Moch Nur ICHWAN
Differing Responses to an Ahmadi Translation
and Exegesis
The Holy Qur'ân in Egypt and Indonesia*
There were two main external channels of Islamic reform in Indonesia between the 1920s and the 1960s. The first was the Egyptian link transmitted by those who had studied in the Hijaz and Cairo, and by the circulation of al- Manâr, an Egyptian journal chaired by Muhammad Rashîd Rida (1865-1936) under the inspiration of his late master Muhammad cAbduh (1849-1905). 0) Al-Manâr was reasonably well circulated in Indonesia, being allegedly smuggled in through the port of Tuban in East- Java where there was no customs supervision. Otherwise personal copies obtained by students returning from al- Azhar and Mecca, or by the "hajis" returning from the pilgrimage, were to be found (see Bluhm-Warn 1997 : 297; Ali 1964 : 9). (2) Although its readership was confined largely to those who knew Arabic, cAbduh's ideas of Islamic reform were translated into Malay and featured in Southeast Asian periodicals like al-Imam (Singapore, 1906-08) and al-Munir (Padang, 1911-19).
* I would like to thank Prof. P.S. van Koningsveld (Leiden University), Prof. Anthony Johns (ANU), and Dr. Michael Laffan (ANU) for reading the first draft of this article and giving invaluable remarks. The editors of Archipel would also like to thank Dr. Michael Laffan for his thorough editing of this article.
1. On Ridâ's biography and al-Manâr, see Ende 1995 : 446; al-Sharabasi 1970; and al- Marrakûshî 1985. For a study of both Rida and cAbduh, see Hourani 1962 : 130ff.
2. On the wider impact of the pilgrimage, see Snouck Hurgronje 1909 and Vredenbregt 1962.
Archipel 62, Paris, 2001, pp. 143-161
