![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
Abstract
Literary depictions of central figures in Muslim history offer telling glimpses of gender roles and expectations, however ideal. Fatima, the Prophet Muhammad's daughter, and her pious and courageous husband and fourth Caliph Ali are among the most beloved and venerated of such figures across time and place. The Hikayat Siti Fatima, an 1865 Malay manuscript from Sri Lanka that depicts their heavenly marriage and earthly hardships, serves as the focus of a comparative analysis, offering insight into the circulation of gender images in Muslim South and Southeast Asia.
Notes
1. I follow Romanized Malay orthography for these names and others (i.e., Fatima, not Fātima) unless specifically citing from an Arabic, or Arabic-inspired, source.
2. For a recent and important exception to this dearth of gender-focused scholarship see Hijjas, Victorious Wives.
3. For evidence of an earlier, pre-colonial Malay presence in Sri Lanka, see Saldin, The Sri Lankan Malays, 1–4.
4. The appellations used to identify the community have shifted over time. The designation “Malay” was commonly used by the British, since their arrival in 1796, to refer to members of the community and was based first and foremost on their collective language. Previously, the Dutch referred to the group as “the Easterners” (Oosterlingen). The designation “Javanese” (Javaans) is also used in some Dutch sources, especially after the mid-eighteenth century.
5. Hussainmiya, Orang Rejimen, 39.
6. Ricklefs, Jogjakarta under Sultan Mangkubumi, 102.
7. Saldin, The Sri Lankan Malays, 8.
8. Suryadi, “Sepucuk Surat,” 222–6.
9. Hussainmiya, Orang Rejimen, 44.
10. Ibid., especially 57–151.
11. Saldin, The Sri Lankan Malays, 11–12.
12. Some of the early arrivals in Dutch times, coming from Bali and Ambon but also from Java, were not Muslim, but it is often difficult to establish their religious identity with certainty. Hussainmiya, Lost Cousins, 58.
13. Examples of trans-Malay works include the Hikayat Sri Rama, Hikayat Ahmad Muhammad, Hikayat Amir Hamzah, Sirat al-Mustaqim. Examples of local Malay works include Hikayat Tuan Gusti, Syair Syaikh Fadlun and a host of syairs and pantuns.
14. Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, 114–15.
15. Rogerson, The Heirs of Muhammad, 51.
16. Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, 27; Veccia Vaglieri, “Alī b. Abī ṭālib”.
17. de Tassy, Muslim Festivals in India, 50–7.
18. The script is typically known as jawi in Southeast Asia but Sri Lankan Malays maintain a Javanese term for it: gundhul.
19. Anon, Hikayat Siti Fatima, 46. All translations from Malay are my own.
20. The theme of magical coins and their association with divine power (guiding what appears as human exchange) crosses religious boundaries. For an example from the Hindu tradition, in which a poor man of the Mallah caste is able to use and reuse the meagre 3 paisas he received from an ascetic sent by Lord Trilokinath, see Doron, “In Praise of the Ordinary Man,” 525.
21. Ibid., 57.
22. Hussainmiya, Orang Rejimen, 113–16.
23. Ibid., 117.
24. For a synopsis of two Malay manuscripts from the National Library in Jakarta that closely resemble the Hikayat see Jumsari et al., Sastra Indonesia Lama, 52–62.
25. Mukherjee, “Fatima in Nusantara.” For textual examples see 148–50.
26. Budiono and Digdoatmadja, Seks Para Leluhur, 70–7, and Sukatno, Seks Para Pangeran, 202–7 and 212–14. Both books contain many other passages that echo with, or directly cite, earlier Javanese sources on these matters. For an expanded discussion of Ali as represented in Javanese literature see Ricci, “Soldier and Son-in-Law.”
27. An expanded version of this section appears in Ricci, “Soldier and Son in Law.”
28. Kashani-Sabet, “Who is Fatima?” 5.
29. Ibid., 20.
30. These examples and the ones in the following paragraph relating to Arabic traditions about Ali and Fatima (composed between the eighth and tenth centuries AD for the hadith, and between the tenth and twelfth centuries AD for the materials considered legendary) are summarized in Vahlieri, “Fātima” and “Alī b. Abī ṭālib”.
31. Veccia Vaglieri, “Fāṭima.” As far as the issue of polygamy – so central to the gendered roles of husband and wife – is concerned, Javanese literature portraying Ali and Fatima's life depicts things differently from the Arabic sources and most likely derives from Persian. In the well known and voluminous Javanese Serat Menak texts, Muhammad does not reject the idea of his son-in-law taking a second wife but rather tells Fatima that Dewi Kuraisin, jinn daughter of Amir Hamzah who assisted the Prophet in his battles, will be married to Ali. In these versions, Fatima graciously accepts the news, thanks her father and acknowledges the appropriateness of his decision. For a depiction of the conversation between Fatima and Muhammad see Yasadipura, Menak Lakat, 98–104. Interestingly it is not Fatima who is portrayed as agreeing to compromise but rather Muhammad is praised for his willingness to “share” his son-in-law.
32. For a comparison of traditional Islamic depictions of the Virgin Mary and Fatima, see McAuliffe, “Chosen of All Women.”
33. Like Jesus's mother Mary, Fatima is considered, according to several traditions, a virgin, earning her the epithet al-Batul (pure, virgin). This refers also to the tradition that she never experienced menstruation.
34. de Tassy, Muslim Festivals in India, 27.
35. Shu'ayb, Arabic, Arwi and Persian, 613.
36. The manuscript is in the possession of Mr B.D.K. Saldin of Dehiwala, Sri Lanka, who inherited it from his father. I thank him for permission to read the manuscript and to cite it.