- very different Han Kitab writers to be laid (Sumber: ReOrient, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Autumn cal texts, when explicating religious out and analyzed side by side for the first 2018), h. 07-111. Penerbit Pluto Journals)

Penanggung Jawab: Prof Dr Amany Lubis Redaktur: Nanang Syaikhu Editor: Muhammad Adam Hesa Desain Grafis: Arief Mahmudi Fotografer: Jayadi Sekretariat: Tony Kurniawan, Nurbaini Futuhat Wulansari, Mohammad Ainur Rofiq Alamat Redaksi: Gedung Sekolah Pascasarjana Lt 3 Jl. Kertamukti No. 5 Pisangan Barat, Cireundeu, Ciputat Timur 15419 Telp. (021) 7401472-74709260 ext. 308 Faks: (021) 74700919, E-Mail Redaksi: [email protected] Penerbit: Sekolah Pascasarjana UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta Terbit dua bulan sekali