By: Mohd Faizal Musa
The book ‘Sejarah dan Budaya Syiah di Asia Tenggara[1]’ (2013) edited by Dicky Sofjan is a collection of essays invaluable to understanding the lifestyle and culture of Shi’a adherents or communities in Southeast Asia. There are 16 scholarly articles featured, discussing the position of the Shi’a school of thought in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. A core aspect of the articles is the clear evidence that Shi’ism in the Malay world was discovered since the arrival of Islam to the region. The use of the term Shi’a ‘discovery’ by the researchers in the book is important for presentation to an academic readership, because it is not about simply Shi’a ‘presence.’ This makes this book of a different persuasion than ‘Shi‘ism in South East Asia: ‘Alid Piety and Sectarian Constructions,’ edited by Chiara Formichi and Michael Feener.
That book’s publishers, Hurst Publishers takes pride in announcing on its website that the book is the first collection of research on the Shi’as in Southeast Asia. However, it was published in 2014, a year after ‘Sejarah dan Budaya Syiah di Asia Tenggara.’ The basis of research in Chiara Formichi and Michael Feener’s book is to just describe ‘Shi’a presence,’ while in ‘Sejarah dan Budaya Syiah di Asia Tenggara,’ the researchers, all of whom are from the Malay world, stress that the Shi’a ‘were not simply present’ but had in fact longstanding roots, and their interest in this phenomenon is because it is a valuable ‘perjumpaan,’ or encounter. This book is a gem for researchers of the Shi’a school of thought, because it includes a rare article on the Shi’a movement in Thailand by Julispong Chularatana, which was previously written mostly in Thai. Now it is available in Malay. The same applies to the article of Roque Santos Morales from the Philippines, who presents a cogent hypothesis on the presence of Shi’a adherents in the Philippines since the pre-Hispanic era.
There are also many articles on Shi’a cultural practices which draw from works of literature, for example the essay titled ‘Kesalehan nan Terlampaui: Desakralisasi Ritus Hoyak Hosen di Sumatere Barat[2]’ by Yudhi Andoni as well as on the practice of concealing their faith, namely in ‘Praktis Taqiyah: Strategi Syiah Indonesia Untuk Pengakuan[3]’ by Zulkifli. The book’s orientation clearly avoids constructing any clash between the Shi’a and Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah ‘mazhabs’, with an exception being Rima Sari Idra Putri’s ‘Mata Rantai Sebab-Sebab Konflik di Antara Syiah dan Sunni di Madura[4].’
Also in the collection is an article by Mohd Faizal Musa on the Hikayat Hasan Husin, which was commonly read by the Malay community of Malaya once upon a time. The book discovers what has been lost in the Malay world, and gives a glimpse of how the Shi’a with its origins in the Middle East, was nonetheless able to contribute greatly to the Malay culture of the region. The studies in this book also present a focused argument on the reasons behind the de-Syiahisation in the Malay world, namely the presence of Salafisme, taqiyyah practices and the neutralization of Sunni teachings that remain reverent of the ahlul bait or the family of the Prophet PBUH. It is therefore unsurprising that for example Mark R. Woodward, scholar of Islam in Southeast Asia from Arizona State University, in the foreword to the book states the relevance of the studies contained therein, because they describe the vast extent of Shi’a influence on the culture, literature and traditions of Muslim societies in the Malay world. Overall, this book is a landmark that cannot be ignored, rooted in indigenous scholars discussing a major movement in the Middle East—Shi’a—that has been absorbed by society to positive results. As the earliest work about the Shi’a in the Malay world, it is an important work of literature.
Dicky Sofjan. (ed.). 2013. Sejarah dan Budaya Syiah di Asia Tenggara. Universitas Gadjah Mada. Jogjakarta. Pp. Xxvii-340. ISBN 978-979-25-0118-6
[1] English: ‘The History and Culture of Syiah in Southeast Asia.’
[2] English: ‘Excessive Piousness: Desacralisation of Hoyak Husen Rituals in West Sumatera.’
[3] English: ‘Taqiyah Practices: Indonesian Syiah Strategies of Confession.’
[4] English: ‘The Interconnected Reasons for Sunni and Syiah Conflict in Madura.’