An Underlying Aspect of Islamization in Java

Abstract

It has long been accepted in academic circles that after the first wave of Islamization in Java, Muslim society became rather stagnant until the rise of the Modern Islamic Movements at the beginning of this century. Such a view overlooks the dynamism of Islam, and has contributed to creating the image of a “superficially Islamized Java”. However, if we look into this problem from another aspect, namely language, we can find a new dimension and it will show how deeply Javanese society has in fact been Islamized.The Arabic Language forms the basis for Islamic concepts. In the development of Islam Arabic words were borrowed by many Asian and African languages. Javanese also contains a plenty of Arabic words with certain phonetical changes. These Arabic loan words carry Islamic messages and influence the way Javanese think. Nowadays in daily conversation the fact of using Arabic loan words is almost unnoticed since such words are so deeply rooted in modern Javanese and so commonly used.Historically speaking by the beginning of 19th century Javanese had already contained many Arabic words. For examble, in Yasadipura I's Serat Cabolek which reflects the Javanese intellectual standard of the time, we find more than 150 Arabic loan words, which are used not only as religious and ethical terms but also scientific and legal ones.Furthermore, from the Arabic loan words that appear in Raffle's lexicon of the Javanese language, based on his stay in Java during the years 1811-1816, we recognize a great change taking place in Javanese religious life. First, time concepts are expressed by Arabic words, meaning that their daily life was organized around Muslim pious duties and festivals. Secondly, it became more important to record, and also more socially respectable to have “knowledge” or to become a learned man. Thirdly, Islamic law was applied and disputes were judged based on it. Moreover, Javanese values were manifested in Arabic loan words. It can safely be said that by this time Javanese life was deeply influenced by Islam.In the late years of the last century, a Dutch Orientalist, Juynboll, collected Arabic loan words in Javanese. From his list we can add more terms to those found in the work of Yasadipra I concerning religion, ethics, psychology, science, law, and society.How these words came into the Javanese language is somewhat of an enigma, since Java had never been colonized by the Arabs and the number of Arab inhabitants in Java was so very limited. We should give notice to the fact that most of those Arabic words carry rather abstract meanings and do not express concrete things. This means that these words were learned as scholastic activities and spread from there throughout the rest of society.In this respect it is noteworthy that the traditional religious schools, like the langgar and pesantren were the source of Javanese knowledge until the end of the 19th century. In these schools kitab (religious books written in Arabic) were used, and the main subject was Islamic Law, followed by Islamic Theology. Islamic Law is designed to regulate the relationships between God and human beings, as well as also relationships among “the faithful”. Islamic Jurisprudence as taught in the kitab discusses interpretations and applications of the law. Islamic Theology concentrates on the problem of how human behaviour is recognized rationally, arguing human beings are responsible for their own conduct, so it requires normative terms. It is strongly suggested that Arabic words were first learned by santri (pupils of Islamic schools) and then carried to the rest of society.In the modern age Arabic loan words still form the core of the Javanese language, and without them the Javanese would be unable to express their thoughts. This is even more true with the Indonesian language and the Indonesians. A lot of new foreign words from Dutch and Eng