Sultan Ghalib bin Al Qu’aiti, the last ruler of the Qu’aiti Sultanate, Hadhramaut, was born in 1948, and educated at Millfield School in England with another five years at Magdalene College, Oxford and Magdalene College, Cambridge, from which he holds masters degrees (Hons.) with specialisation in Islamic History and Arabian Studies. Till now, he has published a large range of articles in English and Arabic on historical, literary, economic, political and cultural themes, as well as translated from Arabic into English and vice versa including Arabic poetry. A number of his English articles have been published under the title of “Arabian and other essays” and also a work on an introduction to Hadhrami history under the title of “Ta’ammulat” (“Reflections”). He has also translated a “Diwan” of the poetry of the late Prince Abdullah al-Faisal due to be published shortly, and has authored of late a work titled “The Holy Cities, the Pilgrimage and the World of Islam – A History from the Earliest Traditions till 1925”, which has been introduced by H.E. Prof. Ekmeluddin Ehsanoglu of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and well reviewed by Dr. T. Winter of Cambridge (UK) and Dr. Frank Vogel of Harvard. The title of his next major work in English is “The Da’wah of Shaykh Muhammad bin ‘Abdul-Wahhab and the Three Sa’udi States”.

 

Biodata – Sultana Feroze al-Quaiti

 

Sultana Feroze al-Quaiti was born in London in 1950.After schooling in England,she graduated from Oxford University with an honours degree in French and German and went onto Berkshire College of Education to obtain her teaching certificate.In 1997 she co-founded a British registered charity FRIENDS OF HADHRAMAUT (www.hadhramaut.co.uk) of which she is a Trustee and Treasurer. She was awarded an M.B.E by HM QUEEN ELIZABETH II in 2007 for her philanthropic work in Hadhramaut. She resides in Jeddah with her husband.

 

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Hadhrami Migration Trends Throughout The Ages - An Introduction

Identifying Hadhramaut in terms of the geographers and historians of the Classical era and delving on the spirit, enterprise and commercial activities of its sons on land and sea, the reasons for their prominence and prosperity, the Speaker focuses on the factors and the system aiding them, reflecting on the main overland and maritime trade-routes and major destinations, starting with the Red Sea, the Persian –now Arabian- Gulf, and the Indian Ocean basin, from the eastern African coastline in the west, to the Philippines in the east, including the mid-ocean islands. With the dawn of Islam, contemporaneous with the decline in Hadhramaut’s prosperity based on trade, some of the lesser roles of Hadhramis during the early period, and then the era of its expansion, which were to take them to the confines of the better known world are touched upon with particular reference to the concepts in Islam of the “Hijrah” (migration), the “Hajj wa’l Hajah” (Pilgrimage and fulfillment of need) and the “Jihad al- Akbar” (the Greatest Strife). Such are the effects of migration in the service of Islam on Hadhramaut. Next, the effects of Hadhrami migration overseas, to destinations on the East African, but primarily the Indian coast and the lands of the Far East and then their activities and amiable relations with the indigenous populace, which were to gain them acceptability, trust and even privilege are covered, right from the early Islamic period till the post-medieval era, signaled by the arrival of European vessels in these waters and then the modern period ending with the Second World War. Of course, the role of these links and migration and their economic and cultural benefits is also highlighted, with some emphasis on Singapore, which had become for all purposes, the focal point of Hadhrami migration, particularly since the introduction of steamships in the 19th century (13th century H).

 

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Hadhrami Migration Trends Throughout the Ages – An Introduction (PDF, 50Kb)

 

By Sultan Ghalib Al-Qu’aiti, Author of The Holy Cities, the Pilgrimage and the World of Islam – A History from the Earliest Traditions till 1925

 

- Delivered on his behalf by Sultana Feroze Al-Qu'aiti .M.B.E, founding Trustee and Treasurer of British registered charity, Friends of Hadhramaut

 

 

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Syed Farid Alatas, a Malaysian national, has been living in Singapore for almost eighteen years. He is currently Head of the Department of Malay Studies and Associate Professor of Sociology at the National University of Singapore where he has been since 1992. He obtained his PhD in Sociology from the Johns Hopkins University in 1991. He lectured at the University of Malaya in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies prior to his appointment at Singapore between 1989 and 1991. His books include Democracy and Authoritarianism: The Rise of the Post-Colonial State in Indonesia and Malaysia (Macmillan, 1997); and Alternative Discourse in Asian Social Science: Responses to Eurocentrism (Sage, 2006). He has also edited Asian Inter-Faith Dialogue: Perspectives on Religion, Education and Social Cohesion (RIMA and the World Bank, 2003) and Asian Anthropology, with Jan van Bremen and Eyal Ben-Ari (Routledge, 2005). He has also written numerous articles on various topics in the social sciences covering areas such as the sociology of religion, Muslim revival ideologies, inter-religious and inter-civilizational dialogue, political economy, and sociological theory. Examples of the articles he has published are: “Teaching Classical Sociological Theory in Singapore: The Context of Eurocentrism”, Teaching Sociology 29(3), 2001: 316-331 (with Vineeta Sinha); “From Jami’ah to University: Multiculturalism and Christian-Muslim Dialogue”, Current Sociology 54(1), 2006: 112-132; “Ibn Khaldun and Contemporary Sociology”, International Sociology 21(6), 2006: 782-795; and “The Historical Sociology of Muslim Societies: Khaldunian Application”, International Sociology 22(3), 2007: 267-288. He is currently in the final stages of preparing a book manuscript for publication on the thought of Ibn Khaldun and is also working on another book on the Ba‘alwi Sufi order. In addition to his scholarly publications, he is also active as a public intellectual giving talks and lectures to a wide spectrum of people on topics such as Islam, inter-faith relations, and social issues.

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An Approach to the Study of the Arabs in Southeast Asia

This paper deals with theoretical problems in Hadhrami studies. I provide examples of these from the study of the Ba‘alawi sufi order. One theoretical issue concerns the conceptualization of “tariqa” as order. It is suggested that the conventional or dominant understanding of tariqa had affected the study of the role of the Ba‘alawi order in the Islamization of the Malay world. Another issue raised is that of the attitude towards Hadhrami sources. Here the example provided is the place of the wali songo or nine saints of Java in the literature on the history of Islam.

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Kazuhiro Arai is an Assistant Professor at Keio University, Japan. He received PhD in Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan. The title of his dissertation is "Arabs who traversed the Indian Ocean: the History of the al-'Attas family in Hadramawt and Southeast Asia, c. 1600-c.1960". He is interested in the history of Arab network in the Indian Ocean and has been conducting researches in both Hadramawt and Southeast Asia. His recent projects include digitalization of indigenous documents in Hadramawt (which is funded by the Toyota Foundation) and a research on the revival of Arab network across the Indian Ocean after the 1990s.

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Genealogy as History: Hadhrami Families in Southeast Asia

 

It is difficult to reconstruct the history of Arabs in Southeast Asia due to the dearth of historical documents.  Especially, one faces difficulty finding out what was going on before the nineteenth century.  This situation led some scholars to turn to sources that are not considered the genuine “record” of historical events such as hagiographical literature (manaqib).  Rich in content, manaqibs are too precious materials to ignore for the study of Hadhramis, though the problem of historicity is always present in such study.  Genealogical chart is another kind of source that tells us a lot about the past, and the sāda from Hadhramaut are known for keeping detailed record of their lineage.  However, there are problems of using genealogy for the study of history.  First, access to the record is difficult for scholars, especially those from foreign countries.  Secondly, records of genealogy are very sensitive source of information because it is closely related with the identity of a particular, and in most cases influential, group of people.  The present paper addresses various issues concerning the use of genealogy for the study of history of Arabs in Southeast Asia.  First, the development of genealogical chart in Hadhramaut and Southeast Asia is overviewed.  Then, the problems of using genealogy are discussed.  The writer deals with genealogical information in manaqib literature as well as books on genealogy itself in the discussion.

 

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Yasmine Shahab is a lecturer with Universitas Indonesia. Her PhD dissertation is entitled The Creation of Ethnic Tradition, The Betawi of Jakarta.  Yasmine holds an MA in Demography from the Australian National University. Among her other thesis includes “Masalah Integrasi Minoritas Arab di Jakarta,” (Integration Problem Among Arab Minority in Jakarta) 1975.

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Endogamy and Multiculturalism: The case of Hadhrami in Indonesia.

The literature on the Ba’alwi in Indonesia shows that there are two conflicting statements, where on one side they are criticised for keeping the group's endogamy marriage, but on the other side they have no issues in assimilating and are not the target of racial discrimination. Often the fact of being in the same religion is seen as the cause. In fact, the empirical data shows that the Ba’alwi community never show themselves as an exclusive group in the public sphere. They use, socialise and revitalise their identity mostly in their private sphere. The only public sphere the Ba’alwi exhibits their identity is in the religious sphere where they are positioned as elites. The position of religious elite being a respectable position has eliminated the potential of positioning the Ba’alwi as outsiders. This empirical phenomenon indicates that eliminating exclusivity in the public sphere whilst maintaining identity in the private sphere is one way to maintain the ethnic existence without creating conflict. In this case endogamy won't become a barrier in the process of multiculturalism as long as the ethnic community doesn't position themselves as an exclusive group in any way.

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Endogamy and Multiculturalism: The case of Hadhrami in Indonesia (PDF, 131 Kb)

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Erik Holmberg is a PhD Candidate with the Department of History of the National University of Singapore (NUS).  His PhD dissertation is entitled:  “A Community of Prestige: A Social History of the Cosmopolitan Elite Class in Colonial Singapore”. He has a BA in history from the University of Hawaii at Hilo and an MA in history from the National University of Singapore.  Erik has studied Singapore’s history on-location since 1999.  He specialises in the social history of Singapore during its colonial era, from 1819 to 1959, and is interested in enhancing the understanding of the colonial past and the non-Western element in colonialism and imperialism, by exploring the prominent role of wealthy Asian elites in colonial Singapore’s society, and their status as key figures and major stakeholders in the colonial and imperial systems.  His research work has focused on several topics, including the multiracial character of colonialism and imperialism, colonial social institutions, the public celebrations, rituals, and civil religions of imperial monarchy and the cult of Raffles here in Singapore, the built environment as the setting of a multiracial theatre of prestige, and the nature of interracial social interactions within the plural colonial society, especially the social interactions of elites of different races, including their creation of social capital through their participation together in a shared system of social exchange of symbolic capital.  Other areas of interest in colonial Singapore’s social history include slavery, slave trading, and the largely-forgotten history of working-class Europeans on this island, many of whom were soldiers and sailors, whose experiences here were very different from those of the European elites who feature prominently in many historical accounts of this place.

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The Singapore Arab Peranakan Club

 

The existence of an organisation called the Arab Peranakan Club in Singapore in the early decades of the twentieth century suggests that the term “Peranakan” had – and perhaps still has – a broader meaning than may be commonly understood today.  More specifically, the term “Peranakan” has historically extended beyond its association with the Chinese Peranakans, and this in turn suggests that the term “Peranakan” should be understood as a multiracial concept, including Arab and Indian Peranakans as well as the much more well-known Chinese Peranakans.  The history of the Arab Peranakan Club is thus important in the effort to gain a better understanding of the term “Peranakan” and to appreciate how this term has transcended racial categories.

 

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Abdur-Razzaq Lubis is an author, an independent scholar, activist and publisher. He studies Southeast Asian minorities and indigenous people, examining them in the context of socio-political economy, anthropology, sociology, history and ecology. His major focus has been on the Batak, Batu Bahara, Kerinci, Mandailing, Natal, Rawa (Rao), Talu, Tambusai, and other Sumatran diasporas to Peninsula West Malaysia and Singapore. Lubis is the Malaysian and Singapore Representative of the Mandailing All Clans Assembly (MACA). In this conference, he is looking at the Arabs in Penang. He is the author of several books, singularly or jointly, amongst others, Raja Bilah and the Mandailings in Perak, 1875-1911 (MBRAS: 2003); Kinta Valley: Pioneering Malaysia’s Modern Development (Perak Academy: 2005); Water Watch: A Community Action Guide (APPEN: 1998); Jerat Utang IMF? Sebuah Pelajaran bagi Para Pemimpin Bangsa - Khususnya Indonesia (Mizan: 1998). He has an essay in Penang and Its Region (NUS Press: 2009) and Straits Muslims: Diasporas of the Northern Passage of the Straits of Malacca (INAS: 2009). He is the creator of Horas Mandailing at www.mandailing.org. Some of his works can be viewed at www.arecabooks.com.

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Traders, Teachers, Pressmen and Pilgrim Brokers: Penang Arabs in the Regional Network.

The earliest Hadhrami Arab migration to Penang was from Aceh upon the establishment of the British trading post on Penang island in 1786. Subsequent incomers were drawn from India and elsewhere. Compared to their diaspora to other parts of the Malay-Indonesian archipelago, the Hadhrami migration to Penang is small but significant. Retaining their genealogy, they maintained a transregional network through marriage, trade, education and cultural pilgrimage. They excelled as merchants, missionary-teachers, endowers of waqf, Islamic reformists and pilgrim brokers. In tandem with the Tamil Muslims, they proffered religious and political leadership over the Muslim community in the colony until their status was challenged by the egalitarian Sumatrans in the early 20th century. A minority having much in common with the Tamil Muslims, they forged marriage alliances of kafa’a (sekufu in Bahasa Malaysia-Indonesia) resulting in creolisation and indigenisation. The creoles were classified as Jawi Pekan or Jawi Peranakan whilst the true blues were categorised as Arabs in the census. In the formulation of what constituted Malayness, mooted by the British and echoed by the Malay nationalists, the hybrid Arabs were included and the authentic Arabs were excluded in the definition. Irrespective, their racial exclusivity became a liability when they were subjected to racist attacks undermining their leadership, continuity and economic credibility under the ethnic cleansing banner of Darah Keturunan Arab (DKA) and Darah Keturunan Keling (DKK). Conformed they did but their residual physiognomy and exclusive spatial existence marked them out from the rest. Pacified by social-engineering and peer pressure, although cultural markers are extant, due to their small numbers there is no noticeable ethnic revival amongst the Penang Arabs unlike the reimagining of the Jawi Peranakan.

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Teren Sevea is a PhD Candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests include Muslim saints and brotherhoods in nineteenth century Southeast Asia. He is the co-editor of a volume entitled Islamic Connections: Muslim Societies in South and Southeast Asia (Singapore: ISEAS, 2009), and the co-editor of a forthcoming volume entitled Sufi Movements in Contemporary Islam. He has also published articles on Muslim reformist connections between South and Southeast Asia.

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Writing a Cult History: Remembering Sufi Reform Movements at the Shrines of Jakarta and Singapore

A number of early nineteenth century sources inform us of a Hadhrami faqir in Singapore who was executed in public for running amok. Such sources also tell us about how this “salutary lesson” in British justice indeed led to the development of a cult centred on memories of the saint’s religiously-sanctioned ecstasy and staged assassination. This paper suggests that an analysis of offbeat literature can provide valuable insights into cults centred around saints of Hadhrami origin who were, at times, incarcerated in late eighteenth century Batavia and early nineteenth century Singapore. Such offbeat literature includes diverse hagiographies from late nineteenth century poems to twentieth century compilations of anecdotes run through processes of ijaza (permission) that verify a chain of transmission back to the “original” story-teller. Further insights into such cults emerge in an eclectic range of documents related to descendants of these Hadhrami faqirs which are: official, circulated between Hadhramaut and Southeast Asia, and even occasionally, acrimonious in tone. In analysing extracts from the aforementioned literature, the paper considers ways to read such “written” texts and their claim to represent an “internal”, “correct” history of the cult. As we see, writing a “correct” cult history has often involved a struggle to define the religious identity of the deceased saint and schema of Muslim sainthood.

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Dr. N.J.G (Nico) Kaptein is currently an Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, Leiden Institute. He teaches some introductory courses in Islamic Studies, such as Introduction to the study of Islam as well as Introduction to Qur’an and Hadith. At MA Level, he gives seminar on fatwas (religious advices) focussing on Indonesia. His field of interests includes the relationship between Islam and local culture as well as Dutch Islam policy in the Netheerlands East Indies, focusing on the life and work of Sayyid ‘Uthman (1822-1914) of Batavia.

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The Spread of the Ideas of the Cairo Reformists in the Netherland East Indies and Some Reactions from the Arab Community

 

In this paper I want to look at the introduction of the ideas of Muhammad `Abduh and Rashîd Ridâ in Southeast Asia and, more in particular, how these ideas were implemented by a prominent Arab of Hadhrami descent in Palembang, Sayyid Muhammad ibn Hâshim ibn Tâhir (1883-1960). In the paper his contacts with the Cairo reformists will be highlighted and the reactions to his activities will be explored.

 

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The controversy between Sayyid Muhammad ibn Hâshim ibn Tâhir and Sayyid `Uthmân about the establishment of a modern school in Palembang (PDF, 121 Kb)

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Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore.

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Widening the Muslim Public Sphere: Syed Ahmad Semait's Print Activism

This paper explores the contributions of the late Syed Ahmad Semait in heightening the knowledge of Islam among Muslims and non-Muslims in Singapore. It explores the shape of what we term as the 'Muslim Public Sphere" from the 1960s till the late twentieth century, showing the ways in which Syed Ahmad had contributed to its evolution and transformations. Among the various contributions of Syed Ahmad that will be explored are in the realms of translation of renowned Islamic texts, publication of original manuscripts by local scholars and his passion for the teaching of the Arabic language and other Muslim sciences. The paper will also provide a detailed biography of Syed Ahmad, the tribulations and successes of his ventures towards the promotion of the Islamic faith in Singapore and beyond.

 

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Muhammad Mubarak bin Habib is a Postgraduate Student at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC).

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Widening the Muslim Public Sphere: Syed Ahmad Semait's Print Activism

This paper explores the contributions of the late Syed Ahmad Semait in heightening the knowledge of Islam among Muslims and non-Muslims in Singapore. It explores the shape of what we term as the 'Muslim Public Sphere" from the 1960s till the late twentieth century, showing the ways in which Syed Ahmad had contributed to its evolution and transformations. Among the various contributions of Syed Ahmad that will be explored are in the realms of translation of renowned Islamic texts, publication of original manuscripts by local scholars and his passion for the teaching of the Arabic language and other Muslim sciences. The paper will also provide a detailed biography of Syed Ahmad, the tribulations and successes of his ventures towards the promotion of the Islamic faith in Singapore and beyond.

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Huub de Jonge (1946) is Senior Lecturer in Economic Anthropology at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He wrote a dissertation on commercialization and Islamization on the island of Madura, Indonesia.  His main fields of interest are economy and culture, lifestyles and identity, entrepreneurship and ethnicity.  In 1991 he co-edited a volume (with Willy Jansen) on Islamic pilgrimages. He has published several articles about Hadhramis in Indonesia. He is co-editor  (with Nico Kaptein) of Transcending Borders: Arabs, Politics, Trade, and Islam in Southeast Asia (Leiden, 2002).  Recent  publications (with co-editor Frans Hüsken) include Violence and Vengeance; Discontent and Conflict in New Order Indonesia (Saarbrücken, 2002) and Schemerzones en schaduwzijden: Opstellen over ambiguïteit in samenlevingen (Nijmegen, 2005).

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Aliran Baroe: Envisioning a Post-Colonial Future

 

In the decades before World War II several dozen journals were published in Hadhrami circles in the Netherlands East Indies, both in Arabic and Malay. Some circulated only within a particular city, while others had subscribers all over the colony. Together the contents of these magazines provide a clear insight into the social and cultural changes that the Hadhrami minority experienced.  At the same time, they show the pre-occupations, frustrations and aspirations that existed within the Hadhrami community at large. One prominent journal in the years before the Japanese occupation was Aliran Baroe (New Direction), which was published by followers of the Partai Arab Indonesia (PAI). By analysing articles on different topics that appeared in this publication, I want to show the shifts in orientation and lifestyle that were propagated and occurred among the Hadhramis.  It would be too easy to consider the journal only as the political voice of Hadhrami intellectuals concerned about their place in the new Indonesia.  It also played an important role in a ‘civilising offensive’ that ended the relative isolation of the Hadhramis within the wider colonial society

 

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Professor Mohamed Bakari is a Kenyan scholar who was educated at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and University of York, England, and is currently Head of the the Department of American Culture and Literature at Fatih University, Istanbul, Turkey, where he is also the Professor of Linguistics and Postcolonial Studies. He taught for many years at the University of Nairobi and also at the Catholic University of East Africa, and Kenyatta University, all in Nairobi, before moving to Istanbul in 1998. He has been a Senior African Fulbright Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles, African Visiting Fellow at Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies and Visiting Scholar at Cologne University's Institut für Afrikanistik, Visiting Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Indiana, Bloomington, Visiting Professor, University of Cape Town, South Africa, Visiting Scholar at the Berlin Modern Orient Institute. His publications include The Morphophonology of the Kenyan Swahili Dialects (1985)published by Detriech Reimer Varlag, Berlin, and Islam in Kenya, (1995),a MEWA publication; Metamorphosis and Place, which he edited with Joshua Parker and Lucie Tunkrova (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009). He is now working on a biographiacal study of Sayyid Omar Abdalla Jamal al Leyl, of Zanzibar and Grande Comoros, and one of the leading Muslim modernist ulama of twentieth century East Africa.

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The African South Asian Connection in the Hadhrami Diaspora

 

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The African South Asian Connection in the Hadhrami Diaspora (PDF, 131 Kb)

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Ismail Fajrie Alatas is a student in the joint doctoral program in Anthropology & History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He received his MA in History from the National University of Singapore and his BA (Hons) in History from the University of Melbourne Australia. His current research is on the history of the Ba’alwi in post-colonial Indonesia, their Sufi order the Tariqa Alawiya, as well as the connection between Indonesia and Hadhramaut after the second world war.

Ismail has published two monographs in Indonesian, the first focusing on identity and border crossing and the second examines Sufi epistemology. He also authored several journal articles in English, mainly dealing with Hadhrami diaspora in Indonesia.

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Building the Verandah of Medina:
The Ba’alwi Islamic Resurgence in Indonesia

 

Numerous studies have been devoted to the recent Islamic resurgence in Indonesia. Missing from most of these studies, however, are discussions on the recent appreciation of Sufism in Indonesia. This talk attempts to analyse this new appreciation of Sufism by observing the roles of the Ba’alwi in the Islamic resurgence. Acknowledged as the descendants of Prophet Muhammad, this group of Hadhrami "diaspora" was able to tap into the general trend of Islamic resurgence, thereby increasing public appreciation of their position. The talk then surveys their involvement in the political development following the resignation of Soeharto and the re-emergence of political Islam. It then observes new Islamic trends, especially among the youth, in contemporary Indonesia and look at how several Ba’alwi scholars adapt themselves to this changing context. Examining the Ba’alwi enable us to observe the reconfiguration of religious authority in the most recent history of Indonesia.

 

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A New Resurgence? The Bā‘alawī & Islamic Revival in Post-Soeharto Indonesia (PDF, 291 Kb)

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Dr. Larry Francis Hilarian is currently an Associate Professor of Music at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He obtained his BA (Hons) in music at Dartington College of Arts in England.  He received his MA from Queen’s University of Belfast. Larry continued his teacher’s qualifications at Croydon College and Oxford Brookes University. His PhD was from Goldsmith’s College, University of London. Larry is an ethnomusicologist, performer, composer and music educator. His main interest has been researching and performing on both plucked and bowed lutes from the Orient. Currently, he is actively researching the frame-drums from the Malay world. Larry has also co-authored four secondary school music textbooks.

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The Adaptation of the Hadhrami Lute (Gambus), Music and Dance Tradition in the Malay World

 

The early Hadhrami Arabs came mainly from Southern Yemen to the Malay world. With the Islamisation of the Malay Archipelago in the 15th century, many Hadhrami traders established strong cultural links with this area. The main focus of this paper is tracing the historical development and adaptation of the Hadhrami lute-type instruments commonly known as the “gambus” in the Malay world. The paper will also discuss the significance of the Hadhrami zapin and sharah dance genres with the gambus and marwas (hand-held drums) playing vital roles in articulating complex melodic and rhythmic interlocking patterns. I will argue that the musical instruments, musical genres and dance forms have all originated from Hadhramaut and migrated via trade, missionary exploits and conquests. Subsequently, through social and commercial activities, Hadhrami and Malay musical cultures have come into contact with each other largely through the propagation of Islam. Through intensive and cultural assimilation, adaptation, mutation and borrowing between the Hadhrami and Malay cultures the formal structures of the music and dance forms slowly changed to suit local needs in the Malay world. Today the music and dance of zapin and sharah, and the musical instruments, such as the gambus and marwas are closely associated with the Hadhrami diaspora and the Malay community. Since music and dance plays a significant part in both communities, this paper will explore the role of music and dance in weddings, circumcisions, religious festivals and other social events.

 

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The Transmission and Impact of the Hadhrami and Persian Lute-Type Instruments on the Malay World (PDF, 2238 Kb)

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