She desired him and he desired her (Qur'an 12:24) : ' Abd al-Ra'ûf's treatment of an episode of the Joseph story in Tarjumân al-Mustafîd - article ; n°2 ; vol.57, pg 109-134

Anthony H.Johns

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Archipel - Année 1999 - Volume 57 - Numéro 2 - Pages 109-134
26 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: ARCHIPEL0
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1999
• Nombre de lectures: 9
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Anthony H. Johns
"She desired him and he desired her" (Qur'an 12:24) : ' Abd al-
Ra'ûf's treatment of an episode of the Joseph story in Tarjumân
al-Mustafîd
In: Archipel. Volume 57, 1999. pp. 109-134.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Johns Anthony H. "She desired him and he desired her" (Qur'an 12:24) : ' Abd al-Ra'ûf's treatment of an episode of the Joseph
story in Tarjumân al-Mustafîd. In: Archipel. Volume 57, 1999. pp. 109-134.
doi : 10.3406/arch.1999.3520
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/arch_0044-8613_1999_num_57_2_3520H. JOHNS Anthony
"She desired him and he desired her" (Qur'an 12:24) :
'Abd al-Ra'ûf s treatment of an episode of the Joseph story
in Tarjumân al-Mustafid
The vernacularization of Islamic learning is a core focus in the
exploration of the religious life and culture of Muslims in Southeast Asia.
Evidence of its results are to be found in the abundance of Arabic loan
words that are part of Malay and related local languages by the 17th century
and the fact that no writings in Malay are preserved not written in a local
form of the Arabic script.
Its achievements are to be seen in the literary heritage of Islamic works
from seventeenth century Acheh, which includes a variety of vernacular
works, Malay works of Islamic learning, including tafsir,fiqh and tasawwuf,
alongside a rich tradition of stories of the prophets, historical works and
belles lettres. Winstedt's so-called History of Classical Malay Literature,
Liaw Yock Fang's Sejarah Kesusastraan Melayu Klassik and a number of
other general surveys give an indication of the richness of the cultural
achievement by this date. U)
Both process and achievement are still inadequately appreciated or
understood. There is little historical evidence of the institutional bases which
supported them and from which they derived. Little is known of the history
Sejarah 1. Winstedt, Kesusastraan R.O.W., A Melayu History Klasik of Classical I, Penerbit Malay Erlangga Literature, : Indonesia, JMBRAS, 1991. Vol. 31, 1958 ; Liaw Yock Fang,
Archipel 57, Paris, 1999, pp. 109-134 110 Anthony H. Johns
of individual madrasah or pesantren. And evidence of a personality base, the
lives and personalities of the " ulamâ ", the teachers who staffed such
institutions are not well-known. Such local biographical resources in so far
as they exist are fragmentary, erratic in their distribution, and largely
unstudied.
The vernacular texts themselves have inspired a number of monographic
studies, ranging from the works of Schrieke, Kraemer and Doorenbos(2) of
the pre-war generation, to that of Drewes, Brakel, Syed Naguib al-Attas and
Siti Chamamah Soeratno(3> during more recent years. Conspicuous by their
paucity, however, are studies relating to the vernacular understanding of the
Qur'an, or the development and popularity in a Malayo-Indonesian
environment of Qisas al-Anbiya' - Stories of the Prophets, that the Qur'an
has inspired.
An aspect of the Qur'an often overlooked is its character as a story book.
The dramatically structured pericopes presenting brilliantly etched scenes
from the lives of the prophets have a powerful attraction. They make an
indelible impression on the minds of reciters and listeners alike, and with
their ellipses, frequently referential style and "open" character, created a
desire on the part of Muslims from the very beginnings of Islam to know
more of these heroes which the first generations of Qur'an exegetes, went to
great lengths to satisfy, and in effect created the genre.
Such stories have a significant role in Qur'anic exegesis, and are closely
associated with it. Generated out of encounters with the Qur'an, they form
an introduction to the Qur'anic world view, and in turn lead back to the
Qur'an and prophecy. Often superbly told, they command attention for their
literary qualities as much as for the religious values and attitudes implicit
within them.
It is such stories that by their very nature provide a means of religious
and social bonding within Muslim communities. They generate among
Muslims a shared word of heroes, role-models for imitation and edification,
establishing among communities an awareness of the spiritual universe of
2. Schrieke, B.J.O., Het Boek van Bonang, Dissertation, University of Leiden, 1916; Kraemer, H., Een
Javaansche primbon mt de zestiende eeuw. of 1921 ; Doorenbos, J., De
Geschriften van Hamzah Pansoeri, Dissertation, University of Leiden, 1933.
3. Drewes, G.W. J. and Brakel, L. F., The poems of Hamzah Fansuri, Bibliotheca Indonesica 26, Foris
Publications : Dordrecht-Holland/Cinnaminson, U.S.A. 1986; al-Attas, Syed M. Naguib, The Mysticism
of Hamzah Fansuri, Kuala Lumpur, 1970; Soeratno, Siti Chamamah, Hikayat Iskandar Zulkamain, Balai
Pustaka : Jakarta, 1992; Brakel, L.F., The Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah, A Medieval Muslim-Malay
Romance, Bibliotheca Indonesica 12, Foris Publications, Dordrecht-Holland/Cinnaminson, U.S.A., 1975.
Archipel 57, Paris, 1999 " her" (Qur'an 12:24) 111 She desired him and he desired
Islam, a universalisée vision of the world and a linear account of time from
genesis to eschaton to which every individual has a place.
They enjoy their popularity in part because of the centrality of prophecy
in the Islamic religious tradition. Muhammad is the seal of the prophets, but
his predecessors in salvation history, from Adam (the first man and first
divinely appointed teacher to his progeny) onwards, are well-known in every
Muslim household, and provide a cornucopia of names for male children.
The prophets are models of human excellence, divinely chosen as
messengers, bearers of good tidings and warners to the peoples to whom
they are sent.
They provide an exemplary model of the role of story-telling in
establishing a shared sense of community and history. They have become an
integral part of both oral and written literary traditions in Malay. An early
example is a Malay version of the story of Dhû'1-Qarnayn, referred to in sura
18 of the Qur'an, widely identified with Alexander the Great. (4) Winstedt
refers to a Ms of the story of Joseph, dating from 1604.(5) The popularity of
such stories from very early times is amply attested in the MSS catalogues,
whether as collections under the general rubric of Qisas al-Anbiyâ ', or
stories of individual prophets. (6)
Among the stories of the prophets presented in the Qur'an, that of Joseph,
"the best of stories" (Sura 12 : 2), is regarded as the very epitome of story
telling and moral instruction. The story itself is world class. It encompasses a
variety of themes. It shows jealousy, envy, sexual temptation and deceit,
ovewhelmed by generosity, patience and forgiveness by virtue of prophetic
wisdom. And it shows how good is brought out of evil, and wrong is righted.
It has generated numerous re-tellings in Malay and even more in Javanese.
The earliest extant rendering in Malay of the Qur'anic telling of the story
is in Tarjumân al-Mustafld a work by the Achehnese scholar 'Abd al-Ra'ûf
of Singkel (1615-1693), and dates from the second half of the 17th century.
The Tarjumân al-Mustafid is, by and large, a rendering into Malay of the
single volume Arabic commentary on the Qur'an, Tafsir al-Jalâlayn.O)
While there may have been other renderings of Qur'anic commentaries that
4. See Liaw Yock Fang, Sejarah, pp. 261-3.
5. Winstedt, History, p. 73.
6. See Liaw Yock Fang, Sejarah, pp. 205-207.
7. This work, the tafsir of the two Jalils - hence the dual form of the title - was commenced by Jalâl al-
Din al-Mahalli (d.1459), and completed by his pupils the great scholar Jalâl al-Din al-Suyuti (d.1505),
famous for his work on the Islamic sciences al-ItqSnfi 'ulûm al-Qur'ân. It is a tafsir well known all over
the Muslim world, and virtually the foundation text of all Qur'anic studies in Southeast Asia.
Archipel 57, Paris, 1999 112 Anthony H. Johns
have included the chapter of Joseph, no longer extant, in practice this work is
of unique importance. 'Abd al-Ra'ûf was an extraordinary scholar, and his
Tarjumân represents a vernacularization of the Qur'an in the context of an
authoritative commentary and has shaped understanding of the Qur'an for
Malay speakers over three centuries. Its treatment of the sura Yûsuf then
provides one of the earliest encounters of the peoples of Southeast Asia with
the Qur'anic version of the story in a vernacular, the form in which hundreds
of thousands of students at madrasah in the region have come to terms with
it.
Until the 19th century, it was known only through MSS. In 1302/1884, it
was published in Istanbul. It rapidly established itself as a basic text, in
madrasah and pesantren, and is still regularly reprinted. It has been little
studied. It was widely regarded as a rendering of al-Baydâvï's Anwâr al-
Tanzil. W It was not definitively established that it was based on the tafsir al-
Jalâlayn, a work very