The Qur'an in the Malay-Indonesian World

For many years, scholars working on various aspects of Islam in Southeast-Asia have been calling for more focus on the field rather than the usual emphasis on the Middle East. Southeast Asia, which has more than 300 million Muslims, has always been treated as a periphery of the Islamic world. Southeast Asian Muslims are seen to emulate their Middle Eastern counterparts and their practice of Islam is seen to be an eclectic model rooted in past influences of Buddhism, Hinduism and local syncretic practices. This orientalist model still holds sway in many departments of Islamic studies. Hence, this book on Southeast Asian understandings of the Qur’an and its interpretation is greatly welcomed, for it promises an overview of Southeast Asian Islam which has been lacking in Islamic studies. The volume is divided into three parts: History, Regions and Themes. The shortest part is the History section which has only two contributions followed by Regions which has three contributions. The bulk of the book which is titled, Themes, has four contributions. Apart from the late Andrew Rippin (d. 2016) and Christopher Furlow (an American anthropologist), the rest of the contributors are academics who are currently working or have worked at academic institutions in the Malay-Indonesian world....