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An Introduction

The Magic of Islam and Modern Malaya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2020

Teren Sevea
Affiliation:
Harvard Divinity School
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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 Life
Rice, Ore, Traps and Guns in Islamic Malaya
, pp. 1 - 41
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • An Introduction
  • Teren Sevea
  • Book: Miracles and Material Life
  • Online publication: 26 June 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108569781.002
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  • An Introduction
  • Teren Sevea
  • Book: Miracles and Material Life
  • Online publication: 26 June 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108569781.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • An Introduction
  • Teren Sevea
  • Book: Miracles and Material Life
  • Online publication: 26 June 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108569781.002
Available formats
×