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Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian
Village: The Cham in the Khmer Rouge Period
OKAWA, Reiko
明治学院大学国際学研究 = Meiji Gakuin review
International & regional studies, 45: 1-20
2014-03-31
http://hdl.handle.net/10723/1919
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Meiji Gakuin University Institutional Repository
http://repository.meijigakuin.ac.jp/
International & Regional Studies, Meiji Gakuin University, No. 45, 1－20, March 2014
【Article】
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village:
The Cham in the Khmer Rouge Period
Reiko Okawa
Abstract
This paper is the first discussion on the Islamic literature written in Arabic and Jawi
(Malay written in Arabic scripts), buried in Svay Khleang Village, former Kampong Cham
Province and present-day Tbong Khmum Province, Cambodia by a Cham Muslim so that he
could hide it from the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge massacred the Cham Muslims, who
accounted for a small percentage of the population in Cambodia, more severely than the
majority Khmer Cambodians during the Pol Pot regime from 1975 to 1979.
This became evident through studying the documents of the Cham, who studied
Islam under the influence of Malay Muslims before the Khmer Rouge period. This literature
consists of approximately ten books, most of them being kitab kuning, which have been widely
used by Muslim students of pondok-pesantren, the typical Islamic boarding school in Southeast
Asia, or the Malay World such as in Malaysia, Indonesia and Southern Thailand.
This fact means that, before the Pol Pot regime, there were Chams who were part of a
network with the Malay World and developed their understanding of Islam. At that time, this
was the only available measure for them to study Islam, whereas in the present time they access
directly the Middle East to acquire knowledge on Islam.
Image 1
The Cham Muslims gathering for Friday prayer in Masjid
al-Rahma in Chroy Changva, Phnom Penh.
1
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
Introduction
Muslims reside all around the world; less famously, Cambodia is a country in which
the Muslims are an ethnic minority constituting only a small percentage. As for the size of the
Muslim population, it is unclear and the estimations range from 320,000 to 700,0001, which
means from 2.4 to 5.2 percent of the total Cambodian population2. They mainly live in Kampong
Cham Province, Kampong Chhnang Province and Phnom Penh (American Institutes for
Research 2008: 11)3. (Since 2014, Kampong Cham Province has been divided into two provinces,
Kampong Cham and Tbong Khmum.) Although their number is small, they consist of three
groups: Cham, Imam Sann (or Jahed) and Chvea; all of them, however, are collectively called
Cham, which implies the Muslims in Cambodia.
Cham, as one of these three groups, is estimated to make up approximately 70 percent
of Cambodian Muslims, originating from Champa, the once-flourishing Kingdom in the coastal
area of Vietnam. They follow the Sunni school of Islam, use the Qur’an and basically pray five
times a day. Imam Sann, estimated to make up approximately 5 percent, also originated from
Champa; however, they use a scripture containing Champa language and Arabic, and pray once a
week on Friday. The members of these two groups use Cham language as their mother tongue,
although they also use Khmer language outside their community. Chvea, estimated to make up
approximately 25 percent, are thought to have originated from Java in Indonesia.
The Cham have two remarkable features: They exist on the multi layers of identity and
are “rapidly changing” (Blengsli 2009: 174). They have identities such as Cham from Champa
and Muslim, which are linked to notions outside Cambodia such as Malay and Arab. In particular
in this global world, their identity has been expanding from Champa, their origin, via the Malay
World4, their wider belongingness, to the Arab World, the heart of Islam. At the same time, they
have been involved in Cambodian history, especially the Pol Pot years from 1975 to 1979, which
almost extinguished them and also destroyed Islam. After this period, they have been on the way
of revival with the support of the Cambodian Government and other Muslim countries such as
Malaysia, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. This special circumstance has made them change drastically
in the past forty years. They are exposed to globalization based on their multi-layered identity.
Beyond expectation, the Cham in Cambodia have been studied by a lot of researchers,
who focus on various perspectives. This research investigates the Islamic literature written in
Arabic and Jawi (Malay written in Arabic scripts), which a Cham Muslim in Svay Khleang
Village in Kampong Cham Province in Cambodia buried so that he could hide it from the Khmer
Rouge. The Cham Muslim, whose name is Muhammad Kaj, gave the documents to Ysa Osman,
then researcher of Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam). Ysa kept them privately until
2
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
he kindly lent them to the author.
Therefore, this study is the first investigation to analyze the background of the buried
documents. The present paper is trying to contribute to the study of the Cambodian Muslim
minority 5, the Cham in the Khmer Rouge period6, and the Muslim network in Southeast Asia7
by showing some features of the Cham Muslim in Cambodia as seen in the documents. As the
Khmer Rouge burned almost all of the Islamic documents and books and killed most of the
Islamic religious leaders, there were few resources to study the situation of Islamic scholarship in
the period. Therefore, the documents investigated here would have a precious value to
understand one aspect of the Cham in the Khmer Rouge period.
Image 2
This is just as they were found. The papers, almost torn
off, are roughly piled up without a cover, unity as a book
and any sequence of page number.
Through the investigation of the buried Islamic literature written with Arabic scripts, it
turned out that the documents are some kitab kunings, which have been widely used among
Muslims in the Malay world. This enables us to understand that Islamic scholarship among
Chams before the Khmer Rouge period was based on international intercommunion via Malay
Islam and that what happened to Cham Muslims around the disastrous Pol Pot period is also a
preliminary stage of the present big transformation of the Cham. This will be discussed in
Section One.
In Section Two, the history of the Cham will be discussed to show their close relation
to the Malay world. Section Three will investigate the features of the buried literature to prove
the linkage of kitab kuning and Svay Khleang village. In Section Four, the books contained in the
package of the documents will be analyzed to learn about Islamic scholarship of Chams before
the Khmer Rouge period. In the end, the present and future of the Cham scholarship will be
3
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
discussed.
I. The Cham in Cambodia
1. The Historical Background: From Champa to Cambodia
(1) The Cham of the Kingdom of Champa in Vietnam
The Cham in Cambodia are refugees from Vietnam through several waves of
emigrations. They once made their own kingdom, so-called the Kingdom of Champa, along the
coastal area of central Vietnam from the second to the nineteenth century. This kingdom did not
consist of only one dynasty but was a cluster of some principalities. The first kingdom, which
was called Lin-Yi (林邑) in Chinese sources, was thought to have existed from the end of the
second century until the ninth century with the capital located around present-day Hue in
Vietnam. Before they created Lin-Yi, prehistoric Malay/Indonesians settled on the coastal area
and developed the Champa Kingdom with Indian influence (Collins 2009: 3). Thus, although the
Cham migrated from Vietnam to Cambodia, they were originally maritime people.
This is also demonstrated by the fact that the Cham are closely related to Malay in
terms of ethnic origin. Their mother tongue Cham belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian family or
the Austronesian family; it is close to the languages of the western Indonesian archipelago,
which means the languages of Malaysia, Kalimantan, Sumatra, Java and Bali. On the other hand,
Khmer and Vietnamese belong to the Mon-Khmer family or the Austroasiatic family (Collins
2009: 3; see also Blust 2005: 33). This means the Cham have kinship ties with Malay in terms of
their cultural and ethnic identity.
The history of Champa lasts for a long time but basically it is a history of their moving
South due to the pressure of Vietnam from the North, who wanted to invade Cham territory to
expand their own territory. After the tenth century, the defeats of the Cham by Vietnam resulted
in the Cham seeking refuge by migrating to Cambodia, enabling Vietnam to expand their
territory to the South. However, the Cham were not always oppressed and ravaged by the strife
with Vietnam. As the famous bas-reliefs on the Bayon Temple in Angkor Thom depict, they
invaded Cambodia in 1177 and had a battle with the Khmer king, Jayavarman VII.
(2) The Waves of Refugees to Cambodia and the Islamization of the Cham
As William Collins pointed out, the Cham experienced four large migrations to
Cambodia: in 1471, 1692, 1795-1796 and 1830-1835. The first migration in 1471 was triggered
by the Vietnamese conquest of the Cham capital at Vijaya, which was built as a capital in 1000
4
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
near the present-day Qui Nhon in Binh Dinh province. The people were obliged to move their
territory to the far south in Kauthera (present-day Nha Tran) and Panduranga (present-day
Phanrang). This period was also the time for many Chams to convert from Brahmanist or
Buddhist faiths to Islam as a result of fleeing their country to areas such as the Malay Peninsula
and Cambodia (Collins 2009: 8, 10; Wong Tze Ken 2004). The Cham seemed to make the gradual
process of Islamization8. During the first stage, when they resided in the Champa Kingdom in
Vietnam, Islam seemingly reached them “by sea and through traders from the distant Middle
East and India and through local trading networks of Muslim Malays from Malaya and the
Indonesian archipelago” (Collins 2009: 22).
However, after the Chams were forced to flee from their Kingdom, they directly met
Muslims, for example, in Malacca, Malaysia and the Malay communities who had already settled
in Cambodia9 (Collins 2009: 22; Wong Tze Ken 2004). Thus Malays played an important role in
accepting the Chams fleeing from the Kingdom and providing them knowledge about Islam,
which brought about their conversion to it. After the first migration, the Chams and Malays in
Cambodia demonstrated their significant existence in a relationship with a Khmer king in the
middle of seventeenth century. In 1642, a Khmer prince was able to take the throne with the
military support of Malay and Cham. The king, Ramadhipati I (r. 1642-58) converted to Islam
and changed his name to a Muslim name, Ibrahim10.
The second wave of migration took place in 1692 after the Chams of Panduranga failed
to regain their old province of Kauthera from Vietnam (Collins 2009: 27; Wong Tze Ken 2004).
Also at this time, the Cham-Malay were welcomed by the Khmer king and their community
played an important role in the Cambodian court. They were allowed to settle in several places
such as the then capital Oudong, Kampong Cham Province, Tbong Khmum Province and Phnom
Penh. As Malay became the international language of the Southeast Asian coastal areas, the
Cham and Malay had an advantage in the field of diplomacy and business, and they served as
bodyguards to the king in the court (Collins 2009: 27-28).
The third migration occurred in 1795-1796 due to the Vietnamese civil war which
happened in Panduranga. Chams fled to Cambodia again, which Kiernan calls “the largest
migration” (Kiernan 2008: 254). Cambodian King Ang Eng (r. 1794-96) welcomed the Cham-Malay
refugees probably because he thought he could make use of them as a means of countering the
threats from Thailand and Vietnam. Tuon Set Asmit, one of the leaders of the exiles, who was
thought to be Malay, was appointed to the governorship of Tbong Khmum (Collins 2009: 29). In
this way, the Chams were expelled from their Kingdom due to the Vietnamese and moved to
Cambodia with the support of the Malay, and also the Khmer King.
The establishment of the Nguen Dynasty (阮朝) in 1802 accelerated the Vietnamization
5
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
of their territory, which caused the Chams remaining in Phanrang to suffer from various
aggressions from the Vietnam Dynasty such as suppression of their religious ceremonies and
wearing of their traditional costumes, and enforcing of the eating of pork. As the result of the
severe persecution in the reign of the second emperor Minh Manh (明命帝 r. 1820-41), the
Chams rebelled against the Dynasty, and at the same time, emigrations took place in the early
1830s. In 1835, the Nguen Dynasty completely defeated the Cham in Vietnam (Collins 2009:
30-31; Wong Tze Ken 2004).
After this tragic ending of the Champa Kingdom, the Cham-Malay in Cambodia kept
their important role in the Khmer royal court. The Cham-Malay forces contributed to the victory
of King Norodom (r. 1855-60) and the Muslim leaders were rewarded with titles and property
(Collins 2009: 33). As for the local level, the relationship between the Khmers and Chams was in
general peaceful and there were reportedly many inter-marriages between Chams and Khmers,
Vietnamese, and Chinese in 1940 (Kiernan 2008: 256). In the 1960s, King Sihanouk (r. 1941-1955,
1993-2004) coined the term “Khmer Islam” to Khmerize the Cham.
2. The Cham in and after the Khmer Rouge Period
The severe persecution of the Cham conducted by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and
1979, was an exceptional event in Cambodian history and is best expressed by an educated
Cham: “Pol Pot wanted to wipe out the Cham race” (Kiernan 2008: 267-8). Although there were
some conflicts between them11, the Cham Muslims were basically embraced by Cambodian
Buddhist society. The population of the persecuted Cham during the Khmer Rouge period has
been unclear until now. However, it is obvious that the Cham were the particular target of
massacres or “ethnic cleansing” according to Kiernan. Ysa estimated their demographic change
as follows:
It is estimated that prior to 1975, the Cham…comprised 10% of Cambodia’s population (roughly
700,000 of the country’s 7,000,000 people). After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, only
200,000 ethnic Cham remained alive. … Their mortality rate was double to nearly triple that of the
general Khmer population (57-71% vs. about 23%). (Ysa 2002: 2)
As Kiernan showed, Cham leaders were severely targeted during the period. The
population of Hakems, or community leaders, was reduced from 113 in 1975 to 20 in 1979; only
approximately thirty Hajjis, Mekka pilgrims, survived out of over 1,000. Imam Haji Res Los, the
then Grand Mufti or the official supreme chief among Cambodian Muslims, was “thrown into
boiling water and then struck on the head with an iron bar, at Konhom, Peam Chisor, Prey Veng,
on 8 October 1975” (Kiernan 2008: 271). This severe oppression of the Cham also brought about
6
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
rebellions against the Khmer Rouge, which will be discussed in the next section.
After the Khmer Rouge Regime and the Civil War, the period of Islamic revival started.
The Cham in Cambodia have been supported by funds from various Muslim countries such as
Malaysia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and so on, which have been used to build mosques and schools
(Collins 2009: 60-101; Bruckmayr 2006; Omar Farouk 2008; Eng 2013: 263-313). Their
noticeable phenomenon is the acceptance of “Sunni Islam”, although there are variations of the
practice. The most recognizable is the Dakwa Tabligh movement, an Islamic revivalist
movement which originally started in Pakistan and spread in Malaysia in the 1970s. The women
of this movement cover almost all of their bodies except their eyes, which is completely new in
Cambodia, although normal in some Gulf countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
II. The Background of the Literature: Svay Khlean Village and Kitab Kuning
1. Svay Khlean Village and the Khmer Rouge
Ysa Osman’s The Cham Rebellion, based on interviews with many survivors, describes
in detail how rebellions occurred during the years 1970-1979 in Kroch Chhmar district in
present-day Tbong Khmum Province (former Kampong Cham Province); Svay Khlean village
(Image 3) of this district was a center of the rebellion. This village was well known as a center of
Islamic learning before the period of the Khmer Rouge. In the 1950s, Tuon Ly Musa (1916-75)
built an Islamic school there, which attracted young Chams from all across the county. However,
the Khmer Rouge caused intolerable tragedy for the villagers. In 1973, the Khmer Rouge started
to purge wealthy Chams of Svay Khleang. In the next year, religious leaders such as hakems and
tuons were arrested almost every night. Finally, mass detention began in 1975 and only a few of
those arrested were released (Ysa 2006: 77-78; Mohamad Zain 2008).
The Khmer Rouge also started to restrict religious practice and expression. As they
collected the copies of the Qur’an, “some [Cham] youths buried their swords and Qur-ans” (Ysa
2006: 78). One day, the villagers ransacked the village chief’s house, retrieved confiscated copies
of the Qur’an, and prayed together. They started preparations for war, arming themselves with
knives, swords and hatchets. However, they were soon suppressed by the Khmer Rouge soldiers
and forced to live under their cruel control until 1979 when the Khmer Rouge regime ended, and
only six hundred Chams had survived out of 6,200 in 1970 (Ysa 2006: 80-81). Ysa described this
situation as follows, mentioning the literature buried:
Homes, several surao (place of prayer), and the village mosque had been destroyed during
Democratic Kampuchea. The bodies of those killed during the rebellion had been thrown into wells or
7
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
buried in graves scattered around the village. Twenty-five years after the rebellion at Svay Khleang,
villagers were still discovering buried prayer books (keitap) and Qur-ans along with human remains
when they dug or plowed the land around their homes (Ysa 2006: 81).
The one who owned and buried the literature investigated in this study was Hakem
Muhammad Kaji. Unfortunately, he died in 2011 and his family had little knowledge about the
buried literature12. However, Hakem Yusuf Punjamin, who was born and raised in this village
and joined the rebellion against the Khmer Rouge, gave the author some helpful information to
understand the documents13. Muhammad Kaji was an outsider but married a woman from this
village. Moreover, many people buried their precious things such as books, jewelry or swords to
hide them from the eyes of the Khmer Rouge. At the time, himself also buried some religious
books, keitab in Arabic and Jawi, but he could not find them again after the period, which made
him cry with grief.
Image 3
A Minaret, a tower attached to a mosque, in Svay Kleang
village. The villagers said it was built about two hundred
years ago, and remarkably in Cambodia, made of bricks.
The original mosque broke down and now they use a new
mosque.
2. Kitab Kuning and Svay Khlean Village
(1) The Form of the Documents
The package of the separated pages consists of eleven published books (See Table 1).
The contents of each book will be discussed in the next section. The size of the package of the
documents is approximately 29 x 20cm.
8
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
Table 1: The List of the Books Included
No.
Author
1 Ibn Hisham (d. 1360)
Language
Arabic
Subject
Arabic Grammar
(nahw)
Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli Tafsir al-Jalalayn
(d. 1459) & Jalal al-Din
al-Suyuti (d.1505)
al-Malibari (d. 1522)
Fath al-Muʻin bi-Sharh Qurrat
al-ʻAyn bi-Muhimmat al-Din
Arabic
Interpretation of the
Qur’an (tafsir)
Arabic
Islamic Law (fiqh)
4
al-Fashni (d. 1570)
Arabic
5
al-Fatani (d.1847)
al-Majalis al-Saniyah fi
al-Kalam ʻala al-Arbain
al-Nawawiyah
Munyat al-Musalli
Traditions of the
Prophet Muhammad
(hadith)
Importance of Prayer
(salat)
6
al-Bajuri (d.1860/1)
Hashiya al-Bajuri ʻala ibn
Qasim al-Ghazzi
Arabic
Islamic Law (fiqh)
7
Fath al-Majid fi Sharh al-Durr
al-Farid ʻIlm al-Tawhid
Madarij al-Suʻud ila Iktisa’
al-Burud
Arabic
8
Nawawi al-Bantani
(d.1898)
Nawawi al-Bantani
Theology (ʻilm
al-kalam)
Biography of the
Prophet Muhammad
9
10
11
Unidentified
Unidentified
Unidentified
Unidentified
Unidentified
Unidentified (published in
Penang, Malaysia)
2
3
Title
Sharh Shudhur al-Dhahab fi
Maʻrifat Kalam al-ʻArab
Jawi & Arabic
Arabic
Arabic
Arabic
Jawi
Modern Egypt
Elementary Arabic
How to Conduct
Prayer (salat)
These books were not preserved in the form of a published book, which is usually
formed of a book cover and bound pages. This package did not include any book cover, but only
tattered unbound pages, which were not arranged according to the page numbers. Some papers
are not complete, for example only half of the page (Image 4); some remain as a form of
double-page as they are not bound.
Image 4
The title page of al-Malibari’s work Fath al-Muʻin bi-SharhQurrat
al-ʻAyn bi-Muhimmat al-Din (No.3 of Table 1), only the characters
of the title “F” and “bi-Shar” remain.
9
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
This feature indicates that these documents are kitab kuning meaning “yellow book,”14
the traditional Islamic books written in Jawi or Arabic using Arabic scripts. They were mostly
written between the nineteenth to the early twentieth century and have prevailed until now
among Muslims in Southeast Asia, in particular as textbooks of a student, santri, in the Islamic
schools such as pesantren, pondok and madrasa. Martin van Bruinessen, who studied a great
number of kitab kuning, described it as follows:
The most common format of the classical kitab for pesantren use is just under quarto (26 cm), and
unbound. The quires (koras) are loose in the cover, so that the santri may take out any single page that
he happens to be studying. This is another physical characteristic that seems to have largely symbolic
meaning: it makes the Kitab look more classical. Kitab by modern authors, translators or commentators
are never in this format. Many users of classical Kitab are strongly attached to it, and the publishers
oblige their customers. Some even print Kitab on orange-tinted (‘kuning’) paper (produced especially
for them by Indonesian factories) because this, too, seems to be more ‘classical’ in the users’ minds
(van Bruinessen 1990: 235).
As van Bruinessen pointed out, kitab kuning is a genre of symbolically traditional
Islamic literature among Muslims in Southeast Asia. The books of this form are still sold (Image
5) and used as textbooks; however, they have recently tended to be republished in a more modern
publishing way with a book cover and pages bound together in both Arabic characters and Rumi,
the Romanized characters.
Image 5
A copy of Nawawi al-Bantani’s Fath al-Majid (No.7 of Table 1) sold in a
bookshop in Kuala Lumpur, still keeping the format of kitab kuning until
now and printed on unbound yellow papers with a wrapping type unbound
book cover.
(2) The Influence of Malaysian Islam
What should be noted here is the strong Malay influence on the Cham in terms of their
Islamic education and thought before the Khmer Rouge period, which also affected Svay Klean
10
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
village. The Cham students have relied on kitab kuning or Jawi texts from the Malay world in
terms of their study on Islam; “in this sense, some aspects of Malay culture have therefore been
fairly well integrated into the socio-religious life of the Chams even appearing as an integral
part of the Cham identity” (Omar Farouk Bajunid 2002: 127). Thus kitab kuning is not only the
medium to connect the Cham to Islamic scholarship in the Malay world, but also an important
element of the Cham identity as Muslim.
In the modern period, Malay Muslim influence increased at the beginning of the
twentieth century. Cambodian students came to study kitabs written by Muslim thinkers from
southern Thailand and the Malay Peninsula; in particular, “works by Muhammad bin Ismael and
Muhammad bin Daud from Patani, in addition to Imam Nawawi of Banten, are among the texts
most commonly used in fiqh and hadith traditions of the Prophet Muhammad classes (Blengsli
2009: 178-179). Muhammad bin Daud from Patani and Nawawi of Banten are the authors who
will be mainly focused on in the next section.
In the 1950s, Svay Khleang village had a serious influence from Malaysian Islam in
the realm of their education and thought. Ly Musa introduced the Islamic reformist movement,
originally from the Middle East, to Cambodia via the Malay world, which separated the Cham
community into two groups: the Kaum Muda, the “young” or “new group,” and the Kaum Tua,
the “old group.” The Kaum Muda, influenced by Muhammad ‘Abduh (1849-1905), a prominent
and influential modern Egyptian reformist scholar, insisted that genuine Islam should be from
Mekka and Egypt and written in Arabic. This serious split in the Cham community caused
controversies and conflicts occurring between husbands and wives, or brothers; even in mosques,
barriers were drawn down to separate the two groups. The Mufti Res Loh criticized the Kaum
Muda as it triggered serious division in the Cham society.
In this context, kitab kuning played a role as a symbol of traditionalism15. Ly Musa
claimed that “that the Old Group who relied on out-of-date Malay interpretations like those of
Sheikh Daud of Patani, were following dubious traditions which had to be abandoned”. This new
trial, however, came to an end as the Khmer Rouge regime started16 (Collins 2009: 93; Blengsli
2009: 180-181; Mohamad Zain 2008). Thus, from the view of the followers of Kaum Muda,
kitab kuning was a symbol of traditionalism based on unrighteous understanding of Islam in the
Southeast Asian environment, and it should be dismissed. The buried documents of kitab kuning
investigated here were buried under this situation where the Kaum Tua regarded kitab kuning as
their source to study Islam.
11
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
III. The Buried Books
1. Identified Books
(1) Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti and Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli’s Tafsir al-Jalalayn (Image 6)
This work is one of the most important and popular works in the history of the
interpretation of the Qur’an (tafsir) and was written by two Egyptian scholars, Jalal al-Din
al-Mahalli (d. 1459) and his pupil Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (1445-1505). Al-Suyuti, a well-known
and prolific scholar of the Middle Ages, wrote works on various kinds of subjects such as the
Qur’anic Studies and the History of the Caliphs as well as his own Interpretation of the Qur’an.
As Tafsir al-Jalalayn is a brief commentary of the words of the Qur’an, this is widely
regarded as an introductory text in both the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The translation of
this work into Malay was published in 1951 (Azra 2004: 81; van Bruinessen 1990: 232-233). In
the late nineteenth century in the traditional realm of education in Southeast Asia, studying
directly the Qur’an and hadith was not common; however, only this Tafsir al-Jalalayn was
studied in pesantren (van Bruinessen 1990: 229, 253), which also proves the importance of this
work among Southeast Asian Muslim scholars.
Image 6
The contents page of Tafsir al-Jalalayn. On the top of the page
is written “Fifrist ﴾al-juz’ al-thani min al-Jalalayn﴿” which
means “Contents of <<the Part Two of Tafsir al-Jalalayn>> .”
(2) al-Fatani’s Munyat Musalli
Da’ud ibn ‘Abdullah Al-Fatani (1769-1847) is one of the most prominent scholars
from the Malay world and received a high evaluation in the Arab world as well (Hurgronje 2007:
12
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
306-307). According to some interviews conducted by Blengsli, al-Fatani and Nawawi
al-Bantawi, who will be discussed next, used to be the most popular authors among Cham
students in Cambodia before the Pol Pot regime (Blengsli 2009: 179). He was born in Patani in
South Thailand. The Patani Sultanate of Malay was prosperous but had wars against Siam
between 1785 and 1838, which triggered his emigration to Mekka around 1787, and he died
there. (Bradley 2013: 3, 12). Patani had a significant role in terms of Islamic education in
Southeast Asia as the pondok system, which developed in the Malay Peninsula, originated from
Patani (Azra 2004: 122-126; Hashim, ed.2010: 11-12).
Al-Fatani was a prolific author who wrote, mainly in Jawi, on various subjects such as
Islamic Law (fiqh), theology (‘ilm al-kalam), mysticism (tasawwuf, so-called sufism) and hadith
(van Bruinessen 1994: 26; Towpek & Borhan 2012). His works were the first printed books in
Indonesia in the latter half of the nineteenth century (van Bruinessen1990: 230) and are still
widely used among Muslims in Southeast Asia. His influence on education went so far as to be
evaluated that he made kitab jawi or kitab kuning as “a main source and reference for religious
knowledge among the Malay learners” (Hashim, ed. 2010: 11).
Al-Fatani’s work Munyat Musalli has been printed “at nearly twice the rate of other
prayer books” in cities such as Singapore, Cairo, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, and has an
important role in terms of the unity of Islamic learning in the Malay World. In this book, he
emphasized the importance of prayer, in particular the Friday prayer to keep the tie of the
community (Bradley 2013: 6, 8-10). This work is regarded as one of the common Islamic texts
used to develop, teach, and practice Islam in Southeast Asia, which brought about the unity of
the Sunni school in this region. This work has contributed to the commonality in the ritual of the
prayers, invocations and supplications in mosques throughout Southeast Asia (Hashim bin Hajj
2009: 016).
(3) Nawawi al-Bantawi’s Fath al-Majid fi Sharh al-Durr al-Farid fi ʻIlm al-Tawhid and
Madarij al-Suʻud ila Ikhtisa’ al-Burud
Blengsli described the importance of Nawawi al-Bantawi in Cambodia, implying that
the Chams studied his works via information from the world outside of Cambodia such as
southern Thailand and Malaysia (The term kitab in this citation should mean kitab kuning):
A combination of itinerant Malay ulama and returned pilgrims and students brought about new trends
in Islamic education in Cambodia. Students became familiar with textbooks written by religious
thinkers from southern Thailand and the Malay Peninsula. One of these thinkers, Imam Nawawi of
Banten, wrote tafsir (Qur’anic exegesis) and commentaries on various works of classical Islamic
scholarship, known as kitabs. Nawawi’s work is still widely read in Cambodia (Blengsli 2009: 178).
13
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
Nawawi al-Bantawi is from Southeast Asia. He was born in Banten, West Java, moved
to Mekka in 1855, and acquired great fame like al-Fatani (Azra 2004: 151; Hurgronje 2007: 287).
His works written in Arabic are still used among Muslims in Southeast Asia, including his most
important work of the interpretation of the Qur’an, Mirahu Labid or Tafsir al-Munir fi Ma‘alim
al-Tanzil.
Fath al-Majid is a work on Islamic theology, commenting on al-Durral-Farid fi ʻIlm
al-Tawhid of Ahmad al-Nahrawi, one of his teachers in Mekka. This work discusses theological
topics on God, Prophets and Heaven (Nawawi al-Bantawi 2008). Madarij al-Suʻud is also a
commentary on al-Barzanji’s Maulid al-Nabi, a biography of the Prophet Muhammad (Nawawi
al-Bantawi 195417). As van Bruinessen pointed out, Nawawi al-Bantawi is an author who
commented on well-known texts and explained them in simple words (van Bruinessen1990: 236).
This is also a reason why his works have been widely spread in Southeast Asia, where many
Muslim students have needed texts to make it easier to understand important literature in Arabic.
(4) The Other Works
Sharh Shudhur al-Dhahab fi Maʻrifat Kalam al-ʻArab by Ibn Hisham (1309/10-1360)
is a highly-reputed book on Arabic Grammar. It was widely used in the nineteenth century and is
still popular now (van Bruinessen 1990: 242). The author was born and died in Cairo, Egypt and
was well known as a scholar of Islamic Law and Arabic Grammar. In particular, he earned a high
reputation as a grammarian to the extent that Ibn Khaldun (1331-1406) described him as “one of
those very rare men who, in the history of Arabic grammar, have succeeded in mastering the
whole of their subject” (Juynboll, EI2-1: 867).
Fath al-Muʻin bi-Sharh Qurrat al-ʻAyn bi-Muhimmat al-Din by Al-Malibari (d. 1522)
is a work on Islamic Law and has long been popular in Indonesia. The author, a scholar of the
Shafiʻi school of law, is from Malabar in South India, which is historically one of the most
important Muslim cities in India, especially in terms of learning. This book is a kind of
commentary on al-Malibari’s own earlier work Qurrat al-ʻAyn, which Nawawi al-Bantawi also
conducted commentary on and this is also widely used (van Bruinessen 1990: 247).
al-Majalis al-Saniya fi al-Kalam ʻala al-ʻArbain al-Nawawiya by Al-Fashni (d. 1570)
is a commentary on a very popular collection of forty hadiths selected by al-Nawawi (1223-1278).
This so-called Nawawi’s ʻArbain has been widely used as an introductory book in both the
Middle East and Southeast Asia as it is much more convenient for the beginner to learn hadith as
compared with comprehensive and canonical collections such as al-Sahih by al-Bukhari
(810-870) and al-Sahih, the same title, by a Muslim (817/18-874/5) including more than two
thousand and approximately four thousand hadiths respectively. In pesantren, therefore,
14
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
al-Fashni’s al-Majalis al-Saniyah is rather well-known (van Bruinessen 1990: 255).
Hashiya al-Bajuri ʻala ibn Qasim al-Ghazzi by Al-Bajuri (1783/4-1860/1), is a
commentary on Ibn Qasim al-Ghazzi’s work Fath al-Qarib on Islamic Law (fiqh), which used to
be very popular in the last century but seems to be less used recently (van Bruinessen 1990: 246).
The author, a scholar of the Shafiʻi school of law, was born in Egypt and studied in al-Azhar, the
highest institution of learning Islam among Sunni Muslims, where he then became a teacher
(Juynboll, EI2-1: 867).
2. Unidentified Books
There are three unidentified books: (1) An Arabic Book concerning the Arabs, (2) A Text
Book for Elementary Arabic (Image 7), and (3) A Jawi Book concerning how to Pray (Image 8).
These books are not kitab kuning; however, they imply the situation of the Cham just before the
Khmer Rouge period.
Image 7
Image 8
A Text Book for Elementary Arabic.
A Jawi Book concerning how to Pray.
Book One remains with some pages, which discuss the history from the pre-Islamic
period and the religious situation of the Arab. The fact that this book contains the parts
“summary” and “exercise,” which provide questions related to each section, means that this book
is a textbook to gain knowledge about Islamic history and the Arab.
Book Two is also a textbook with some pictures for the beginner to study Arabic. This
means that the Chams at the time made an effort to learn Arabic from the elementary level and to
know about Islam in Arab. Even before the Khmer Rouge period, there were some Chams who
went to Egypt and studied at al-Azhar18. For example, Muhammad ibn Hassan, Imam of Boeung
15
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
Kak Mosque, which is also called the International Dubai Mosque, studied in al-Azhar from
1963 to 68, and speaks and teaches Islam in Arabic even until now19.
Book Three is written in Jawi and published in Penang, Malaysia. This discusses how
to pray in detail, a genre of Islamic Law (fiqh); for example, when praying during travel,
Muslims are allowed to reduce the time of repeating rakʻa, the minimum element of prayer
(salat), and when they cannot find water to wash their body before a prayer, they are allowed to
use clean sand or other clean materials. This book proves that the Cham before the Khmer Rouge
period used a Jawi textbook to acquire knowledge important for their daily life.
As seen in this section, the literature investigated here includes works which are
popular and or necessary among Muslims in Cambodia; they sought knowledge of Islam in a
very limited environment as they were a minority in that country. Therefore, they tried to use
kitab kuning, which were easier to obtain and understand as compared with Arabic books
published only in the Middle East. However, they made an effort to study Arabic and Arab which
at the time was the center of Islamic Studies. Thus they connected to the Middle East via the
Malay World.
Conclusion
The hidden Islamic literature was obviously born because of an awfully tragic period
in Cambodian history. When I was studying them within my hands, I felt like the stack of the
papers somehow had a voice or spirit trying to say something. I do not think I am the one who
correctly understands the word, if there is such a thing, since I am not a specialist of the Khmer
Rouge period. However I could say, my investigation, which is the first survey concerning the
documents, makes the following new facts clear:
Before the Pol Pot regime, there were Cambodian Muslims, that is Chams or
sometimes called “Khmer Islam”, who belonged to the tradition of Islamic knowledge of
Southeast Asian or Malay Muslim. As Hashim bin Haji says, “From the 19th century printed
Jawi materials on Islamic studies were called Kitab Kuning …(which) became widely used
throughout the Malay world towards the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th
century onwards” (Hashim bin Haji 2009: 015). Some Chams also studied Islam using kitab
kuning like other Muslim students outside Cambodia in Southeast Asia. They came to be
influenced by the scholars of the Malay world including southern Thailand and the Malay
Peninsula from the first decades of the twentieth century (Blengsli 2009: 178). Therefore, at the
time when the Khmer Rouge began their regime, there were Chams studying Islam based on
kitab kuning; this was a result of their connection to the Malay world.
16
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
It can also be said that Chams Muslim before and during the Pol Pot regime were
linked to the Arab world through the Malay world scholarship symbolized by kitab kuning 20,
which implies their internationality, as it is a very basic feature of Muslims that easily goes
beyond the border of nation-states21. However, we have to say that their internationality was
limited because of the situation of that period when the people were not able to go abroad easily
and acquire information from foreign countries.
On the other hand, the Cham in the present time show us their developed globalization.
The Highest Council for Islamic Religious Affairs Cambodia, which is the institution controlling
Muslims in Cambodia under the supervision of the Cambodian Government, has many Arabic
books at their office. The collection consists of not only books from the Malay World but also a
lot of Arabic literature such as the interpretations of the Qur’an (tafsir) and the collections of
tradition (hadith), which are regarded as basic to the study of Islam in the Middle East.
Interestingly, I found only one copy of a kitab kuning which happened to be in another
hard-covered Arabic book on the bookshelf of the Council; that is al-Fatani’s Bughya al-Tullab,
which looked like a forgotten legacy.
This means that the Cham in Cambodia do not use kitab kuning anymore but now put a
premium on the Arabic books as used in the Middle East to acquire Islamic knowledge. The
increasing number of schools which teach Arabic and students who go and study in Arab
countries keep stride with this tendency. However, it should be noted that the new scholarship
could not be developed without the endeavor of the predecessor who studied and protected kitab
kuning even during the Pol Pot period.
* I would like to express my sincere appreciation for all the support the Documentation Center
of Cambodia (DC-Cam) gave me throughout the research.
Notes
1
2
3
4
According to the data from the Ministry of Cult and Religion (2007), the total number is 320,167 (American
Institutes for Research 2008: 11).
Based on the data that the total population is 13,395,682 in 2008 issued by the National Institute of Statistics
that the total population: http://www.nis.gov.kh/nis/census2008/Census.pdf (Retrieved on 25 September 2013).
In detail, see Eng 2013: 31-40.
As Milner discussed, the notion of the “Malay World” is not easily defined as it had varied between periods
and areas (Milner 2011). In this paper, this term implies the areas, not countries, in Southeast Asia where
Muslims have resided and used Jawi or Malay written in Arabic scripts; specifically, Malaysia, Indonesia and
South Thailand including Patani, as Madmarn discussed (Madmarn 2009: 37-38). The Cham in Cambodia can
be described as located in the periphery of the Malay world; as for the Cham in the context of the Malay
17
Hidden Islamic Literature in a Cambodian Village
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
world, see Nishio 2008.
Collins 2009 and Eng 2013 are the most comprehensive works.
See Kiernan 2008; Ysa 2002, 2006; So 2011; Eng 2013.
Omar Farouk pointed out the lack of study focusing on “the nature of existing transnational Muslim networks
in Cambodia today” (Omar Farouk Bajunid 2002: 123). See also Azra 2004; Hurgronje 2007; Madmarn 2009.
As Wong Tze Ken discussed, the period when the Cham started their conversion to Islam varies from scholar
to scholar, such as from the eleventh to seventeenth century (Wong Tze Ken 2004).
Nishio discusses that the Malay- Cham link in Cambodia goes back to the latter half of the fifteenth century
(Nishio 2008). As for the Cham in the fifteenth to sixteenth century, see Endo 2002.
The king also married a Muslim woman and some of the royal court members in Oudong, the Cambodian old
capital north of Phnom Penh, converted to Islam. This Muslim predominance led to build mosques all over
the country and wear Cham costume with a Malay ceremonial dagger (keris) in the court (Kiernan 2008: 253;
Collins 2009: 24). This is a very typical historical pattern of acceptance of the Cham from the Khmer Royal
family; the Cham contributed to support their victory and received the high position in the court and
permission to keep their faith.
See for example, Collins 2009: 30.
Author’s interview with Muhammad Kajis’s family, Svay Khlean, 7 July 2013.
Author’s interview with Yusuf Punjamin, Svay Khlean, 7 July 2013. Interestingly, when the author asked him
whether he knew about the other literature buried and found, he replied that he had never heard about such a
thing; even if someone did find them, the person might not say about that because it would be probably
buried with precious items such as money or jewelries.
Kitab means “book” in Arabic and kuning “yellow” in Indonesian and Malay. Kitab kuning is also called
Kitab Jawi, as Jawi means “people of Java” which refers to the people of Sumatra and Malays in general (Bin
Ngah 1983: vii).
The same situation existed in Indonesia (van Bruinessen1990: 227).
However, his pupils, such as Zakaryya Adam, a politician and leader of Cambodian Muslims, survived the
period and lead the Cham community in the present time.
This book is published by Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi, a famous publisher in Cairo; it published many “Malay
kitab” (van Bruinessen1990: 231), which means kitab kuning.
In 1975, nine Chams had completed six years of study at al-Azhar (Kiernan 2008: 255-256).
Author’s interview with Muhammad ibn Hassan, Phnom Penh, 22 April 2013. The mosque was under
reconstruction at that time.
As for the close connection between the Arab world and the Malay world in terms of Islamic scholarship, see
Azra 2004; Hurgronje 2007; Madmarn 2009.
For example, the Cham in Cambodia participated in the First Congress of Afro-Asian Islamic Organization
held in Bandung, Indonesia in 1970. (The Directorate of Islamic Association of the Khmer Republic and the
Association of Islamic Youth, eds. 1974: 67-73)
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