Hajj manuscripts from Southeast Asia

Jan Just Witkam (Leiden Institute for Area Studies)

www.janjustwitkam.nl

Hajj: Journey to the heart of Islam. Conference in the British Museum,

London, 22nd-24th March 2012 Hajj certificate, 17-18th century. Khalili collection.

Poster in British Museum, London, January-April 2012.

Portable penholder with inkwell. Ottoman style after an originally Japanese design. This holder was purchased in Surabaya in 1995 from the estate of an Indonesian pilgrim. Source: Originals in collection J.J. Witkam, Leiden.

Beginning of the Syair Makah dan Medinah, an elaboration in Malay verse, made in Mecca by Shaykh Ismail b. ‘Abdullah al-Khalidi, in 1250/1834-1835.

The original text is the Syair Makah dan Medinah by Shaykh Dawud, a versified story written in the Minangkabau language, Relating the author’s own pilgrimage, which may have taken place in c. 1830.

Shaykh Dawud may have written the poem in order to restore his ruined reputation at home.

MS from Sumatra dated 1269/1853, marginal notes by H.N. van der Tuuk. Source: MS Leiden Or. 3338, f. 1.

Mawlid al-Nabi, poem on the life of the Prophet Muhammad written in Arabic by Shaykh Muhammad ‘Arif, with his own commentary in prose, in Malay. The text begins with the Nur Muhammad. MS from Sumatra dated 1269/1853, by same copyist who also wrote the Syair Makah dan Medinah. Source: MS Leiden Or. 3289, ff. 24b-25a.

The Nur Muhammad, descending from heaven on the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina. Image taken from an Ottoman manuscript of al-Jazuli’s Dala’il al-Khayrat , undated, but probably first half 19th century. Source: MS Kuala Lumpur, ISTAC Library, Ar. Cat., vol. 2 No. 61, f. 8a.

An unidentified Aceh’nese scholar in Mecca, with his books. From a portrait series by the doctor Abd al-Ghaffar and C. Snouck Hurgronje, made in Mecca 1885-1888. Source: Snouck Hurgronje Photo Archives, Leiden University Library.

Acehnese pilgrims in the courtyard of the Dutch consulate, Jedda, 1884. Photograph by C. Snouck Hurgronje. The leader of the group, sitting second from right, has now been identified as Teungku di Cot Plieng, a famous resistance fighter in the Aceh-war. C. Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 36.

The Dutch were engaged, between 1873-1904, in a war of attrition against the Sultanate of Aceh, North Sumatra.

The Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, the object of the visit, the ziyara.

The ziyara is not connected to the pilgrimage ritual, nor is it restricted to the pilgrimage season, but numerous pilgrims avail themselves of the opportunity to visit the Prophet’s Mosque and to perform rituals, less well-described than the Manasik al-Hajj, the ritual prescriptions for the pilrimage.

Image of sacred geography from Dala’il al-Khayrat, in a manuscript from Natal (West Sumatra), copied in 1229/1813-1814, the prayer book of the Imam Bonjol. Source: MS Leiden Or. 1751, f. 183a. The prayer book of the Imam Bonjol.

Imaginary portrait of the Tuanku Imam Bonjol (1796-1864) on the Indonesian 5000 Rp banknote (2001).

This leader of the ‘Padri’-wars made his last stand in Bonjol, Central Sumatra, on August 16, 1837, and was then sent into exile. His prayer book, with texts in Arabic and Malay, and with numerous devotional and magical images, including Mecca and Medina, is now in Leiden University.

The Mosque of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina. A visitor’s certificate from Java. Iconographical elements: cupola, graves, pulpit, palms in an open space, etc.

Lithography, Medina, mid-19th century.

Source: Leiden Library, kept in Plano 53 F 1

Graveyard Baqî’ al-Gharqad, not far from the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. The graves of members of the family of the Prophet (also of his favourite wife A’isha) and many other saints and believers. It is a place to be buried, or to visit and ask for intercession (shafâ‘a). Shortly after the Saudi conquest of Medina (1925) the graveyard was destroyed. Source: al-Lari, Tuhfat al-Haramayn, MS Leiden Or. 11.079, f. 38b (1012/1603).

Baqi‘ al-Gharqad, in Medina, with its numerous burial places. From a manuscript from Kalyani, India, 20th-century. Source: MS Kuala Lumpur, ISTAC, Cat. Arabic. Vol. 2, No. 61, f. 8b

Medina and its burial places, here combined from several other icographical elements. The palms of van Fatima (above), a grill (above), the grave of the Prophet (centre, below), the graves of the four righteous caliphs (left, below). At the right and the centre graves of the family of the Prophet and other saints (orang baik). Source: Prayer book of Imam Bonjol, MS Leiden Or. 1751, f. 69b.

Baqi` al-Gharqad, photograph of the cemetery as it was, early 20th-century or late 19th-century. In and after 1925 most individual graves were made unrecognizable. Source: Taha & al-Bakri, Baqi` al-Gharqad, Medina 1424/2004, p. 72.

Baqi` al-Gharqad, photograph of the cemetery, early 21st-century or late 20th-century. Individual graves are now unmarked. Most graves are indicated with anonymous stones. Source: Taha & al-Bakri, Baqi` al-Gharqad, Medina 1424/2004, p. 84.

The payong, ceremonial parasol of the Prophet Muhammad, and other powerful images. Images from the magical part of the prayer book of the Imam Bonjol. Source: MS Leiden, Or. 1751, ff. 58b-59a.

The seals of prophethood, From a series of muhr’s in the magical part of the prayer book of the Imam Bonjol. Source: MS Leiden, Or. 1751, ff. 59b-60a.

The mosques of Mecca and of Medina. Images from the magical part of the prayer book of the Imam Bonjol. A visualization of the shahada formula. Source: MS Leiden, Or. 1751, ff. 68b-69a.

The mosques of Mecca (right) and of Medina. Illustration to Sharaf al-Anâm, an anonymous Indonesian Arabic poem, often used in Mawlid ceremonies. Edition from Kudus (Central Java) ca. 2000. Source: Private collection..