Indonesia and the Malay World, 2020

This article examines two copies of the Qur’an from 18th-century Banten held in the National Library of the Republic of Indonesia, A.51 and W.277, that contain interlinear Malay translations, focusing on two aspects, i.e. Qur’anic readings and Malay translations, to reveal Qur’anic pedagogical practices in the region. This article suggests that differences in the way a Qur’anic reading is used for the writing of the Qur’an guide us to understand the users and their levels of acquired skills and knowledge. In this regard, the Qur’an A.51 was possibly used for those who gained high level skills in Qur’anic recitation, while the Qur’an W.277 was possibly made for students at basic levels or ordinary Muslims. Meanwhile, the examination of their Malay translations reveals that both present a different style in rendering, compared to those in two 17th-century Malay commentaries (i.e. the Cambridge manuscript Or. Ii.6.45 and the Tarjumān) and the Jalālayn, a well known work on Qur’anic exegesis in the Muslim world. In a broader context, this article affirms the existence of Malay translations in the Qur’ans A.51 and W.277 as a proof for the continuation of Malay exegetical activities in 18th century after the composition of the Tarjumān in the late 17th century.

In M. Daneshgar, P. G. Riddell, and A. Rippin (Eds.). The Qur'an in the Malay-Indonesian World: Context and Interpretation. London: Routledge. (Routledge Studies in the Quran), 2016

This chapter examines Qur'anic translations in Malay, Javanese and Sundanese from the seventeenth century to the early twentieth century, considering the ways in which variations in translation types reflect how these works functioned in Muslim societies as commentary or substitution.

Australian Journal of Islamic Studies, 2021

Scholarly studies of Southeast Asian commentaries of the Qur’ān produced prior to the 20th century uncover the dominant position of Tafsīr al-Jalālayn as the main reference among other popular classical and medieval Qur’ānic commentaries authored by al-Baghawī, al-Khāzin and al-Bayḍāwī. In this article, I question the Jalālayn’s position in modernist exegetical activities, given the translated text is usually presented so briefly that it prevents authors of tafsir from giving extra-explanations as glosses. Meanwhile, there is an increasing trend in modern tafsir literature to expand commentaries from various disciplines. For this study, I examine selected verses from Tafsir Qurän Karim by an Azhari-trained scholar, Mahmud Yunus (d. 1982), as among the first complete Malay/Indonesian commentaries in the modern period (1938). I argue the Jalālayn was at a crossroads for being marginalised from mainstream modernist Indonesian tafsir literature. While the absence of Jalālayn’s role in modern Indonesian commentaries is obvious, modernist commentators do not entirely neglect some legendary elements usually found in classical and medieval Qur’ānic commentaries and add them to their commentary works.

Atlantis Press, Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 137, 271-278, 2017

This study highlights the opportunities and challenges of Qur'anic commentaries or tafsir in Sundanese. I will show that the position of Sundanese tafsir cannot be separated from cultural background and politics of regional languages in Indonesia, as well as shift of global information technology and literacy. The rise of publication of Sundanese tafsir would not only be influenced by the reformist Muslim commentary on the Qur'an in the Middle East at the beginning of the twentieth century but also the Dutch colonial policy on regional language that enhanced the print publication of Sundanese. Now, however, the publication of Sundanese tafsir is beginning to decline. There are many factors contributed to the decreasing publication of Sundanese tafsir, such as the assumptions of more complex rules of regional language, the government policy of national language and the invasion of global television networks and the evolution of the internet and social media. I worried about these factors could make the identity of Sundanese tafsir began to disappear. The identity of Sundanese tafsir related to its uniqueness in the richness of the language and locality of the tafsir issues. Its locality of the tafsir issues in Indonesia related to the transmission of 'Abduh's ideas about Islamic reform to Southeast Asia, as reflected in al-Manar. Instead of presumably asserting that the rise of publication of Sundanese tafsir related to the idea of Islamic reform to respond to the traditionalist Islamic thought. It was different from the contemporary approach to the study of the Qur'an that not yet used in the Sundanese tafsir along with the publication began to decline.

Wacana, 2020

Der Islam, 2021

This paper discuss the influence of Ottoman Qur’ans on the Qur’an in Southeast Asia, from the manuscript era and through the period of early printing up to the present day. At various times, Ottoman influence can be detected in certain specific aspects of Southeast Asian Qur’ans, including the illumination, calligraphy and graphic layout of the text. In recent years this influence has become much stronger, particularly since the ratification of the Indonesian Standard Qur’an in 1984, as one of the three approved versions is based on the Qur’an printed at the Matba‘ah Bahriyah in Istanbul. This edition of the Qur’an has long been used in Indonesia by Qur’anic reciters who learn the text by heart (hafiz) in various pesantren (madrasahs). During recent research in Istanbul, a copy of the Qur’an printed at the Matba‘ah Bahriyah in the early 20th century was located in the Beyazit Devlet Kutuphanesi. Keywords: Ottoman Qur’an, ayet ber kenar, Southeast Asian Qur’an, Indonesian Standard Qur’an, Qur’an manuscript, early printed Qur’an, contemporary Indonesian Qur’an. Tulisan ini membahas tentang pengaruh Qur’an Usmani terhadap Qur’an di Asia Tenggara, sejak masa manuskrip, masa cetak awal, hingga sekarang. Dalam beberapa hal, pengaruh Usmani dapat dilihat dalam beberapa aspek tertentu, seperti iluminasi, kaligrafi, dan tataletak teks. Pada masa belakangan, pengaruh tersebut lebih menguat, terutama sejak disahkannya Mushaf Al-Qur’an Standar Indonesia pada 1984, sebab salah satu dari tiga jenis Al-Qur’an yang disahkan tersebut didasarkan pada Qur’an Usmani yang dicetak oleh Matba’ah Bariyah di Istanbul. Jenis mushaf ini telah lama digunakan di Indonesia oleh oleh para penghafal Al-Qur’an di berbagai pesantren. Kata kunci: Qur’an Usmani, ayet ber kenar, Qur’an Asia Tenggara, Mushaf Al-Qur’an Standar Indonesia, manuskrip Qur’an, Qur’an cetakan awal, Qur’an Indonesia kontemporer.

Asian Social Science, 2014

Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan is considered the first Malay Qur'anic commentary authored by Muhammad Said ibn Umar. It is recognized as the second tafsir work has a complete 30 constituents or juz of the Qur'an in Malay language after the masterpiece of Abdul Rauf al-Singkili, Tarjuman al-Mustafid. However, some aspects of Muhammad Said's background are still vague, due to limited data and information. His work did not remark by Western scholars in their studies on the history of Malay Islamic literature and thus, results in it being less well known. Therefore, this article aims to introduce Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan and to provide a descriptive analysis of its significance to the Malays in Malaysia, especially during the early 20th century. The study demonstrates that the contribution of Muhammad Said in the tafsir of Qur'an is significant in increasing the tafsir literacy level of the Malay Muslim community in the country. The tafsir was produced by referring to numbers of primary references therefore reflects the ability of Muhammad Said in filtering, synthesizing interpretations from various sources and presenting it in a style which is distinctive and significantly for Malay Muslim readers.

ReOrient Journal , 2020

This essay presents a broad overview of certain key works and intellectual trends that mark traditional scholarship on the Qur’an in South Asia, from the late medieval to the modern periods, roughly the fourteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Far from an exhaustive survey of any sort, what I have attempted instead is a preliminary and necessarily partial outline of the intellectual trajectory of Qur’an commentaries and translations in the South Asian context—in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu—with a view to exploring how shifting historical and political conditions informed new ways of engaging the Qur’an. My central argument is this: in South Asia, the early modern and modern periods saw an important shift from largely elite scholarship on the Qur’an, invariably conducted by scholars intimately bound to the imperial order of their time, to more self-consciously popular works of translation and exegesis designed to access and attract a wider non-elite public. In this shift, I argue, translation itself emerged as an important and powerful medium of hermeneutical populism pregnant with the promise of broadening the boundaries of the Qur’an’s readership and understanding. In other words, as the pendulum of political sovereignty gradually shifted from pre-colonial Islamicate imperial orders to British colonialism, new ways of imagining the role, function, and accessibility of the Qur’an also came into central view. A major emphasis of this essay is on the thought and contributions of the hugely influential eighteenth-century scholar Shah Wali Ullah (d. 1762) and his family on the intellectual topography of South Asian Qur’an commentaries and translations.

Qur'an translation in Indonesia: Scriptural politics in a multilingual state, 2024

Gives an overview of the main features and issues characterising the field of Qur'an translation in modern Indonesia.