Book contents
- Miracles and Material Life
- Asian Connections
- Miracles and Material Life
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Maps and Figures
- Prologue
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on Transliteration
- Abbreviations
- An Introduction
- 1 Compendia of Forest Patois and Agrarian ‘Ilmu
- 2 Pawangs and Munshis in Muhammad’s Ricefields
- 3 The Pawang’s ‘Wonderful Nose’ for Ore
- 4 An ‘Ilmu of Violence
- 5 Gun Gurus and Sufi Shooters
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
- Asian Connections
An Introduction
The Magic of Islam and Modern Malaya
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 June 2020
- Miracles and Material Life
- Asian Connections
- Miracles and Material Life
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Maps and Figures
- Prologue
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on Transliteration
- Abbreviations
- An Introduction
- 1 Compendia of Forest Patois and Agrarian ‘Ilmu
- 2 Pawangs and Munshis in Muhammad’s Ricefields
- 3 The Pawang’s ‘Wonderful Nose’ for Ore
- 4 An ‘Ilmu of Violence
- 5 Gun Gurus and Sufi Shooters
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
- Asian Connections
Summary
This book is about Islamic miracle workers and the connections between miracles and material life. To be more precise, it is about historical societies and economies where the production and extraction of natural resources, as well as the uses of technology, were intertwined with the ‘ilmu and barkat of the pawangs of the Malay world. Such miracle workers have consistently been dismissed as ‘magicians’ throughout the scholarship of the Malay Peninsula; this academic attitude was just as noticeable in the early nineteenth century as it is now. And yet, European travellers and Orientalists sometimes perceptively recognised that such miracle workers dominated many spheres of socio-economic life in modern Malaya and Sumatra, and were involved in and influenced political practices in the region. The writings of European journeymen and scholars thus reveal how nineteenth-century Malay society included a universe of peripatetic and professional pawangs.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Miracles and Material LifeRice, Ore, Traps and Guns in Islamic Malaya, pp. 1 - 41Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020