Ba ‘Alawi Women and The Development of Hadrami Studies in Indonesia
PDF

Keywords

Ba ‘Alawi Women
Ṭarīqah ‘Alawīyah
Tarekat Network
Hadrami Studies
Islam in Indonesia

How to Cite

Husein, F. (2025). Ba ‘Alawi Women and The Development of Hadrami Studies in Indonesia. Studia Islamika, 32(1), 137–159. https://doi.org/10.36712/sdi.v32i1.46004

Abstract

Research concerning the Indonesian Hadrami diaspora predominantly centers on male actors, with contributions primarily from male scholars. There remains a notable lack of scholarship that adequately addresses the contributions of Hadrami female religious authorities and is authored by female scholars. I begin by examining the research surrounding the Hadrami diaspora in the Indian Ocean region. In the second part, I focus on literature concerning Hadrami women to highlight the scarcity of research that explores the dynamics of contemporary Indonesian Ba ‘Alawi female preachers, despite their impact in coloring Indonesian Islam. Finally, through the perspective of feminist epistemology and “gender jihad,” I emphasize the epistemological contributions by these preachers as the preservers and disseminators of their Sufi tradition, known as Ṭarīqah ‘Alawīyah, while also providing new interpretations and practices of this thariqah. This article helps to enhance our understanding of the Hadrami diaspora in the Indian Ocean region, the dynamics of Sufi networks, and the roles of women in Indonesian Islam.
https://doi.org/10.36712/sdi.v32i1.46004
PDF

References

Abaza, Mona. 2004. “Markets of Faith: Jakartan Da’wa and Islamic Gentrification.” Archipel 67: 173–202.

Abdullah, Abdul Rahman Tang. “Arab Hadramis in Malaysia: Their Origins and Assimilation in Malay Society.” In Ibrahim Abushouk and Hasan Ahmed, ed. The Hadrami Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Identity Maintenance or Assimilations? London: Brill, pp. 45–56.

Abushouk, Ahmed Ibrahim and Hasan Ahmed. 2009. “Introduction.” In Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk and Hasan Ahmed, ed. The Hadrami Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Identity Maintenance or Assimilations? London: Brill, pp. 1–15.

Alatas, Ismail Fajrie. 2010. “[al-]‘Alawiyya in Hadhramawt.” The Encyclopedia of Islam. Part Three. Gudrun Krämer, et.al., ed. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

______. 2011. “The Ba ‘Alawi in the Interstices of the Nation.” Die Welt des Islams 51(1): 45–74.

______. 2016. “The Poetics of Pilgrimage: Assembling Contemporary Indonesian Pilgrimage to Ḥaḍramawt, Yemen.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 58(3): 607–635.

______. “Habaib.” 2018. The Encyclopedia of Islam. Part Three. Kate Fleet et al., ed. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

______. 2021. What is Religious Authority? Cultivating Islamic Communities in Indonesia. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Alaydrus, Halimah. 2016. Bidadari Bumi: 9 Kisah Wanita Salehah. Jakarta: Wafa Press.

Alkadzim, Musa. 2023. “Mapping the Trajectory of Tariqa Alawiyya in the 13th-17th Century: The Tension between Expansion and Preservation.” Teosofi 13(1): 105–133.

Bang, Anne K. 2003. Sufis and Scholars of the Sea: Family Networks in East Africa, 1860–1925. London: RoutledgeCurzon.

Berg, L.W.C. van den. 1886. Le Hadhramaut et les Colonies Arabes dans L’Archipel Indien. Batavia: Imprimerie du Gouvernement. Translated into Indonesian by Rahayu Hidayat. 2010. Orang Arab di Nusantara. Depok: Komunitas Bambu.

Boxberger, Linda. 2002. On the Edge of Empire: Hadhramawt, Emigration, and the Indian Ocean, 1880s–1930s. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Collins, Patricia Hill. 1990. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. London: Routledge.

Feener, R. Michael. 2004. “Hybridity and the ‘Hadrami Diaspora’ in the Indian Ocean Muslim Networks.” Asian Journal of Social Science 32(3): 353–372.

Freitag, Ulrike. 1999. “Hadhramaut: A Religious Centre for the Indian Ocean in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries?” Studia Islamica 89: 165–183.

______. 2003. Freitag, Ulrike. Indian Ocean Migrants and State Formation in Hadhramaut: Reforming the Homeland. Leiden: Brill.

Grasswick, Heidi. Fall 2018. “Feminist Social Epistemology,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/feminist-social-epistemology/>.

Haraway, Donna. 1988. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.” Feminist Studies 14(3): 575–599.

Harding, Sandra G. 2001. “Introduction: Standpoint Theory as a Site of Political, Philosophic, and Scientific Debate.” In Sandra G. Harding, ed. The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies. New York: Routledge, pp. 1–15.

Ho, Engseng. 2006. The Graves of Tarim: Genealogy and Mobility across the Indian Ocean. London: University of California Press.

Husein, Fatimah. 2021. “Preserving and Transmitting the Teachings of the Ṭarīqah ‘Alawīyah: Diasporic Ba ‘Alawi Female Preachers in Contemporary Indonesia.” Journal of Indian Ocean and World Studies 4(2): 165–187.

______. Forthcoming, 2025. “The Performance of Ziyarah as Urban Ba ‘Alawi Female’s Expression of Piety in Indonesia.”

Jacobsen, Frode, F. 2009. Hadrami Arabs in Present-day Indonesia: An Indonesia-oriented Group with an Arab Signature. London and New York: Routledge.

Jonge, Huub de. 2022. In Search of Identity: The Hadrami Arabs in the Netherlands East Indies and Indonesia (1900–1950). Leiden and Boston: Brill.

Mahmood, Saba. 2005. Politics of Piety: Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Mandal, Sumit. 2018. Becoming Arab: Creole Histories and Modern Identity in the Malay World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mobini-Kesheh, Natalie. 1999. The Hadrami Awakening: Community and Identity in the Netherlands East Indies, 1900–1942. New York: Cornel Southeast Asia Program Publications.

Najib, Mustofa. 2021. Rihlah: Perjalanan Habib Anis al-Habsyi ke Hadramaut sebagai Tonggak Awal Dakwah Habib Umar bin Hafizh di Indonesia. Tangerang: Telaga Cinta.

Nico Kaptein, Nico. 2014. Islam, Colonialism and the Modern Age in the Netherlands East Indies: A biography of Sayyid ‘Uthman (1822–1914). Leiden: Brill.

Nisa, Eva F. 2012. “Female Voices on Jakarta’s Da’wa Stage.” Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs 46(1): 55–81.

Rijal, Syamsul. 2020. “Following Arab Saints: Urban Muslim Youth and Traditional Piety in Indonesia.” Indonesia and the Malay World 48(141): 145–168.

Seise, Claudia. 2018. “Women Remembering the Prophet’s Birthday: Maulid Celebrations and Religious Emotions Among the Alawiyin Community in Palembang, Indonesia.” Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies 11(2): 217–230.

Shahab, Yasmine Zaki. 2005. “Sistim Kekerabatan sebagai Katalisator Peran Ulama Keturunan Arab di Jakarta.” Jurnal Antropologi Indonesia 29(2): 124–141.

Shaikh, Sa’diyya. 2013. “Feminism, Epistemology and Experience: Critically (En)gendering the Study of Islam.” Journal for Islamic Studies 33: 14–47.

Slama, Martin. 2012. “‘Coming Down to the Shop’: Trajectories of Hadrami Women into Indonesian Public Realms.” The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 13(4): 313–333.

______. 2014. “Marriage as Crisis: Revisiting a Major Dispute among Hadramis in Indonesia.” The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology 32(2): 65–80.

Steenbrink, Karel. 2010. “Si Glamour-Boy Penasihat Ahli Gubernur Jenderal Hindia Belanda.” In Rahayu Hidayat. 2010. Orang Arab di Nusantara. Depok: Komunitas Bambu, pp. ix-xxvi.

Udasmoro, Wening. 2021. “Epistemologi Feminis untuk Riset-riset Kajian Gender.” In Wiyatmi and Wening Udasmoro, eds. Memberi Ruang dan Menyimak Suara Perempuan: Antologi Penelitian Sastra Feminis. Yogyakarta: Cantrik Pustaka, pp. 23–31.

Vera, Nawiroh. 2018. “Komunikasi Perempuan Etnik Arab terkait Tradisi Pernasaban dalam Perspektif Feminisme Islami: Kajian Etnografi Kritis tentang Perkawinan Se-kufu di Kalangan Perempuan Arab di Kota Solo.” Ph.D. diss., Padjajaran University, Departement of Communication.

Wadud, Amina. 2006. Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam. Oxford: Oneworld.

Walker, Iain. 2012. “Comorians and Hadramis in the Western Indian Ocean: Diasporic Practices in a Comparative Context.” Journal of Social Dynamics 38(3): 435–453.

______. 2021. “The Hadrami Diaspora: A “Diaspora for Others” in the Indian Ocean.” Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies 4(2): 188–210.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.