Rewriting the Islamic History of the Indian Ocean: A Post-Oriental Critique of Orientalist Historiography
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64691/gqkwmx83Kata Kunci:
Orientalist Historiography, Post-Orientalism, Indian Ocean, Transregional Networks, Mobility of ScholarsAbstrak
Orientalist historiography has long shaped understandings of Islamic history in the Indian Ocean region through a diffusionist paradigm that positions the Middle East as the epicenter of the spread of Islam and coastal communities in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Africa as passive recipients of external influences. Despite the development of global history and connected histories, several classical orientalist narratives still influence interpretations of the Islamization process in the region. This article aims to analyze the epistemological biases in orientalist historiography on Indian Ocean Islam and to reconstruct alternative understandings of the Islamization process, scholarly networks, and socio-religious mobility through a post-orientalist perspective. This research employs qualitative methods grounded in critical historiography, analyzing classical orientalist works and contemporary studies on maritime Islamic history through discourse analysis and epistemological critique. The results show that orientalist historiography tends to reproduce Eurocentric assumptions and a center-periphery model that simplifies the complexity of Islamic history in the Indian Ocean region. Islamization took place through transregional networks connecting major ports, the mobility of scholars, traders, and diaspora communities who played active roles in the exchange of ideas, religious practices, and intellectual authority. Interregional interactions have led to processes of adaptation, negotiation, and cultural hybridization that shape local Islamic traditions, all of which are by global networks. The Indian Ocean represents a multipolar and dialogical space of Islamic connectivity, while also offering a historiographical reconstruction that positions regional actors as central elements in the formation of maritime Islamic history.
Referensi
Ali, M. (2025). Indonesian Post-Orientalist Study of Islam. Studia Islamika, 32(1), 43–73. https://doi.org/10.36712/sdi.v32i1.45297
Andaya, L. Y. (2022). The Introduction, Spread, and Circulation of Islam up to the Early Colonial Period in Southeast Asia. In Routledge Handbook of Islam in Southeast Asia (pp. 13–29). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429275449-3
Aragon, E. (2023). Connecting Sunken Actors: Social Network Analysis in Maritime Archaeology. Historical Archaeology, 57(1), 209–219. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-023-00385-4
Arifinsyah, Dalimunthe, M. A., & Riza, F. (2025). Islamic Theological Perspectives on Human Rights: Bridging the Gap between Faith and Universal Principles. Pharos Journal of Theology, 106(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.46222/pharosjot.106.207
Awass, O. (2026). Knowledge without Borders: Epistemic Communities, Dialogically Engaged Discursive Tradition, and the Transmission of Islamic Scholarship in the Eastern Indian Ocean World: Connections between Southeast and Western Asia. The Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies, 9(1–2), 27–52. https://doi.org/10.26443/jiows.v9i1-2.224
Azra, A. (2001). Networks of the Ulama in the Haramayn: Connections in the Indian Ocean Region. Studia Islamika, 8(2), 83–120. https://doi.org/10.15408/sdi.v8i2.689
Azra, A. (2004). The Origins of Islamic Reformism in Southeast Asia: Networks of Malay-Indonesian and Middle Eastern ‘Ulamā’ in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Balachandran, J. G. (2023a). Historical Convergences and Region Making in Sultanate Gujarat. South Asian Studies, 39(2), 173–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2023.2287830
Balachandran, J. G. (2023b). Writing in Arabic in Gujarat and the Hijaz: Some Reflections from the Early Modern Period. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 55(1), 122–127. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743823000454
Bang, A. K. (2022). Arabic‐language manuscript and print as a source for Indian Ocean Islamic history: The case of East Africa. History Compass, 20(7), 12713. https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12713
Basu, A. (2023). Orientalism’s Hinduism, Orientalism’s Islam, and the Twilight of the Subcontinental Imagination. Religions, 14(8), 1034. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14081034
Baumanova, M. (2022). Transitory Courtyards as a Feature of Sustainable Urbanism on the East African Coast. Sustainability, 14(3), 1759. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031759
Bishara, F. A. (2017). A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316659083
Bose, S. (2006). A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Brielle, E. S., Fleisher, J., Wynne-Jones, S., Sirak, K., Broomandkhoshbacht, N., Callan, K., … Kusimba, C. M. (2023). Entwined African and Asian genetic roots of medieval peoples of the Swahili coast. Nature, 615(7954), 866–873. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05754-w
Burhanuddin, J. (2025). Global Networks and Religious Dynamics: Reading the Hikayat Raja Pasai of Pre-Colonial Malay-Archipelago. Studia Islamika, 32(2), 347–372. https://doi.org/10.36712/sdi.v32i2.46440
Dar, Z. A., & Janbaz, S. (2024). Indian ocean trade dynamics: Implications for economic advancement in the south Asian region. International Journal of Political Science and Governance, 6(2), 278–285. https://doi.org/10.33545/26646021.2024.v6.i2d.400
Fatimah, S., Sulistiyono, S. T., Alhadi, Z., Hidayat, H., & Patra, H. (2024). Local Wisdom of Multicultural Communities in the Maritime History Network to Prevent the Nation Disintegration. KnE Social Sciences, 9(2), 189–208. https://doi.org/10.18502/kss.v9i2.14847
Fogg, K. M. (2012). The Fate of Muslim Nationalism in Independent Indonesia. Yale University.
Formichi, C. (2020). Islam across the Oxus (Seventh to Seventeenth Centuries). In Islam and Asia (pp. 10–41). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316226803.004
Gani, J. K. (2022). From discourse to practice: Orientalism, western policy and the Arab uprisings. International Affairs, 98(1), 45–65. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiab229
Geertz, C. (1960). The Religion of Java. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gibb, H. A. R. (1947). Modern Trends in Islam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gibbs, J. M., & Juterczenka, S. (2022). Introduction: Maritime Missions. Journal of Early Modern History, 26(1–2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700658-bja10006
Green, N. (2020). Global Islam: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Green, N. (2025). Indian Ocean History for the Age of Non-Alignment: The ‘Moorish Connection’ of North Africa and Sri Lanka. The Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies, 8(2), 76–102. https://doi.org/10.26443/jiows.v8i2.184
Grunebaum, G. E. von. (1955). Islam: Essays in the Nature and Growth of a Cultural Tradition. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Hall, K. R. (2014). European Southeast Asia Encounters with Islamic Expansionism, circa 1500–1700: Comparative Case Studies of Banten, Ayutthaya, and Banjarmasin in the Wider Indian Ocean Context. Journal of World History, 25(2–3), 229–262. https://doi.org/10.1353/jwh.2014.0008
Hefner, R. W. (1997). Islam in an Era of Nation-States: Politics and Religious Renewal in Muslim Southeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Ho, E. (2006). The Graves of Tarim: Genealogy and Mobility across the Indian Ocean. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Horton, M., Boivin, N., & Crowther, A. (2021). Eastern Africa and the Early Indian Ocean: Understanding Mobility in a Globalising World. Journal of Egyptian History, 13(1–2), 380–408. https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-12340063
Hurgronje, C. S. (1906). The Achehnese (A. W. S. O’Sullivan, Ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Ikbal, M., Asari, H., & Nasution, W. N. (2024). MAPPING INTELLECTUAL TRENDS IN FIQH: The Written Legacy of Southern Tapanuli Scholars in the 20th Century. MIQOT: Jurnal Ilmu-Ilmu Keislaman, 48(2), 223. https://doi.org/10.30821/miqot.v48i2.1276
Kooria, M. (2020). Eastern African doyens in South Asia: premodern Islamic intellectual interactions. South Asian History and Culture, 11(4), 363–373. https://doi.org/10.1080/19472498.2020.1827593
Kusimba, C. M. (2020). The worlds of the Indian Ocean: a global history. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 55(1), 121–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2020.1726677
Leur, J. C. van. (1955). Indonesian Trade and Society: Essays in Asian Social and Economic History. The Hague: W. van Hoeve.
Lewis, B. (1964). The Middle East and the West. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Linebaugh, R., & Lowry, J. (2021). The archival colour line: race, records and post-colonial custody. Archives and Records, 42(3), 284–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/23257962.2021.1940898
Łukaszyk, E. A. (2023). Entre o Império do Mali e o «Islão marítimo». O impacto dos legados e das literacias islâmicas na África portuguesa. Studia Romanica Posnaniensia, 50(2), 61–72. https://doi.org/10.14746/strop.2023.50.2.5
Lumbard, J. E. B. (2024). Islam and the Challenge of Epistemic Sovereignty. Religion, 15(4), 406. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040406
Lumbard, J. E. B. (2025). Islam, coloniality, and the pedagogy of cognitive liberation in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 30(6), 1409–1419. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2025.2468974
Mahrus, E., Prasojo, Z. H., Sukino, S., Purwanti, N., & Suratman, B. (2025). Transmission of Local Islamic Texts in Islamic Education: Materials, Actors, and the Historical Trajectory of Islamic Knowledge in Borneo. Nazhruna: Jurnal Pendidikan Islam, 8(2), 447–463. https://doi.org/10.31538/nzh.v8i2.200
Mellor, N. (2024). Epistemologies of Division in Arab Media Scholarship. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 11(5), 68–82. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/2030
Michalopoulos, S., Naghavi, A., & Prarolo, G. (2018). Trade and Geography in the Spread of Islam. The Economic Journal, 128(616), 3210–3241. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12557
Mondini, S. (2025). Muslim Communities and Trade along the Malabar Coast: A State of the Art. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 48(2), 368–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2025.2496587
Pearson, M. N. (1998). Port Cities and Intruders: The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Era. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Permata, A.-N., Yunani, A., Burhanudin, D., Pinem, M., & Isman, I. (2025). Reconstructing the Role of Local Actors in the Islamization of East Kalimantan. Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies, 15(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.18326/ijims.v15i1.1-25
Pervez, S. (2023). Muslim Intellectual History. American Journal of Islam and Society, 39(3–4), 206–272. https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v39i3-4.2332
Prange, S. R. (2018). Monsoon Islam: Trade and Faith on the Medieval Malabar Coast. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rashid, A., & Whitehead, C. (2022). Applying postcolonial theory in academic medicine. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 115(5), 193–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221084081
Ricci, R. (2011). Islam Translated: Literature, Conversion, and the Arabic Cosmopolis of South and Southeast Asia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Rosyid, N. (2021). The Hadrami Diaspora and The Network Expansion Of Majelis Shalawat In Contemporary Indonesia. SHAHIH: Journal of Islamicate Multidisciplinary, 6(2), 112–138. https://doi.org/10.22515/shahih.v6i2.3752
Sa’di, A. H. (2021). Orientalism in a globalised world: Said in the twenty-first century. Third World Quarterly, 42(11), 2505–2520. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2020.1788935
Saada, N. (2023). Educating for global citizenship in religious education: Islamic perspective. International Journal of Educational Development, 103, 102894. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2023.102894
Saragih, M. Y. (2025). The Global Islamic Universities Consortium as a Platform for Islamic Journalism and Educational Internationalization. Journal of Global Research in Education and Social Science, 19(3), 368–382. https://doi.org/10.56557/jogress/2025/v19i39610
Seland, E. H. (2013). Networks and social cohesion in ancient Indian Ocean trade: geography, ethnicity, religion. Journal of Global History, 8(3), 373–390. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1740022813000338
Sheikh, L. A., & Raja, R. (2024). The Othering of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, 32(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718115-bja10157
Shekhar, N. (2025). Ports, Partnerships and Profits: India’s Maritime Trade with Iran in the Nineteenth Century. Indian Historical Review, 52(2), 286–304. https://doi.org/10.1177/03769836251381494
Studies, I. I. for A. (2021). Leiden Centre for Indian Ocean Studies. Retrieved from https://www.iias.asia/network/leiden-centre-indian-ocean-studies
Subrahmanyam, S. (1997). Connected Histories: Notes towards a Reconfiguration of Early Modern Eurasia. Modern Asian Studies, 31(3), 735–762. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X00017133
UNESCO. (1980). Meeting of Experts on Historical Contacts between East Africa and Madagascar on the One Hand, and South East Asia on the Other, across the Indian Ocean, Port Louis, 1974. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000042152
Vargo, S. L., Akaka, M. A., & Wieland, H. (2020). Rethinking the process of diffusion in innovation: A service-ecosystems and institutional perspective. Journal of Business Research, 116, 526–534. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.01.038
Ventura, F. (2024). Diaspora as socio‐material assemblage: Political agency in the Kurdish freedom movement’s representations of homeland. Global Networks, 24(2), 12460. https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12460
Wang, L., Ding, F., Liu, T., & Zheng, Q. (2025). The Network Evolution and Influencing Factors of the Global Cultural Printed Material Trade. Sustainability, 17(3), 918. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17030918
Yazdani, M., & Ghaemmaghami, O. (2023). An Ante Litteram Critique of Orientalism: The Case of Abu’l-Faḍā’il-i-Gulpāyigānī and E.G. Browne. Religions, 14(6), 765. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060765
Zhang, J., Si, Y., & Yu, J. (2025). Geography of transnational knowledge flows from China: Distance, Pipelines and Hierarchy? PLOS One, 20(6), e0326503. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0326503
Unduhan
Diterbitkan
Terbitan
Bagian
Lisensi
Hak Cipta (c) 2026 Zubair Zafar Khan, Syed Abdul Fazili, Shahla Manzoor Baba, Sameer Shafi Siddiqi
Artikel ini berlisensiCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
