ISSN 1693-7139 48/Akred-LIP|/P2MBI/12/2006- eae bare Puslitbang Lektur Keagamaan Badan Litbang dan Diklat Departemen Agama RIegw 93-209 JURRAL aonetinpmpy LEKTU Vol.5, Ne. 2 2007, Daftar Isi Penelitian Perlawanan Gender dalam Naskah Klasik Keagamaan Bugis: Kasus Lontarag Sitti Rabiyatul Awwaliya Mustari 159 — 182 Naskah Klasik Jawa-Islam (Telaah atas Naskah Islam Kejawen Suluk Besi Karya Pengerang Wijil Kadilangu Abdul Mubarok 183 — 203 Materi Siaran Keagamaan di Televisi: Studi Bahan Ceramah Mimbar Islam pada Stasiun TVRI Manado Ffarisun Arsyad 204 — 224 Artikel Fath Al-‘Arifin Ahmad Khatib Sambas Ahmad Rahman 225 — 243 244 — 255 Teka-Teki Inskripsi Islam Makam Kediri Claude Gulliot dan Ludvik Kalus 256 — 278 Telaah Buku Prinsip-Prinsip Tauhid dalam Buku al-Tawhid: Its Implications for Thought and Life Karya |sma’il Raji al-Faragqi Masmedia Pinem 279 — 296 Obituari Mengenang Prof. Dr. Hasan Muarif Ambary = Uka Tjandrasasmita 297 — 302Tracing individual styles Islamic Calligraphy from Nusantara! Ali Akbar Bayt al-Qur'an & Museum Istiglal, Jakarta Kaidah tulisan kaligrafi Islam yang telah dibakukan di Timur Tengah tidak memperolch perhatian besar dari para penulis Nusantara pada masa lampau. Sebaliknya, mereka lebih banyak mengembangkan gaya tulisan sendiri, dan yang paling menonjol adalah ‘katigrafi floral’. Jika di Timur ‘Tengah kaligrafi merupakan seni tulis dengan disiplin penulisan huraf yang sangat ketat, di Nusantara seni tulis merupakan bagian dari bentuk seni Jainnya, dan dalam seni mushaf tidak terpisahkan dari iluminasi, Kata kunci: kaligrafi Islam, Nusantara, AL-Qur'an Introduction The study of Islamic art from Nusantara - the local name for the island world of Southeast Asia, encompassing the present-day states of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philip- pines — has barely been touched, whether by Western scholars or local ones. Studies of Islamic art generally ignore Southeast Asia, covering only the area stretching from North Africa to Turkey, the Middle East, Central Asia and Iran up to India, as if it is only art ‘ This article is based on a paper entitled ‘Islamic calligraphy from Nusantara: a study based on seme Qur'an manuscripts’ which was originally prepared for the ‘International Course in the handling and cataloguing of Islamic manuscripts’ organised by the Al-Furqan Foundation, London, in. cooperation with the International Islamic University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 27 March - 12 April 2006. The paper was translated from Indonesian by Dr Annabel Teh Gallop, Head, South and Southeast Asian collections, British Library, London. 244Tracing individual styles — AU Akbar from these regions that can be called ‘Islamic art’. This is despite the fact that if population is taken into consideration, substantial numbers of Muslims live in Southeast Asia (Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world), and Muslims have been present in this region for almost a thousand years. This situation of neglect has arisen partly because of a colonial ‘legacy’ that has. consistently belittled the role of Islam in the arts and cultures of Southeast Asia, while lavishing attention on works from the Hindu- Buddhist period. Another contributing factor is that the study of Nusantara manuscripts has traditionally been dominated by philologists — who only study texts — rather than art historians. The field of manuscript illumination from Nusantara has over the past few years received considerable attention from Annabel Teh Gallop of the British Library, London. However, the treasury of Nusantara calligraphy remains almost totally undiscovered, and to date there is not a single comprehensive or serious study of this field. Nusantara calli- graphy is almost never mentioned in manuscript studies, or if it happens to be mentioned in passing, it is only in the context of the eight popular calligraphic styles of the Middle Eastern tradition, namely Thuluth, Naskhi, Ta’liq (Farisi), Diwani, Diwani Jali, Riq’ah, Ijazah and Kufic. These eight Middle Eastern styles of calligraphy seem to be treated almost as ‘sacred’, definitive, categories that are never even. questioned in any discussion of calligraphy i Nusantara. And yet a preliminary study of the treasury of Nusantara calligraphy reveals that something different was going on! Attempting to discuss Nusantara calligraphy by constant reference to these eight standard styles inevitably runs into problems. This paper will focus on Qur’an manuscripts, because the finest examples of manuscript art - whether calligraphy or illumination - are found in decorated copies of the Holy Book. Some characteristics of Nusantara calligraphy One of the most notable features of Nusantara calligraphy, espec- ially in the surah headings of Qur’an manuscripts, is the charac- 245Jurnal Lektur Keagamaan, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2007: 244 255 teristic knotting of the certain letters, The letters are ta’ marbutah in ihe words dyah, siirah, mi'ah, Makkiyyah, Madaniyyah (or in the word al-gissah at the start of literary works) and alifafter ya’ in the word dyat. This highly distinctive feature is found in Qur’an manu- scripts from various regions, including Aceh, Palembang, Pakan- baru, Sumedang, Demak, Surakarta, Surabaya, Mataram, Makassar and Ternate. On the basis of the occurrence of knots in Qur’ans from a wide range of states on different islands, calligraphic knots appear to be a general feature probably also found in other parts of Nusantara. Nevertheles, the most striking and attractive examples of these calligrapic knots are from Java. Many Qur’an manuscripts from Java have examples of letters with multiple knots, and of knots found in more than one word within the surah heading. In manuscripts containing religious texts (referred to in Nusantara generically as ‘kitab’), emphasising (or rubricating) the start of new chapters by stylising or elaborating certain letters can often be seen. The words amma, fasal, mas’alah or kitab which indieate the start of a new topic, and simultaneously mark the close of the previous topic, receive special treatment and are elaborated according to the creative talents of the scribe. In addition to this function of marking the juncture between chapters, in some manuscripts the knotting of ta* marbutah also functions to highlight the importance of a particular word. Another distinctive feature of the Nusantara calligraphic tradi- tion is the use of ‘floral calligraphy’? which can be most clearly seen in Qur’an manuscripts from Palembang, Makassar, and is particularly evident in some Qur’ans illuminated in the Terengganu style. In the Middle Eastern calligraphic tradition, letters are usually letters — in the sense of retaining their pure letter forms — even if placed against a background of floral ornaments; in other words, the letters have a separate existence from their floral back- ground. But what can be seen happening in Qur’an manuscripts from Palembang, Makassar and Terengganu, for example, is 2 | propose the term ‘floral calligraphy’ for calligraphic compositions in which the letters evolve or are transformed into floral ornaments themselves. As far as I know, this is a new term. 246.Tracing individual styles — Ali Akbar something unusual: the letters metamorphose and actually ‘become’ floral omaments. This calligraphic form also demonstrates how Arabic (read: Islamic) letters. have melded with the traditions of the surrounding local community, to yield unique forms of adaptation. ‘Floral calligraphy’ in surah headings of Qur ‘ans from Bima, West Nusa Tenggara (above) and Terengganu, Malaysia (below). The beauty of the surah headings shown above is in contrast with the style of writing in the rest of each of the Qur’ans, which is inevitably written simply, always in Naskhi. This leads to the conclusion that Qur’an manuscripts are sometimes written by two people. The calligraphic surah headings on the illuminated pages ‘were written by the illuminator of the Qur’an, while all the other Pages are by the copyist of the Qur’an. Such collaboration often occurred in the copying of Qur’ans and other manuscripts, because illuminated pages in Qur’an manu- scripts were treated very specially. The surah headings on illumi- nated pages were the work of the illuminator, whose speciality was not writing but drawing. The resulting compositions are highly distinctive. In such comy ions, the ‘ideology’ or particular idio- syneratic tastes of the illuminator informs the letters, yielding letters with very distinctive styles. Such distinctive results can be seen in the surah headings in a Qur’an believed to be from Temate, North Maluku. 247Jurnat Lektur Keagamaan, Vol. §, No. 2, 2007: 244 - 255 Surah heading, Qur'an manuscript, PNRE A.49. In this manuscript, the surah headings on the illuminated pages at the beginning of the Qur'an were almost certainly written by the illuminator. It is impossible to imagine that if the surah headings had been written by a trained calligrapher (khattaf), that he would have produced letters looking like this. The letter ta’ marbutah in the words al-fatihah and makkiyyah is so stylised that it has taken on a completely new form, resembling a clove flower. The tail of the ‘ain has been shaped like a leaf, as is characteristic of floral calligraphy. Such ‘daring’ would probably not have occurred if the writer had been a ‘pure’ calligrapher. Other good examples are the calligraphy of the surah headings on the illuminated pages in several Qur’ans in the collection of the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, including 1998.1.3427, 1998.1.3430, 1998.1.3494, 1998.1.3549, and 1998.1.3505. There is great harmony in the interplay between the calligraphy and the surrounding floral motifs. Middle Eastern and Nusantara Qur’an Calligraphy Qur’ans have probably been copied in Nusantara ever since the conversion of the local population to Islam, Although this practice has been going on for such a long time, the copying of Qur’ans — and other religious texts — is primarily to fulfill the practical needs of the Muslim community, for the teaching of religion. Therefore, the majority of Qur’an manuscripts are simple in form. Although there are also Qur’an manuscripts decorated with artistic motifs, up till now ne examples have been found that can match the brilliance of Mamluk Qur’ans, or of Qur’ans from Turkey, Persia or India. 248Tracing individual styles — Ali Akbar The Ottoman Turkish sultans valued calligraphy very highly. Sultan Bayazid II (1481-1512) is known to have been very close to, and to have studied with, Syaikh Hamdullah al-Amasi (d.1520), the foremost Ottoman calligrapher. In court accounts it is recorded that while his teacher was practising calligraphy, the sultan was happy to hold his inkpot. Calligraphy continued to develop under the Ottoman, and a number of new styles were born. Calligraphy was taught systematically, through the master-and-student system’. This system was maintained rigidly for centuries right up to the present, and even now contemporary Turkish calligraphers can trace their professional genealogies back through five centuries to Syaikh Hamdullah al-Amasi, rais al-khattatin (Foremost among Calligraphers). Through this master-and-student system of teaching calli- graphy, the rules for writing Arabic script, the fundamentals of which had been laid down by earlier generations of calligraphers, could be maintained carefully. An interesting outcome of this tradi- tion is the standardisation of rules for writing Arabic calligraphy. It is this master-and-student system, and the standardisation of rules for writing, which appcar not to have featured in the calligraphic tradition of Nusantara throughout the many centuries of its development. Nusantara scribes generally copied Qur’ans and other manu- scripts primarily for the purposes of teaching and as everyday reading materials. What was needed in such circumstances was obviously simple manuscripts that could be read easily. Sumptuous large Qur’ans were usually produced in palaces, in order to enhance the prestige and authority of the ruler. The form of vaskhi found in Qur’an manuscripts written on dluwang (locally-made Javanese paper) is simpler, because such Manuscripts were certainly not made with aesthetic criteria in mind but merely for educational purposes. This was especially the case in religious schools (pesantren), as can be seen from the Qur’an manuscripts in the AW (Abdurrahman Wahid) Collection in the * Denman 1998:186, 249Jurnal Leltur Keagamaan, Vat. 5, No. 2, 2007: 244 - 255 National Library of Indonesia (PNRI), and in scores of Qur'an manuscripts on diwwang in the collections of the Mpu Tantular State Museum in Surabaya, and the State Museum of West Nusa. Tenggara in Mataram, Lombok. Conclusion The rules of cursive calligraphy which have such a long tradition in the Middle East appear not to have been paid much attention by scribes in Nusantara, and in general have not had a strong influence on the calligraphy of Arabic scripts in Nusantara, In certain respecis, throughout Nusantara communities have developed their own styles of Arabic writing. Whereas in the Middle East calli- graphic styles have been developed very systematically, with ‘one’ set of standard rules for writing, this was not the case in Nusantara, where each scribe seems to have been free to develop his own style of writing. There thus appears to be a divide in the ‘world’ of Arabic writing: while in the Middle East the Arabic script was treated as a respected artistic discipline in a class of its own, in Nusantara the writing of Arabic is part of a continuum with other art forms. Furthermore, in this region, Arabic script was mainly used for functional reasons, namely to copy religious texts, or for administrative purposes, or for other functional uses. In terms of style, a unique feature of calligraphy in Qur'an manuscripts from Nusantara is the use of ‘floral calligraphy’. Floral calligraphy refers to calligraphic compositions in which the letters are so stylised that they become floral forms, in keeping with the motifs of the surrounding illumination. Local creative talent can be seen in the rich variety of forms of floral calligraphy found. This unique form of calligraphy was created and developed by illuminators in the course of copying a Qur’an manuscript, and was cartied out alongside the illumination of the manuscript. Apart from floral calligraphy, there are other tendencies to stylise calligraphy, such as can be seen in Qur’an manuscripts from Aceh, with letters that are very free in shape. The developers of this tendency were also illuminators of Qur’an manuscripts. 250Tracing individual styles — Ali Akbar Even though within certain parameters it cannot be said that Nusantara calligraphy scales the greatest artistic heights, with its own distinctive characteristics and rich variety of forms, calligraphy from Nusantara makes an inspiring and meaningful contribution to the calligraphic treasury of the Islamic world.* References Derman, M. Ugur. 1998. Letters in Gold: Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sakip Sabanci Collection, Istanbul, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kumar, Ann, and John H. McGlynn. 1996. luminations: The Writing Traditions of Indonesia. Jakarta: Lontar Foundation - New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, Inc. Gallop, Annabel Teh. 2004. “Beautifying Jawi: Between Calligraphy and Palaeography.” Second International Conference on Malay Civilization: Malay Images, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Legend Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, 26-28 Februari 2004. Gallop, Annabel Teh. 2005. “The Spirit of Langkasuka? Illuminated manuscripts from the East Coast of the Malay peninsula.” Indonesia and The Malay World, Vol. 33, No. 96. 251Jurnal Lektur Keagamaan, Vol. 5, No, 2, 2007: 244 - 255 Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia ([AMM) 1998.1.3427 (above and below) (Photos by Ali Akbar) 252Trachig Individual styles — Ali Akbar 253Jurnal Lektur Keagamaan, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2007: 244-255Tracing individual sayles — Alt Akbar 255