I outline the career of the guru silat and regard how they double one another through spontaneous bodily movement (gerak), consider ritual empowerment granted through worldly and other-worldly powers, including rajas, saints, and spirits, and explore the relation of the guru silat to the vii Part III, doubles, explores the guru silat in the creation and maintenance of silat, and provides detailed genealogical data. Changing tack I consider Islam as a warrior religion, analyzing the secrets of the prayer, chanting (dhikr), and the idea of becoming a shadow of the Prophet (Chapter 4). Next, I address the cosmology of silat, especially the shadow and reflection soul, which relates to Islamic Sufism, Malay magic, shadow theatre, and to notions of appearance and reality. This reading encouraged me to merge perspectives from the anthropology of art with the anthropology of performance to conceptualise silat through the “performance of enchantment” and the “enchantment of performance.” Part II, echoes, sketches eleven silat styles, alongside silat weaponry, dance, and martial techniques, before turning to the distinctive features of Seni Silat Haqq (Chapter 3).
Readers who prefer to delve directly into the ethnographic materials may skip Chapter 2, which contains an extensive academic literature review of anthropological theories of art, embodiment, magic, and performance read alongside Malay animism, shamanism, ritual and theatre. This group are an offshoot of the Islamic HaqqaniNaqshbandi Sufi Order headed internationally by Shaykh Nazim, and led in Southeast Asia by a Malay Prince H.R.H. Chapter 1 outlines the fieldwork method of performance ethnography used to investigate a transnational silat organization called Seni Silat Haqq Melayu. Part I of the book, reflections, outlines the methodological and theoretical base of the research. Shadows of the Prophet: Martial Arts and Sufi Mysticism is based upon my doctoral dissertation (Farrer 2006b). Hence this account explores Malay mysticism, shamanism and sorcery from the perspective of silat, which may be considered as a kind of embodied war magic or warrior religion. Recognizing the silat master’s (guru silat) role in Malay mysticism reconfigures the social anthropology of Malay religion, sorcery and magic. However, given knowledge of the Malay martial art (silat) a more comprehensive understanding of Malay mysticism, religion, sorcery and magic becomes possible. Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 īut as there is no language for the Infinite, How can we express its mysteries In finite words? Or how can the visions of the ecstatic Be described in earthly formula? So mystics veil their meanings in these shadows of the unseen Mahmud Sa‘adu’l-Din Shabistari (quoted in al-Attas 1963: 25)Ĭontemporary accounts of Malay culture that focus on shamanism, dance, medicine and performance reveal only a partial view of Malay mysticism. 2009 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Shadows of the Prophet Martial Arts and Sufi MysticismĭOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-9356-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008938182 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. Turner National University of Singapore, Singapore
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