Al-Jāmi‘ah: Journal of Islamic Studies - ISSN: 0126-012X (p); 2356-0912 (e)

Vol. 54, no. 2 (2016), pp.447-475, doi: 10.14421/ajis.2016.542.447-475

BEFORE THE ETHICAL POLICY

The Ottoman State, Pan-Islamism, and Modernisation
in Indonesia 1898–1901

Frial Ramadhan Supratman

Institute of Social Sciences, Istanbul University, Turkey
email: [email protected]

Abstract
By drawing on Ottoman-Turkish documents in the Prime Minister’s Ottoman
Archives, this paper investigates the role of the Ottoman state and Pan-Islamic
ideology on modernisation in Indonesia. The article revisits the process defining
the Ethical Policy (Politik Etis) as the turning point of the emergence of
modernisation in Indonesia. In existing scholarship, the ‘Ethical Policy’ became
the grand narrative in Indonesian history, meanwhile the influence of Pan-
Islamism is only seen as the unsuccessful political propaganda of Abdulhamid
II on the anti-colonialism movement in Indonesia. Many Indonesian and
Ottoman historians view Pan-Islamism in the context of anti-colonialism
fighting against the Dutch militarily in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. This article proposes an alternative view to this narrative which
acknowledges Pan-Islamism as a modernisation step for Indonesians which
was signed by the Jawi students arrival in Istanbul and shows the Hadhrami
community as the agent of modernisation. In short, the article shows the
Ottoman influence on the emergence of the Ethical Policy of 1901 in Indonesia.
[Menggunakan dokumen-dokumen Turki Utsmani yang disimpan di Prime
Minister’s Ottoman Archives, makalah ini meneliti peran imperium Uthmani
dan ideologi Pan-Islam dalam modernisasi Indonesia. Hal itu dilakukan
dengan meninjau proses pendefinisian Politik Etis sebagai titik balik lahirnya
modernisasi Indonesia. Dalam literatur yang ada sekarang, Politik Etis
menjadi cerita utama dalam sejarah Indonesia, sementara Pan-Islamisme
Frial Ramadhan Supratman

hanya dipandang sebagai propaganda gagal dari Abdulhamid II bagi gerakan

anti kolonial di Indonesia. Artikel ini menawarkan narasi alternatif yang
mengakui Pan-Islamisme sebagai salah satu tahapan penting modernisasi
Indonesia yang ditandai dengan datangnya para mahasiswa Jawa di Istambul
dan menunjukkan peran komunitas Hadhrami sebagai agen modernisasi.]

Keywords: Pan-Islamism, Ottoman, ethical policy, Indonesian

modernisation

A. Introduction
In 1901, van Deventer, a man of liberal optimism, although not
elected to a seat in the parliament in the Netherlands, continued working
from the outside, making his influence felt. The annual message from the
throne in September 1901 reflected the Christian spirit as the Queen spoke
of an ‘ethical obligation and moral responsibility to the peoples of the
East Indies’. The message went on to express concern over the depressed
economic condition of the East Indies and asked that a commission
be formed to investigate this matter. From this is dated the Ethical
Colonial Policy.1 In Indonesian history, this date became the turning
point of modernisation, forming Indonesians mind that modernisation
of Indonesia growth of liberal optimism in Dutch Parliament. Having
declared the Ethical Policy, the Dutch formed several policies whose
impacts to indigenous in facing the new era in the twentieth century. Three
policies relating to education, irrigation and migration were launched to
develop the Dutch colony in Indonesia. Through these policies, especially
in the education field, the Dutch colonial government claimed that they
had implemented a liberal and humanitarian policy, enhancing prosperity,
wealth and a modern life of the indigenous people. In the education field,
the Dutch claimed that they had introduced the indigenous to modern
education and educated them in the modern sciences.
After the Ethical Policy, the Dutch colonial government prompted
the indigenous people to be modern. Charles Taylor and Benedict
Anderson thought that a modern nation is an ‘imagined community’, as
this enables an emphasis on two features of modern imagery that belong
Robert van Niel, The Emergence of the Modern Indonesian Elite (Hague: W. van
1

Hoeve Publisher Ltd, 1970), pp. 31–2.

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 The Ottoman State, Pan-Islamism, and Modernisation in Indonesia

to a democratic state. Firstly, the direct-access character of modern

society (the rise of the public sphere, market principles and emergence
of citizenship). Secondly, homogeneous time for imagining the totality
of individual lives that comprise a national community in which there
are no privileged persons, or events and therefore no mediations. So, it
needs contributions such as paying taxes and joining wars.2
However, in the context of Indonesian history, the opinion denies
the role of the interaction process in the Indian Ocean that connected
Indonesia with other regions such as the Middle East, resulting in religion
becoming an important boundary of Indian Ocean states in the late
nineteenth century. Even, Muslim colonial subjects who undertook the
pilgrimage could never be wholly subjected to the discipline of the states.3
Accordingly, it would be misleading to deny the interaction process of the
Muslim world in the Indian Ocean on modernisation efforts in Indonesia.
Therefore, we must reinvestigate the Ethical Policy of 1901 which was
the turning point for the emergence of the modern elite. Many people
undoubtedly played an important role in the modernisation, however,
they were frequently forgotten by historians as many of them were
predominated by economic-based analyses that showed the indigenous
people had suffered under capitalism pressure. With the Dutch having
issued the Agrarian Act in 1870, many scientists underscore the effects
on economic conditions such as famine and poverty. Therefore, the
Ethical Policy comes to be seen as the recompensing politic (Politik
Balas Budi) over poverty and economic gaps that occurred in society.
Secondly, scientists predominantly deny a transnational approach to
analysing modernisation processes in Indonesia. Social and economic
history approaches became the popular form of analysis in developing
an argument.
Meanwhile, studies regarding social and intellectual history are
characterised by peasant rebellion and messianic movements such as
works by Sartono Kartodirdjo,4 although Onghokham emphasises that
2
Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity (California:
Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 2–3.
3
Sugata Bose, A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006), p. 195.
4
Sartono Kartodirdjo, Pemberontakan Petani Banten 1888 (Jakarta: Pustaka Jaya,
1984); Sartono Kartodirdjo, Ratu Adil (Jakarta: Sinar Harapan, 1984).

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the taxation system-based analyses are useful, rather than viewing rebellion
in the context of a messianic movement.5 The problem in social and
intellectual history especially regarding Islam, is that it is always viewed
as a radical movement to drive the Dutch from Indonesia. Ideology jihad
and Pan-Islamism are considered as the way to stir anti-colonialism.6 It is a
problem to see Pan-Islamism as a form of modernisation and alternative
ideology in the late nineteenth century.
Influenced by Orientalist’s views such as Snouck Hurgronje,
Pan-Islamism is considered to have an anti-colonialism spirit among
Indonesian scholars. In short, Pan-Islamism is seen as a violent ideology
from Istanbul that spread a negative influence on anti-colonialism.
Although, Snouck concludes that political leaders in Turkey keep the
Pan-Islamic programme in the museum. However, he says, the holy war is
still popular all over the Muslim world.7 Even modern historian, Anthony
Reid, views every Pan-Islamism movement as part of a centrally-presided
international movement. He says that Turkey never presided in such a
movement, and local leaders (that proposed Pan-Islamism) have been
anachronistic.8 In his article, Reid seems to deny a Turkish influence on
modernisation in Indonesia because he just analyses Pan-Islamism as an
anti-colonialism movement such as in the Padri War and the Aceh War,
referring to his sources in the Dutch archives and manuscripts of Snouck
Hurgronje. Meanwhile, in order to trace the influence of the Islamic
movement in the Middle East to the nationalism spirit in Indonesia,
Laffan explains Istanbul briefly. He does not scrutinise Istanbul as the
centre of the modernisation process in the Islamic world, but just as the
centre of the political movement. He emphasises his research on Hijaz
and Cairo, whereas Istanbul politically had great influence in diplomacy
and international politics by influencing the Dutch colonial government

5
Onghokham, Rakyat dan Negara (Jakarta: LP3ES: Pustaka Sinar Harapan,
1983), p. 60.
6
Anthony Reid, “Pan-Islamism Abad Kesembilan Belas di Indonesia dan
Malaysia”, in Kekacauan dan Kerusuhan: Tiga Tulisan Tentang Pan-Islamism Abad Kesembilan
Belas di Indonesia dan Malaysia’, ed. by N.J.G. Kaptein, C. van Dijk, and Jan Schmidt
(Jakarta: INIS, 2003).
7
Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, Kumpulan Karangan Snouck Hurgronje / Jilid II
(Jakarta: INIS, 1995), p. 178.
8
Reid, “Pan-Islamism Abad Kesembilan Belas”, p. 2.

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in Indonesia, rather than Hijaz and Cairo.9

Studies regarding Pan-Islamism and the late Ottoman history in
Indonesia are influenced by studies in Middle Eastern states especially
in Turkey. Many historians in Turkey try to connect Pan-Islamism with a
political policy to fight against colonialism, as they emphsise the Caliphate
and Pan-Islamic questions as anti-Western. In addition, relations between
the British and Ottoman were worse and Rusia invaded several Central
Asian Muslim regions. Several studies about colonialism itself deny social
dynamics in colony states, only emphasising Abdulhamid’s policy in the
context of the Caliphate question with several symbolic roles he played.10
Even though there are several works regarding Ottoman-Southeast Asia,
those are still narrating Pan-Islamism as anti-colonialism conception in
related to Dutch or British position in Southeast Asia11. Meanwhile, this
article will investigate Pan-Islamism as a part of modernization process
in Indonesia.
In short, studies about Abdulhamid are divided in two; first, some
view him as a retrogade fanatic and a blot on the history of the late
Ottoman state. Others view Abdulhamid as a moderniser in the tradition
of the earlier Tanzimat era. However, several historians state that there
is nothing incompatible between religion and modernisation.12
This article seeks to bring new clarity to the history of Pan-Islamism
and the modernisation process in Indonesia by suggesting that Istanbul,
9
Michael Francis Laffan, Islamic Nationhood and Colonial Indonesia: The Umma Below
the Winds (London: Routledge Curzon, 2003).
10
Kemal H. Karpat, The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and
Community in the Late Ottoman State (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001); Cezmi
Eraslan, Abdülhamid ve İslam Birliği: Osmanlı devleti’nin İslâm Siyaseti, 1856-1908 (İstanbul:
Ötüken, 1992); Selim Deringil, The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of
Power in the Ottoman Empire 1876-1909 (London: IB Tauris, 1989); Mümtaz ’er Türköne,
Siyasi İdeoloji Olarak İslamcılığın Doğuşu (İstanbul: Etkileşim Yayınları, 1991); Azmi Özcan,
Pan-Islamism: Indian Muslims, the Ottomans and Britain, 1877-1924 (Leiden: Brill, 1997).
11
A.C.S. Peacock, “From Anatolia to Aceh: Ottomans, Turks and Southeast
Asia”, in From Anatolia to Aceh: Ottomans, Turks, and Southeast Asia, ed. by Annabel Teh
Gallop (London: British Academy, 2015); Reid, “Pan-Islamism Abad Kesembilan Belas”;
Jan Schmidt, Through The Legation Window 1876-1926. Four Essays on Dutch, Dutch-Indian
and Ottoman History (Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut, 1992).
12
Rashed Chowdhury, “Pan-Islamism and Modernisation During the Reign
of Sultan Abdülhamid II, 1876-1909”, Thesis (Montreal: McGill University Libraries,
2011), pp. 17–8.

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Frial Ramadhan Supratman

as the centre of the Ottoman state, was not only the centre of politics
for Muslims, but the centre of modernisation. In short, Pan-Islamism
and modernisation are compatible with each other. This argument will
be placed in the context of Indonesian history in the late nineetenth
century. Firstly, the author will place Pan-Islamism as a modernisation
process in the late nineteenth century, rather than as anti-colonialism
upheaval, as Western modernisation had brought failures especially in
colony states like Indonesia. So, Istanbul provided an alternative way to
supervise modernisation in Indonesia. Secondly, the author will show
the dynamics of the transnational process that stimulated the Dutch
to launch modernisation in Indonesia. In this argument, the Ottoman
state played an important role in stimulating modernisation in Indonesia.
Thirdly, the author will show that the Jawi students’ arrival in Istanbul
was the turning point of the modernisation process in Indonesia. In
short, Pan-Islamism was not a violent ideology that could undermine
the Dutch colonial government politically, but the basic principle of the
modernisation process.
Eventually, the author will argue that the Ottoman state policy in
Indonesia, through Pan-Islamism, could not be identified as violence,
rebellion, coercion and harshness, but it brought modernisation which
could help Indonesians to adapt to changes in the international arena.
On the other hand, the Hadhrami group became the first modern elite
who brought modern processses to Indonesia before the emergence of
the new-noblemen class (neo-priyayi) after the Ethical Policy. In short, as
Pan-Islamism and Ottoman supervision in the modernisation process
were viewed as a threat by Dutch colonials, indirectly it was stimulating
the Dutch colonial government to launch modernisation projects like
the Ethical Policy in order to repress modernisation supervised by the
Ottoman state. The Dutch wanted to launch a modernisation process
under their own patronage. Before outlining this narrative, it will be useful
to review in more detail discussions about Pan-Islamism.

B. Pan-Islamism and Modernisation in the Hamidian Period

(1876–1909)
In Ottoman history, the reign of Abdulhamid II is frequently
viewed as the emergence of the ideology of Caliphate in domestic

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and foreign policy. Abdulhamid played a symbolic role in defining his

authorithy as Caliph, running government according to vigorous pillars
such as defining the state with ‘four pilllars of the state’, firstly, Islam;
secondly, the maintenance of the house of Osman; third, the protection
of the Haram al-Haramayn; and fourthly, the maintenance of Istanbul
as the capital city.13 Historians tend to see him as a sultan that used Islam
to legitimise his position. Abdulhamid came to be viewed as a traditional
Ottoman corporatist sultan who wanted to create a common political
identity for all citizens, regardless of faith and language and, then, to
realign itself religiously, culturally and politically with the most numerous
of those citizens, the Muslims.14
Historians argue that dealing with Muslims became the main
concern of Abdulhamid II because he declared himself as Caliph. Even,
in more detail, he composed the main functions of Caliph.15 Despite being
a sultan in his domain, thanks to his declaration as Caliph, Abdulhamid
received solicitation of Muslims around the world to help them against
Western colonialism. The Aceh ambassador’s arrival in Istanbul is
an example of Muslims in Indonesia who sought help to face Dutch
colonialism. They hoped that Abdulhamid could intervene in the Dutch
invasion of Aceh. However, it was misleading to hope that Abdulhamid
would intervene in the invasion by colonialism of Muslim states.
Solicitation of help from abroad become the sign that in the
Hamidian period (1876–1909) the Ottoman state came to be seen as
a Pan-Islamist state presiding over anti-colonialism in several Muslim
states such as India, Malaysia and Indonesia. Therefore, it will be useful
to analyse late Ottoman history through diplomatic history. Hanioğlu
emphasises the portrayal of Ottoman history as an integral part of the
larger history of Europe and the world.16 Therefore, he argues that
migration of Muslims to Ottoman regions played an important role
in defining Pan-Islamist policy in the Hamidian period, as the Muslim
13
Selim Deringil, “Legitimacy Structures in the Ottoman State: The Reign of
Abdülhamid II (1876–1909)”, International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 23, no. 03
(1991), p. 346.
14
Kemal H. Karpat, The Politicization of Islam, p. 4.
15
Eraslan, Abdülhamid ve İslam Birliği, pp. 199–200.
16
Mehmed Şükrü Hanioglu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2010), p. 4.

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proportion of the Ottoman population had grown to 73.3%.17 Hanioğlu

explains that the keys to understanding the Hamidian period are loyalty
to the sultan and re-invention of tradition.
Many historians and social scientists deny the intertwining of Pan-
Islamism and modernisation in the Hamidian period, as they identify
political Islam, so-called Pan-Islam, with anti-colonialism, anti-progress,
tradition and being the product of the medieval period. Some of them
link Pan-Islam with several Arabs surrounding Abdulhamid II who
had ambition to face European states militarily such as Sayyid Fadl.18
Undobtedly, Pan-Islam ideology in this context cannot be plausible, as
supporters of such Pan-Islamism like Sayyid Fadl wanted the Ottoman
to act militarily against the British, meanwhile the Ottoman state tried to
avoid conflict with European states, including the British in the Indian
Ocean.19 Another view, influenced by Pan-Islamism, sees Abdulhamid as
a despotic (istibdad) sultan, running censhorship over the Ottoman press.20
İt will be misleading if we view Pan-Islamism merely as a
product of the Caliphate question, authoritarian, anti-colonialist and
anti-modernisation. Talal Asad argues that religion is not absent in
the public life of the modern nation-state.21 Pan-Islamism was also
part of modernisation in the late nineteenth century. At that time, the
Ottoman state witnessed how Western states, such as Britain, colonised
the Ottoman domain similar to Egypt in 1882. In addition, Britain also
launched a colonialism policy in Muslim states such as East Africa,
India and Malaysia. Not only Britain, France also invaded the Ottoman
domain in North Africa and the Dutch invaded Aceh. Neither did the
Ottoman receive help from Muslim states such as Aceh. Accordingly,
the Ottoman state needed to form an alternative ideology to stabilise its
domain and launch good foreign affairs. In this context, Pan-Islamism
17
Ibid., p. 130.
18
Jacob M. Landau and Brigitte Boyce, The Politics of Pan-Islam: Ideology and
Organization, vol. 45 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 71; Ş. Tufan Buzpınar,
“Abdülhamid and Sayyid Fadl Pasha of Hadramawt: an Arab Dignitary’s Ambitions
(1876–1900)”, Journal of Ottoman Studies, vol. 13 (1993), pp. 227–39.
19
Ulrike Freitag, Indian Ocean Migrants and State Formation in Hadhramaut: Reforming
the Homeland (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2003), p. 79.
20
Palmira Brummett, Image and Imperialism in the Ottoman Revolutionary Press,
1908–1911 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000), p. 3.
21
Asad, Formations of the Secular, p. 5.

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was a plausible way to overcome problems in its domain and abroad.

In this period, Abdulhamid II sucessfully reverberated and re-invented
tradition. Therefore, Pan-Islamism was the best choice of principle in
Ottoman policy. According to Aydın, Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian ideas
emerged after the liberal Westernised moment in Ottoman and Japanese
reformist thought. Their genesis was closely related to a break in the
Asian’s elite perception of the west. The global image of the West
altered dramatically during the 1880s following the European scramble
to colonise Africa in the aftermath of the British occupation of Egypt.
On a global scale, the period from the early 1880s to 1914 was both
the peak of European imperial expansion and the formative period of
modern social sciences in Europe.22
Despite reverberating and re-inventing tradition, Sultan
Abdulhamid II was also a product of Tanzimat. In short, he was a part of
the historical process of Ottoman history. He grew up during the middle
of the nineteenth century. Either was he impressed with modern life in
Europe. He visited Europe with his uncle, Sultan Abdulaziz. In the early
period of his reign, Abdulhamid was attracted to modern political systems
such as parliament, though he eventually banned parliament. However,
he was very concerned about the education field. Modern schools with
French as the language of instruction were opened during his time.
Launching an education policy for women, he opened the first modern
university in Turkey, Dar-al-Funun (now, Istanbul University) in 1870.
Since Maarif Nizamname was declared in 1869, the Ottoman state began
to modernise the education system, dividing education into five levels;
Sibyan, Rustiye, Sultaniye and Darulfunun.23 In particular at Sultaniye
school, French became the main language of science. The Ottoman state
adopted French, not only in diplomatic activities, but also in education.
Even France as a state prompted the creation of Mekteb-i Sultaniye.24
Sultaniye was established because the graduates of Rustiye school could
not directly learn at Darulfunun. The system of the Sultaniye school
provided education for five years, however students who did not have
22
Cemil Aydin, The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of World Order in
Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), p. 39.
23
Ahmet Cihan, Osmanlıda Eğitim (İstanbul: Akademik Kitaplar, 2014), p. 17.
24
Selçuk Akşin Somel, The Modernization of Public Education in the Ottoman Empire
1839-1908 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), p. 17.

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adequate intellectual skills had to join matriculation for three years. In

short, it required eight years before studying in Darulfunun.25 Apart from
Darulfunun, Abdulhamid also established modernisation of education
through the establishment of economic growth and public welfare, such
as the establishment of a school of finance in 1878; a school of fine arts
in 1879; a school of commerce in 1882; an engineering school in 1884;
a veterinary school in 1889; but also keeping the interests of the state in
mind, a police academy in 1891 and a school to train customs officers in
1892.26 In short, through modern education, Abdulhamid II as Caliph,
had an agenda to centralise his domain, modernising Ottomans and
Muslims beyond the Ottoman domain.
On the other hand, to centralise Ottoman domains and connect
people with the capital city, the Ottoman built telegrams and the Hijaz
Railway. Those were the most advanced technologies of the time.
Accordingly, Pan-Islamism policy as the principle ideology in his policy
created tremendous projects. The Hijaz Railway was a necessity of the
Ottoman state, as the agenda of modernisation and Pan-Islamism had
to be centralised. In order to pursue the purpose of modernisation the
Hijaz Railway was the main solution. Abdulhamid needed to reinforce
the presence of the Ottoman state in Hijaz, especially given British
and Italian control of the western shore of the Red Sea.27 According
to Chaudury, control of Hijaz was crucial if the Ottomans wanted to
retain the Caliphate and not lose it to a British-backed Arab pretender.28
Therefore, in the Hijaz Railway project, centralisation was an important
issue to regain control of the Ottoman domain in the hands of the
sultan in Istanbul.
In sum, Pan-Islamism became the main principle of modernisation
of the Ottoman state, as the state had to control and centralise its domain.
However, to be Caliph, Abdulhamid also had to make good foreign policy.
Therefore, the mission of Ottoman foreign policy was based on Pan-
Islamism and the modernisation effort. In order to pursue the mission,
the Ottoman state sent consuls abroad to attract Muslims from various
25
Ömer Faruk Yelkenci, Türk Modernleşmesi ve II. Abdülhamid’in Eğitim Hamlesi
(Üsküdar, İstanbul: Kaknüs Yayınları, 2010), p. 107.
26
Chowdhury, “Pan-Islamism and Modernisation”, p. 282.
27
Ibid., p. 277.
28
Ibid., p. 326.

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states, in particular Indonesia (Netherland East Indies). Several scientists

consider that the presence of the Ottoman state in Indonesia could create
an anti-colonialism movement. However, the anti-colonialism movement
in Indonesia during the nineteenth century never obtained military
intervention from Istanbul. Even indigenous people in Indonesia just
‘brought’ the Ottoman’s name (Raja Rum) as the only legitimate power
to enhance the anti-colonialism spirit. For instance, Jambi Kingdom or
Minangkabau Kingdom in Sumatra both always purported that their
founder was Turkish.29 Therefore, until now, we cannot admit that the
Ottoman state supported Indonesians in order to oust the Dutch colonial
government. Accordingly, the Ottoman influence on anti-colonialism
was as moral support through modernisation. The presence of the Jawi
students in Istanbul and the Hadhrami connection became the important
evidence that the Ottoman state tried to modernise Indonesia through
the Hadhrami group.

C. Jawi Students and Modernisation

Pan-Islamism and modernisation of the Ottoman state in Indonesia
could not be separated from the initial solicitation by the Aceh envoy to
Istanbul to help Aceh with military support prior to the Hamidian period.30
Although Aceh failed to win military support, the Ottoman state began to
give attention to Southeast Asia. The Ottoman state opened a consulate
for the first time in Singapore in 1864, thereafter in Batavia in 1883.31 The
first Ottoman consul in Southeast Asia was Syed Abdullah el-Juneyd. He
was appointed as Ottoman ambassador to Singapore in 1864.32 He was
a descendant of the Hadrami people who lived in Singapore. Singapore
was the center of the Ottoman movement in Southeast Asia because the
British government gave more freedom to the movement than the Dutch
29
Vladimir Braginsky, The Turkic-Turkish Theme in Traditional Malay Literature:
Imagining the Other to Empower the Self (Leiden: Brill, 2015), pp. 75–95.
30
İsmail Hakkkı Kadı, A.C.S. Peacock, and Annabel The Gallop, “Writing
History the Acehnese Embassy to Istanbul, 1849-1852’”, in Mapping The Acehnese Past,
ed. by R. Michael Feener, Patrick Daly, and Anthony Reid (Leiden: KITLV Press,
2011), pp. 163–81.
31
Ismail Hakkı Göksöy, Güneydoğu Asya’da Osmanlı-Türk Tesirleri (Isparta: Fakülte
Kitabevi, 2004), pp. 94–5.
32
Ibid.

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East Indies under Dutch government. Many migrants, especially from

Hadhramaut, came to Singapore in the nineteenth century. Many Hadrami
came from Hadhramaut to Southeast Asian cities such as Singapore,
Batavia, and Surabaya to seek opportunities, commonly as traders.
Actually, the opening of the Ottoman consulate in Singapore
made the Dutch anxious because the Dutch considered the consulate tp
be a symbol of unity of Muslims and could, therefore, act as a catalyst
in reviving the Muslim spirit to fight against Dutch colonial power.
Following the death of the first Ottoman consul in Singapore, Dutch
requested the British to obstruct the presence of Ottoman consuls.33
However, the Dutch could not fully refuse an Ottoman presence in
Southeast Asia because the Dutch had an economic relationship with
Ottoman. Opium was an important product that was brought by Dutch
agents from Izmir to Java. The sale of opium in Java and Madura—
which became the company’s major activity as far as the drug trade was
concerned—was implemented through a farming system. It consisted
of leasing—often for a limited period—the right to collect taxes or
to sell goods which were subject to a government monopoly, such as
opium. This system existed in Southeast Asia, including Siam (Thailand),
Vietnam, Pinang, several Malayan states, Singapore, and a number of
islands of the Indonesian Archipelago.34
Both in Singapore and Batavia, the Ottoman state trusted the
position of consul to the Hadhrami family who had experience in
Southeast Asia. For the first time, the Ottoman state had an open
relationship with the Hadhrami group. It is the author’s argument that
it cannot be separated from the Hadhrami connection with the Indian
Ocean and Istanbul. The wide connections of the Hadhrami group in
Istanbul influenced Ottoman policy in Southeast Asia. As mentioned
above, Sayyid Fadl became an important figure in the Ottoman palace
as the adviser of the sultan.Thanks to the existence of Sayyid Fadl in
Istanbul, many Hadhrami people could broaden their connection to
Abdulhamid II’s palace.
On paper, the Ottoman consul in Batavia was a commercial agent,
33
Ibid.
34
Jan Schmidt, From Anatolia to Indonesia: Opium Trade and the Dutch Community of
Izmir 1820-1940 (Istanbul: Nederlandsch Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut, 1998),
p. 26.

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however, in practice, the consul was always watched by colonial authorities

in Indonesia, as the Ottoman state could propagate Pan-Islamism-based
military intervention to colonialism in Indonesia. In the Hamidian era,
in 1885, thirteen Acehnese pilgrims delivered a petition to the Ottoman
governor of Hijaz to be forwarded to Istanbul, requesting help to save
their country from the invasion of the Dutch colonial government. Thus,
the Ottoman consul in Batavia, Galip Bey, visited Aceh and performed
Friday prayer in Baiturrahman Mosque.35 Undoubtedly, the main agenda
of the Ottoman consul in Batavia was not to propagate anti-colonialism
with military intervention, but to support moral and religious spirits in
order to supervise modernisation in Indonesia. Ottoman statesmen in
Batavia also had another agenda despite commercial agents like donating
the Holy Koran and money to Muslims. There is archive material which
shows solicitation of the Koran from ikhwan al-Jawiyun (Jawi Brotherhood)
that requsted 800 donations of the Koran from Istanbul.36 The Sultan, as
well as distributing the Koran, also donated money for the building of a
mosque in Batavia in 1899.37 A document, dating from 1898, contains a
plea from Batavia for the repair of two mosques and the tomb of Şyakh
al-Idrus ot al-Aydarus.38 Donations of the Koran and money from the
Ottoman state to Muslims in Indonesia for the building and repairing of
schools, mosques and tombs is evidence that Abdulhamid II as Caliph
fulfilled his duty.
As mentioned above, the Ottoman state in the Abdulhamid II
period (1876–1909), had a modernisation agenda both in its domain and
abroad. Centralisation of education and the Hijaz Railway project became
evidence that Pan-Islamism and modernisation were not to fight against
colonialism, but to create an Islamic-based welfare state. Therefore, to
35
İsmail Hakkı Göksöy, “Acehnese Appeals for Ottoman Protection in the Late
Nineteenth Century”, in From Anatolia to Aceh: Ottomans, Turks and Southeast Asia, ed.
by A.C... Peacock and Annabel The Gallop (London: British Academy, 2015), p. 93.
36
Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri (henceforth BOA), HR-ID 1373-65; about
Ottoman Koran in Southeast Asia see Ali Akbar, “The Influence of Ottoman’s Qur’ans
in Southeast Asia Through the Ages”, in From Anatolia to Aceh: Ottomans, Turks and
Southeast Asia, ed. by A.C... Peacock and Annabel The Gallop (London: British Academy,
2015), pp. 331–34.
37
Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (BOA), Y.A.HUS 400/124; BOA, Y.A.HUS
386/47.
38
BOA, Y.A. HUS 386/40.

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Frial Ramadhan Supratman

pursue the agenda, the Ottoman state also served Muslims abroad to
strengthen the Caliphate position in Istanbul. Thereafter, the position of
Caliph in launching Pan-Islamism and modernisation became vigorous
in the eyes of Muslims. Accordingly Muslims abroad could support
modernisation and benefit from it.
The most significant Ottoman state policy in Indonesia in the late
nineteenth century was granting opportunity for Jawi students to come to
Istanbul.39 The term Jawi is used as the Ottoman archive used ‘Cavalı’ to
mention students coming to Istanbul at the time. Nonetheless, the Jawi
students who came to Istanbul were Hadhrami people. However, we can
see that the Ottoman state installed the Hadhrami as the representation of
Cavalı or Jawi. In short, the Ottoman state intended to install Hadhrami
as the agents of Ottoman modernisation in Indonesia.
An archive shows that students from Batavia came to Istanbul
in 1898.40 They were provided funding for their travel expenses by the
Ottoman government.41 They were Abdurahman bin Abdulkadir al-
Aydarus, Abdulmuthalib Shahab, Mehmet İhsan ve Muhammad Hasan
and Ali.42 Abdullah al-Attas also had children who graduated from Egypt.
They were also sent by their father to study in Istanbul in Darüşafaka ve
Aşiret Mektebi.43 The next group of seven students was sent the following
year. It included Hadhrami descendants such as Syaikh Abd al-Rahman,
Abdallah bin Junayd of Buitenzord (Bogor), four sons of the Sunkar
family of Batavia and one Ahmad bin Muhammad al-Sayyidi of North
Sumatra.44 Nonetheless, because of the lack of finances, several students
could not learn well.45 However, the Ottomann state also granted a reward
to Jawi students who studied in Istanbul like Ahmad and Said Bachinid
who studied at Mekteb-i Mülkiye Aşiret Sınıfı obtaining the fouth Nişan

39
Schmidt, Through The Legation Window 1876-1926, p. 221; Göksöy, Güneydoğu
Asya’, pp. 119–127; Jeyamalar Kathirathamby-Wells, “Hadhramis and Ottoman Influence
in Southeast Asia”, in From Anatolia to Aceh: Ottomans, Turks and Southeast Asia, ed. by
A.C... Peacock and Annabel The Gallop (London: British Academy, 2015), pp. 110–11.
40
BOA, Y.A. HUS 385/13;
41
BOA, BEO 1107/83000.
42
BOA, BEO 1281/87419;
43
BOA, A.MTZ 05/5b/161.
44
BOA, BEO 1261/94534.
45
BOA, BEO 2689/201627.

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 The Ottoman State, Pan-Islamism, and Modernisation in Indonesia

Mecidi medal from the Ottoman state.46

According to these archives, Jawi students who came to Istanbul
studied at modern Ottoman schools such as the French-based school
like Sultaniye. İt shows that many of them came to Istanbul to get
modern sciences and languages like French, rather than preparing an
anti-colonialism agenda to bring back to Indonesia. Jawi students like
Ahmed and Said Efendi requested to learn French after graduating
from Aşiret Mektebi.47 Having graduated from Istanbul, by all means,
the Ottoman state hoped that they could propagate modern science
in Indonesia, building modern education according to Pan-Islamism
principles. According to Deringil, the emphasis on training a loyal and
competent state elite – which would be thoroughly imbued with the
values of the centre – was a basic consideration of the Ottoman higher
education establishment. As stated in a circular directive from the
Ministry of Education to all higher schools, students graduating from
these institutions were expected to be ‘of good character and breeding,
ready to serve their state and country unwaveringly’.48
Thanks to the kindness of Sultan Abdulhamid that allowed Jawi
students come to Istanbul and granted several donations such as repairing
tombs and building mosques, the Hadhrami group in Indonesia were
willing agents of the Ottoman modenrisation project. They helped the
Ottoman consul in Batavia to collect money in order to help build the
Hijaz Railway project. Therefore, many Hadhrami were granted medals
from the Ottoman state. The Ottoman consul in Batavia granted medals
to Hadhrami Seyyids such as Abdullah al-Abdu Rusulhadremi, Seyyid
Nur al-Kafi, Seyyid Baidila, Seyyid Abdullah, Seyyid Abdul Kadir al-İdrus,
Seyyid Muhammad Şahab and Seyyid Sahal bin Abdullah.49 Others, such
as Şyakh Ömer el-Yusuf el-Menkuşa, also got medals thanks to their
contribution to the Hijaz Railway project.50 Accordingly, it shows that
Hadhrami in Southeast Asia can be called as the first modernization agent
in Indonesia. Thanks to their ability in maintaining a dual identity based

46
BOA, I.TAL 401/23.
47
BOA, Y.MTV 269/229.
48
Selim Deringil, The well protected domains, p. 96.
49
BOA, I.TAL 407/55.
50
BOA, I.TAL 364/57.

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on relative degree of assimilation into the host societies,51 Hadhrami could

be trusted by Ottoman as the modernization agent. As Ulrike Freitag
rightly argues in her article, Hadhramis choose very different strategies
to coexist with or integrate into, their respective host societies, strategies,
moreover, which were adapted to a host of different circumstances.52
The appearance of Hadhramis as the modernization agent supervised
by Ottoman in the late nineteenth century can be interpreted as a part
of Hadhrami’s strategies to coexist in the Indian Ocean.
In short, the presence of the Ottoman state in Indonesia in the
late nineteenth century provided an important contribution in paving
the way for modernisation effort in Indonesia. Through education of
Jawi students, the Ottoman state hoped that they could come back to
Indonesia and propagate modern education among Indonesians, not an
anti-colonialism movement. Therefore, the Ottoman state intended to
supervise modernisation in Indonesia through Pan-Islamism based on
modern education. Thereafter, Islam and modern science became the
main foundations to establish a modern elite in Indonesia through the
Hadhrami group as agents of modernisation supervised by the Ottoman
state.

D. Snouck Hurgronje and Ethical Policy

The emergence of the Hadhrami group as agents of a Pan-Islamism-
based modernisation evoked several criticisms from the Dutch. Snouck
Hurgronje played a significant role in advising the colonial government
in Indonesia. Through his ability in Islamic studies, Snouck warned the
colonial government of the menace of anti-colonialism from the Islamic
movement in Indonesia. Thanks to the advice of Snouck Hurgronje,
the Dutch colonial government could subdue hardly-undefeated Islamic
states in Sumatra, namely, Aceh state.
Snouck Hurgronje was a leading Islamic studies scholar from
51
Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk and Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim, “Introduction”, in
The Hadhrami Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Identity Maintenance or Assimilation, ed. by Ahmed
Ibrahim Abushouk and Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim (Leiden: Brill, 2009), p. 2.
52
Ulrike Freitag, “Reflections on the Longevity of the Hadhrami Diaspora in
the Indian Ocean”, in The Hadhrami Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Identity Maintenance or
Assimilation, ed. by Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk and Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim (Leiden:
Brill, 2009), p. 18.

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Leiden University, the Netherlands. He went to Mecca to research

the influence of Indonesian Muslims staying in Mecca on the Islamic
movement in Indonesia. He went to Mecca on 13 May 1885, witnessing
Ka’ba (Kabe). After visiting Mecca, Snouck went to Indonesia, spending
sixteen years (1889–1906) there.53 In Jeddah and Indonesia, Snouck
encountered several Indonesians who helped him to research Islam. In
Jeddah, Snouck was helped by an Indonesian who worked in the Dutch
Consulate, his name was Raden Aboe Bakar. As he was a nobleman’s
offspring, Raden Aboe Bakar got a good education and worked in
the Dutch Consulate in Jeddah. Raden Aboe Bakar acknowledged his
teachers such as Sayyid Abdullah Azwawi to Snouck Hurgronje. Thanks
to connections from Zawawi, Snouck Hurgronje met several teachers
and students in Mecca.54
Thanks to his experience in Mecca and Aceh during the late
nineteenth centruy, Snouck became the leading Islamic scholar who
helped the colonial government.55 Snouck underscored the influence of
Pan-Islamism in Indonesia and the ways by which the Dutch colonial
government could mitigate Pan-Islamism in Indonesia. He was a
supporter of colonial vision at the time. İn short, Snouck endorsed that
the aim of colonial project was to bring Muslims from the Middle Ages
to modernity. He did not agree with the fusion between religion and
politics like in the Middle Ages. According to him, a modern civilisation
is characterised by separation between religion and politics and an
inclusive view of humanity. Thereafter, Snouck states that the aim of
colonialism is not only to exhort economic resources from colonised
regions, but also to introduce the indigenous to modernity.56 Therefore,
he declined the Ottoman Pan-Islamic policy in Indonesia, as it would
53
Michael Francis Laffan, Islamic Nationhood and Colonial Indonesia: The Umma
Below the Winds (London: Routledge Curzon, 2003), p. 55.
54
Ibid., p. 59.
55
Eric Tagliacozzo indicates that Snouck had much more complex role than
as a mere interpreter of Islam for the uninitiated in the Western World. See Eric
Tagliacozzo and Eric Tagliacozzo, “The Skeptic’s Eye: Snouck Hurgronje and the
Politics of Pilgrimage from the Indies””, in Southeast Asia and the Middle East : Islam,
Movement and the Longue Duree (Singapore: NUS Press, 2009), p. 148.
56
Leon Buskes, “Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, ‘Holy War’ and Colonial
Concerns”, in Jihad and Islam in World War I, ed. by Erik Jan Zurcher (Leiden: Leiden
University Press, 2006), p. 40.

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harm modernisation in Indonesia.

The tendency for the fusion between religion and politics become
the main concern of Snouck Hurgronje. He says that in the late nineteenth
century, many Muslims lived under the reign of non-Muslims. In the
world, just ten per cent of Muslims live under an independent Muslim
state. Commonly, Muslims always imagine the reign of the Caliphate and
try to fight against infidel states and want to change state to be a Muslim
state.57 Here, ‘Constantinople’ plays an important role. Many Muslims
seek to help Constantinople and present Muslim questions. According
to this evidence, Turkey had a big chance to influence all Muslim states.
Undoubtedly, Pan-Islamism could come from Constantinople.58 In this
commentary, it seems that Snouck Hurgronje was still suspicious of
the Pan-Islamism of the Ottoman state, especially in the Abdulhamid
II period. Accordingly, Snouck still considered that Pan-Islamism in
Indonesia could instigate anti-colonialism which could topple Dutch
rule. He did not see that the Pan-Islamism of the Ottoman state also
tried to bring modernity through education and infrastructure projects.
To overcome the Pan-Islamism of the Ottoman state, Snouck
criticised the colonial government for sending too many missionaries to
Indonesia. He did not agree with the strategy of converting Indonesians
to Christians. Indeed, Snouck underscored modern education as the
proper way to colonise the indigenous in Indonesia and overcome the
menace of Pan-Islamism. Education had to be the main agenda to reach
stability and modernity. He criticised that education had to be given to
all Indonesians, not only the noblemen classes. The people (rakyat jelata)
also had to be a priority of the education policy.59 With education, the
Dutch could get ‘good’ employees to organise colony states who obeyed
the rule of colonial government. In Snouck’s opinion, education was
the best way to supervise the separation between religion and public life
especially politics:
They (missionaries) had to be decreased because at this time,
indigenous in Java and other Islam regions in Nusantara have a

57
Snouck Hurgronje, “İslam”, in Selected Works of Snouck Hurgronje, ed. by G.H.
Bosquet and J. Schacht (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1957), p. 47.
58
Ibid.
59
Hurgronje, Kumpulan Karangan Snouck, p. 183.

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desire to join our culture in all fields, in which religion do not be

included. Upper-class people and educated people seem to be happy
in welcoming our supervision in the education field for their young
generations. If they have a complaint, it has been caused by us who
give them less opportunities in education field because they feel
that we have emphasised education to Europeans and Chinese,
rather than indigenous.60
Snouck tireless campaigned for ‘The extermination of Pan-
Islamism’. He even compared Pan-Islamism with a ‘pest’. He says that
the extermination of Pan-Islamism is one of the beneficial things for
‘our brothers in the East’. Therefore, Snouck underscored colonial
government to form ‘the bigger national unity in which either indigenous
in Nusantara or Dutch in Netherland feel happy inside’.61 In short,
Snouck Hurgronje advised the colonial government to form a modern
state supervised by the Dutch. Undoubtedly, Snouck underscored secular
education to unite the Dutch and indigenous in Indonesia:
Islam and Christian could mingle together in national life, only if
Pan-Islamism is marginalized. And we can see the benefits of this
condition for our purpose.62
According to Snouck Hurgeonje’s opinion above, he shows that the
Dutch colonial policy had to be directed to the unity among Indonesians
and Dutch. Therefore, he tried to create the ‘same enemy’ named Pan-
Islamism because Pan-Islamism was considered as an anti-colonial
ideology he disliked.
In short, we can see that the Pan-Islamism of the Ottoman state
in Indonesia became the trigger for modernisation in Indonesia, as the
Dutch launched the Ethical Policy and modernisation in Indonesia
especially in the education field when the Ottoman state also launched
modernisation projects in Indonesia. Therefore, we should reinvestigate
again the emergence of the Ethical Policy in Indonesia. van Niel considers
that the Ethical Policy in Indonesia was caused by the changes of political
factions in the Netherlands where the Liberal Party had controlled politics,

60
Ibid., pp. 182–83.
61
Ibid., p. 185.
62
Ibid.

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so it paves the way for liberal figures like van Deventer to launch ‘ethical
obligation and moral responsibility to the peoples of the East Indies’. van
Niel also emphasises the discrimination of Indonesians in comparison to
Arabs and Chinese who had brought Dutch sympathy to the indigenous.63
Accordingly, secular-based education became the way to incorporate
Indonesian modernity supervised by the Dutch, as it could dissociate
Indonesian modernity if supervised by the Ottoman state. Benedict
Anderson views secular education as the trigger for the emergence of
‘imagined communities’. As mentioned above, Taylor and Anderson
state that one of the prerequisites for the emergence of modern state is
citizenship.64 Undoubtedly, a government needs equality in citizenship
regardless of religion. Neither did the Ottoman state declare equality
between Muslims and non-Muslims in the Tanzimat declaration as the way
to be a modern state. Therefore, Anderson views that schools in Batavia
contributed to nationhood in Indonesia. The government schools formed
a colossal, highly rationalised, tightly centralised structure analogous
to state bureaucracy.65 Thanks to the Ethical Policy, Indonesians could
mingle together in Batavia, read the same book and speak the same
language. Accordingly, the concept of ‘inlander’ was transformed to
‘Indonesians’.66 If we agree with Anderson’s opinion, we admit that the
Ethical Policy influenced the nationhood of Indonesians. However,
another historian reinvestigated Anderson’s opinion.
Laffan underscores that the nationhood of Indonesians was formed
by the connection of Jawi students in Hijaz and Cairo. He says that the
debates about Islam and modernity in Cairo in the early twentieth century
influenced Indonesian students, thereafter they brought discourses about
nationhood to Indonesia. In short, he argues that Indonesian nationhood
had deeper roots in an Islamic ecumenism within archipelagic Southeast
Asia, made more tangible through contact with both other Muslims
beyond that world and non-Muslims within it.67 Nonetheless, in this
article, we are not dealing with the nationhood of Indonesians. Either
secular education or Cairo both influenced the formation of nationalism
63
Niel, The Emergence, pp. 14–32.
64
Asad, Formations of the Secular, pp. 2–3.
65
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verson, 2006), p. 121.. 121.
66
Ibid., pp. 122–23.
67
Laffan, Islamic Nationhood and Colonial Indonesia, p. 3.

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in Indonesia. However, we have to know an alternative argument about

the formation of modernity in the Ethical Policy.
As mentioned above, through the Hadhrami, the Ottoman state
tried to supervise modernity in Indonesia, educating the Hadhrami as
agents of modernity in Indonesia. Therefore, we can say that the Ethical
Policy was not the first modernisation attempt in Indonesia. Prior to the
Ethical Policy, the Ottoman state tried to create modernisation through
the Hadhrami group as agents. Therefore, the Dutch tried to counter
modernisation supervised by the Ottoman state with the Ethical Policy.
Neither did the Dutch counter the Hadhrami group with the emergence
of the proyayi or noblemen group as the modern elite supervised by the
Dutch. They would be a barrier used by the Dutch colonial government
to prevent the influence of the Hadhrami as agents of Pan-Islamism-
based modernisation supervised by the Ottoman state.
Accordingly, the Dutch tried to modernise either priyayi or
noblemen or common people to be taught by Dutch supervision. For
instance, there was an Indonesian named Abdullah Rivai, a Sumatran
(Minangkabau), who received a Dutch education in the Netherlands.
Gradually more Indonesians came to the Netherlands to study. When
another of the sons of Notodirdjo, Notodiningrat (presently Professor
Raden Mas Wreksodiningrat) arrived in Delft (1908) to study engineering
he found about thirty other Indonesian students in the country. For
social contact, they formed the Indische Vereeniging (Indies Club) in
1908, a cultural organisation, but also a podium from which new
thoughts and ideas could be disseminated.68 The Dutch seemed to have
succeeded in counter modernisation supervised by the Ottoman state,
as Westernised Indonesian elites educated in the Netherlands tried to
engage with modernity supervised by the Dutch. For instance, Rivai also
published the Pewarta Wolanda newspaper. The aim of this Malay-language
periodical, published in Amsterdam and distributed in the Netherland
Indies (Indonesia) was to ‘try to decrease the influence of Turkey among
many Mohammedans (Muslims) in the Indies (Indonesia)’. Intended to
be distributed among Indonesian rulers, civil servants and the well-to-
do classes, Pewarta Wolanda would do this in part by convincing parents
to send their children to the Netherlands and not to Istanbul for their
68
Niel, The Emergence, pp. 49–50.

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education.69
If we refer to Anderson, we encounter his argument that the Dutch
prefer to support priyayi or indigenous noblemen, not Muslim educated
classes, to be agents of modernity. Meanwhile, Laffan also shows that
priyayi and local culture played an important role in overcoming the
influence of the Islamic movement in Indonesia. Like Hurgronje, K.F.
Holle, a Dutch in Indonesia, played a significant role on ‘colonising Islam’.
He devoted his life to learning the Sundanese language and campaigned
for the development of the Sundanese alphabet. This latter project was
his attempt to unseat the place of the widely used Arabic script which
he feared enabled the Sundanese to be drawn to a foreign, dangerous
and religious radicalism emanating from the Middle East.70 Noblemen
or priyayi were supported by the Dutch to overcome the Pan-Islamic
influence in Indonesia through the Hadhrami group, as the Hadhrami
group were agents of Pan-Islamism-based modernisation.
However, another historian like Laffan hesitates regarding the role
of the Hadhrami in bringing Pan-Islamism for Indonesians, viewing Pan-
Islamism as the ‘Arab’ agenda. He says that it was only in the Hijaz that
the Jawa directly encountered the machinery of the Ottoman government,
where it was neither well maintained nor efficient. Still, the increasing
number of Jawa in Hijaz could wed Pan-Islamic rhetoric to their own
aspirations for the Indies.71 However, we have to reinvestigate Laffan’s
opinion, as in its documents, the Ottoman state called the Hadhrami
group ‘Cavalı’ rather than Arab or Hadhrami.72 In Turkish, ‘Cavalı’ means
‘people of Java’. Undoubtedly, they wanted to call them Jawi, mentioning
Hadhrami students coming to Istanbul as ‘Cavalı’. The Ottoman state
also called Aceh as part of ‘Cava’ when Sultan Mansyur Syah requested
citizenship (vatandaşlık) of the Ottoman state.73
Thereby, the Ottoman state already considered that the Hadhrami
and Muslim indigenous of Southeast Asia were not different because
they were Muslims. In the Ottoman archives, Indonesians regardless
Kees van Dijk, The Netherlands Indies and The Great War 1914-1918 (Leiden:
69

KITLV Press, 2007), p. 294.

70
Laffan, Islamic Nationhood and Colonial Indonesia, p. 81.
71
Ibid., p. 125.
72
BOA, Y.A. HUS 385/13; BOA, BEO 1107/83000; BOA, BEO 1281/87419.
73
BOA, HR.SYS 551–4.

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of their regions or rulers were called ahali-Islamiye (the Community of

Islam). In the archive showing the complaints of colonialism in Aceh to
Abdulhamid II, the concept of ahali-Islamiye (the Community of Islam)
is used.74 Therefore, in the concept of the Ottoman state, the Hadhrami
and Indonesians at the time had equal position, as they were classified
as ahali-Islamiye (the Community of Islam). Of course, in the colonial
concept, the Hadhrami and Indonesians were not equal because the
Hadhrami was classified as Vreemde Oosterlingen (Foreign Orientals) like
Chinese and Indonesians as ‘inlander’. Accordingly, Laffan still used a
colonial system perspective in viewing the influence of the Hadhrami
on Pan-Islamism.
Another argument indicating that the Ottoman state was popular in
Indonesia was the existence of the Jawi manuscript in Indonesia regarding
the Ottoman state. In the National Library of the Republic of Indonesia,
there is a Jawi manuscript entitled Hikayat Istambul. The manuscript tells
about the Ottoman state in the Crimean War with Russia. It shows how
the Ottoman state played an important role in international politics
especially with Russia.75 The writer of the manuscript is anonymous, but
at the end of the pages is the name ‘Abdullah’ who lived in Batavia. It
seems that he translated this manuscript from Arabic to the Jawi language.
Accordingly, the Hadhrami had an important role in propagating Pan-
Islamism and the Ottoman state through the language of Islam in
Southeast Asia, Jawi. In short, at the time, the story of the Ottoman state
is not only as a myth like in Minangkabau or the Jambi manuscript when
the Ottoman state is viewed as the founder of sultanates. However, it
shows the Ottoman state as a real state in the international political arena.
Therefore, it is not true if we say that Pan-Islamism is below
the winds (Southeast Asia) as an ‘Arab’ movement because firstly, the
Ottoman state called the Jawi students in Istanbul ‘Cavalı’ rather than
‘Arab’ or Hadhrami; secondly, Pan-Islamism is not only about the
Hadhrami movement, but also an indigenous movement through the
language of Islam such as in Hikayat Istambul, therefore Indonesians
also understood about the Ottoman state and participated in modernity
supervised by the Ottoman state.
74
BOA, YA.HUS 297–35.
75
Hikayat Istambul, BR 319, p. 199.

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E. Concluding Remarks
The Ethical Policy in Indonesia in 1901 was not the only
modernisation effort in Indonesia. The Ottoman state in the nineteenth
century also contributed to modernising Indonesians through several
policies, with the Hadhrami group as agents of Ottoman modernisation.
In modernising Indonesians, the Ottoman state used Pan-Islamism as
the main principle. In short, Pan-Islamism became the main principle of
modernisation both in the Ottoman domain or beyond.
Unfortunately, many scholars and orientalists like Snouck
Hurgronje considered Pan-Islamism as a harming ideology for colonial
government, as it could instigate an anti-colonialism movement in
Indonesia. Actually, debate about Pan-Islamism in Indonesia never
ended because scholars and Western orientalists like Snouck Hurgronje
still considered Pan-Islam as incompatible with modernity. Modernity
can only be successful when religion and public life do not interact with
each other. However, like Talal Asad and Chowdury, this paper argues
that Islam and public life can fuse together. In short, modernity can be
a success with a Pan-Islamism principle.
Accordingly, the Pan-Islamism principle-based Ottoman state
policy in Indonesia in the late nineteenth century, before the Ethical
Policy, brought modernisation efforts through the Hadhrami group as
agents of modernisation. At that time, the Ottoman state considered that
the Hadhrami and Indonesians were part of ahali-Islamiye (the Community
of Islam), therefore regardless of ethnicity, the Ottoman state called
the Hadhrami ‘Cavalı’. In short, Pan-Islamism-based modernisation
in Indonesia was not only the agenda of the Hadhrami or Arabs, but
all Jawi, Indonesians. However, modernity supervised by the Ottoman
state will be different from the modernity of the Dutch. Therefore,
orientalists, like Snouck Hurgronje, warned the colonial government
to form a policy overcoming modernity supervised by the Ottoman
state. Hurgronje proposed modernity regardless of religion in order
to incorporate Muslims and Christians into one nation. Therefore, the
Dutch launched the Ethical Policy to overcome modernity supervised by
the Ottoman state through secular education and agents. In this policy,
the Dutch preferred to choose the priyayi or noblemen to propagate
modernisation in Indonesia.

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In sum, the author argues that before the Ethical Policy of

1901, the Ottoman state had first launched modernisation efforts
through Jawi students or the Hadhrami group. This caused the Dutch
to counter this modernisation. Therefore, Pan-Islam principle-based
modernisation supervised by the Ottoman state through the Hadhrami
group stimulated and encouraged the Dutch colonial government to
launch the Ethical Policy, modernisation launched by the Dutch through
secular-based education. In short, it shows alternative arguments
regarding modernisation in Indonesia during the early twentieth century.
The competition between the Ottoman state and the Dutch in order to
modernise Indonesians became the key to understanding modernisation
through the Ethical Policy.

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Frial Ramadhan Supratman

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