tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43861723970138329782024-03-04T20:09:45.540-08:00Elementary Education SchoolsAll About Elementary Education and Schools in the United StatesAsrori Ardiansyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07815594871331599547noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-32566645330330459082011-10-06T21:50:00.000-07:002011-10-06T21:57:15.518-07:00Online Elementary Education BenefitsElementary and high school education is perhaps the most important part of education in everyone’s life. It lays the foundation for any higher education, and trains the mind to have the aptitude to succeed in a competitive world. It helps the child to indentify the strengths and weaknesses and build on the strength. It also helps every individual to build a successful career in the area of interest. It is therefore necessary that every child gets the elementary and the high school education, much needed to succeed in life.<br /><br />Sometimes, it is much more desirable for the child to complete this need through online education than attend schools. Geographical location, unavailability of transportation, or any such thing can be the reason for this. Online education might also be the first choice of many parents, due to the flexibilities it offers. Some highlights that child education through online school offers are listed below:<br /><br /> Online elementary education offers more choices to parents and the child than the traditional school setting. It allows the parents to choose a suitable teacher who can pay individual attention to their ward. It also allows the parents and the child to choose the best time to attend the school. Since classroom sessions and home works can be submitted online, the parents and the child can choose the most suitable time of the day to complete this activity.<br /><br /> Every child needs individual attention during the early years of education. This attention from teachers helps the child to obtain a more structured education suitable for individual needs and pace of learning. Online schools guarantee this individual attention to every child, since the instructor communicates exclusively with the child. This cannot happen more often in a traditional school setting.<br /><br /> Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the child plays an important role in early education. Since online schools can provide undivided attention to the child, it is easier to identify this and help the child strengthen the skills. It is important to strengthen the weak subjects in the early education, so that there are no learning bottlenecks in the future. This is possible only through online education, because traditional schools have a compulsory and uniform curriculum. Online curriculum can be structured in a way suitable for every individual child, so that the curriculum concentrates on weaknesses to improve them.<br /><br /> Since online schools are very flexible, the child can have fun with other extracurricular activities that can improve the soft skills and social abilities. Learning in a less competitive environment, benefits the child to enjoy education without pressures associated with it.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">resource: http://www.educationcenters.com</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-12620810127862556072011-08-16T19:16:00.000-07:002011-08-16T19:21:47.853-07:00Elementary Classroom Rules and ManagementElementary classrooms can become better learning environments when teachers have rules, <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/elementary-classroom-rules-and.html">classroom management skills</a>, and a belief that each child can be successful. Rules help create a predictable atmosphere that limit classroom disruptions and encourage children to use self-control. Children need to be taught that it is their responsibility to make appropriate choices and that they will be held accountable for their actions.
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<br />Teachers may decide to establish rules or allow their students to assist in formulating them. Teachers who involve their children in the rule making process contend that students are more likely to follow them. One way to involve students in forming rules is to have them brainstorm as a class or in small groups why they come to school and their goals for learning. Then ask them to name rules that will help them achieve their goals. Write their ideas on the board. If a child states a rule negatively, such as, “Don’t come to school late,” ask how it could be stated in a positive way. Below are some examples.
<br /><ul><li> Come to school on time.</li><li> Bring what you need with you.</li><li> Listen to the teacher.</li><li> Follow directions.</li><li> Be kind to others.</li><li> Use manners.</li><li> Work hard.</li><li> Do your best.</li><li> Keep your hands and feet to yourself.</li><li> Follow playground rules.</li></ul>
<br />Then assist them in consolidating their list into three to five basic rules, such as:
<br /><ul><li> be prepared;</li><li> be respectful;</li><li> be productive; and</li><li> be safe.</li></ul>
<br />After the rules are decided upon, you may want to have the students sign a copy of them and display them. Review and define each one as needed. Students are more likely to follow the rules if they are clearly stated and understood, and if classroom management procedures are in place and followed.
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<br />Some examples of procedures or routines that need to be explained, practiced often and followed consistently:
<br /><ul><li> what to do upon entering the classroom;</li><li> what signal will be used to get their attention(see 25 Ways to Obtain Children’s Attention in a School Setting);</li><li> what to do when a signal is given;</li><li> what to do when it is group time;</li><li> what to do if they want to speak;</li><li> what to do if they need to use the restroom;</li><li> what to do if they need to sharpen their pencil;</li><li> what to do when they need help;</li><li> what to do when they are finished with their work;</li><li> how to line up;</li><li> how to walk in the hall;</li><li> what to do in the cafeteria;</li><li> what to do if a visitor is in the classroom;</li><li> what to do if the teacher is not in the room;</li><li> what to do when the fire alarm rings; and</li><li> what to do before being dismissed.</li></ul>
<br />In addition, listing the schedule for the day helps children know what to expect.
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<br />Here is an example of a teacher’s management plan for individual students:
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<br /> First infraction: Name on board.
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<br /> Second: Student writes down the rule that he/she broke.
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<br /> Third: Student looses ten minutes of recess
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<br /> Fourth: A parent is called or a note is sent home for the parent to sign and return.
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<br /> Fifth: The student is sent to the principal.
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<br />When deemed appropriate provide choices. For example: if a child does not stay on task and complete his work, you could say, “Do you want to finish it during free time or recess?” Or, if a child is being disruptive, you could say, “Would you like to sit in the “thinking” chair or at your desk with your head down?” (see “Love and Logic Basics”). When given a choice, students tend to feel respected and are more likely to comply. However, allow only a short time for the choice to be made and if the child does not choose, make the choice for him/her. As much as possible, have the consequence directly relate to the offense.
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<br />After deciding what rules and management procedures you will use, discuss consequences for broken rules. However, allow yourself some flexibility. Consequences for inappropriate behavior need to focus on helping a child learn from his/her mistakes. At times you may want to meet with a child alone and ask him what you could do to help him make constructive choices. Then listen, share thoughts with your student and develop a plan of action.
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<br />An <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/elementary-classroom-rules-and.html">idea for classroom management</a> is to put a word on the board such as “responsibility.” When the class does well, a letter is underlined in red, and when they are off task, the red underline is deleted for one letter. When the whole word is underlined in red, the class earns a privilege such as a theme day or viewing a movie. Having the children brainstorm and vote on ideas of what they would like to receive for their exemplary behavior can foster their desire to follow the rules.
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<br />A management plan for group work is to divide the children into teams of four or five students. Review what is expected and give each team points for listening to instructions, being respectful toward each other, completing the assignment, etc. After keeping track of the points for a week, the team with the most points could earn extra recess, lunch with the teacher or free time. Start the point system over again the following week.
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<br />Signals that a child or students need to be on task include: staring, frowning, shaking your head, standing close, holding your finger or hand a predetermined way, or placing a child’s name on the board. Making a check on the board may signify a consequence such as the class losing five minutes of recess.
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<br />Positive consequences for appropriate behavior or exceptional effort also need to be used to reinforce constructive actions. Examples are: specific verbal recognition (see Effective Praise), certificates, handshakes, high fives, thumbs up, smiles, and earned privileges such as getting to eat with a friend from another class or being the teacher’s assistant. Other acknowledgments could be computer, homework or library passes, or a positive phone call or note sent home to a parent. When an entire class has done exceptionally well on a test or project, provide a fun activity like playing games or having a special snack (see Rewards in the Classroom).
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<br />Teachers need to anticipate and deal with problem behaviors before they escalate. When teachers enforce a <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/elementary-classroom-rules-and.html">classroom management plan and rules</a>, as well as build a positive relationship with their students, the children will more likely develop self-discipline and learning will take place.
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<br /><a style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);" href="http://www.kellybear.com/TeacherArticles/TeacherTip72.html">resource</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-5705175394612336432011-08-11T03:58:00.000-07:002011-08-11T04:01:40.739-07:00Cognitive Development in Elementary School KidsEvery child will have cognitive development, which helps them master certain skills. From infancy, children will learn how to master certain cognitive skills like sitting, walking, talking, and other developmental milestones. The cognitive skills your child learns are directly related to their ability to solve problems. They will be able to perform math equations, read, write, and communicate with adults. Along with cognitive development comes social development, speech and language development, and motor skills development.
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<br />Like infants, elementary-aged children encounter developmental milestones. They develop certain skills within a designated time frame as other children their age. The skills they learn are in a sequential manner, meaning they need to understand numbers before they can perform a mathematical equation. Each milestone that your child develops builds upon the previous milestone they achieved. Up until age 8, a child's brain is considered a "super computer" because it is learning new skills at a rapid pace. Once they reach the age of 8, the skills they learn start to level off and it usually is a steady increase of new skills. Developmental charts help doctors predict when children will reach certain milestones. Your child's doctor will be able to discuss the typical time frame for reading skills to develop and improve and they can provide you with tips on how you can help your child's cognitive development.
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<br />Every child is different and many encounter milestones at a different age. If your child is a little behind other children their age, spend some extra time working with them. Help them to improve their problem solving abilities by creating problems they encounter with everyday life. Don't push your child too hard, or else you will just be adding to their stress level. Each child develops at their own pace, just because it took them 3 months longer to learn how to walk than other children their ages doesn't mean they will be behind those children with their cognitive development. Your child's doctor will give you a handout with information about the different time blocks when your child should meet certain milestones. If your child can understand numbers, it won't be long before they will be able to perform mathematical equations.
<br />Your child's cognitive development will depend on the environment they live in and their genes. Genes are passed onto your child by you and they act as a blueprint for the different characteristics they posses. Genes determine certain things with children, like if they will be right-handed or left-handed. The environment you raise your child in will also improve or harm their cognitive development. Children that live in poverty often have a harder time with their cognitive development because they are unable to reach their IQ potential due to poor schooling and home life.
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<br />Sending your child to school is not enough to help them learn the problem-solving skills they need. You do not need to go buy special toys or video-gaming systems that encourage learning. The best thing you can do for your child is to sit down and learn with them. There are simple every-day activities you can do with your child that will help their cognitive development, here are a few:
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<br /> * Give your child attention. Raise them in an environment where there is love and respect for one another. Hug your child and let them know how much they mean to you. Children that are loved are less-likely to develop behavioral problems and they typically do better in school.
<br /> * Talk to your child often. Play with them, eat dinner with them, and read with them everyday. Create a routine for your child when they are infants and stick to it. Keeping a routine in place will help your child understand boundaries and rules. Children need structure in order to be healthy and feel secure.
<br /> * Reading with your children everyday will encourage your child's vocabulary skills. Have your child select books from the library and have them read to you. Encourage them to sound out words they do not understand and help them build upon their reading skills.
<br /> * Do not allow your children to play video games or watch a lot of television during the school-week. Limit their exposure to the television and turn it off at least 2 hours before bedtime. Over-exposure to television and entertainment devices is detrimental to your child's cognitive development and it can cause sleep depravation.
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<br />Elementary-aged children are curious about the world and they like to learn new things. Give them time and allow them to share the new things they are learning. You can help your child's cognitive development by answering their complex questions about the world. It is normal for older elementary-aged children to question other people's opinions, especially since they are gaining information outside the home. It is important to discuss things with your child on a regular basis. Encourage them to share their ideas and opinions, as this promotes bonding. You need to talk to them about things they may encounter at school, including smoking, drinking, and sexual activity. Keeping open communication with your child at a young age will help them come to you when they have difficult challenges later in life.
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<br />Try picking your child up from school and listening to the things they learned at school. Spend some time around the table and actively listen to them. Ask them open-ended questions to promote them to think and talk to you more. Treat your child with respect and do not interrupt them when they are talking. Help them learn how to carry on a developed conversation by asking more questions about the things they are telling you.
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<br />Provide them with activities that promote growth year-round. Even though they may not attend school during the summer, they still need to be challenging their mind. Offer activities that promote communication skills and problem-solving skills. Consider enrolling them in summer camps where they can learn new things with their friends or relatives. Always take time to sit down and work on mathematical problems together. Help your child understand how to do a problem and help them think through it so they can perform well in school.
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<br />During the summer, go to the library with your child and select some books that are slightly above their competency level. This will encourage them to work harder and it will prepare them for the upcoming school year. Children need a loving, friendly environment to succeed. Constantly encourage them to try hard and praise them for their accomplishments. Elementary-school years are vital years for self-esteem. Telling your child you love them and showing them you support them can make a huge difference in their lives.
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<br />Some children have behavioral problems due to part of their cognitive development. These children may have difficulties learning the skills that other children their age are learning. If you suspect your child is behind in their cognitive development, speak to their doctor. You may be able to enroll them in after-school programs that help them with their homework and help them catch up to the rest of the class. Some children will act out with behavioral problems like temper tantrums, anger, violence, withdrawing, and other things. Watch your child's behavior to make sure they are not having behavioral issues.
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<br />An easy way to help your child's cognitive development is to challenge them with new mathematical problems and new words. Introducing new vocabulary can help their cognitive development and expand their vocabulary. Many children will actually be able to understand more concepts than they are able to express. By taking the time to teach your child new words, you can help them avoid frustrations that come with being unable to express what they are feeling. Teaching your child new words will also help them become more sophisticated. Elementary-aged children should be able to receive directions and follow them without them being repeated. They should also be able to remember past events and tell them in a logical order. Encourage your child to tell stories and share some of your stories with them.
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<br />Attend parent-teacher conferences and talk to your child's teacher about their problem-solving and language skills. Children that have problems with language comprehension normally are at risk for academic difficulties. If your child has problems speaking, take them to a speech-language therapist. They will be able to set goals for your child and help them overcome language barriers. You must also take time to spend with your child and help them work on their speech skills.
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<br />Your child's school will recommend your child for different tests if they suspect a learning disability. Some children have hearing problems and that directly impacts their ability to learn. Many children suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a condition that impairs their ability to pay attention. These children also have a hard time retaining information. You should always take your child to their well-child visits each year and have their doctor test them for their cognitive development. You and your doctor can create a routine for your child that will help them develop properly and learn all the skills they need in order to continue advancing.
<br /><a style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);" href="http://hubpages.com/hub/Cognitive-development-in-elementary-school-kids">
<br />resource</a>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-77735710150141336812011-08-11T03:51:00.000-07:002011-08-11T03:54:50.823-07:00Check Your Brain, Right Brain Dominant or Left Brain<p class="MsoNormal">Ravi and Rakesh were friends. But they were complete opposites. Ravi liked the detail in everything: he was excellent in organising, planning and taking care of the nitty-gritty. He was analytical and processed information in a sequential way. He was good at math and spellings as well. Rakesh, on the other hand, was more holistic. He saw the whole and not the parts. He loved the arts, dreamt a lot, was intuitive, emotional, creative, visual, musical, lateral, unorganised and spontaneous. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">What made them different was the way their brains were wired. Ravi’s left-brain was dominant and Rakesh’s right. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The part of the brain that controls rational functions, the cerebral cortex, is made up of two halves. These are connected by masses of nerve fibres, which allow 'messages' to pass between them. These halves are commonly called the right brain and left brain, but should more correctly be termed 'hemispheres'. For some reason, our right and left hemispheres control the 'opposite' side of our bodies: so the right hemisphere controls our left side while the left hemisphere controls the right side.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The concept of right brain and left brain thinking developed from the research in the late 1960s of an American psychobiologist Roger W Sperry. He discovered that the human brain has two very different ways of thinking. One (the right brain) is visual and processes information in an intuitive and simultaneous way, looking first at the whole picture then the details. The other (the left brain) is verbal and processes information in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting them together to get the whole. Sperry was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1981.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">If you analyse your personality, you will be able to identify with the Ravis or Rakeshs of the world.<span style=""> </span>Having said that, it is important to know which side of your brain is dominant and what kind of a person you are.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Here’s an easy test to check if you are predominantly right or left-brain. Clasp your hand together and check out which thumb is uppermost. Left-brainers will keep their left thumb up and right-brainers will keep their right. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Learning and thinking processes are enhanced when both sides of the brain participate in a balanced manner. This would mean strengthening the less-dominant hemisphere of your brain. The ancients knew this very well and designed rituals to aid the process. Do you know how? Have you observed how Hindus pray to Lord Ganpati? They cross their hands below the chin and hold their ear lobes (the right earlobe held by the left thumb and index finger, and the left one by the right thumb and index finger), and bend down a couple of times as if asking for forgiveness.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The traditional explanation to this ritual is as mentioned – “asking forgiveness for the sins committed.” But the actual meaning is far deeper. This ritual is a technique to balance the right and left brain hemispheres of the brain. <em><span style="font-style: normal;">The right ear lobe corresponds to the left brain and the left ear lobe corresponds to the right brain. </span></em>When the <em><span style="font-style: normal;">right ear lobe is gently squeezed </span></em><i>with the </i><em><span style="font-style: normal;">left thumb </span></em><i>and </i><em><span style="font-style: normal;">left index finger </span></em><i>with the thumb outside, it is said to produce the necessary energy connection. This connection causes the </i><em><span style="font-style: normal;">left brain and pituitary gland to become energized and activated. Ditto with the other side. </span>For energizing and activating both hemispheres, the left arm must be inside, while the right arm must be outside.</em><em><span style="font-style: normal;"> In the west, this simple ritual that has been followed for eons in India, is being called Super Brain Yoga. <span style=""> </span></span></em></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-style: normal;">There is a lot of meaning to many rituals that have been handed down to us by our ancestors. All it needs on our part is to analyse it and understand the true meaning for which it was originally created.</span></em></p><p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-style: normal;"><a style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);" href="http://yourenergy.blogspot.com">resource</a>
<br /></span></em></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-17106905165326318572011-08-10T10:53:00.000-07:002011-08-10T11:33:52.124-07:00All About Elementary Education in the United States<p><a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">Elementary schools</a> exist worldwide as the basic foundational institution in the formal educational structure. <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">Elementary schooling</a>, which prepares children in fundamental skills and knowledge areas, can be defined as the early stages of formal, or organized, education that are prior to secondary school. The age range of pupils who attend <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">elementary schools in the United States</a> is from six to twelve, thirteen, or fourteen, depending on the organizational pattern of the particular state or school district. While a few, mainly small rural, districts, retain the traditional pattern of grades one through eight, a more common pattern is grades one through six. In most school districts as well as in many teacher preparation programs, <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">elementary education is </a>organized into the following levels: primary, which includes kindergarten and grades one, two, and three; intermediate, which includes grades four, five, and six; and upper, which includes grades seven and eight. A commonly found organizational pattern places grades seven and eight, and sometimes grade six and nine, into middle or junior high schools. When the middle school and junior high school pattern is followed, these institutions are usually linked into secondary education, encompassing grades six through twelve.</p> <p>In <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">comparing elementary schools in the United States</a> with those of other countries, some distinctions in terminology are necessary. In the United States, <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html"><i>elementary</i> education refers to</a> children's first formal schooling prior to secondary school. (Although kindergartens, enrolling children at age five, are part of public schools, attendance is not compulsory.) In school systems in many other countries, the term <i>primary</i> covers what in the United States is designated as elementary schooling. In <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">American elementary schools</a>, the term <i>primary</i> refers to the first level, namely kindergarten through grades one, two, and three.</p> <p><a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">The elementary school curriculum</a> provides work in the educational basics–reading, writing, arithmetic, an introduction to natural and social sciences, health, arts and crafts, and physical education. An important <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">part of elementary schooling</a> is socialization with peers and the creating of an identification of the child with the community and nation.</p> <h3><a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">History of Elementary Education in the United States</a></h3> <p>The European settlers in the North American colonies, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, initially recreated the school systems of their homelands. They established a two-track school system in which the lower socioeconomic classes attended primary vernacular schools and upper class males attended separate preparatory schools and colleges. The primary schools–elementary institutions under church control–offered a basic curriculum of reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion.</p> <p><b>Colonial period.</b> While many similarities existed in the colonial schools, there were some important differences between New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the South. The New England colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, which were settled primarily by Puritans, were characterized by a strong sense of religious and social conformity. Because of their Calvinistic emphasis on reading the Bible and other religious literature, the Puritans quickly established elementary schools. In 1642 the Massachusetts General Court, the colony's legislative body, made parents and guardians responsible for making sure that children were taught reading and religion. In 1647 the General Court enacted the Old Deluder Satan Act, which virtually established <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">elementary education</a> by requiring every town of fifty or more families to appoint a reading and writing teacher. Massachusetts and the other New England colonies developed the town school, a locally controlled, usually <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">coeducational elementary school</a>, attended by pupils ranging in age from six to thirteen or fourteen. The school's curriculum included reading, writing, arithmetic, catechism, and religious hymns. The model of the town school, governed by its local trustees or board, became an important feature of later <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">U.S. elementary schooling</a>.</p> <p>The Middle Atlantic colonies of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania were settled by diverse ethnic and religious groups. In addition to English, Scots, and Scotch-Irish, there were Dutch in New York, Swedes in Delaware, and Germans in Pennsylvania. The Middle Atlantic colonies' religious and language diversity had important educational implications. <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">Elementary school</a>s were usually parochial institutions, supported and governed by the various churches.</p> <p>In the southern colonies–Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia–enslaved Africans were used as forced labor on the plantations. Wealthy families employed private teachers or tutors to educate their children. Enslaved Africans were trained to be agricultural workers, field hands, craftspeople, or domestic servants, but they were legally forbidden to learn to read or write. There were some notable exceptions who learned to read secretly.</p> <p><b>Early national period.</b> After the establishment of the United States as an independent nation, the earliest U.S. federal legislation relating to education was included in the Northwest Ordinance of 1785. The ordinance divided the Northwest Territory into townships of thirty-six square miles, and each township was subdivided into thirty-six 640-acre sections. Each township's sixteenth section was to be used to support education. Unlike constitutions or basic laws in other nations, the U.S. Constitution, ratified as the law of the land in 1789, did not refer specifically to education. The Tenth Amendment's "reserved powers" clause (which reserved to the states all powers not specifically delegated to the federal government or prohibited to the states by the Constitution) left education as a responsibility of each individual state.</p> <p>During the early national period, the first half of the nineteenth century, American leaders, such as Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), argued that the United States needed to develop republican schools that were different from those found in the European monarchies. Jefferson's "Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge," introduced in the Virginia legislature in 1779, would have made the state responsible for providing both girls and boys with a <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">basic elementary education</a>, in a local ward school, at public expense. Although not enacted, Jefferson's bill had an important influence on later developments.</p> <p>The movement to establish <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">an American version of elementary education</a> was promoted by Noah Webster (1758–1843), who sought to create an American version of the English language and instill an American identity into the young through language instruction. Webster's <i>American Spelling Book</i> and <i>American Dictionary</i> were widely used in schools.</p> <p><b>The movement to common or public schools.</b> In the 1830s and 1840s, several Western nations began to develop <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">national elementary or primary school system</a>s that were intended to augment or replace the existing church-controlled institutions. In France, Francois Guizot, the Minister of Education in the regime of Louis Philippe, promoted <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">national elementary schools</a>. In the United States, with its historic tradition of local and state control, the movement to establish <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">public elementary schools</a> was not national but carried on in the various states.</p> <p>Before <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">public elementary school</a>s were established, attempts were made in the United States to establish various kinds of <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">philanthropic elementary schools</a>, such as the Sunday and monitorial schools. The United Kingdom, a leading industrial nation, also experimented with these approaches to primary education. The Sunday school, developed by Robert Raikes, an English religious leader, sought to provide children with basic literacy and religious instruction on the one day that factories were closed. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, Sunday schools were established in the larger cities.</p> <p>Monitorialism, also known as mutual instruction, was a popular <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">method of elementary education</a> in the early nineteenth century in the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries. Two rival English educators, Andrew Bell, an Anglican churchman, and Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker teacher, promoted monitorialism independently. The monitorial method relied heavily on <i>monitors</i>–more advanced pupils, trained by a master teacher–to teach younger children. Monitors aided teachers in conducting classes, taking attendance, and maintaining order. In using this method, the master teacher trained a selected group of older students as monitors in a particular skill, such as adding single-digit numbers or reading simple words. These monitors then taught that particular skill to subgroups of less advanced pupils. Since the monitorial method promised to teach large numbers of pupils basic literacy and numeracy skills, it gained the support of those who wanted to provide basic elementary education at limited costs.</p> <p>Initially, monitorial schools were popular in the larger American cities such as New York and Philadelphia, where they were typically supported by private philanthropists and occasionally received some public funds. In the early 1840s monitorial schooling experienced a rapid decline and virtually disappeared. By the time that the New York Free School Society, which had operated monitorial schools, turned them over to the public school system in 1853, more than 600,000 children had attended its schools.</p> <p><b>The common school.</b> The common school movement refers to the establishment of <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">state elementary school systems</a> in the first half of the nineteenth century. The term <i>common</i> meant that these state-supported public elementary schools, exalted as the school that "educated the children of all the people," were open to children of all socioeconomic classes and ethnic and racial groups. Nevertheless, many children, particularly enslaved African Americans, did not attend.</p> <p>Not a selective academic institution, the common school sought to develop the literacy and numeracy needed in everyday life and work. Its basic curriculum stressed reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, history, and geography. Emphasizing American patriotism and Christian piety, it was regarded as the educational agency that would assimilate and Americanize the children of immigrants.</p> <p>The common school movement in the United States paralleled some trends taking place in western Europe in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the 1830s the British parliament, though not creating a state school system, began to provide grants to educational societies for primary schooling. In France, under Guizot, a primary school system, too, was established during the regime of Louis Philippe. These transnational trends, found in Europe and America, indicated that governments were beginning to take the responsibility for providing some <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">kind of elementary schooling</a>. Unlike in France, which was beginning to create a highly centralized national educational system, U.S. public schools were decentralized. The U.S. Constitution's Tenth Amendment reserved education to each state. The states, in turn, delegated considerable responsibility for providing and maintaining schools to local districts. Even within a particular state, especially on the frontier where many small school districts were created, resources available for schooling varied considerably from district to district.</p> <p>The common school movement scored its initial successes in New England, particularly in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Massachusetts, in 1826, required every town to elect a school committee to provide and set policy for the local schools. The Massachusetts legislature established the first state board of education in 1837. It named Horace Mann (1796–1859), an eloquent spokesman for common schooling, as its secretary. Mann, as editor of the <i>Common School Journal</i> and a popular orator, gained considerable support for public schools.</p> <p>Other northern states emulated New England's common school model. As the frontier moved westward and new states joined the Union, they, too, followed the model and passed laws to create <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">public elementary school systems</a>. In the South, with a few exceptions, common schools were rare until the post–Civil War Reconstruction.</p> <p>A unique feature in the United States was the small one-room school, found in rural areas and small towns across the country. These schools served local school districts, governed by elected boards. Although small one-room village schools existed in other countries, the American ones were local creations rather than impositions of a national government. The American school's immediacy to its people made the local school a trusted institution rather than an alien intruder into small town life. In contrast, the teacher in France might be suspected as an outsider, a representative of the intrusive central government. Similarly, in tsarist Russia, the zemstvo school, established in the villages, was often extraneous to the needs of life in the countryside. The zemstvo teachers often were not accepted by the peasants whose children they tried to teach or were regarded as rivals of the village priest. In America's one-room schools, the elected school board determined the tax levy and hired and supervised the teacher. This pattern of local control contrasted with the visiting school inspectors sent to inspect teachers and schools in France or even with the royal inspectors in the United Kingdom.</p><p>The pupils enrolled in the local one-room schools, often ranging in age from five to seventeen, studied a basic curriculum of reading, writing, arithmetic, history, geography, grammar, spelling, and hygiene. They were instructed by the recitation method in which each pupil stood and recited a previously assigned lesson. Group work might include writing exercises, arithmetic problems, and grammar lessons that stressed diagramming sentences. The values of punctuality, honesty, and hard work were given high priority.</p> <p><b><a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">African-American and Native American elementary education</a>.</b> The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery in the United States. Although a small number of free blacks had attended elementary school in some northern states before the war, southern slave states had prohibited instruction of African-American children. After the Civil War, the U.S. Congress, in 1865, established the Freedmen's Bureau, which established elementary schools for the children of former slaves. By 1869 more than 114,000 students were attending bureau schools. Many bureau schools functioned until 1872 when the bureau ceased operations.</p> <p>In the late nineteenth century, the federal government, assisted by well-intentioned but often misguided reformers, sought to "civilize" Native Americans by assimilating them into white society. From 1890 to the 1930s the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in a policy of forced assimilation, relied heavily on boarding schools, many of which contained elementary divisions. Seeking to remove Native American youngsters from their tribal cultures, the students, forbidden to speak their native languages, were forced to use English. The boarding schools stressed a basic curriculum of reading, writing, arithmetic, and vocational training.</p> <p><b><a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">Nonpublic elementary schools</a>.</b> In addition to the public elementary school, the United States also has <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">private elementary school</a>s, many of which are church-related. Today, nonpublic schools enroll about 11 percent of the pupils in U.S. schools. Roman Catholic parochial schools, serving the children of a particular parish, represent the largest number of <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">private elementary schools</a>. Evangelical and fundamentalist Christian schools are the fastest growing sector in <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">nonpublic elementary education</a>.</p> <h3><a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">Goals of Elementary Schools</a></h3> <p>Elementary schools in the United States, as in other countries, have the goals of providing children with fundamental academic skills, basic knowledge, and socialization strategies. They are key institutions in instilling a sense of national identity and citizenship in children.</p> <p>In the United States, <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">elementary schools prepare children</a> to use language by teaching reading, writing, comprehension, and computation. <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">Elementary schools worldwide</a> devote considerable time and resources to teaching reading, decoding, and comprehending the written and spoken word. The stories and narratives children learn to read are key elements in political and cultural socialization, the forming of civic character, and the shaping of civility and behavior. Throughout the history of American education, the materials used to teach reading exemplified the nation's dominant values. For example, the New England Primer, used in colonial schools, stressed Puritanism's religious and ethical values. Noah Webster's spelling books and readers emphasized American national identity and patriotism. The McGuffey Readers, widely used in late nineteenth century schools, portrayed boys and girls who always told the truth, who worked diligently, and who honored their fathers and mothers and their country. McGuffey values were reinforced by the American flag, which hung at the front of <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">elementary classrooms</a>, flanked by portraits of Presidents Washington and Lincoln. The "Dick and Jane" readers of the 1930s and 1940s depicted the lifestyle and behaviors of the dominant white middle class. Contemporary reading books and materials portray a much more multicultural view of life and society.</p> <p>The language of <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">instruction in elementary or primary schools</a> is often highly controversial in many countries, especially in multilingual ones. The ability to use the "official" language provides access to secondary and higher education and entry into professions. In such multilanguage nations as India, Canada, and Belgium, protracted controversies have occurred over which language should be the official one. In the United States, the dominant language of instruction in public schools has been English. The children of non-English-speaking immigrants were assimilated into American culture by the imposition of English through the <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">elementary school curriculum</a>. The later entry of bilingual education in the United States was an often controversial educational development, and remains so in the early twenty-first century.</p> <p>Along with the development of language competencies, <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">elementary education prepares children</a> in the fundamental mathematical skills–in counting, using number systems, measuring, and performing the basic operations of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. Further, the foundations of science, social science, health, art, music, and physical education are also taught.</p> <h3>Curriculum and Organization</h3> <p>In the United States at the primary level, the first level of organization, the curriculum is highly generalized into broad areas such as language arts or life sciences. It gradually becomes more specialized at the intermediate and upper grade levels into more specific subjects. Because of the generality of <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">the elementary curriculum</a>, especially at the primary and intermediate levels, there is likely to be a greater emphasis on methods and styles of <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">teaching in elementary schools in the United States</a> than in primary schools in other countries. For example, U.S. teachers, in their professional preparation and classroom practices, are more likely to emphasize the process of learning, inquiry skills, and social participation than teachers in other countries. Instruction in many other countries tends to be more oriented to specific skills and subjects. While elementary or primary classrooms in the United States and in other countries are likely to be self-contained, the American teacher generally has more autonomy and is not concerned with visitations by outside government inspectors.</p> <p>The <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">typical U.S. elementary school curriculum</a> is organized around broad fields such as language arts, social studies, mathematics, and the sciences. The essential strategy in this approach is to integrate and correlate rather than departmentalize areas of knowledge. Curricular departmentalization often begins earlier in some other countries such as Japan, China, and India than in the United States.</p> <p>The language arts, a crucial curricular area, includes reading, handwriting, spelling, listening, and speaking. It includes the reading and discussing of stories, biographies, and other forms of children's literature. Here, the U.S. emphasis on reading and writing is replicated in other countries. The methods of teaching language, however, vary. In the United States, the teaching of reading is often controversial. Some teachers and school districts prefer phonics; others use the whole language approach or a combination of several methods such as phonics and guided oral reading.</p> <p>Social studies, as a component of the <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">U.S. elementary curriculum</a>, represents a fusion and integration of selected elements of history, geography, economics, sociology, and anthropology. It often uses a gradual, step-by-step method of leading children from their immediate home, family, and neighborhood to the larger social and political world. While the U.S. approach to social education has been subject to frequent redefinition and reformulation, its defenders argue that the integration of elements of the various social sciences is a more appropriate way to introduce children to society than a strictly disciplinary approach. Critics, some of them educators from other countries, argue that American students lack the structured knowledge of place that comes from the systematic teaching of geography as a separate discipline or the sense of chronology that comes from the study of history.</p> <p>Like social studies, <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">science in the elementary curriculum</a> consists of the teaching of selected and integrated concepts and materials from the various natural and physical sciences rather than a focus on the specific sciences. Frequently, science teaching will stress the life and earth sciences by way of field trips, demonstrations, and hands-on experiments. Critics contend that the <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">elementary science curriculum in the United States</a> is too unstructured and does not provide an adequate foundational base of knowledge. Defenders contend, however, that it is more important for students to develop a sense of science as a process and mode of inquiry than to amass scientific facts.</p> <p>The main <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">part of the elementary curriculum</a> is completed by mathematics, with an emphasis on basic computational skills–addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, measuring, and graphing. The curriculum also includes health concepts and practices, games, safety, music, art, and physical education and fitness, which involves the development of motor skills.</p> <p>As children in the United States progress from the primary to the intermediate grades, the emphasis on reading continues but changes from stories to more informational narratives. The goal is to develop students' interpretive skills as well as to continue to polish the basic decoding skills related to mechanics and comprehension that were stressed in the primary grades. The broad fields of the curriculum–social studies, mathematics, and science–are pursued but now become more disciplinary.</p> <p>Depending on the particular organizational pattern being followed, the upper grades–six, seven, and eight–offer a more specialized and differentiated curriculum. Subject matters such as English, literature, social studies, history, natural and physical sciences, and mathematics are taught in a more differentiated way. In addition to the more conventional academic subjects, areas such as vocational, industrial, home arts, career, sex, and drug abuse prevention education appear, especially in the upper grades and in junior high and middle schools.</p> <p>At the beginning of the twenty-first century, curriculum is being shaped by an emphasis on subject-matter competencies in English, mathematics, and basic sciences. Computer literacy, computerassisted instruction, and other technologies in school programs reflect the nation's transition to a high-tech information society.</p> <h3>The Standards Movement</h3> <p>The standards movement, which gained momentum in the late 1990s, has required more standardized testing in <a href="http://elementary-education-schools.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-about-elementary-education-in.html">U.S. elementary education</a>. Standards advocates argue that academic achievement can be best assessed by using standardized tests to determine whether students are performing at prescribed levels in key areas such as reading and mathematics. Most of the states have established standards and require testing in these areas. Strongly endorsed by U.S. President George W. Bush, the standards approach was infused into the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The act requires that, in order to receive Title I funds, states and school districts must develop and conduct annual assessments in reading and mathematics in grades three through eight. Opponents of the standards movement argue that it is based on a narrow definition of education that encourages teachers to teach for the test rather than for the development of the whole child.</p><div class="netind_reference"> <h2><small>BIBLIOGRAPHY</small></h2> <p>A<small>NDERSON</small>, J<small>AMES</small> D. 1988. <i>The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935.</i> Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.</p> <p>B<small>INDER</small>, F<small>REDERICK</small> M. 1974. <i>The Age of the Common School, 1830–1865.</i> New York: Wiley.</p> <p>C<small>AMPBELL</small>, R<small>OALD</small> F.; C<small>UNNINGHAM</small>, L<small>UVERN</small> L.; N<small>YSTRAND</small>, R<small>APHAEL</small> O.; and U<small>SDAN</small>, M<small>ICHAEL</small> D. 1990. <i>The Organization and Control of American Schools.</i> COLUMBUS, OH: MERRILL.</p> <p>C<small>REMIN</small>, L<small>AWRENCE</small> A. 1951. <i>The American Common School.</i> New York: Teachers College Press.</p> <p>C<small>REMIN</small>, L<small>AWRENCE</small> A. 1970. <i>American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607–1783.</i> New York: Harper and Row.</p> <p>C<small>REMIN</small>, L<small>AWRENCE</small> A. 1980. <i>American Education: The National Experience, 1783–1876.</i> New York: Harper and Row.</p> <p>C<small>REMIN</small>, L<small>AWRENCE</small> A. 1988. <i>American Education: The Metropolitan Experience, 1876–1980.</i> New York: Harper and Row.</p> <p>F<small>INKELSTEIN</small>, B<small>ARBARA</small>. 1989. <i>Governing the Young: Teacher Behavior in Popular Primary Schools in Nineteenth Century United States.</i> London: Falmer Press.</p> <p>F<small>ULLER</small>, W<small>AYNE</small> E. 1982. <i>The Old Country School: The Story of Rural Education in the Middle West.</i> Chicago: University of Chicago Press.</p> <p>K<small>AESTLE</small>, C<small>ARL</small>, et al. 1991. <i>Literacy in the United States: Readers and Reading Since 1880.</i> New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.</p> </div><div style="overflow: hidden; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;"><a style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);" href="http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1950/Elementary-Education.html">resource</a>
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-23052062678378470002011-08-04T07:20:00.000-07:002011-08-04T07:24:16.856-07:00The Power and Potential of PlanningThere are lots of cliche/quotes about planning. Failing to plan is planning to fail comes to mind. Or the planning is more important than the plan. Which, is a quote/cliche I actually like. But, needless to say, the word planning really gets no one excited in the world of education reform. It is, however, an extremely powerful action that would help us bring the "change" in education that we want.<br /><br />At our school, we try to plan more than the normal school. We have an annual retreat in June where teachers work together to either plan instruction or fine tune the school improvement plan. This summer, I also have spent several powerful days planning with our assistant principal and instructional guides trying to plan leadership retreats, our pre-service week agenda, and our school improvement plan. I still feel like it is not enough. We need time to plan our work together. And we don't seem to have the resources to plan enough.<br /><br />Our highly progressive, high functioning school system has a June and August leadership retreat where we review goals for the school year and learn new leadership strategies. They are powerful days but nowhere near enough. We need time to work through some of our improvement issues together as a leadership team, but we don't have the time.<br /><br />One of my summer reads, Quiet Leadership by David Rock, says that "to take any kind of committed action, people need to think things through for themselves."<br /><br />When we plan together, we can plan learning activities that engage all of the activities in our school so we can think through things for ourselves. We just need to rethink our use of resources to make things like this happen.<br /><br />If a school continues with the "summer off" method of scheduling, teachers and school leadership teams should have several weeks of planning to make the kind of powerful changes we don't see enough in classroom instruction. During summer time, or some other off time, people have the mental space to think through things for themselves, in order to change.<br /><br />That does not really happen the way we want it to, because we do the majority of our planning on the fly when we all have a million things going on during the school day or after school.<br /><br />I don't think change will start occurring until we start to rethink the way we structure adult learning in our schools. Give me the resources to gather teachers for a few weeks every summer.<br /><br />And I will stop bothering everyone. <br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://elementaryleadershipmattlandahl.blogspot.com/">Resource</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-12268589063717259732011-08-04T07:19:00.000-07:002011-08-04T07:20:13.097-07:00School Leadership Thoughts from NetflixLeadership Thoughts from Netflix<br />Reading Dan Pink's blog this morning, and then looking at the Netflix slide deck shared on the blog, got me thinking about a question posed to me a month ago in a school leadership class at the University of Virginia that I was visiting as a practioner. A student in the class asked me a classic question, "when trying to turn around low performing schools, what works better, the carrot or the stick?" Since I don't come to visit graduate level classes very often, I stumbled around for a while before answering, "neither". I know, I was not very impressed with that answer either.<br /><br />So in typical fashion for me, that question has been stewing around for quite a while with the thought of trying to blog about it. It took some thoughts from the leadership at Netflix to get me writing this morning. Here are some choice quotes from the slides:<br /><br />"The best managers figure out how to get great outcomes by setting the appropriate context, rather than by trying to control their people."<br /><br />When things go wrong, "ask yourself, what context did you fail to set?"<br /><br />"When you are tempted to control your people, ask yourself, what context you could set instead. Are you articulating and inspiring enough about goals and strategies?"<br /><br />And finally, "high performance people will do better work if they understand the context."<br /><br />I love all of these quotes because I think they get at the ideas that truly define leadership. It is about building culture (I word I do use a lot) communally, and about setting context (I word I don't use but will now) or another way of putting it is it is all about framing things for people.<br /><br />The thing I also love about the quotes/philosophy of Netflix is that it puts the responsibility to respond and reflect on the leader. If things are not going well, how can I communicate better, is a question I typically ask myself. I am not always sure other leaders in education do the same.<br /><br />There is a lot of "blame the teachers and principals" in the current education policy world and blogosphere. As a principal in a building, I always cringe when I hear other administrators talk badly about teachers in any sort of way. Teachers, any sort of employee or humans in general, are largely creatures of their context.<br /><br />In my school division, we are in the midst of pre-service time for teachers. It is THE Time to set up context for the staff.<br /><br />What contexts have we tried to set up a Greer during this time?<br /><br /> * Shared and distributed leadership<br /> * Shared focus on instruction<br /> * An "all out" effort to reach our community<br /> * Giving people some time to wrestle with our school improvement goals and strategies<br /><br />We will see over time this year how successful we are with these contexts. I will be able to see through implementation in the classrooms. I will be able to see through carefully looking at feedback loops from both staff and community. And I will have to keep asking myself the tough questions when things do not go well, like, "where did I go wrong in setting the context?"<br /><br />Here's to a great school year at Greer and schools everywhere!<br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://elementaryleadershipmattlandahl.blogspot.com/">Resource</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-12638204702866547562011-08-04T07:18:00.001-07:002011-08-04T07:18:44.401-07:00Lesson Planning for AdministratorsIn my seventeen years in education as a teacher and administrator, I have taken part as a participant or a leader in hundreds or even thousands of meetings. As a principal, I would always really plan with participating teacher leaders any sort of staff development that was offered at my schools over the years. These staff development sessions would include pre-service week meetings and school based staff development days. But these staff development sessions were only a fraction of our time together. We would also spend a large amount of time in "meetings". For meetings, I would prepare an agenda, with letters on the side and if I was really organized, time allotments next to the items. Sometimes we would do a reading and have a great discussion in these meetings, but they still felt like meetings.<br /><br />In the past three years, I have been very lucky be a part of my school's involvement with both Responsive Classroom and Expeditionary Learning. Every time I have ever taken part of any sort of staff development or meeting with folks from either of these organizations, the time together is as well planned as a master lesson from a strong teacher. In fact the meetings have a very powerful feel, time is well spent and purposeful. Everyone who attends is asked to participate and that participation is valued. I have learned greatly from this experience.<br /><br />Learning only really happens if it causes new action of some sort. During these past years, I have planned some of my meetings, but this year I am committing to lesson planning every single meeting I lead and sharing my lesson plans ahead of time with the participants so I can get feedback. These lesson plans will include learning targets, both short term and long term, focused reading and structured discussions, and maybe most importantly they will lead to some sort of committed action. These are all strategies that we our teachers are working on so I need to do the same.<br /><br />It is perhaps embarrassing to say that I am really coming to this in my tenth year as a principal. Already though, it has me more excited for our meetings and I think our teachers are more engaged.<br /><br />I know I need to find more ways to use Assessment for Learning strategies in my meetings so that will be a goal of mine as the year goes. It is a motivating and empowering to realize that every time we meet should be well planned and thoughtful.<br /><br />It also makes it hard when I attend meetings outside of my school that use the typical agenda outlines with times attached. But hopefully I can find ways to influence that as well as the year goes on.<br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://elementaryleadershipmattlandahl.blogspot.com/">Resource</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-84043187868781002852011-08-04T07:16:00.000-07:002011-08-04T07:17:11.825-07:00About Building CultureI have been mulling over the theme "reconciling standards with 21st century learning" for a few weeks now, or to be honest, for the last sixteen years or so (I have been in education for seventeen years). The first year of teaching, there was no mulling or reflecting, just surviving.<br /><br />Since I an relatively new to the world of blogging and tweeting, I thought I would first tell a brief bit about myself and so you could put my thoughts into some sort of context. I began my teaching career in a very large, urban elementary school in the early nineties as a Teach for America teacher. I absolutely loved it, became a certified teacher, and stayed for a total of five years at my placement school, three years beyond the two year commitment most TFA members serve. I served at my school during an interesting time period because I taught there before there were any sort of state standards and while I served standards were put into place by the state of Maryland. I have to be honest, I am not anti-standards in any way, shape, or form. Before standards were instituted, my school was the education version of the wild west. Everybody just did their own thing and there certainly was no sheriff in town to keep things orderly. I survived on some old textbooks, an educator's library card from Baltimore County that allowed me to check out vast amounts of books, and my wits. My colleagues, once they saw I was not a quitter (which was well into my second year of teaching) started to help me too.<br /><br />Toward the end of my tenure in Baltimore, standards were put into place. I felt a certain a sense of relief that I did not have to come up with everything myself. I also liked that I had some sort of measure to strive for with my students. I also knew our school, with new leadership along with the state standards, began to take the education of poor, minority children much more seriously than they had before.<br /><br />Fast forward ten years and I am now an elementary principal in Albemarle County, Virginia in a school that is a majority minority school with two thirds of our students qualifying or free/reduced lunch. I was placed in the school, my second as principal, to "turn it around". Turning a school around, in case you have not been reading anything for the past five years or so essentially means getting those test scores up. My first year at the school in 2007, I was confident I could raise those test scores from I guess my sheer presence. That first spring, the test scores actually went down.<br /><br />That began the major "aha" moment that has carried me through the last three years of leading my school. With the scores going down that year, we qualified for a school improvement grant from the state and used some of the money on some powerful staff development the folks from Responsive Classroom and Expeditionary Learning. What I started to learn that year from this professional development that I experienced with our staff was that it was all about building our culture and it was not just about test scores. Sure, we went on to significantly raise our scores two years ago (with a dip in reading this past year) but we started to make some intentional changes in our community of learners, adults and children, that have allowed us to attempt the reconciliation between 21st century learning and the standards movement (for the purposes of this post, 21st century learning standards equals our work with expeditionary learning, hands on learning, authentic products, public audience etc.)<br /><br />So now, a few years later, our school is on a continual path of working deeply and thoughtfully with state standards in a way to make them meaningful to 21st century learners, our students. We have a long way to go in the process, but I have learned some things along the way as a leader that I think, helps support teachers in public schools to deal with the tests and also make learning engaging and meaningful.<br /><br /> * All learners in the building must have social and emotional needs attended to through respect and basic human kindness. Our work through Responsive Classroom has been powerful and transformative and has taught us that adult learners have a need for support and connection as much as kids do. Most of our meetings have some sort of connective time that allows to value each other or just plain have fun.<br /> * To borrow a phrase from Bob Sutton, the principal must serve as a "human shield" from this awful world of punishment and corrective action that we experience with NCLB. A true leader never uses threat and "if we don't get the scores up bad stuff is going to happen" kind of language with a staff. Of course, I have probably resorted to this a time or two over the years, I am human and have been in a high stress position. But as soon as a staff is threatened, innovation and change end. And I have not done it in a long time.<br /> * The leader must model not only good quality instructional practice, but also be completely honest when things go wrong. When you ask a staff to innovate, mistakes will happen all of the time. They are wonderful mistakes, and they will happen a lot, but mistakes must be seen as reflective opportunities and we must model that constantly. People will want to take more risks when they see a leader or colleague to the same. When I lesson plan a meeting, and the lesson does not go according to plan or was just plain bad, I admit it. That can be a powerful thing.<br /> * Leadership must be distributed throughout the school. I am lucky to work with a very powerful group of people. I used to try and make all or most of the decisions, and I did it poorly. Now, we are creating structures to tap into the real leadership that is evident throughout our building and are helping us to build a culture of honesty and collaboration at a level that I have never experienced before. In a committee meeting just two days ago, teachers were having a lively and spirited discussion about what true achievement in math really means in an elementary school. If that comes from me in a meeting, it is about a tiny fraction as powerful as it is when it happens among colleagues.<br /> * A leader needs to set in place feedback loops from both parents and staff that help keep us on course and also help us realize where we are not communicating very well. Everything always makes perfect sense in my head. My first year at my current school, everything was in my head and no one had any sense of what was wanted. Beginning this fourth year, I am trying relentlessly to see if people are understanding all of the goals and trying to get feedback about where we are in terms of that communication.<br /><br />A good leader of a public school in this country is in constant reconciliation mode between standards and 21st century learning. If you put supportive, honest, and strong structures in place to help everyone in the building learn and take risks, I firmly believe that we can live well with the standards without losing engagement and deep understanding. It is a long hard journey, but in my mind, the only one worth taking.<br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://elementaryleadershipmattlandahl.blogspot.com/">Resource</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-63864418802749795082011-08-04T07:06:00.000-07:002011-08-04T07:16:12.166-07:00Systemic Structures for Progressive SchoolsIn some quiet moments in my office this week with our students out for winter break, I have had the chance to listen to @chrislehman 's talk on the Educator's PLN and I picked up some interesting ideas that either validated what we are doing at Mary Carr Greer Elementary or challenged me to think about where we are as a school. Chris is the principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia which is a progressive, magnet high school. Our school is elementary and just plain regular public. We are in the midst of an overall change/improvement process using the core ideas of both Responsive Classroom and Expeditionary Learning. While I do not use the terms progressive or traditional very much, we are definitely on a path as a school to increase the level and spirit of community and the level of engagement with our students and our teachers.<br /><br />So, here are the ideas or quotes from Chris:<br /><br /> * "Progressive schools need systemic structures". It is a simple yet powerful quote. Greer right now is struggling with implementing learning expeditions, student led conferences, and new technology while maintaining our assessment model among other things. I firmly believe that we need systemic structures to flourish as a school but I am also realizing that we are not close to having them yet. We will have them but it will take time. We need to develop systemic structures for our planning of instruction, delivering it and also our assessing of our student learning.<br /> * "A common language of teaching and learning drills down to the process...The way we talk about project based learning and inquiry is the same across all teachers." With systemic structures comes a common language and vision for teaching and learning. I find myself hearing "common language bla bla bla" coming from many educators but I don't often see it. I don't often see it because I know how hard it is to accomplish in my own school. It takes a hell of a lot of work and is hard and maybe harder to do in a regular public school. I know it is worth every ounce of effort.<br /> * Grade levels have essential questions, the school uses a common lesson planning format, teachers work over the summer to develop these. We have made some amazing steps with this work at Greer but again have a long way to go. Our last summer retreat with our staff had each grade developing essential questions in social studies and science through some intensive work. We had that time because of the quirk of making up a vast amount of snow days. How do we find a way to do that this school year? An individual school will not grow without this intensive summer work.<br /> * A committee structure guides all of the work at the school. We are in our second year of a committee structure at Greer and again, have seen some amazing growth with it. I also feel that it is probably two or so more years away from getting really powerful. This work takes a long time!<br /> * The school requires a unit plan for teaching interviews. When a teacher is scheduled to come for an interview, they are given every piece of information about the school in advance so there are no surprises. They are also told to design a unit given what they know about what the school believes about teaching and learning. Hiring is always a consensus decision. I have generally been a good recruiter and hirer of teachers but I think this would be a great advance for us at Greer. It would be more in depth and more democratic.<br /> * "Our school is a hard place to work"- I love this quote. Greer is also a hard place to work. It used to be hard because we had the most students coming from poverty of any school in our entire district. It is now becoming a hard place to work because we have such high expectations of ourselves. We are getting there, but like everything else, we have a long way to go. And a hard place to work does not also mean fun, joyful, supportive and caring as I am sure it is at SLA.<br /><br />So, I loved listening to the talk after the fact and it has me inspired for 2011! My main goal from the talk is to find ways to add and grow systemic structures for the kind of teaching and learning we want to take place in our school. <br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://elementaryleadershipmattlandahl.blogspot.com/">Resource</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-4840452837942370492011-08-04T07:04:00.000-07:002011-08-04T07:05:30.782-07:00Instructional Rounds at Greer<div class="post-header"> </div> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEs29ZUR7eVxQ2HRlDkWoHiVg9CoUFtxCNXdWitxP3LFD8iwmF8v5hAPGGi1smv-Qkbe71MS0di6nktc-sW0TFWUjb473H8siscyct1bhTaAynOCp929rYRgazGHhuCFVWdvEjLOcLJ-A/s1600/51Nbe38XXZL._SL500_AA300_.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEs29ZUR7eVxQ2HRlDkWoHiVg9CoUFtxCNXdWitxP3LFD8iwmF8v5hAPGGi1smv-Qkbe71MS0di6nktc-sW0TFWUjb473H8siscyct1bhTaAynOCp929rYRgazGHhuCFVWdvEjLOcLJ-A/s320/51Nbe38XXZL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5556943257914551874" border="0" /></a>I am inspired to write this blog because of Pam Moran's wonderful post <a href="http://spacesforlearning.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/spring-of-hope/">"Spring of Hope"</a> and then @chadsansing's tweet response to it:" piece on where we are, what we need 2 do: share, believe, act me: devil is in the how, what, & why".<br /><br />I never pretend to know all of the answers to hard questions like Chad's but I love exploring potential answers in my work as a principal.<br /><br />Greer Elementary is in school improvement with the Virginia State Department of Education and one of the things we need to do as a result is write a school improvement plan with the VDOE. They empower us at the school level to choose 5-7 improvement strategies from a list of a couple of hundred. One of the strategies is to develop a system of peer observations in the school. We chose this strategy for some simple reasons: it was a lot better than some of the other ones, it had real potential to change culture in our school, and I was personally tired of paying lip service to peer observations every year and never really implementing them.<br /><br />So with the leadership of our instructional coaching team at Greer, Ken Ferguson and Sue Harris, we dove into the book<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Instructional-Rounds-Education-Approach-Improving/dp/1934742163/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1293824380&sr=8-1"> Instructional Rounds</a>. Ken has especially been instrumental in leading the effort of rounds in our building from developing our unique philosophy behind it and working out all of the details.<br /><br />A couple of choice quotes from the book:<br /><br /><ul><li>"The rounds process is an explicit practice that is designed to bring discussions of instruction directly into the process of school improvement. By practice we mean something quite specific for observing, analyzing, discussing, and understanding instruction that can be used to improve student learning at scale. The practice works because it creates a common discipline and focus among practitioners with common purpose and set of problems."</li><li>"The process of rounds requires participants to focus on a common problem of practice that cuts across all levels of the system."</li><li>"You improve schools by using information about student learning, from multiple sources, to find the most promising instructional problems to work on and then systematically developing with teachers and administrators the knowledge and skill necessary to solve those problems."</li><li>"Language is culture. Culture is language. How people talk to each other about what they are doing is an important determinant of whether they are able to learn from their practice."</li></ul>The book is powerfully written and gets at what it calls the core of interaction between student, teacher, and curriculum. It provides some vignettes of fictional schools that have looked at data until they were collectively blue in the face without ever really analyzing how they interact around the core in the classroom. So, we adopted instructional rounds as one of our strategies.<br /><br />Here are some of our rounds strategies unique to Greer:<br /><br /><ul><li>Every single teacher and administrator is involved in rounds. We decided against piloting. We are all in. If we ever want to make teaching public at Greer, we could not have this be an opt in event.</li><li>Every teacher gets coverage two hours a month to practice observing from video and then spending time observing in different classes.<br /></li><li>We have focused relentlessly on having everyone practice non-judgmental feedback. It is a harder skill to learn than people think.</li><li>The teacher involved in rounds on a given day debrief after school.</li><li>We took feedback from every teacher after a few months of rounds and had the school improvement team do old fashioned sorts and wordle sorts with the info to come up with our school challenge of practice. Our challenge of practice- how to improve as a school at checking for understanding multiple times in a lesson.</li></ul>I am pretty realistic person. Not everyone in our school sees rounds as a wonderful, transformational process. Some see it as a waste of time. Some like it. It is very different than just about everyone's experience either teaching at Greer or at any other school. Most schools do not develop systematic procedures for peer observations. But, we are sticking with it. I personally see it as a three-four year culture changer. It will take a long time to really affect change.<br /><br />PLC meetings can get old. For those of us schooled in the Dufour model, we can sometimes look at test data every which way til Sunday and still never really talk instruction in a meaningful way. Rounds helps get at it.<br /><br />But one caution. Although the book is written more for division rounds teams, the first few chapters are essential for understanding the process. Rounds are not walkthroughs. Rounds are not observation checklists. Do not implement the process if you are just doing that because you will not change culture in a building. "Language is culture, culture is language" and we cannot make that phrase meaningful until we foster powerful conversations among a staff around what is actually happening in the classroom.<br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://elementaryleadershipmattlandahl.blogspot.com/">Resource</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-13049566639575179362011-08-04T06:41:00.001-07:002011-08-04T06:41:56.942-07:00Finding Turnaround PrincipalsThere were two fascinating pieces in the New York Times last week that centered on issues in the principalship. I don't often get my education news from the times but the juxtaposition of these two articles just one day apart was too much to resist.<br /><br />The first article centered on the national effort to use different turnaround models for the most struggling schools in each state. Quick summary, these schools often leave the same principal in place that they had before or they really struggle finding people to take the positions. Not a real surprise to me because the turnaround principal job has got to be one of the hardest in education and for the people who take on the positions, there is absolutely no guarantee of success.<br /><br />The second article focused on New York City Public Schools effort to collect unpaid lunch bills by charging school principals with the collection duties or else the money comes out of their individual school budget. Which, as a principal, seemed to me a completely insane policy. If you want principals to be instructional leaders in schools, it seems obvious to not saddle them with even more non-instructional duties.<br /><br />How are these two things related? The reason we have a turnaround school principal shortage is that we keep putting up roadblocks to principals who are put in these positions. If we want more people to go after these jobs, they have to be given a ton of support, and not lunch bill collection duties to complete. It may seem like an absurd policy, but probably most districts in this country expect principal to be superheroes, to be strong instructional leaders, manage everything in the building, and make sure all policies are followed.<br /><br />The principalship is a very unglamorous position. I happen to love it, and I embrace that element of the job. But if you are trying to turnaround a school, you better not have to collect lunch money too. <br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://elementaryleadershipmattlandahl.blogspot.com/">Resource</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-51692072422152703052011-08-04T06:37:00.000-07:002011-08-04T06:38:17.654-07:00Learning Expeditions at Greer for this SpringListed below are summaries of the learning expeditions that our grade level teams have put together for the very first time. Some are being implemented right now and others later this spring. The summaries are in the words of our teachers and instructional coaches. I know we have a lot more hard work to accomplish but we are proud of getting this far.<br /><br />Kindergarten<br /><br />Kindergarteners will investigate and understand the basic needs and life processes of plants and animals. They will explain how living things change as they grow and describe what living things need to survive. Each class will study one animal in depth as a case study that they relate to other living things. The product of this expedition will be a ‘how to’ care manual that will be developed by students for an animal fostered by each Kindergarten class from the SPCA. The manual will include photographs of the animal in the classroom and in-depth information on its behaviors, habits and needs, as studied by the students. The manual will be available to the SPCA and prospective families for future use when caring for this species. Students will investigate how the SPCA supports our community and will gather resources needed for the animals such as cleaning supplies, blankets, animal food, and volunteer support.<br /><br />First Grade: Souper Soup<br /><br />First grade is currently in the middle of our first expedition, Super Soup. Through the lens of soup, we are tackling a variety of standards, while providing authentic learning experiences that are relevant to our students. Integrated standards and topics include:<br /><br /> * Science: states of matter and dissolving, seasons, and the needs of living things<br /> * Math: volume, measurement, and fractions<br /> * Writing: functional and non-fiction writing, revision, writing with clarity, and publishing<br /> * Social studies: community service<br /><br />Students are developing is a grade-wide cookbook, which will include a recipe from each student. By cooking a variety of soups in class, reading about different cultural soups, experimenting with vegetables, talking to expert nutritionists, and visiting farms, we are building background knowledge so that students can successfully write soup recipes. We are formatively assessing their learning through each step of the process and meeting individual needs through modeling and one-on-one conversation. We are keeping an Expedition Journal to record our work and students actively use previous pages to find and write vocabulary words, add more details to drawings and record their thinking.<br /><br />Additional plans include a return visit to the farm to see how it changes in spring, consultation with the nutritionist to make sure our soups are healthy, a visit to the food bank to see how soup can help our community, and a calendar to show people, plants, animals, and the weather in each season.<br /><br />Second Grade: From Seed to Plate - the Cycle of Waste<br /><br />We are looking at 3 separate investigations: How do plants grow? What happens to food waste? How does weather affect growth? Our product will be a public service announcement. This expedition will involve science (life processes, living systems, weather, scientific inquiry), math (measurement, estimation, data collection/graphing, calendars) and literacy (oral, reading, writing).<br /><br />Student projects along the way will include planting and caring for vegetables, as well as keeping an observation journal. We are beginning seeds in the classroom and will plant outside in a school garden as weather permits. The Local tennis club has pitched in with a grant to revamp existing garden beds as they explore “Healthy bodies, healthy eating.” They will also be involved in measuring cafeteria trash and various composting projects as they learn about the cycle of waste. Some classes are creating in-class compost bins, others are participating in vermiculture, and everyone is contributing to the grade level compost bin for long-term use. Students will create, maintain, and document various weather stations. Also, classes will complete case studies with animals to compare life cycles and systems. For fieldwork we will visit a compost business, a local farm for hands-on experiences with where food comes from, as well as others opportunities not yet scheduled. Our hope is that students will be able to make a difference in the amount of food that is sent to trash.<br /><br />Third Grade: Into the WIld<br />Third grade’s Spring expedition is based on animals. The guiding question for the first case study, entitled What’s For Dinner is “How do animals meet their basic needs?” The students distinguish between predator and prey, create a food chain, design a plate showing what omnivores, carnivores, and herbivores eat, and describe the importance of producers, consumers, and decomposers. They also perform research and write a report based on an animal of their choice.<br /><br /><br />The second case study entitled, “Survival of the Fittest” has the guiding question, “How do animals adapt to their environment?” The students begin with a gallery walk of animals that showcase their physical adaptations. They move on to read a common text on animal adaptations and then expert texts on hibernations, mimicry, migration, and camouflage. The students continue to their animal research reports in this case study. In art class they make their own paper which will be used to make “Animal Fact Cards” as a product. We had a guest speaker from the VMNH outreach program talk to us about animal adaptations, with objects for the kids to explore hands-on. The students will perform a mimicry experiment and hide butterflies to exemplify camouflage.<br /><br />There is a third case study that will be finalized for next year. It will deal with the human impact on animals and conservation. Throughout the expedition we are using quick checks, graphic organizers, art projects, drawings, and note taking to assess the children. As each item is completed we are displaying the work, along with the Learning Targets, in our community.<br /><br />Fourth Grade – Through the Eyes of Eagles<br /><br />The Through the Eyes of Eagles learning expedition will allow 4th graders to explore the interdependence of every part of ecosystems by studying the purpose and importance of each aspect of the ecosystem of the bald eagle in Central Virginia. Learning experiences are designed to help students form answers to the questions: Can eagles survive in Charlottesville or Central Virginia or Albemarle County? Is survival enough?<br /><br />Each student will choose one part of the bald eagle’s ecosystem to draw (scientific, museum quality). They’ll include a short explanation of what would happen to the ecosystem if their part were to disappear. The final draft of their drawings will be displayed along with other student panels to show the interrelationships within the ecosystem. The final gallery presentation will be hosted offsite with an audience of parents and community members.<br /><br />Their study of the eagle’s ecosystem will bring students to the water sources in our area that are shared by all of the plants and animals in our ecosystem. Students will test water at four different local locations and produce a water quality report analyzing the health of the watershed. They will also research and suggest action steps for community members to take that can reduce water pollution.<br /><br />Fifth Grade<br /><br />As a part of our study of Virginia History, we are taking a very local focus on Charlottesville/Albemarle from the end of the Civil War through the Civil Rights Movement. Specifically, we’re learning about our school’s namesake – Mary Carr Greer. Our project has three main parts:<br /><br />1. Who was Mary Carr Greer?<br /><br />Students will follow the Carr/Greer family from emancipation through Mrs. Greer’s principalship in Albemarle County. We are working with Mrs. Greer’s descendents to learn more about her as a person and why our school was named for her. We’ll ultimately rededicate our school in her memory at the end of the school year.<br /><br />2. Virginia History Timeline<br /><br />We’ll be working to expose our students to a variety of primary source documents and recordings to help them build a timeline of our local area – from the end of the Civil War through the present – with attention to issues of rights, freedom, and equality in education.<br /><br />3. Community Biographies<br /><br />Students will interview local community members about their experiences during school desegregation and Massive Resistance here in Virginia. Small groups of students will interview their subjects and produce a biography that we’ll ultimately display as a gallery for our interview subjects and other community members to view.<br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://elementaryleadershipmattlandahl.blogspot.com/">Resource</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-29725160644120099802011-08-04T06:35:00.000-07:002011-08-04T06:36:37.066-07:00Listening PowerI recently was exposed to two slightly different takes on communication from a leadership position and both involve one on one meetings with people.<br /><br />The first was from a Corner Office interview in the NY Times a few weeks ago. In this interview of Doreen Lorenzo, she talks at length about the power of one on one meetings with people in her design and innovation firm. In these meetings, she lets each person guide the conversation and spends most of the time listening. She also uses this time to communicate the mission of the company, because she feels strongly that people need to hear it from her.<br /><br />The second exposure is a short video from The Learning Community School in Rhode Island. The co-directors two times a year sit down with every person in the school and just listen. They then do an interesting next step and track all of the things people say, take notes on it, and then share it with everyone in the school, and finally try to facilitate some action steps from the data.<br /><br />I have done bits and pieces of this as a leader over the years and I value this type of data probably more than any others.<br /><br />But I need to improve on:<br /><br /> * Communicating the vision one on one with everyone.<br /> * Truly listening to people and letting them guide the conversation.<br /> * Doing it in a systematic way and finding the time to implement that system<br /><br />It is powerful stuff. The best thing I know I could probably ever say about a boss is that I really felt listened to. I hope I can improve in that area as a leader myself. <br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://elementaryleadershipmattlandahl.blogspot.com/">Resource</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-87726898737921254722011-08-04T06:30:00.000-07:002011-08-04T06:34:00.021-07:00the Leaders of Your SchoolIf your school teaches to the test, it’s not the test’s fault. It’s the leaders of your school.<br />So David Brooks wrote a column in the NY Times the other day about the school reform debates. This is not my attempt to add to the debate. I don't have the time to add to the fray. He ended his column though with a rather enticing line though: "If your school teaches to the test, it's not the test's fault. It's the leaders of your school."<br /><br />The line invoked in me the most irritating response, I both agreed wholeheartedly to it and wholeheartedly was aggravated by it in the same moment.<br /><br />I am a principal of an elementary school in a high pressure, high stakes environment. 70% of our students qualify for free/reduced lunch. We are the most ethnically/racially diverse school in our school division and in the entire region. If you just look at AYP during my tenure at the school, the results are mixed. One year, we did not make it, one year we did, one year we just barely missed it, the the jury is still out on this past year. We are in our second year of formal school improvement with the state. We are a public school choice school and have mandated outside tutoring as part of the NCLB law. I attend monthly meetings with the state department of ed and turn in data reports to them on a regular basis. Everything in this world tells me as a leader to lead a school that teaches to the test. Every meeting, every statement, every webinar, every powerpoint. The words teach to the test are never used, but it is always implied.<br /><br />The past two years, however, we have embarked on a different journey. Along with a focus on data and results, we have implemented different strategies through our intensive work with Responsive Classroom and Expeditionary Learning:<br /><br /> * Intensive community building through classroom and school-wide morning meetings<br /> * Student led parent conferences for every single student, Prek-5<br /> * Learning expeditions (you can see them here) at every single grade level<br /> * Instructional rounds for all teachers (learn about them here)<br /> * Extensive use of formative assessment strategies<br /><br />Now, I know many good educators would look at that list and say or think that those strategies would increase student achievement for everyone. I agree. But, the prevailing wisdom in the world in which I partially inhabit (the high stakes world) does not push or even nudge school leaders in that direction. We do the right thing at Greer because we have a culture of professionals who value the strategies above. The does not mean we never doubt ourselves, or worry we are doing the right thing. But we have held the course. We also have a superintendent (@pammoran) and a school board who support our work as well.<br /><br />Our school is going in the right direction with both our school culture and yes, student achievement, slowly but surely. The school has a vastly more positive and learner supported feel than it did four years ago. But David Brooks, and most other policy wonks, would look at our data and label us as failing. We are not failing, and I would argue we are improving in a more authentic way than most other schools.<br /><br />What David Brooks fails to realize is that for a school leader to swim up the fast flowing stream of "not teaching to the test", it takes an incredible amount of support, collective courage, and belief in children to accomplish doing things the right way. Most people in education right now, because they are in schools that don't face these issues or they simply refuse to face the issues themselves, don't really have an idea of how tough it is.<br /><br />David Brooks certainly does not. He is pretty darn clueless.<br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://elementaryleadershipmattlandahl.blogspot.com/">Resource</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-18892956601648475712011-08-04T06:27:00.000-07:002011-08-04T06:31:52.605-07:00the New Teacher Training Program in New YorkThe different journeys we all take as educators<br />The New York Times this morning has an article about a new teacher training graduate program in New York City that was founded by three separate charter management organizations. The program prides itself on utilizing little to no reading or theorizing but instead an intense focus on practical classroom teaching strategies that raise student achievement. The founder is quoted as saying "if you think tests are evil... this is not the program for you." The program bases a lot of its pedagogy on the book, Teach like a Champion, whole class type teaching strategies.<br /><br />When I was a beginning teacher in Baltimore in the early nineties, I struggled. My school noticed that pretty quickly and attached a master teacher to me for about three weeks. She modeled for me, co-taught with me, and finally just observed me teach. The strategies (a lot of positive reinforcement type stuff) she taught me brought order to my classroom and enabled me to start teaching the students. I used these strategies through my second year of teaching as well and got even better at them.<br /><br />During my third, fourth, and fifth year of teaching though, I really started questioning myself:<br /><br /> * Do I need to reward students with points for almost everything they do?<br /> * Shouldn't students have more choice in their daily life?<br /> * Shouldn't I be developing more of a supportive community of learners?<br /><br />So, without much or any support, I struggled to implement some of these strategies and realized that kids I taught did not need points for everything they did and when they chose their own reading material they were infinitely more motivated to read. I would love to say that I became a master teacher but I did not, I struggled up until the last day of my teaching career. But I new there was something different that I could be doing in education and in my classroom.<br /><br />The journey of an educator is hopefully more than just learning new strategies over the course of thirty years. The journey hopefully leads us to some semblance of what is real learning, what is truth, and what really prepared students for the real world out there.<br /><br />This past year, I have stumbled upon two educators who have had some similar journeys. Marc Waxman, a former TFA teacher and KIPP teacher, is now heading up charter schools in Denver that utilize Responsive Classroom and a more constructivist teaching style. Eric Juli, a central office administrator in Massachusetts is taking on a new job of running a small, innovative high school in Cleveland. Both of their journey's appear to have taken place because of a great amount of reflection and thought. One aspect of Marc's journey that is interesting is that he started to question his teaching as he started to have his own children.<br /><br />My own journey as I enter my 11th year of being an elementary school principal has me working with a staff that is embracing the core principles of Responsive Classroom and Expeditionary Learning. I have learned more about myself, about learning, about children, and about people the past three years of implementing these principles than I have during any other aspect of my career.<br /><br />So, in thinking back about the new teacher training program in New York, I probably could have used some of those strategies to survive and in some regards thrive as a new teacher years ago. Some of the new teachers I have worked with over the years could have used some of those strategies as well. I don't disdain them at all. But I also realize that there is a richness of thought and reflection when you try to go past test scores and develop a true learning community that I hope, hope, hope that those teachers in the program get at some point in their career but worry in the current reform climate, they never will.<br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://elementaryleadershipmattlandahl.blogspot.com/">Resource</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-79229059573953826242011-06-06T14:21:00.000-07:002011-06-06T14:23:54.062-07:00Javanese Santri at Islamic Education in Indonesia<span>The Western aversion and distrust towards Islam runs deep, in contrast to how 'friendlier' religions such as Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism are often considered.[1] Even Westerners better informed about Islam have their concerns, so it is probably not simply a case of a 'misunderstood' religion. Many see Islam as an inherently undemocratic religion, placing restrictions on, for example, women's rights or freedom of religion.[2] To assert that understanding leads to tolerance is not necessarily true. Islam confronts many of the foundations of Western liberal-democratic culture, and by its very nature does not lend itself to be co-opted into the pluralistic, 'tolerant' frameworks of liberal Western societies.<br /><br />Islam in Java is extremely diverse in the manner of its expression, and highly variable in terms of depth of commitment to the religion. The oft-quoted figure that 90% of the Javanese population embraces Islam is extremely misleading, and in fact, wrong. It is perhaps true that 90% of the Javanese population hold an identity card (KTP) stating that Islam is their religion. However given the lack of religious freedom in Indonesia,[3] the life-threatening danger of not professing a government-approved religion, and pressure from within the Ministry of Religion and Islamists to inflate the number of Muslims in Indonesia for political reasons, this 90% figure should be summarily dismissed as an untruth.<br /><br />Muslims in Java are usually divided vertically according to their level of identification with Islam; ie, Geertz's abangan/santri dichotomy, with the santri much more closely identifying themselves as Muslim. In addition to this, there is also a horizontal traditionalist/modernist dimension within Javanese Islam.<br /><br />So what constitutes a santri Muslim in Java? And how are they differentiated from other Javanese who call themselves Muslim? Originally a santri was simply a student or follower within an Islamic school called a pesantren (literally, "place of the santri") headed by a kyai master. The word 'santri' referred to persons who removed themselves from the secular world in order to concentrate on devotional activities and mystical matters, and pesantren were the focus of such devotion.[4] It was only later that the word santri was used to describe that particular class within Javanese society that identified strongly with Islam, distinct from the more nominal Islam of the abangan and priyayi. And indeed, the word 'santri' used to describe a class probably had a lot more to do with the influence of Geertz himself on how Javanese think about themselves. In fact, in common conversation, the word muslimin[5] is far more likely to be used to distinguish 'santri' Javanese from other groups within society.<br /><br />Further complicating this matter is that not all santri are alike; within this group itself there exists a wide variety of belief and interpretation of what constitutes 'Islam'. To some extent this reflects the variety of belief held by Muslims the world over, and is generally characterised by a division between 'traditionalist' and 'modernist' outlooks. It can also be depicted as a division between an Islam that has been absorbed to become an integral part of a local culture, and a 'puritan' Islam that sees such cultural adaptation as being contrary to the original aesthetic.<br /><br />Islam in Java eventually developed into two Islamic traditions that are apparent today; a Javanese Islam with its syncretic characteristics, and a 'puritan', modernist Islam. The first is an Islam within which is infused with a complex mix of animist-Hindu-Buddhist beliefs and concepts, and which is inclined to mysticism. The second is relatively freer of these syncretic accretions, and is much closer to the dogma of the defining Arabian orthodoxy.[6]<br /><br />Islam did not arrive in Java in its pure, Arabian form.[7] One of the main reasons that Islam was able to take root in Java was due to the particular kind of Islam, Sufism, that emphasised with local traditions and customs, and was itself quite compatible with the pre-existing and highly developed Javanese mystical outlook. Islam was thus introduced with relatively little upheaval into the existing cultural, social and political structures.[8] In addition, amongst the Hindu-Buddhist nobility, Sufi Islam offered a credible mysticism as an alternative or additional source of mystical power and political legitimation[9]; Islam could be integrated into the wider Javanese search for magical powers.[10]<br /><br />Because of its mystical outlook, Sufi Islam was more easily incorporated into the traditional Javanese worldview. Towards the end of the 19th century the whole of Java could be considered 'Islamised',[11] however the intensity of this process was uneven across the island. Santri culture was much more concentrated in the trading cities of the north coast, and in cities more generally rather than the countryside.[12] Santri life-styles only really influenced those neighbouring rural settlements where pesantren had been established.[13]<br /><br />With the development of the modernist movement within Islam, starting with the Wahabie movement in Egypt, and with the increasing number of Javanese Muslims undertaking the Hajj to Makkah after the opening of the Suez Canal,[14] came an increasing awareness that Javanese Islam had absorbed many elements which could be considered in opposition to the 'pure' Islam of Arabia. Santri's began to more consciously differentiate themselves from those holding traditional Javanese outlooks, considering them as irreconcilable with the teachings or the aesthetic expressed in the Koran, and thus increasingly polarising the santri from the abangan. Over the past two decades in particular Javanese society has undergone a process of Islamisation, moving generally towards a deeper understanding and commitment to Islam in the modernist santri style.[15] This has led to further polarisation of the abangan from the santri in contemporary Java.[16]<br /><br />However, the santri should not be considered as an homogenous group, as they are themselves polarised along traditionalist/modernist lines. It is usually difficult to immediately differentiate 'mystically inclined' traditionalist santri from modernist 'orthodox'[17] santri. Both may well observe the five pillars of Islam, and just as importantly, strongly identify themselves as Muslim.<br /><br />So what is it that differentiates the Javanese santri from the rest of the population? Essentially, differences can be reduced to identity. Santri consciously identify themselves as Muslims, and attempt as far as possible to live in accordance to their own understanding of Islam, whether this be the traditional syncretic Islam, the purist Islam of the modernist, or mixtures of both.<br /><br />In terms of belief, the typical santri would adhere to the basic tenants of Islam as laid down within Koran, and the Sunnah, which comprises the Syrah (Mohammed's life story) and the Hadith (Mohammed's saying and customs). The Koran is considered to be the literal word of God, and thus cannot be doubted in any way. The Hadith, however, can be the subject of debate and difference of opinion, and it very often is. Consisting of literally hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of separate sayings and customs, and written or conveyed by numerous authors, the Hadith is a hotbed of contradiction, dispute, xenophobia and occasionally, downright weirdness.[18]<br /><br />In terms of their day-to-day behaviour, the santri closely adhere to the formal requirements of the religion, the most obvious of which is solat, the ritual prayer undertaken at specific times five times a day. More than anything else, it is the conscientious performance of solat that separates the santri from the abangan. According to Islamic law solat is wajib 'ain (absolutely compulsory), gaining merit for performance, and punishment for its non-performance.[19] Santri frequently live in areas surrounding mosques called kauman. Quite apart from a providing a sense of community, living close to a mosque means that the calls to prayer are clearly heard to ensure that every solat is performed.<br /><br />Also wajib 'ain is fasting during the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. During this month every able Muslim must abstain from food, drink, sex, immoral acts, and negative thinking from dawn to sunset. In contrast to solat, many abangan also follow the fast during this month, though perhaps not as seriously as their santri cousins. Koentzereningerat (1985) claims that Agami Jawi (abangan) Muslims who do not perform solat or give zakat seldom neglect to fast during the entire month of Ramadan, because it is in accordance with the indigenous idea of tirakat, of deliberately seeking out hardship and discomfort for religious reasons.[20]<br /><br />The contemporary Javanese santri can aspire to performing the Hajj, the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, at least once in their lifetime, usually when they are older. The Indonesian government though the Ministry of Religion provides highly organised packages to the Holy Land for reasonable cost.[21] As a consequence, the high status associated with someone who had undertaken the Hajj in days past has now diminished considerably. The honorific title 'Haji' is now very rarely used when addressing or referring to someone verbally, though the abbreviated title ("H.") will often be used in written forms.<br /><br />Externally, differences in dress are nearly always apparent in the contemporary santri. Muslimah in particular stand apart from non-santri by the wearing of a jilbab (full headdress covering the head, ears, and neck, leaving only the face visible). Older muslimah, or for the more 'liberal' female santri, a less severe kerudung is often substituted, covering only the head leaving much of the hair, neck and ears still visible. Headdress is worn whenever the muslimah is outside the house, or whenever she is in the presence of any males apart from her husband, sons, father and brothers. (Some muslimah are less strict about this within their own home.) Muslimah will frequently absent themselves whenever male guests come to visit, partly due to the reserve that the muslimah is expected to show, but often also because they do not want to go to the trouble of wearing their head-dress in order to meet the guest.<br /><br />Islam defines an awrah,[22] or areas of the body considered 'private', for both sexes. The muslimah must cover all her body, except for her face and hands.[23] Long, loose-fitting dresses or slacks are usually worn, though in Java many muslimah also commonly wear jeans along with a long, loose-fitting shirt. Basically, the female form must be so covered as to obscure the shape of the breasts,[24] hips and buttocks, so as not to arouse the passions or attention of males. This concept of the awrah is also extended to female behaviour, with the muslimah expected to guard ('cover') her voice and her physical movements, and to avoid drawing undue attention to herself.<br /><br />The Javanese santri male also wears certain types of clothing, however these are not prescribed by Islam, traditional or otherwise, nor are they worn all the time. The male awrah is much less restrictive, between the waist and the thighs, but it is generally considered more polite to completely cover the body, arms and legs. The gamis is a type of loose-fitting, long-sleeved, round-collared shirt worn by santri men, often for formal religious occasions or for Friday Prayers where it is accompanied with a chequered sarung. The peci, though not traditionally associated with Javanese Islam, must nowadays be considered part of male santri dress, although abangan Muslims also frequently wear it.[25]<br /><br />Santri will frequently pepper their speech with expressions of an Arabic flavour, even (perhaps especially) when communicating with non-Muslims or abangan. Bismillahirrohmannirrahim ('In the name of God the All Merciful') is an expression used before the commencement of any task, however large or small. This phrase precedes every surah within the Koran. The use of this phrase is, however, not limited to santri Muslims; abangan Muslims also frequently use it. Tasks such as starting a motorbike, driving a nail into a wall, sex, speeches, and the slaughtering of meat animals, will all be preceded with Bismillah as a remembrance that everything, every action and every word, should be done for God in the name of God.<br /><br />Assalamwallaikum, along with its reply, Wallaikumsalam, is used when meeting, greeting and farewelling people, and is also frequently used as a formal opening greeting for speeches.[26] Strangely, use of this expression by public officials has declined dramatically since the fall of General (Ret.) HM Soeharto in May of 1998.<br /><br />Santri consider any expression of certainty about the future to be slightly arrogant, and very often use the term Insyaallah ("God willing") to prefix any statement of positive intent or prediction, or agreement to do something. This expression is also sometimes used as a polite way of saying 'no', or for expressing ambiguity in answer to a question pertaining to something to be done in the future. Insyaallah also expresses what some see as a rather negative fatalism, allowing Muslims to avoid personal responsibility.[27]<br /><br />Contemporary santri Islam, in fact modernist Islam in general, is very much an 'outward' religion. The inner dimensions are generally not stressed, and when they are spoken of it is in terms of a very separate 'compartment' of Islam. The modernist aesthetic has had a big impact upon the more mystically-inclined traditionalist Islam, especially over the past two decades. Ritual, outward social behaviour, language and religious identity overshadow the inner dimensions. Sufism and the tarekat, although acknowledged, are now viewed with either suspicion or awe. For the vast majority of santri Muslims the only link to mystical dimensions and practices is at funeral ceremonies, where dhikir mediation is performed.<br /><br />Santri Islam in general emphasises ritual, whilst mysticism, in whatever its form, stresses inner, spiritual, or the vertical axis of religion. Santri are thus often perceived as emphasising the material, literal, or the horizontal axis. The mystic aspires to direct experience with God rather than mere belief or mechanical ritual. Sufi texts make a distinction between lahir (outer aspects) and batin (inner aspects), and that the outer meaning of the Koran concerns the regulation of outward behaviour (lahir), whilst its inner meaning (batin) concerns the mystical path and the quest for knowledge about Allah.[28]<br /><br />Mysticism and magic have always formed a basis of culture for all Javanese, irrespective of their professed outlook. Santri Muslims will often make reference to indigenous beliefs, even whilst at the same time invoking the superiority of Islamic belief. Many avowedly modernist Muslims sometimes ascribe matters to Islam that in fact have their basis within traditional beliefs. At the unconscious level many Javanese beliefs linger in the minds of the santri; Nyi Rorol Kidul, the Goddess of the Southern Sea, can still strike fear into their hearts, as can the power of Kejawen mystics. Many santri see no contradiction in consulting a dukun to cure their ailments, or in believing that guna-guna ("black magic") is often used in matters concerning love relationships, or that manusia harimau, people who transform themselves into tigers, inhabit some villages. Indigenous beliefs may tend to fill some of the spiritual vacuum left behind by modernist Islam.<br /><br />Javanese santri Islam is not monochromic; there is great variability in the way that it is expressed, and in the depth of commitment and knowledge of its adherants. However indigenous mystical beliefs persist in the subconscious of all Javanese, and many traditional practices and ceremonies are still performed,[29] albeit only in a formal manner. Javanese society has become increasingly 'santrified' over the past few decades, and the modernist expression of the religion has greatly influenced, outwardly at least, the more mystically-inclined traditionalist Islam. Despite this apparent modernity, however, Indonesian Islam needs to be considered on its own terms, and not just as a branch of Middle Eastern Islam.<br /><br />Notes<br />[1] Keith Eames et al (1998), Social and Religious Trends in Asia Pacific Security,<br />http://www.acdss.gov.au/acdss/confrnce/1998/98social.htm<br />[2] Eames et al (1998)<br />[3] Of course, there is 'freedom of religion' in Indonesia, unfortunately there is no freedom from religion.<br />[4] Robert J. Kyle (1995), Honors thesis 'Rethinking Javanese Mysticism: A Case Study of Subud Mysticism', Dept of Archaeology and Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, Australian National University, Canberra, 1995, http://artalpha.anu.edu.au/kylero/RJK_hp/chap1.htm<br />[5] Or muslimah when referring to females.<br />[6] Kyle (1995)<br />[7] Franz Magnis-Suseno (1997), Javanese Ethics and World-view: the Javanese Idea of the Good Life, PT Gramedia, Jakarta: 35<br />[8] Magnis-Suseno (1997): 35<br />[9] Kyle (1995)<br />[10] Magnis-Suseno (1997): 35<br />[11] Magnis-Suseno (1997): 37<br />[12] Magnis-Suseno (1997): 38<br />[13] Magnis-Suseno (1997): 38<br />[14] Magnis-Suseno (1997): 39<br />[15] MC Ricklefs (1993), A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1300, McMillan, London: 308<br />[16] Some authors take a quite different view of this, claiming (like Ricklefs: 308) that the divisions between the aliran are now less clear, and that such terms as santri and abangan are now anachronisms. I don't go along with this view; the recent elections should, I think, be proof enough that the aliran are alive and well in Javanese society.<br />[17] I use the word 'orthodox' here to indicate the Arabian rather than the traditionalist Javanese orthodoxy.<br />[18] A few modernist Muslim authors, in all seriousness, go as far to say that the Hadith should be completely abandoned. See Kassim Ahmad (1986), Hadith: A Re-Evaluation, Monotheist Productions International, Tucson<br />[19] Mohammed Rifa'I (1976), Risalah Tuntunan Shalat Lengkap, CV Toha Putra, Semarang: 9<br />[20] Koentzereningerat (1985), 'Javanese Religion' in Javanese Culture, OUP Singapore, ch 5: 370<br />[21] This last year the cost for an ordinary pilgrim was less than Rp20.000.000, covering air fares, accommodation, food, and guidance. Pilgrims usually stay in the Holy Land for a total of three months.<br />[22] Or aurat in Bahasa Indonesia.<br />[23] This too, is subject to wide interpretation. As a side note, in supposedly austere Malaysia the arms of Muslim (ie, Malay) women are nearly always left exposed, due almost certainly to a problem of language. In Malay, 'hand' and 'arm' are often not differentiated, being referred to singularly as 'tangan'. This also extends through to Malaysian English, where the word 'arm' is rarely used, and the word 'hand' used to mean either the hand or the arm or both.<br />[24] For most Javanese women this does not present a great challenge.<br />[25] I think it would be difficult nowadays to find a non-Muslim wearing a peci, and indeed I personally know of some Javanese Christians who would not be caught dead in one, so strong is the Islamic identification. Strangely, I have known several santris who strongly deny the peci's solely Islamic association, insisting that anyone can wear one regardless of their religion.<br />[26] Muslim boutiques in Java sell "Assalamwallaikum" doorbells. Even Islam has its kitsch.<br />[27] John Bousfield (1983), "Islamic Philosophy in Southeast Asia", in MB Hoober ed, Islam in Southeast Asia, Brill, Leiden: 99<br />[28] Kyle (1995)<br />[29] One such example is the tingkeban ritual marking the passing of six months of pregnancy that is celebrated by many santri women<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">Reference: http://okusi.net/garydean/works/santri.html</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-3253686010341036342011-06-06T14:20:00.000-07:002011-06-06T14:21:54.386-07:00Islamic Education in Indonesia's Pesantren<span><br />A type of <a href="http://kabar-pendidikan.blogspot.com/2011/04/islamic-education-in-pesantren.html">school in Southeast Asia</a> offering second‐level training in Islamic subjects is termed <a href="http://kabar-pendidikan.blogspot.com/2011/04/islamic-education-in-pesantren.html">pesantren on Java</a>, surau on Sumatra, pondok on the Malay Peninsula, and pandita (“school”) in the Philippines. Pesantren derives from the sixteenth century, when learning centers known as the “place of learning for the Islamic faithful (santris),” were established. Surau was a place for worship in early Southeast Asia, while pondok derives from the travelers' inns (Ar., funduq) of the Middle East. Pandita was the local term for a holy man in the Philippines.<br /><br />By the seventeenth century the <a href="http://kabar-pendidikan.blogspot.com/2011/04/islamic-education-in-pesantren.html">pesantren on Java</a> had become alternate centers of authority to the princely courts. The courts stressed elaborate lifestyles based on Old Javanese values of refinement, while the pesantren stressed pious conduct and the hereafter. Each rival, however, usually recognized the legitimacy and societal role of the other. In Minangkabau the surau was likewise a center of authority outside the traditional communal units of society. In other places there seems to have been less social division between the court and the learning centers than existed in Java and Minangkabau.<br /><br />In earlier times <a href="http://kabar-pendidikan.blogspot.com/2011/04/islamic-education-in-pesantren.html">the pesantren</a>, surau, pondok, and pandita schools were a rural phenomenon, interacting with local communities. Scholars provided education, gave advice to villagers, and legitimized local ceremonies. Some scholars were regarded as “blessed” and were consulted for cures and supernatural assistance during their lives and after death by cults at their tombs. Villagers supported pesantren with food and labor; in some places a poor tax, alms, and pious endowments were also given. In Malaysia support networks of parents provided assistance, and in all places learners often worked in the <a href="http://kabar-pendidikan.blogspot.com/2011/04/islamic-education-in-pesantren.html">fields of the pesantren</a>, since fees were seldom taken for learning per se. Today some pesantren are located in urban areas, and many rely on fees.<br /><br />Pesantren are private ventures by scholars—called kyai on Java, guru on the Malay Peninsula, pandita in the southern Philippines, and ʿalīm in most other places—usually with the assistance of their families. Many schools do not survive the founder, but others continue through several generations, with sons and sons‐in‐law succeeding to control and ownership. Prestige is gained by scholars through good contacts with other scholar families, some in Arabia, and also through pupils who establish new pesantren recognizing the original scholars as progenitors.<br /><br />Learners in earlier times remained at a pesantren until they felt they had learned enough and then returned to society. Committed learners, often sons of scholars (gus), moved among pesantren whose scholars had reputations for special knowledge. Such travel allowed a learner the opportunity to marry a daughter of an established scholar, ensuring himself a place to teach and perhaps to succeed the older scholar. Today, additional training is obtained in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East, often at Al‐Azhar University in Egypt .<br /><br />Historically, the intense education and worship schedule led to deep involvement of learners with their scholar, which produced strong loyalties and respect. In school and after departing, scholars could rely on their learners to answer a summons for aid, a factor of political importance at certain moments in history. In the Second Javanese War (1826–1830), the Acehnese War (1873–1903), and the Battle of Surabaya (1946) during the Indonesian revolution, scholars led their santris into armed conflict against enemies who they believed threatened the Muslim community. Contemporary Indonesian Muslim intellectuals have lauded the anti‐Dutch stance of the <a href="http://kabar-pendidikan.blogspot.com/2011/04/islamic-education-in-pesantren.html">pesantren scholars</a>, recognizing them as preservers of Indonesian and <a href="http://kabar-pendidikan.blogspot.com/2011/04/islamic-education-in-pesantren.html">Islamic values</a> during the colonial period.<br /><br /><a href="http://kabar-pendidikan.blogspot.com/2011/04/islamic-education-in-pesantren.html">Learning in pesantren</a> is based on the “old books” (kitab kuning) of prominent scholars from the Muslim Middle Period (ca. 1250 to 1850), usually from the Shāfiʿī school of legal scholarship. Study has always included Arabic grammar (naḥw) and conjugation (ṣarf), Qur'ānic recitation (qirā'ah), Qur'ānic exegesis (tafsīr), theology (tawḥīd), jurisprudence (fiqh), ethics (akhlāq), logic (manṭiq), history (tārīkh) and mysticism (taṣawwuf). The weton or ḥalaqah system was used, in which learners sat in a semicircle before a seated scholar who called on them in turn for recitation. Learners at all levels of competence sat together, and the more accomplished assisted the less learned with their readings.<br /><br />Change occurred slowly. Some learners studied in Mecca before becoming scholars and were influenced by thinking there. In this way the Naqshabandīyah order, with its balance between mysticism and legalism, became popular in nineteenth‐century Southeast Asia. Wahhābī purism was introduced through the Minangkabau suraus in the early nineteenth century, and in the early twentieth century some schools came under the modernizing and spiritual reform of the Manār school of Egypt. There was locally induced change as well, for example in the reforms of Hasyim Asy'ari (d. 1947), who introduced new techniques for the study of Arabic.<br /><br />In the twentieth century pesantren came under pressure from society and governments to adopt current teaching techniques and to include nonreligious subjects; many responded favorably. In Indonesia the <a href="http://kabar-pendidikan.blogspot.com/2011/04/islamic-education-in-pesantren.html">Modern Pesantren at Gontor</a>, for example, expanded to include training from elementary grades to the university level, with a mixed curriculum. Other pesantren converted to madrasahs or sekolahs within the Indonesian education system. Still others offered specialized training in agriculture, crafts, and business alongside traditional religious subjects.<br /><br />In the southern Philippines the pandita schools gave way to more organized madrasahs promoted by Egyptian religious teachers in the 1950s. In Thailand in the 1960s, the pondok schools were united into a state‐run system with a mixed curriculum. Losing pupils to government schools, pondoks in Malaysia sought accommodation with revivalist (daʿwah) activists in the 1970s to renew interest in Muslim education.<br /><br />Although the value‐oriented <a href="http://kabar-pendidikan.blogspot.com/2011/04/islamic-education-in-pesantren.html">education of the pesantren</a> remains respected by Southeast Asian Muslims, the pesantren still appears to be waning as an educational choice. Muslims increasingly feel compelled to send their children to government schools with modern curricula, believing they will be better prepared for the job market. Even children of scholars, who earlier formed the cadre of young scholars and their wives, are drawn by nonreligious education, so that fewer scholars are being trained, and there is a long‐term decrease in the number of pesantren.<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;">Adopted from http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0632</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4386172397013832978.post-68785961286409578212011-06-06T13:57:00.000-07:002011-06-06T14:02:41.139-07:00Books in Arabic Script Used in Islamic Education in Indonesia<span><br />Kitab Kuning: Books in Arabic Script Used in the Pesantren Milieu(Comments on a New Collection in the KITLV Library)[1]<br /><br />Autor: Martin van Bruinessen<br /><br />A research project on the Indonesian ulama gave me the opportunity to visit pesantren in various parts of the Archipelago and put together a sizeable collection of books used in and around the pesantren, the so-called kitab kuning. Taken together, this collection offers a clear overview of the texts used in Indonesian pesantren and madrasah, a century after L.W.C. van den Berg’s pioneering study of the Javanese (and Madurese) pesantren curriculum (1886). Van den Berg compiled, on the basis of interviews with kyais, a list of the major textbooks studied in the pesantren of his day. He mentioned fifty titles and gave on each some general information and short summaries of the more important ones. Most of these books are still being reprinted and used in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, but many other works have come into use beside them. The present collection contains around nine hundred different titles, most of which are used as textbooks. I shall first make some general observations on these books and on the composition of the collection. In the second part of this article I shall discuss a list of ‘most popular kitab’ that I compiled from other sources. All of the books listed there are, however, part of the collection.[2]<br /><br />Criteria and representativeness<br />In order to judge how representative this collection is, a few words on my method of collecting are necessary. I visited the major publishers and toko kitab (bookshops specializing in this type of religious literature) in Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, Purwokerto, Semarang, Surabaya, Banda Aceh, Medan, Pontianak, Banjarmasin, Amuntai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Georgetown (Penang), Kota Bharu and Patani (Southern Thailand), and bought there all available Islamic books in Arabic script printed in Southeast Asia. The last two criteria may at first sight seem rather arbitrary, but I found them to be sociologically significant besides being the most convenient ones. It is true, most toko kitab also sell limited numbers of Arabic books printed in Egypt and Lebanon (an agent representing the Lebanese publishing house Dar al-Fikr has special shops for these books in Jakarta and Surabaya), but the price differential between such books and Southeast Asian editions guarantees that they are bought by a relatively small minority only. They include works of reference for the advanced scholar and works by modern authors that have not yet been accepted by the mainstream of Indonesian Islam. Any book for which there is a sizeable demand will sooner or later be (re)printed by one of the regional publishers.[3]<br /><br />Similarly, the script in which a book is printed carries symbolic meaning and differentiates rather neatly between two different types of reading public. Indonesian Muslims use even different words for books in romanized script (‘buku’) and those in Arabic script, irrespective of the language (‘kitab’). Up to the 1960’s a well-defined line divided the Muslim community in ‘traditionalists’ and ‘modernists’ (with as their major socio-religious organizations the Nahdlatul Ulama and the Muhammadiyah, respectively). The former used to study religion exclusively through kitab kuning (called kuning, ‘yellow,’ after the tinted paper of books brought from the Middle East in the early twentieth century), while the latter read only buku putih, ‘white’ books in romanized Indonesian. The authors of the latter usually rejected most of the scholastic tradition in favour of a return to, and in some cases new interpretation of, the original sources, the Qur’an and the hadith. This may have contributed to the negative attitude towards buku putih that long existed in the pesantren milieu. In a few old-fashioned pesantren such books are not allowed until this day. Traditionalist ulama writing books or brochures, whether in Arabic or in one of the vernacular languages, always used Arabic script, and many continue to do so. Nowadays, however, the dividing line between ‘modernists’ and ‘traditionalists’ is not so sharp and clear anymore, and many of the old antagonisms have worn off. The ‘modernists’ have generally become less radical in their rejection of tradition — significantly, there are now several Muhammadiyah pesantren offering a combination of the traditional curriculum (kitab kuning) and that of the modern school. Not only have most ‘traditionalist’ kyai, on the other hand, become more catholic in their reading, many of them write now in Indonesian as well as in Arabic, Malay or Javanese. The Arabic script, though still the most unambiguous symbol of a traditionalist orientation, is no longer a sine qua non for it. I have therefore not applied the criterion of script too rigidly, and have included in the present collection a number of works in (romanized) Indonesian, that logically belong to the kitab tradition: annotated translations of, or commentaries on, classical texts by ‘traditionalist’ ulama.<br /><br />The criterion of Arabic script has excluded one category of texts otherwise quite similar to those collected. Ulama in South Sulawesi (the most prolific of whom are Yunus Maratan and Abdul Rahman Ambo Dalle) have written religious texts in Buginese for use in madrasah and schools, employing not, as earlier generations of scholars did, the Arabic but the Buginese alphabet. A good number of these works are already in the KITLV library, and several bibliographies exist (Departemen Agama 1981/1982, 1983/1984).<br /><br />The collection could, for a number of reasons, not be complete. Most publishers have very limited storage facilities, and only a fraction of the books published by them are actually available at their sales departments. When a kitab is (re)printed, almost the entire edition is immediately sent off to toko kitab throughout the country. It is only through visiting many such shops and patiently combing the shelves that one can collect at least most of the important works from major publishers. Virtually all works mentioned in published sources or heard about have been collected, some even in several editions, in various translations or with different glosses. But some of the less important works were simply out of print and sold out in all shops visited.<br /><br />Furthermore, there are numerous minor local publishers bringing out works of secondary importance, often by local ulama. There are not a few of such works in the collection, but it is likely that many others were overlooked. In spite of these limitations, however, the collection represents a fair cross-section of the study materials used in Indonesian (and Malaysian) pesantren and madrasah, as well as of the intellectual output of Indonesian ulama.<br /><br />Statistics<br />Out of some nine hundred different works, almost five hundred, or just over half, were written or translated by Southeast Asian ulama. Many of these Indonesian ulama wrote in Arabic: almost 100 titles, or around 10%, are Arabic works by Southeast Asians (or Arabs resident in the region). Those in Indonesian languages were, of course, all written by Southeast Asians (including some of Arab descent). If we count translations as separate works, the approximate numbers of kitab in the various languages are as follows :<br /><br />Language Approximate number of kitab Percentage of total number<br />Arabic 500 55 % Malay 200 22 % Javanese 120 13 % Sundanese 35 4 % Madurese 25 2.5 % Acehnese 5 0.5 % Indonesian 20 2 %<br /><br />These works can be roughly classified according to subject matter. The largest categories are:<br /><br />jurisprudence (fiqh) 20 % doctrine (`aqida, usul al-din) 17 % traditional Arabic grammar (nahw, sarf, balagha) 12 % hadith collections 8 % mysticism (tasawwuf, tariqa) 7 % morality (akhlaq) 6 % collections of prayers and invocations, Islamic magic (du`a, wird, mujarrabat) 5 % texts in praise of the prophets and saints (qisas al-anbiya’, mawlid, manaqib, etc.) 6 %<br /><br />A few important changes have taken place in the composition of the pesantren curriculum, and these are only partly reflected in the table above. A century ago, the Qur’an and the traditions were rarely studied directly but mainly in the ‘processed’ form of scholastic works on jurisprudence and doctrine. According to van den Berg, only one tafsir, the Jalalayn, was studied in the pesantren, and no hadith collections at all. In this respect, a significant change has taken place during the past century. There are no less than ten different Qur’anic commentaries (in Arabic, Malay, Javanese and Indonesian) in the collection beside straightforward translations (also called tafsir) into Javanese and Sundanese. The number of compilations of hadith is even more striking. There is almost no pesantren now where hadith is not taught as a separate subject. The major emphasis in instruction remains, however, on fiqh, the Islamic science par excellence. There have been no remarkable changes in the fiqh texts studied, but the discipline of usul al-fiqh (the foundations or bases of fiqh) has been added to the curriculum of many pesantren, allowing a more flexible and dynamic view of fiqh.These and other categories of kitab kuning will be discussed in greater detail in the second part of this article, where the most popular of each are listed. But here are first some observations on kitab publishing and major authors.<br /><br />The publishing of kitab kuning in the Archipelago<br />Printed books are a relative novelty in the pesantren. In van den Berg’s time, many of the kitab in the pesantren were still in manuscript, and were copied by the santri in longhand. But it was precisely in this period that printed books from the Middle East began entering Indonesia in significant numbers, one of the side effects of the increased participation in the haj (due in turn to the arrival of the steamship). There had, by then, been a century of bookprinting in the Middle East already, but of particular relevance for Indonesians was the establishment of a government press in Mecca in 1884, which printed not only books in Arabic but also in Malay. The latter part of its activities was placed under the supervision of the learned Ahmad b. Muhammad Zayn al-Patani, who is also the author of several treatises himself.[4] (the present collection contains seven of them in recent reprints). His selection of books was rather biased in favour of those by compatriots, and it is partly due to him that many works of Da’ud b. `Abdallah al-Patani and Muhammad b. Isma`il Da’ud al-Patani are still widely available, in reprints of his original editions. In these and other reprints, the imprint of the original publisher has been replaced, but many of the works published by Ahmad b. M. Zayn may still be recognized by the verses that he wrote as introductions and placed on the title pages.[5]This was not the very first Malay press, although the first one of importance. Zayn al-Din al-Sumbawi, another Jawi scholar resident in Mecca, had a short treatise lithographed as early as 1876 (Snouck Hurgronje 1889: 385) and several of Da’ud b. `Abdallah al-Patani’s works were printed in Bombay before the 1880s too. Bombay was also the major source of printed (lithographed) Qur’ans entering Indonesia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[6] Publishers in Istanbul and Cairo soon followed the Meccan press in establishing Malay sections. It was especially Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi of Cairo who, in the course of time, was to publish many a Malay kitab. Two studies by Mohd. Nor bin Ngah (1980, 1983) discuss a more or less representative sample of these Malay kitab and of the worldview that is reflected in them.<br /><br />These publishing activities in the Middle East, as well as the example of British and Dutch lithograph presses, stimulated Islamic publishing efforts in the Archipelago too. The first presses there that printed in vernacular languages were operated by government and missionary organisations.[7] They were soon followed by the first enterprising Muslim publishers. One of the pioneers was Sayyid Usman of Batavia, that prolific ‘Arab ally of the Dutch Indies government,’ many of whose simple works are still in use, primarily among the Betawi and Sundanese. He had a first version of his Al-qawanin al-shar`iyya lithographed in 1881; by 1886, at least four other booklets of his hand were mentioned and many more were to follow.[8]<br />Even Sayyid Usman was not the first Islamic publisher in the Indies; that title probably belongs to Kemas Haji Muhammad Azhari of Palembang, who in 1854 made his first lithograph prints of the Qur’an, calligraphed by himself. He had bought a press in Singapore a few years earlier, on the return journey from the hajj, and taught himself to operate it. His Qur’ans — to which he had written a 14-page Malay introduction on pronunciation and style of reading — found ready buyers.[9] In Singapore too, there must have been lithograph presses occasionally printing in Malay by that time, but very little is known about them as yet. In the 1880s and 1890s, several presses published Malay newspapers and occasionally books, but it remains unclear whether these included more than one or two small religious tracts.[10]<br /><br />In 1894, the junior ruler of Riau, Muhammad Yusuf, established a printing press, the Matba`at al-Ahmadiyya, on the island of Penyengat in 1894, which in the following years printed several religious treatises by the contemporary Naqshbandi shaykh Muhammad Salih al-Zawawi, the spiritual preceptor of Muhammad Yusuf and his relatives.[11]<br /><br />These promising beginnings found little follow-up. Many books and journals were published in the Archipelago in the first half of the 20th century, but very few of them were kitab (in the wide sense defined above) and almost none were texts of the classical kind. West Sumatra was probably the only region where a significant number of kitab (written by local `ulama) were printed during the first decades of the century. Some of these were simple textbooks, in Malay and Arabic, for the then new madrasah, meant to replace the rather difficult classical works on Arabic grammar, doctrine and fiqh. Several of these books are still widely used.[12] Others were polemical writings, weapons in the religious debates between kaum muda and kaum tua then raging in West Sumatra.[13]<br /><br />Here as elsewhere, most of the modernists, who were by far the more prolific writers and publishers, soon adopted the romanized script, which brought them closer to the secular nationalists but reinforced their social separation from the kaum tua. They did write religious textbooks, but in style and contents these differed rather much from traditional kitab.It was only after Indonesia’s independence that kitab began to be printed on any serious scale there. As the present major publishers remember, before the Second World War there were only booksellers, no actual publishers of kitab in the Archipelago (the largest being Sulayman Mar`i in Singapore, `Abdullah bin `Afif in Cirebon, and Salim bin Sa`d Nabhan in Surabaya, all three of them Arabs).[14] They ordered virtually all books - including works in Malay - from Egypt, where book production was then considerably cheaper than in Indonesia. There was one exception, but it had only local significance: the (Malay-owned) Patani Press as well as Nahdi (Arab) in southern Thailand began printing Malay kitab in the late 1930s, for use in the pondok of Patani and the contiguous Malay states.<br /><br />In the first half of the century, Indonesian demand was still low, and the only commercially interesting kitab was the Qur’an itself. Both Mar`i and bin `Afif made their first attempts to have it printed locally in the 1930s; they were later followed by Al-Ma`arif of Bandung, established late in 1948 by Muhammad bin `Umar Bahartha, a former employee of `Abdullah bin `Afif. By mid-century, Mar`i had several kitab kuning printed as well; one of the more conspicuous was `Abd al-Ra’uf al-Fansuri (al-Singkili)’s Malay adaptation of the tafsir Jalalayn, published in 1951. In the course of the 1950s, Al-Ma`arif followed suit with cheap prints of oft-used kitab, and so did `Abdullah bin `Afif and various relatives of Salim Nabhan. (Larger and therefore more expensive works, such as the four-volume I`anat al-talibin by Sayyid Bakri b. M. Shatta’, the latest great compendium of Shafi`i fiqh, were only published from the 1970s on, reflecting a growing affluence in santri circles). In the course of the 1960s Toha Putra of Semarang also ventured onto the kitab market. Still later, the publishing house Menara of Kudus joined the competition: the first non-Arab publisher of this type of literature in Indonesia. Both Toha Putra and Menara have published numerous classical texts together with Javanese or Indonesian translations, as well as original works by Javanese `ulama. In 1978, a former associate of Al-Ma`arif established the house Al-Haramayn in Singapore, which in a few years put out a wide range of classical Arabic texts, many Malay and even a few Sundanese works. Singapore was apparently no longer an advantageous location to serve the Southeast Asian kitab market from, for Al-Haramayn closed shop after a few years (although its books could still be found all over the Archipelago in 1987), and the owner established a new house in Surabaya, called Bungkul Indah.[15] In number of titles, al-Haramayn and its successor Bungkul Indah are the largest publishers of kitab; in sheer volume of sales, however, they lag far behind Al-Ma`arif. Another new publisher with a wide range of (exclusively Arabic) titles is Dar Ihya’ al-Kutub al-`Arabiyya in Surabaya.[16]<br /><br />There are no signs yet of strong centralization in the publishing of kitab kuning. Surabaya boasts the largest number of publishers; the most conspicuous, beside those already mentioned, are the houses of Sa`d bin Nasir bin Nabhan and Ahmad bin Sa`d Nabhan (ten other members of the same family also publish kitab). On Java’s north coast we find further publishers (besides those mentioned) in Semarang (Al-Munawwara), Pekalongan (Raja Murah), Cirebon (Misriyya, the old establishment of `Abdallah bin `Afif) and Jakarta (Al-Shafi`iyya and Al-Tahiriyya, belonging to the large Betawi pesantrens of these names, and putting out textbooks used there besides simple books by authors beloved to the Betawi community). `Arafat in Bogor mainly produces works on Arabic grammar (over twenty titles); Toko Kairo in the small West Javanese town of Tasikmalaya publishes both Arabic classics and simple Sundanese kitab.<br /><br />In Sumatra there are at present, surprisingly, no important publishers of kitab. The public there is served by publishers in Java, Singapore and Malaysia. Publishing in Singapore has, as said, declined; in Malaysia too, publishing of kitab is on the wane (in contrast to the publishing of modern books, in which the country’s output is above that of its ten times more populous southern neighbour). Georgetown (on the island of Penang) still has three active publishers, of which Dar al-Ma`arif and Nahdi are the most productive. In Kota Bharu (Kelantan), the Pustaka Aman Press is very active, but it publishes mostly modern Malay books, not classics.[17] There are also several publishers in Patani (Southern Thailand), the eldest of which, Patani Press, began publishing the works of Patani `ulama in the late 1930s.[18] At present their books do not receive a wider distribution than Patani and the contiguous Malay states. One of the other publishers here, Nahdi, has moved most of its activities to Penang, where the political climate is more favourable to Islamic publishing, and whence the books receive a wider distribution. Besides these, there are a large number of small local publishers putting out religious tracts, brochures and books for strictly local markets.<br /><br />A high proportion of the books printed by these Southeast Asian publishers are photomechanical reprints of works first published in Mecca or Cairo around the turn of the century. Many even still carry the imprint of the original publisher on the title page. In other cases, this imprint has been replaced by that of the new publisher. Borrowing continues freely meanwhile. Thus it can happen that a book originally published by Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi of Cairo appears with the name of the most recent publisher, Bungkul Indah, on the jacket while the title page still bears the imprint of the previous publisher, Al-Ma`arif. Some cheap reprints of more recent Egyptian or Lebanese books are only distinguishable from the original by the quality of the paper and the binding: a nightmare for the bibliographer. Thus Bungkul Indah has recently brought out a series of modern works with the imprint of Beyrut publisher Dar al-Thaqafa still on the cover and title page.<br /><br />The common format of kitab kuning<br />Most of the classical Arabic kitab studied in the pesantren are commentaries (sharh, Ind/Jav: syarah), or glosses (hashiya, hasyiyah) upon commentaries on older original texts (matn, matan). The printed editions of these classical works usually have the text that is commented or glossed upon printed in the margin, so that both may be studied together. This has perhaps been the reason of occasional confusions between related texts. The name Taqrib, for instance, is used both for this short and simple fiqh text itself and for the Fath al-qarib, a more substantial commentary on it (van den Berg, in fact, believed these two works to be identical). If one asks for the Mahalli, a popular advanced fiqh work, one is given the voluminous super-commentary on it by Qalyubi and `Umayra, that has Mahalli’s Kanz al-raghibin in a modest position in the margin, etc.<br /><br />Many of the basic texts are manzum, i.e. written in rhymed verse (nazm, nadham), to facilitate memorization.[19] Perhaps the longest manzum text is the Alfiyya, a text on Arabic grammar so called because it consists of thousand (alf) bayt. Many generations of santri have, patiently chanting, committed this entire work to memory, along with a whole range of other texts. Commentaries of such manzum works commonly incorporate the original verse in the (prose) commentary rather than placing it separately in the margin.<br /><br />A small fraction of the (Javanese, Madurese and Sundanese) translations simply consists of word-by-word, interlineary translations - written obliquely in a finer hand under each word of the bold Arabic text, and therefore graphically dubbed jenggotan, ‘bearded.’[20] In most cases, however, there is in addition a freer translation and/or commentary, usually printed on the lower half of the page. Malay translations sometimes follow another pattern: the Arabic text is broken up into small semantic units, each of which is then followed by a rather literal Malay translation between brackets. But more often the Malay translation and/or commentary is printed separately, without the Arabic.<br /><br />The most common format of the classical kitab for pesantren use is just below quarto size (26 cm), and not bound. The quires (koras) lie loose in the jacket, 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 value: 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. Some even print kitab on orange-tinted (‘kuning’) paper (produced especially for them by Indonesian factories) because this too is more ‘classical’ in the users’ minds.<br /><br />Popular authors of kitab<br />As might be expected, there have been no great shifts in the popularity of classical authors during the past century. Virtually all kitab mentioned by van den Berg are still available in Indonesia, in recent reprints. But there has been a noticeable increase in relatively recent commentaries on these works. A few authors stand out, in that numerous works by them are widely available and have been generally accepted into the pesantren curriculum. The most influential of them flourished in Mecca in the late 19th century.<br /><br />Ahmad b. Zayni Dahlan, the Shafi`i mufti of Mecca during Snouck Hurgronje’s stay there, is represented by seven works in this collection, and his younger contemporary Sayyid Bakri b. Muhammad Shatta’ al-Dimyati by four, that are very widely used.[21]<br /><br />The most ubiquitous presence, however, is that of the Indonesian author Muhammad b. `Umar Nawawi al-Jawi al-Bantani (Nawawi Banten), who has twenty-two titles in the collection, all of them in Arabic.[22] Eleven of them occur in the list of most frequently used kitab below — he has more titles among these top hundred than any other author. Nawawi wrote on virtually every aspect of Islamic learning. Most of his works are comments on well-known texts, explaining them in simple terms. He is perhaps best regarded as a popularizer of, rather than a contributor to, learned discourse.<br /><br />Another commentator comparable to Nawawi Banten in scope and popularity is the earlier Egyptian author Ibrahim al-Bajuri (or Bayjuri, d. 1277/1861), several of whose works were already widely used in van den Berg’s time. The collection contains six of works of his hand, on fiqh, doctrine and logic.[23]<br /><br />Besides Nawawi, several other southeast Asian authors have acquired lasting places in the pesantren or madrasah curriculum. An earlier, very prolific author is the said Da’ud b. `Abdallah al-Patani (d. ca. 1845), who also wrote on a wide range of subjects, always in Malay.[24] Fourteen of his works were found in recent reprints. They are widely used in Patani, Malaysia and parts of Sumatra. The major works of his contemporaries Muhammad Arshad al-Banjari and `Abd al-Samad al-Palimbani (who wrote in Malay too) are also regularly reprinted. Another author of still popular Malay works is the said Sayyid Usman (`Uthman b. `Abdallah b. `Aqil b. Yahya al-`Alawi).<br /><br />An important Javanese author of the late 19th century is Saleh Darat (Salih b. `Umar al-Samarani, d. 1321/1903). He wrote commentaries (in Javanese) on several important works of fiqh, doctrine and tasawwuf.[25]<br /><br />K.H. Mahfudz of Termas (Mahfuz b. `Abdallah al-Tarmasi), who lived and taught in Mecca around the turn of the century (he died in 1919), wrote a few highly regarded works (in Arabic) on fiqh and the science of hadith.[26]<br /><br />Another highly respected `alim is the late K.H. Ihsan b. Muhammad Dahlan of Jampes, Kediri, who wrote (in Arabic) a much admired commentary on Ghazali’s Minhaj al-`abidin, titled Siraj al-talibin. The names of all these authors (except Kyai Mahfudz) occur in the list of most popular kitab below.<br /><br />A more recent, and highly prolific Javanese author is Bisri Mustofa of Rembang (Bishri Mustafa al-Rambani), represented in the collection by over twenty works, including a three-volume tafsir (a translation of rather than commentary on the Qur’an).<br /><br />Misbah b. Zayn al-Mustafa of Bangilan, Ahmad Subki Masyhadi of Pekalongan and Asrori Ahmad of Wonosari translated numerous classical texts into Javanese; the first moreover wrote a voluminous Javanese tafsir.<br /><br />Other productive Javanese authors include Kyai Muslikh of Mranggen (Muslih b. `Abd al-Rahman al-Maraqi, d. 1986), who wrote several treatises on his tariqa, the Qadiriyya wa Naqshbandiyya, and related matters, and Ahmad `Abd al-Hamid al-Qandali of Kendal, who wrote various treatises on doctrine and religious obligations as well as texts of practical use (methods of da`wa, NU affairs).<br /><br />In the 19th century, pesantren in Madura and West Java did not use their own regional languages but Javanese as a medium: when Arabic texts were translated it was into Javanese. This too has changed, there are now kitab kuning in Madurese and Sundanese as well. `Abd al-Majid Tamim of Pamekasan translated over ten books into Madurese, covering almost all branches of learning.<br /><br />There is a wider range of Sundanese kitab, and more of them are original works rather than simply translations. Three authors stand out in the collection: Ahmad Sanusi of Sukabumi (founder of the organization Al Ittihadiyatul Islamiyah, which which merged into the Persatuan Ummat Islam in 1952) wrote a translation/tafsir of the Qur’an; Rd. Ma’mun Nawawi b. Rd. Anwar various edifying booklets, and the great `alim and poet `Abdallah b. Nuh of Bogor works of sufi piety, based on Ghazali. Besides their books, there are numerous simple booklets in Sundanese, for use in the lower grades of the pesantren, published by the bookstore Toko Cairo in Tasikmalaya.<br /><br />Of the Minangkabau authors, whose polemics in the beginning of this century have drawn some attention (Schrieke 1921), almost no works are still in print. Even the once influential Ahmad Khatib seems hardly to be read anymore; only two of his works were found in print and these are not generally available. Two other Minangkabau, however, who were associated with Sumatera Thawalib, have reached the top hundred, and are well represented in the collection: Mahmud Yunus and Abdul Hamid Hakim. Both have written numerous textbooks, in Malay and Arabic, for use in the madrasah, and several of these are very widely used, also in pesantren.[27]<br /><br />A top 100 of pesantren literature<br />The present collection represents to date the most complete overview of literature used in and around the pesantren and madrasah. But it cannot, of course, by itself tell us which works are the ones most frequently used, at which levels, and where. The curriculum of the madrasah, especially those owned or subsidized by the state, is more or less standardized, and is not so strongly oriented towards the classics as that of the pesantren. The collection contains a fair number of modern books written for the Egyptian madrasah, that are also used in the similar Indonesian institutions, besides books especially written by Indonesian authors, in simple Arabic.<br /><br />The pesantren differ from the madrasah, among other things, in the lack of uniformity in curriculum.[28] Many kyais specialize in one particular branch of learning, or even in one particular text,[29] and many santris move for this reason from one pesantren to another in order to study a certain range of texts thoroughly. No single pesantren offers a ‘representative’ curriculum all by itself. We have to take a number of pesantrens together in order to establish with which works the average santri is confronted in the course of his studies.<br /><br />I have the strong impression (based on what I found in stock in toko kitab in the various regions) that the ‘average’ curriculum in Sumatra, Kalimantan and on the mainland still differs to some extent from that in Java. Kitab originally written in Malay, by such ulama as M. Arshad al-Banjari, Da’ud bin `Abdallah al-Patani and `Abd al-Samad al-Palimbani long had, and to some extent still have, precedence over the classical Arabic works and their 19th century Arabic commentaries that constitute the bulk of the Javanese curriculum. The establishment all over Sumatra and Kalimantan, from the 1920’s on, of pondok pesantren on the Javanese model and madrasah of the West Sumatran type has resulted, however, in the gradual displacement of these Malay kitab in favour of standard Arabic works.<br /><br />Van den Berg’s study (1886), although dated, is still the most detailed survey of kitab commonly used in Javanese pesantren. The catalogues of Arabic, Malay and Javanese manuscripts in the Jakarta and Leiden libraries also give an elaborate impression of what was in use in the 19th century, although it remains doubtful how representative these collections are for the pesantren milieu. The Serat Centini, probably compiled in the early 19th century, refers to a large number of kitab; there is a close correspondence with van den Berg’s list (see Soebardi 1971). For an earlier period, Drewes (1972, appendix) has compiled an interesting list of works in use in 18th century Palembang.<br /><br />There are a few more recent surveys claiming a degree of generality, but these are still far from satisfactory.[30] We learn more, in fact, from an anecdotal autobiography such as that of K.H. Saifuddin Zuhri (who was NU’s minister of religion under Guided Democracy), with its glimpses of the texts he read (or had read to him) in the pesantren, the way these were studied and the impact they had on him.[31]<br /><br />There exist now a good number of monographs on individual pesantrens, most of which contain shorter or longer lists of the texts studied there.[32] These lists, compiled by different researchers, vary in length and quality, and none of them is complete; well-known works are undoubtedly over-represented in them at the expense of less popular texts equally studied. Taken together, however, they give a reasonable indication of which are at present the most frequently used kitab. I have added to these a small number of similar lists compiled by Indonesian researchers in the course of a recent research project on the Indonesian `ulama,[33] and thus compiled aggregate data on 42 pesantren, of which 18 are in East Java, 12 in Central and 9 in West Java, and 3 in South Kalimantan. I add some data on Sumatra, although these are not really comparable because they do not refer to individual but to four idealized, ‘average’ pesantren. They consist of two aggregate lists of kitab used in pesantren and by traditional `ulama in Riau and Palembang, respectively; the curriculum of an ‘average’ PERTI madrasah in West Sumatra; and the curriculum of one conservative surau in Pariaman, West Sumatra.[34]<br /><br />The number of Kalimantan pesantren on which data has been gathered is unfortunately too low to lay claims to being representative. These data confirm the general impression of the Banjarese pesantren as old-fashioned.[35] The Sumatra and Kalimantan columns in the tables give an indication, but not more than that, of minor but systematic differences in curriculum with Javanese pesantren; the differences between the Sundanese and Javanese parts of Java are, because of better data, brought out more clearly.<br /><br />I have lumped together texts (matan) and untitled commentaries on them; only commentaries generally known by a different title were listed separately. Even so, the total number of texts mentioned is well over 350; the tables below list only those that occur most frequently, grouped according to subject. Within each table, genealogically related works (i.e. those based on a common original text) are placed together; otherwise the titles are roughly in order of popularity, not in the order in which they are studied. The latter is vaguely indicated by notes in the final column on the level of education at which the books are usually studied. Ibtida’i, tsanawi and `ali (‘primary’, ‘secondary’ and ‘high’) are really the names of the three levels of madrasah education (of three years each), and not always adequate to describe traditional pesantren. Khawass (‘the special ones’) indicates a more advanced level.The tables give the titles of kitab in their commonly used short form, transliterated in Indonesian style; in the text the full names are given, in a transliteration closer to English usage.<br /><br />The instrumental sciences (Table I)<br />The instrumental sciences, ilmu alat, are in the first place the various branches of traditional Arabic grammar: nahw (syntax), sarf (inflection), balagha (rhetoric), etc. There is a bewildering array of different texts on these subjects. We can, in this case, compare our entire collection and the list of most popular titles not only with van den Berg’s list but also with a list of the manuscripts of such grammatical texts in the Leiden and Jakarta libraries compiled by Drewes (1971). Although Drewes has more titles than van den Berg, the latter’s list corresponds in fact more closely with ours.[36] This is another indication that the manuscript collections are certainly not representative of what was actually used, and that one should be careful in drawing conclusions on the bases of these collections alone.<br /><br />In the traditional system, the student usually began with the basics of sarf, which meant that he had to commit the first tables of verbal and nominal inflection to memory. The simplest work of this category is the Bina (Al-bina’ wa’l-asas, by a certain Mulla al-Danqari); having mastered this, the student would turn to the Izzi (Al-tasrif li’l-`izzi, by `Izzaddin Ibrahim al-Zanjani, see GAL I, 283; S I, 497) or to the Maqshud (Al-maqsud fi’l-sarf, an anonymous work often attributed to Abu Hanifa). Having arrived at this stage, the student would turn to the first works on nahw before going on to more difficult sarf works (if he ever got so far). One of the simplest, and most widely popular works of this kind was the Awamil (Al-`awamil al-mi’a, by `Abd al-Qahir b. `Abd al-Rahman al-Jurjani, d. 471 AH), a list of the situations determining the case endings of nouns and the vowel following the final consonant of verbs. After this, the student was likely to proceed to the Jurumiyah (Al-muqaddima al-ajurrumiyya, by Abu `Abdallah Muhammad b. Da’ud al-Sanhaji b. Ajurrum, d. 723 AH).<br /><br />This introductory curriculum was accepted in regions wide apart; the same texts were studied, in this order, in traditional madrasa in Kurdistan (apart from the last named work, which is not known there), in 19th century Javanese pesantren and West Sumatran surau.[37] The same works are still in use, but a certain shift has taken place. The Bina and the Izzi are most certainly under-reported in the curriculum lists in favour of more advanced works, but they seem to have retained their place better in West Java and Sumatra than in Java proper. A recent (but also traditional) introductory work quite popular in Javanese pesantren is Amtsilatut Tashrifiyah (Al-amthilat al-tasrifiyya li ‘l-madaris al-salafiyya, consisting of inflection tables), by the Javanese author Muhammad Ma`sum b. `Ali of Jombang. Other introductory texts are also widely available.[38]<br /><br />In the next stage, instead of, or together with, the Maqshud, one studies the sharh written by the Egyptian Muhammad `Ullaysh (d. 1881), Hall al-ma`qud min nazm al-maqsud (see GAL S II, 738). This is commonly followed by an extensive commentary on the Izzi, the Kailani (named after its author, `Ali b. Hisham al-Kaylani, about whom no further details are known to me), which is now the most frequently used work on sarf.<br /><br />A common order in which nahw texts are studied is, after the Jurumiyah, the Imrithi (a manzum version of the Jurumiyah) and next the more elaborate commentary Mutammimah or directly the Alfiyah, usually together with a commentary. The Imrithi (Al-durra al-bahiyya, by Sharaf b. Yahya al-Ansari al-`Imriti), the Mutammimah (of Shams al-Din Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Ru`ayni al-Hattab), and the Alfiyah (of Ibn Malik) with its best known commentary Ibnu Aqil (so called after the author, `Abdallah b. `Abd al-Rahman al-`Aqil) have long been in common use and are described by van den Berg and Drewes, together with various commentaries that are still available but apparently less popular. Not mentioned by them, but frequently encountered, is the Asymawi, a commentary on the Jurumiyah by a certain `Abdallah b. `Ashmawi (no further details known), while a popular late 19th century commentary on the Alfiyah is that by the Shafi`i mufti of Mecca, Ahmad b. Zayni Dahlan, commonly called Dahlan Alfiyah.<br /><br />Qatr al-Nada’ [wa ball al-sada’], by Ibn Hisham[39] (d.761/ 1360), which was very popular in the 19th century, is also still widely used. The same author’s Qawa`id al-i`rab is mainly used in a versified (manzum) Javanese translation (by Yusuf bin Abdul Qadir Barnawi); there exists also a Madurese translation.<br /><br />To some extent, these classical works are giving way to more modern teaching methods. In 1921, the Dutch consul in Jeddah, E. Gobée, observed that in government schools in the Hijaz the Alfiyah was no longer part of the language curriculum but had been replaced by the modern Qawa`id al-lugha al-`arabiyya, a series of textbooks by the Egyptian author Hafni Bak Nasif et al. (Gobée 1921). In the 1930s, these books were in use in the more modern madrasah of Sumatera Thawalib in West Sumatra, along with other modern Egyptian textbooks and books by local `ulama who had studied in Egypt (see Yunus 1979: 77). These textbooks are now widely used in madrasah and the state schools for religion teachers (PGA); growing numbers of pesantren are following suit, which is reflected in Table I.<br /><br />The other modern grammar textbook appearing here is Nahwu Wadlih (Al-nahw al-wadih fi qawa`id al-lughat al-`arabiyya), written by two Arab authors, `Ali Jarim and Mustafa Amin (widely available in photomechanical reprints of Lebanese and Egyptian editions). This too already was used in West Sumatra in the 1930s, along with Al-balagha al-wadiha by the same authors.<br /><br />This brings us to the final major branch of Arabic grammar, rhetoric (balagha, with its subdivisions of bayan, ma`ani, and badi`). Two classical kitab dominate this part of the curriculum:Jauharul Maknun (Al-jawhar al-maknun / Al-jawahir al-maknuna fi al-ma`ani wa al-bayan wa al-badi`), written by `Abd al-Rahman al-Akhdari (b. 920/1514, see GAL S II, 706). The same title often refers to a sharh on this work by Ahmad al-Damanhuri (1101-1177/1689-1763, see GAL II, 371) and further glosses by Makhluf al-Minyawi, widely available in Indonesia (also called Makhluf). The Jawhar was translated into Javanese by K.H. Bisri Mustofa of Rembang.<br /><br />Uqudul Juman (Al-murshidi `ala `uqud al-juman fi `ilm al-ma`ani wa al-bayan), finally, is a manzum text on rhetoric by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, based on Siraj al-Din al-Sakkaki’s `Ilm al-ma`ani wa al-bayan (GAL I, 294-6). The only other balagha text widely available, with various commentaries, is Abu al-Qasim al-Samarqandi’s Al-risala al-samarqandiyya, which, however, does not score high on our list.<br /><br />The total number of texts in our collection, of course, far exceeds that of those mentioned here. It should perhaps be mentioned that three of the texts listed by van den Berg were not found in print: ‘Innola’ (an untitled commentary on the Awamil), Ibn al-Hajib’s Kafiya, and Burhan al-Din Abu Fath Nasir al-Din’s Al-misbah.<br /><br />A different auxiliary ‘science’ (although not commonly subsumed under the label of ilmu alat but rather under that of the Qur’anic sciences) is that of tajwid, the proper articulation and intonation of Qur’anic Arabic. It is among the very first subjects to be studied (as the titles of the listed texts, meaning ‘Gift for children’ and ‘Guidance for little boys’, emphasize). The Tuhfat al-atfal by Sulayman Jumzuri and the anonymous Hidayat al-sibyan both are short elementary texts on this subject. They are both available in several collections of short texts, usually together.<br /><br />The third auxiliary science is mantiq, Aristotelian logic (which will prove its usefulness when the student proceeds to fiqh, jurisprudence). The most widely used textbook is Sullamul Munauraq (Al-sullam al-munawraq[40] fi `ilm al-mantiq), written by al-Akhdari (the author of Al-jawhar al-maknun, see GAL S II, pp.705-6). Ahmad al-Damanhuri (who also annotated Akhdari’s Jawhar) wrote a commentary on it, that is also well-known in Indonesia: Idah al-mubham min ma`ani al-sullam. In the margin of the printed edition we find another sharh on the Sullam, by al-Akhdari himself. The latter sharh is also available together with the glosses written by Ibrahim al-Bajuri. Two other, untitled, commentaries often encountered are those by Hasan Darwish al-Quwaysini (c. 1210/1795) and by the Azhar scholar Ahmad b. `Abd al-Fattah al-Mullawi (d. 1181/1767), with glosses by M. b. `Ali al-Sabban. There is also a manzum Javanese translation by Bisri Mustofa.<br /><br />Widely available, too, is another fundamental manual of logic, Isaghuji, by Athir al-Din Mufaddal al-Abhari (d. 663/1264; see GAL I, 464-5; S I, 839-41). Despite its title, this work is not a translation of Porphyry’s Isagoge, as had often been assumed (see Arminjon 1907: 215-7 and the summary by Calverley 1933).<br /><br />Jurisprudence (fiqh) and its principles (Table II)<br />Fiqh is still considered as the Islamic science par excellence. It has the most concrete implications for everyday behaviour, for it tells us what things are forbidden and which actions recommended. Works on fiqh form the real substance of the pesantren education, and this is reflected in the composition of the top 100 list.<br /><br />The fiqh work mentioned by van den Berg as the most important work of reference, the Tuhfa (Ibn Hajar’s Tuhfat al-muhtaj) does not occur in this list, and an Indonesian edition of this text does not even exist. Nevertheless, leading (traditional) `ulama agree that this is the ultimate work of reference to which they have recourse in difficult cases. For everyday use, however, more easily accessible works are preferred, such as the Fath al-wahhab (said to be more systematic in its approach than most other works) and the I`anat al-talibin, which, being the most recent of the great traditional fiqh works, is often found the most adequate to contemporary concerns. For educational purposes, the introductory Sullam al-tawfiq, the Taqrib / Fath al-qarib and the Fath al-mu`in are preferred.<br /><br />Under modernist influence, fiqh works of a different genre are coming into use in the pesantren as well. There are several pesantren now where Ibn Rushd’s Bidayat al-mujtahid is taught beside or instead of the Shafi`i classics (recently also printed in Indonesia, which indicates a growing interest). The multi-volume Fiqh al-sunna by the modern Egyptian author Sayyid Sabiq is rapidly gaining a wider acceptance too (so far, only an Indonesian translation is locally printed, suggesting that the work appeals primarily to a modernist audience). These works have, however, not yet reached the list of most popular works, all of which are squarely within the Shafi`i tradition.<br /><br />The relations between the major works of traditional Shafi`i fiqh can be represented in the form of genealogical trees. Three ‘families’ of kitab stand out, descending from respectively Rafi`i’s Muharrar, Abu Shuja’ al-Isfahani’s Taqrib (or Mukhtasar) and Malibari’s Qurrat al-`ayn. In the accompanying graphs showing these family trees, bold print indicates the works of which Indonesian printings exist (and have been collected).<br /><br />The first of these families is the one with greatest prestige. Indonesian `ulama confirm Snouck Hurgronje’s observation (1899: 142) that Ibn Hajar al-Haytami’s and Shams al-Din al-Ramli’s commentaries on Abu Zakariya’ Yahya al-Nawawi’s Minhaj [al-talibin] are considered as the most authoritative, and that in cases of differences between these authorities, the Indonesians prefer Ibn Hajar.[41] Important fatwas frequently refer to these works for their authority, especially the Tuhfa. In everyday practice, however, the Tuhfa is not all that often consulted, and it is very hard even to find a copy in the shops. The senior kyai no doubt own copies of it, but they too have more frequently recourse to other books. The only printed version I have ever seen is in the margin of the ten-volume commentary by `Abd al-Hamid Shirwani (who taught in Mecca in the mid-nineteenth century). An abridged Javanese translation must have been around in the early 19th century but has apparently fallen into disuse with the improved availability of other texts.[42] Ramli’s Nihayat al-muhtaj is also occasionally encountered, in an eight-volume edition with the glosses by `Ali Shabramalisi and Ahmad al-Maghribi al-Rashidi in the margin. Some younger `ulama, especially such as have studied in Egypt, claim to use the Mughni’l-muhtaj, by Khatib Sharbini, as well besides Ramli and Ibn Hajar.<br /><br />The only works of this family that are universally available are Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli’s commentary (commonly known as ‘the’ Mahalli) in an edition with extensive glosses by Qalyubi and `Umayra, and the Fath al-wahhab, a commentary by Zakariya’ Ansari on his own Manhaj al-tullab, which is a summary of the Minhaj. An early Malay translation of the Fath al-wahhab, titled Mir’at al-tullab, was made by `Abd al-Ra’uf of Singkel (edited in part in Meursinge 1844), but it is no longer used or even known.<br /><br /><br />Muharrar(Rafi`i, d. 623/1226)<br /><br />Minhaj al-talibin(Nawawi, d. 676/1277-8)<br /><br />Kanz al-raghibin(Mahalli, d. 864/1460) Manhaj al-tullab(Ansari, d. 926/1520) Tuhfat al-muhtaj(Ibn Hajar, d. 973/1565-6)<br /><br />Mughni’l-muhtaj(Sharbini, d. 977/1569-70)<br /><br />Nihayat al-muhtaj(Ramli, d. 1004/1595-6<br /><br />[sharh](Qalyubi & `Umayra) Fath al-wahhab(Ansari) [hashiya](Shirwani) [hashiya](Shabramalisi, d. 1087/1676) [hashiya](Maghribi)<br /><br />[hashiya](Bujayrimi, d. 1221/1806) [hashiya](Jamal, d. 1204/1789-90)<br /><br />The second family derives from the highly popular fiqh works Taqrib (Al-ghaya wa’l-taqrib, also known as Mukhtasar, by Abu Shuja` al-Isfahani) and its commentary Fath al-qarib (by Ibn Qasim al-Ghazzi). There is hardly a pesantren where not at least one of these texts is studied. Both have been translated into various Indonesian languages. Other works of the same family are also widely used in Indonesia. The Kifayat al-akhyar, by Taqi al-Din Dimashqi (GAL I, 392), which was not yet mentioned by van den Berg’s informants, now ranks second only to the Fath al-qarib among the commentaries. A more difficult text is Khatib Sharbini’s Iqna’, which is printed together with the commentary Taqrir by a certain `Awwad, on whom I have found no further information. Bajuri’s glosses, much used a century ago (see Snouck Hurgronje 1899), appear to have lost their attraction nowadays.<br /><br />Taqrib = Mukhtasar(Abu Shuja`, d. 593/1197) Sundanese trl<br />numerous Indonesian trl.<br /><br />Iqna’(Sharbini, d. 977/1569-70) Kifayat al-akhyar(Dimashqi, d. 829/1426) Fath al-qarib(Ibn Qasim, d. 918/1512) Madurese trl.Indonesian trl.Javanese trl. Taqrir(`Awwad) Tuhfat al-habib(Bujayrimi, c.1100/1688) [hashiya](Bajuri, d. 1277/1860-1)<br /><br />The central text of the third family is Fath al-mu`in, which has long been popular in Indonesia (as well as in Kurdistan).[43] It was written by the sixteenth-century South Indian scholar Zayn al-Din al-Malibari, a student of Ibn Hajar. This work is a commentary on, or a reworking of, an earlier text by the same author, Qurrat al-`ayn; neither is directly based upon Ibn Hajar’s Tuhfa. The Qurra itself never became popular in Indonesia, but in the 19th century, Nawawi Banten wrote another commentary on it, titled Nihayat al-zayn, that is widely used. Two of Nawawi’s younger contemporaries in Mecca wrote extensive glosses on the Fath al-mu`in. Sayyid Bakri b. Muhammad Shatta’ al-Dimyati’s I`anat al-talibin is a four-volume work, that incorporates the author’s notes on many subjects, as well as a number of fatwa by the contemporary Shafi`i mufti Ahmad b. Zayni Dahlan. In the author’s lifetime it already became the most frequently consulted work of Shafi`i fiqh (cf. Snouck Hurgronje 1887: 346), and it has maintained its position as a major work of reference. Tarshih al-mustafidin is a more modest and less well-known work (2 vols), whose first Indonesian reprint has only recently appeared. The author, `Alwi al-Saqqaf, was a younger contemporary and colleague of Sayyid Bakri in Mecca (GAL S II, 743; `Abd al-Jabbar 1385: 156).<br /><br /><br />Qurrat al-`ayn(Malibari, c. 975/1567)<br /><br />Fath al-mu`in(Malibari, c. 975/1567) Indonesian trl.Javanese trl.<br /><br />Nihayat al-zayn(Nawawi Banten) I`anat al-talibin(Sayyid Bakri, d.1893) Tarshih al-mustafidin(`Alwi al-Saqqaf, d.1916)<br /><br />Van den Berg mentions a fourth family of fiqh works, which used to be quite popular but is now represented in our present top 100 by only one text, Minhaj al-qawim. It derives from the 9th/15th century elementary work known in Java as Bapadal, i.e. `Abdallah b. `Abd al-Karim Ba-Fadl’s Al-muqaddima al-hadramiyya (GAL S II, 555). None less than Ibn Hajar al-Haytami wrote a commentary, Minhaj al-qawim, on which the late 18th century Shafi`i mufti of Madina, Sulayman al-Kurdi, wrote extensive glosses, Al-hawashi’l-madaniyya. Ibn Hajar’s Minhaj is used all over Java; the Hawashi, long hard to find, were very recently reprinted in Surabaya. These fiqh works differ from the first three families in that they only deal with fiqh al-`ubudiyya, the prescriptions concerning worship (i.e., ritual cleanliness, prayer, zakat, the fast and the hajj), and not with mu`amalat (economic transactions), family and inheritance law, penal law, etc., which make up some 60% of the other texts.<br /><br />Two other commentaries on Ba-Fadl’s Muqaddima, which are not listed in GAL, deserve mention. The first of these sharh was written (in Arabic) by the great East Javanese `alim Mahfudz bin Abdullah of Termas (d. 1338/1919-20; see `Abbas 1975: 460). This work is highly praised but it is not available in print now. Another commentary on Ba-Fadl’s text is, however: Bushra’l-karim [bi-sharh masa’il al-ta`lim `ala muqaddimat al-hadramiyya], by a certain Sa`id b. M. Ba`shin (no further information known).<br /><br />Al-muqaddima al-hadramiyya(`Abdallah Ba-Fadl, 10th/16th century)<br /><br />Minhaj al-qawim(Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, d.973/1565-6) sharh `ala Ba-fadl(Mahfuz al-Tarmasi, d.1338/1919-20) Bushra’l-karim(Sa`id b. M. Ba`shin)<br />Al-hawashi-l-madaniyya(Sulayman al-Kurdi, d.1194/1780)<br /><br />Two of the remaining works that are high on the list are the short introductory texts Sullam al-tawfiq (by `Abdallah b. Husayn b. Tahir Ba`alawi, d. 1272/1855), and the Safina[t al-naja’], by Salim b. `Abdallah b. Samir, a Hadrami `alim resident in Batavia in the mid-19th century. Two much-used commentaries on the Sullam are Mirqat su`ud al-tasdiq by Nawawi Banten and Is`ad al-rafiq by his contemporary and colleague in Mecca, M. Sa`id Ba-Basil. Nawawi Banten also wrote an Arabic commentary on the last-named very popular text, called Kashifat al-saja’, which is available in several editions. The Kashifa has also been translated into Javanese. Besides this, there are several other adaptations and commentaries by Indonesian `ulama.[44]<br />I shall only give only a few short explanatory notes on the remaining titles in the list, in the order of frequency in which they occur.<br /><br />The Tahrir (Tahrir tanqih li’l-lubab fi fiqh al-imam al-Shafi`i) is a work by Zakariya’ al-Ansari, based on al-Mahamili’s (d. 415/1024) Lubab al-fiqh. Ansari himself wrote a commentary on his Tahrir, titled Tuhfat al-tullab; the two are usually printed together. Further glosses on this Tuhfa were written by `Abdallah al-Sharqawi (d. 1127/1812, see GAL II, 479-80): Hashiya `ala sharh al-tahrir. This text too (colloquially known as Syarqawi ala Tahrir) is widely available in Indonesia.<br /><br />The Riyadlul Badiah is one of the texts introduced to Indonesian Muslims by Nawawi Banten that are little known elsewhere. As its title, Al-riyad al-badi`a fi usul al-din wa ba`d furu` al-shari`a, indicates, it deals with selected points of doctrine and religious obligations. The author is a certain Muhammad Hasballah, perhaps an older contemporary of Nawawi; the work has only been printed in the margin of the sharh that Nawawi wrote, Al-thamar al-yani`a (cf. GAL II, 501; S II, 813).<br /><br />Sullam al-munajat is another work by Nawawi Banten, a commentary on the guide for worship Safinat al-salah by `Abdallah b. `Umar al-Hadrami.<br /><br />Uqudul Lujain (`Uqud al-lujjayn fi huquq al-zawjayn) is another work by Nawawi Banten, on the rights and especially duties of the married woman. Two Javanese translations and commentaries are in circulation: Hidayat al-`arisin by Abu Muhammad Hasanuddin of Pekalongan, and Su`ud al-kawnayn by Sibt al-`Uthmani Ahdari al-Janqalani al-Qudusi.<br /><br />The Sittin (in full: Al-masa’il al-sittin), by Abu al-`Abbas Ahmad al-Misri (d. 818/1415), a short text of the perukunan type (i.e. dealing with basic doctrine and the five pillars), was very popular in 19th-century Java; it receives mention in the Serat Centini (Soebardi 1971, p. 336). By now it has gradually fallen in disuse, and many santri do not even recognize its name. Muhadzab (Al-muhadhdhab) is a work of Shafi`i fiqh by Ibrahim b. `Ali al-Shirazi al-Firuzabadi (d. 476/1083; see GAL I, 387-8; S I, 669).<br /><br />Bughyat al-mustarshidin is a collection of fatwa by 19th/20th century `ulama, compiled by the mufti of Hadramawt, `Abd al-Rahman b. M. b. Husayn Ba`alawi.<br /><br />The following two are recent texts in simple Arabic, specially written (by Indonesian authors) for madrasah: Al-mabadi al-fiqhiyya `ala madhhab al-imam al-Shafi`i (4 tiny volumes) was written by `Umar `Abd al-Jabbar; Al-fiqh al-wadih by the well-known Minangkabau scholar Mahmud Yunus.<br />I add one important Malay text in spite of its low rating in the present frequency list with its heavy Javanese bias: the Sabil al-muhtadin. This is Muhammad Arshad al-Banjari’s major opus and the most important Malay work of fiqh (although dealing with fiqh `ubudiyya only). It was written, the author says, because the earlier Malay fiqh handbook Sirat al-mustaqim by al-Raniri (printed in the margin) contained too many regionalisms and was therefore hard to use. Chief sources of the Sabil are Malibari’s Fath al-mu`in and Zakariya’ Ansari’s Manhaj al-tullab. Al-Banjari’s work is rarely found in Java but still quite popular in the Malay-speaking zone, and several recent editions (including an Egyptian one) are available.<br /><br />usul al-fiqh<br />Van den Berg mentions no works at all on the principles of fiqh. This may be due to oversight, for van Ronkel’s catalogue of the Jakarta library (1913) mentions several copies of commentaries on the Waraqat and the Jam` al-jawami` (see below), which suggests that these works must have been relatively well-known, at least around the turn of the century. They were, however, probably not part of the ordinary pesantren curriculum. K.H. Mahfudz of Termas (d. 1919) was probably the first Indonesian scholar who was an expert on the subject and taught it to his advanced students in Mecca. In Indonesia itself, usul fiqh first received serious attention from the kaum muda, who often had recourse to it in their struggle against alleged bid`a. In the 1920s, the reformist journal Al-ittifaq wa al-iftiraq wrote much about usul fiqh, quoting from Suyuti’s Al-ashbah wa al-naza’ir, Shafi`i’s Risala and especially Ibn Rushd’s Bidayat al-mujtahid, which compares the different schools of jurisprudence.[45]<br /><br />At present, usul fiqh is an obligatory subject in almost all pesantren for santri at the middle and higher levels. The range of works used is not very wide, however. The collection contains fourteen different titles, many of which are related to one another (as commentaries or glosses). Only eight of these are sufficiently popular to warrant inclusion in the list.<br /><br />Jam` al-Jawami`, by Taj al-din `Abd al-Wahhab al-Subki, is one of the major texts on the foundations of Muslim law. The current printed edition contains besides this text also the sharh by Jalaladdin al-Mahalli, glosses thereon by Bannani and further glosses (taqrir) by `Abd al-Rahman Sharbini. Zakariya’ Ansari summarized the Jam` in his Lubb al-usul, also used in Indonesia.<br /><br />Al-waraqat fi usul al-fiqh by the imam al-haramayn `Abd al-Malik al-Juwayni (d. 478/1085, see GAL I, 388-9) is one of the other major works on the subject. Various commentaries on this work are generally available in Indonesia (the collection contains five different ones, one of which is by the Minangkabau reformist Ahmad Khatib: Al-nafahat `ala sharh al-waraqat). The Lata’if al-isharat, by `Abd al-Hamid b. M. `Ali al-Qudsi (from Kudus in Central Java, d. 1334/1916, see al-`Attas 1979, vol. II, pp. 619-26) is a further commentary on one of these, Sharafaddin Yahya al-`Imriti’s Tashil al-turuqat.[46]<br /><br />Al-ashbah wa al-naza’ir fi al-furu` is a compendium by the prolific Jalaladdin Suyuti (see GAL II, 152).<br /><br />Al-luma` [fi usul al-fiqh] was written by Ibrahim b. `Ali al-Shirazi al-Firuzabadi, the author of the Muhadhdhab (see GAL S I, 670).<br /><br />Al-bayan is the last in a series of three simple textbooks on usul al-fiqh (titled Mabadi Awwaliyya, Al-sullam and Al-bayan) for use in madrasah, written by the Minangkabau author Abdul Hamid Hakim.<br /><br />Ibn Rushd’s Bidayat al-mujtahid, which compares the rulings of the four ‘orthodox’ and various other madhhab, was again first used by the Minangkabau kaum muda. It is actually taught in very few pesantren, but many of the more learned kyai use it as a work of reference.<br /><br />Doctrine (tawhid, `aqida, usul al-din) (Table III)<br />Compared to the number and sophistication of fiqh works studied in the pesantren, doctrine is given a much less prominent place in the curriculum. Whereas earlier generations of Indonesian Muslims showed great interest in cosmology, eschatology and metaphysical speculation - witness the writings of Raniri, `Abd al-Ra’uf of Singkel and `Abd al-Samad of Palembang - these subjects are now largely kept out of the pesantren curriculum. Perhaps this is because of the old adagium that to great an interest in matters of doctrine can only lead to unbelief?<br /><br />Be that as it may, the works on `aqida in Table III are, without exception, straightforward expositions of Ash`ari doctrine on the attributes (sifat) of God and the prophets. The most popular group of texts is that based on Sanusi’s two famous works on doctrine. (It is remarkable that Nasafi’s work and Taftazani’s commentary, equally if not more influential elsewhere, seem to be unknown in Indonesia was among the first works to be translated into Malay. A sixteenth-century manuscript with interlineary Malay translation is still extant (Al-Attas 1988). The basic text of this group is Umm al-barahin (also called Al-durra) by Abu `Abdallah M. b. Yusuf al-Sanusi (d. 895/1490, see GAL II, 250, S II, 352-3). The text commonly called ‘the’ Sanusi[yah] is a somewhat more substantial commentary written by Sanusi himself. In the most frequently encountered edition it is printed in the margin of the highly popular hashiya by Ibrahim al-Bajuri, which is, by extension, also known as Sanusi[yah]. Other frequently used commentaries are the hashiya on the Sanusi by Muhammad al-Dasuqi (d.1230/1815, see GAL II, 353), and a more substantial text by `Abdallah al-Sharqawi (d. 1127/1812, see GAL II, 479-80), which is itself a hashiya on an 11th century commentary by a Muhammad b. Mansur al-Hudhudi (in Indonesian editions, it is printed together with Hudhudi’s text). All these texts are commonly known by the names of their authors.<br /><br />Another work partially based on the Sanusi is the Kifayat al-`awamm, by M.b.M. al-Faddali (d. 1236/1821, see GAL II, 489), which is highly popular in Indonesia.[47] Our collection contains also a version of this work with an interlinear Madurese translation (by H.M. Nur Munir b.H. Isma`il). Faddali’s pupil Ibrahim Bajuri (d. 1277/1861) wrote a commentary on it, Tahqiq al-maqam `ala kifayat al-`awamm (printed together with the Kifaya in the Indonesian editions), and this was glossed upon by Nawawi Banten in his widely read Tijan al-durari.<br /><br />`Aqidat al-`awamm is a simple, versified text for the very young, memorized long before the santri even begins to understand Arabic. Its author, Ahmad al-Marzuqi al-Maliki al-Makki, flourished around 1864. Brockelmann (GAL S II, 990) mentions a Malay version by Hamza b. M. al-Qadahi (i.e., of Kedah); our collection contains translations in Javanese (by Bisri Mustofa of Rembang) and Madurese (by Abdul Majid Tamim of Pamekasan). Nawawi Banten, who must have known the author, wrote a well-known commentary on it, titled Nurudh Dhulam (Nur al-zalam).<br /><br />Jawharat al-tawhid, the concise versified text by Ibrahim al-Laqani (d. 1041/1631), is still highly popular. Santris commit the entire matan to memory and study various commentaries on it. One of these is Ibrahim al-Bajuri’s Tuhfat al-murid. An anonymous Malay scholar and two Javanese `ulama, Saleh Darat of Semarang and Ahmad Subki Masyhadi of Pekalongan, wrote extensive commentaries in their regional languages, that are commonly known by the same title of Jauharatut Tauhid. Saleh Darat’s Javanese commentary, especially, is interesting in that it reflects contemporary Javanese views and concerns.<br /><br />Fath al-majid is yet another text by Nawawi Banten, a commentary on the Durr al-farid fi `ilm al-tawhid (printed in the margin) by a certain Ahmad al-Nahrawi, on whom I have found no further information.<br /><br />The remaining three titles are modern works, that were first adopted by the Egyptian-influenced madrasah and from there are gradually penetrating the pesantren world. Jawahir al-kalamiyya [fi idah al-`aqida al-islamiyya] was written by the Syrian Tahir b. Salih al-Jaza’iri, who died in Damascus in 1919.<br /><br />Husunul Hamidiyah (Al-husun al-hamidiyya li al-muhafaza `ala al-`aqa’id al-islamiyya) is a work by the moderate modernist and rationalist Husayn [b. M. al-Jasr] Efendi al-Tarabulusi (d. 1909) on sifat, prophecy, miracles of the prophets, the angels and life after death. The author was renowned as the editor of a journal, in which he attempted to reconcile Islam with modern science and philosophy (GAL S II, 776; see also the remarks in Hourani 1962: 222-3). This book was first used in Indonesia in the 1930s, in Sumatera Thawalib madrasah (Yunus 1979: 77).<br /><br />Aqidatul Islamiyah, finally, is a modern question-and-answer catechism for pupils of the lowest grades of madrasah, by Basri b. H. Marghubi (no further details known).<br />The subject of tawhid gradually shades into what is usually classified as tasawwuf in Indonesia. Ghazali’s Ihya, which is by far the most popular tasawwuf text here, could with equal (or perhaps greater) right be listed among the works on doctrine.<br /><br />There is yet another, quite popular, category of books that should be mentioned here, although they are rarely part of the official pesantren curriculum. This is the works on traditional (and often quite fantastic) cosmology and eschatology.[48] A typical (and widely popular) example is Daqa’iq al-akhbar fi dhikr al-janna wa al-nar, by `Abd al-Rahim al-Qadi (see GAL S I, 346), which is available in Arabic as well as in Malay, Sundanese and Madurese translations; another is Al-durar al-hisan, attributed to Suyuti. Indonesian authors have contributed a number of simpler texts similarly designed to inspire in the reader a wholesome fear of the hereafter. These works are not used as textbooks, but they constitute popular reading in the santri environment.<br /><br />Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir) (Table IV)<br />Van den Berg lists only one tafsir as part of the regular curriculum, the ubiquitous Jalalayn. Baydawi’s tafsir was also known by name, but it was highly exceptional to find a kyai explaining this text (van den Berg 1886: 555). A few minor additions may be made: In the Malay-speaking part of the Archipelago the Tarjuman al-mustafid, a Malay translation by `Abd al-Ra’uf of Singkel of the Jalalayn, with some interposed material from other tafsir, must have been rather well known (it is still available in various editions).[49] Nawawi Banten, moreover, had already written his Al-tafsir al-munir li ma`alim al-tanzil, but this, like his other works, had perhaps not yet come into use because of the general conservatism of the pesantren curriculum.<br /><br />Van den Berg’s impression is probably generally correct: in the late 19th century, tafsir was not yet considered a very important part of the curriculum. Under the impact of modernism, with its slogan of return to the Qur’an and the hadith, the interpretation of the Qur’an obviously assumed a more central importance. Many traditionalist `ulama simply felt forced to follow suit and began taking tafsir more seriously. Our list shows, however, that the range of tafsir studied in the pesantren is still very narrow. Two classics, Tabari and Ibn Kathir, have been added to the list, along with Nawawi’s Tafsir al-munir. The two modern tafsir, the Tafsir al-manar by Muhammad `Abduh and Rashid Rida and Ahmad Mustafa al-Maraghi’s Tafsir al-Maraghi, occur in our list only because of two modernist-oriented pesantren in West Java; they are not yet widely accepted in the pesantren milieu.[50] (It is not a coincidence that there are no Indonesian editions of the Arabic texts of these two works, although the latter has very recently appeared in translation.) The last tafsir on the list is a 10-vol. Translation of the Qur’an in Indonesian, prepared under the auspices of the Ministry of Religious Affairs by a committee of Indonesian scholars.[51]<br /><br />Five other tafsir in our collection, by Indonesian and Malaysian authors, deserve mention here although they have not gained wide popularity. Ahmad Sanusi b. Abdurrahim of Sukabumi wrote a tafsir (a rather straightforward translation) of the Qur’an in Sundanese, Rawdat al-`irfan fi ma`rifat al-Qur’an, and Bisri Mustofa of Rembang a three-volume (2250-page) Javanese tafsir, Al-ibriz li ma`rifat tafsir al-Qur’an al-`aziz. The latter, too, is more a translation than an exegesis proper; since translations of the Qur’an necessarily involve a certain amount of interpretation they are usually called tafsir too. The amount of commentary is greater in another Javanese tafsir, Al-iklil fi ma`ani al-tanzil by Misbah b. Zayn al-Mustafa (30 volumes, 4800 pp.) and in the three-volume (950-page) tafsir in Malay, Tafsir nur al-ihsan, by Muhammad Sa`id b. `Umar Qadi al-Qadahi (of Kedah, Malaysia). The most recent is an Indonesian commentary in six volumes, Adz Dzikraa: terjemah & tafsir Alqur’an, by Bachtiar Surin.<br /><br />The interest in tafsir is markedly increasing. Several other tafsir have very recently been printed in Indonesia in Arabic; others again (modernist ones, as one might expect, such as Sayyid Qutb’s Fi zilal al-Qur’an and Maraghi) in Indonesian translation. Imports nevertheless go on increasing; in several toko kitab in Surabaya and Bandung I found no less than twenty different tafsir in stock, imported from Egypt and Lebanon.Of the works on the principles of tafsir, only two classics are listed, both by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti: Itmam al-diraya li qurra` al-nuqaya and Al-itqan fi `ulum al-Qur’an. The collection contains various simple introductions to this subject.<br /><br />Hadith (Table V)<br />Even more than tafsir, the hadith are a relatively new subject matter in the pesantren. Van den Berg does not even mention hadith at all. The santri did encounter many hadith in the course of his studies - no work of fiqh is thinkable without hadith supporting its argument - but these were, as it were, already processed, selected and quoted according to the needs of the author. Collections of hadith as such - either the six canonical collections or popular compilations like the Masabih al-sunna, which was very popular in India - seem hardly to have been used in the Archipelago of a century ago.[52]<br /><br />An exception should perhaps be made for the small collections of the ‘Forty Hadith’ type, of which Abu Zakariya’ Yahya al-Nawawi’s Arba`in is one of the models. Various Indonesian ulama have, from the 19th century, compiled or translated such collections of forty, and Djohan Effendi has shown how the contents of these collections changed according to the needs of the times.[53] The present wider interest in hadith - now an obligatory subject in most pesantren - is probably again due to the impact of modernism.[54]<br /><br />The two great collections of ‘authentic’ (sahih) hadith by Bukhari and Muslim are now standard reference works in many pesantren. The teaching curriculum often includes selections from these works, usually with a commentary. Two popular selections from Bukhari are Al-tajrid al-sarih by Shihabaddin Ahmad al-Sharji al-Zabidi (d. 893/1488) and Jawahir al-Bukhari by Mustafa M. `Imara (GAL S I, 264). The most popular and ubiquitous hadith collections are, however, the Bulugh al-maram and the Riyad al-salihin.<br /><br />Bulugh al-maram [min adillat al-ahkam], a collection compiled by Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani (d. 852/1449, see GAL II, 67-70), has been translated into Javanese (by A. Subki Masyhadi of Pekalongan) and Indonesian (by Bisri Mustofa of Rembang), and partially also into Malay. Subul al-salam, by Muhammad b. Isma`il al-Kahlani (d. 1182/1769) is a commentary on the Bulugh.<br /><br />Riyad al-salihin [min kalam sayyid al-mursalin] is a larger collection of hadith, mainly dealing with devotional matters, collected by Yahya b. Sharafaddin al-Nawawi, the compiler of the most famous ‘Forty’. Two different Javanese translations (by Asrori Ahmad and Ahmad Subki Masyhadi), as well as Malay and Indonesian translations exist. This may well be the most popular collection of hadith worldwide.<br /><br />Nawawi’s Arba`in are used in many pesantren for the less advanced santri, and they are also popular as non-curricular religious literature, in Arabic as well as in Indonesian translation. A rather well-known commentary on these Forty is Al-majalis al-saniyya, by Ahmad b. Hijazi al-Fashani.<br /><br />Durrat al-nasihin [fi’l-wa`z wa’l-irshad] was compiled by `Uthman b. Hasan al-Khubuwi (d.1224/1804, see GAL II, 489).<br /><br />Tanqih al-qawl [al-hathith fi sharh lubab al-hadith] is another work by Nawawi Banten, a commentary on Suyuti’s collection Lubab al-hadith (which is printed in the margin of Nawawi’s work).<br /><br />Mukhtar al-ahadith is a selection compiled by the modern Egyptian author, Ahmad al-Hashimi Bak.<br /><br />The Ushfuriyah, finally (named after its author, Muhammad b. Abu Bakr al-`Usfuri), is another popular ‘Forty hadith’ collection, with edifying stories added to each hadith.[55]<br /><br />Critical study of the hadith is as yet almost unknown in Indonesia, certainly in the pesantren environment. Understandably, the Indonesian modernists have shown a greater interest in the (traditional) science of distinguishing false from authentic, ‘weak’ from ‘strong’ traditions (`ilm dirayat al-hadith) than the traditionalists. The two titles occurring in our list (with a few derivatives of the first one) are in fact the only ones to be found in toko kitab.<br /><br />Minhat al-mughith is a modern text by an Azhar scholar, Hafiz Hasan Mas`udi, and was apparently written for use in Egyptian state-supervised madrasa.<br /><br />The name Baiquniyah, as usual, refers both to an original work (matan), an untitled short versified text by Taha b. Muhammad al-Fattuh al-Bayquni (d. after 1080/1669, see GAL II, 307), and to various commentaries on it. Most popular among the latter is that by `Atiya al-Ajhuri (d. 1190/1776, see GAL II, 328); this is the work one usually gets when asking for ‘the’ Baiquniyah. Another much encountered commentary is the Taqrirat al-saniyya, by Hasan Muhammad al-Mashshat, who taught in Mecca’s Masjid al-haram in the nineteen thirties and forties, and had many Indonesian students.<br /><br />Morality and mysticism (Table VI)<br />The borderline between the subjects of akhlaq and tasawwuf as taught in the pesantren is extremely fuzzy. The same work may be studied under the heading of tasawwuf in one pesantren, and under that of akhlaq in another. The subject of akhlaq also shades into tarbiya, ‘[the imparting of] good manners’; it has connotations of proper, respectful behaviour and unostentatious piety. As the titles in Table VI show, the works on mysticism studied in the pesantren all belong to the orthodox school that also stresses these attitudes. We find here no works of wahdat al-wujud Sufism or other less domesticated brands of mysticism and metaphysics. This may at first sight seem surprising, given the strong mystical strain in traditional Indonesian Islam, and the penchant for metaphysical speculation especially among Javanese. On the other hand, it was not only speculative cosmogonic and mystical theories that appealed to earlier generations of Indonesian ulama, but also rules of proper conduct and hierarchy. Shaykh Yusuf of Makassar, one of the 17th century propounders of wahdat al-wujud, not only describes various dhikr techniques and obliquely refers to mystical doctrines but also, and with greater insistence, stresses unquestioning and unconditional obedience to the teacher as the single most important step on the mystical path.[56] He thus foreshadowed the ‘good manners’ strain of present Indonesian mysticism.<br /><br />Wahdat al-wujud texts and other ‘heterodox’ works may not be taught in many pesantren anymore, that does not mean that they are not read at all. In several places I found `Abd al-Karim al-Jili’s Al-insan al-kamil (still part of the curriculum of several West Javanese pesantren half a century ago), in Surabaya even Al-futuhat al-makkiyya. These rather difficult Arabic works are at best read by a small elite, but the case is different with some Malay works, such as M. Nafis al-Banjari’s Al-durr al-nafis, which expounds a popular version of wahdat al-wujud and is found in great numbers in the bookshops of South Kalimantan, Aceh and Malaysia.[57]<br /><br />Similarly, Ghazali may have replaced the more adventurous mystics, but `Abd al-Samad Palimbani seems to have smuggled some of the rejected doctrines into his Malay adaptations of Ghazali’s major works (see below). These Malay works are read in West Java as well as on the outer islands. In contradiction to common assumptions about the religious attitudes of Javanese and non-Javanese Indonesians, it is the Javanese pesantren that is the locus of orthodoxy, while other, speculative mystical doctrines still persist in the outer regions.<br /><br />The collection contains almost hundred different titles on akhlaq and tasawwuf, but the basic texts that are widely used are relatively few:<br /><br />Ta`lim al-muta`allim [li tariq al-ta`allum], by Burhan al-Islam al-Zarnuji is a famous (some would say: notorious) work on the proper obedient attitude of the student towards his teacher. For many kyai, this work is one of the very pillars of pesantren education; at a recent discussion of kitab organized by the NU, one of the participants suggested that this is the sort of book that should really be banned because of the passive and uncritical attitudes it inculcates. The reactions give reasons to believe that this work will long remain part of the curriculum. Also available with Javanese and with Madurese translation.<br /><br />Wasaya [al-aba’ li’l-ibna’], by the Egyptian author Muhammad Shakir (shaykh `ulama al-Iskandariyya, according to the frontispiece), and with a Javanese translation by Bisri Mustofa, is a short text explaining how nice boys wash themselves well, take care of sick relatives, repair their own bicycle tyres, etc.)<br /><br />Al-akhlaq li’l-banat and Al-akhlaq l’l-banin, in three thin volumes each, are moral lessons for girls and boys, meant to be read at (state) madrasah, written by a `Umar b. Ahmad Barja. I have rather arbitrarily placed the following three texts also into this category, although they are sometimes labeled as works of fiqh `ubudiyya (i.e., concerning the obligations of worship) or (the first) as a hadith collection.<br /><br />Irshad al-`ubbad [ila sabil al-rashad] is a work by Zayn al-Din b. `Abd al-`Aziz al-Malibari (the grandfather of the author of Fath al-mu`in). Various printed editions of the Arabic text exist, and there is a recent Javanese translation by Misbah b. Zayn al-Mustafa.<br /><br />Nasa’ih al-`ubbad is yet another work by Nawawi Banten, a sharh of Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani’s Al-nabahat `ala isti`dad. It focuses on the rules for personal conduct, and is often used as an introductory work, for the younger santri, on akhlaq.<br /><br />Al-adhkar [al-muntakhab min kalam sayyid al-abrar] by Abu Zakariya’ Yahya al-Nawawi contains prescriptions for worship and pious conduct. A Javanese, and recently also an Indonesian translation are available.<br /><br />The section on tasawwuf is strongly dominated by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali and his Ihya, Bidayat al-hidaya and Minhaj al-`abidin. There are various pesantren that specialize in the teaching of the Ihya; all three works mentioned have been translated, at least in part, into several Indonesian languages.<br /><br />`Abd al-Samad al-Palimbani, who flourished in the mid-18th century, wrote well-known Malay adaptations of the first two, entitled Sayr al-salikin and Hidayat al-salikin, respectively. Without any noticeable awareness of conflict, `Abd al-Samad admitted into these works, especially the Sayr, elements of wahdat al-wujud doctrine from other sources, that seem quite alien to Ghazali’s Sunni mysticism.[58] These works remain popular especially in Sumatra and West Java.<br /><br />Nawawi Banten wrote an (Arabic) commentary on the Bidaya, entitled Maraqi’l-`ubudiyya, which, judging from the numerous editions existing, is more popular than is suggested by its low score in our list.The Siraj al-talibin is a two-volume Arabic commentary on the Minhaj, by Ihsan b. Muhammad Dahlan of Jampes, Kediri (d. 1952). This work has a high reputation in East Java, despite its low score on the list.<br /><br />Beside these books, the Sundanese translations of important parts of Ghazali’s works by the great scholar `Abdullah bin Nuh of Bogor (d. 1987) deserve mention.<br /><br />The Hikam is the well-known collection of Sufi aphorisms by Ibn `Ata’illah al-Iskandari. Numerous translations and commentaries exist in Indonesia: the Hikam Melayu (anonymous), the Syarah Hikam (by M. Ibrahim al-Nafidhi al-Rindi) and the Taj al-`arus by `Usman al-Pontiani in Malay; a Javanese Hikam by Saleh Darat of Semarang, and various modern Indonesian versions, among which the four-volume commentary by the Achehnese K.H. Muhibbuddin Waly deserves mention.<br /><br />Hidayat al-adhkiya’ [ila tariq al-awliya’], a didactic versified text on practical mysticism by Zayn al-Din al-Malibari, written in 914/1508-9, has long been popular in Java; it is mentioned in the Serat Centini, for instance. Many commentaries are in use in Indonesia. One of the better known is Kifayat al-atqiya’ wa minhaj al-asfiya’ by Sayyid Bakri b. M. Shatta’ al-Dimyati. The prolific Nawawi Banten also wrote a commentary, Salalim al-fudala’, which is printed in the margin of Sayyid Bakri’s Kifaya. There are also Javanese translations and commentaries by Saleh Darat (Minhaj al-atqiya’) and by `Abd al-Jalil Hamid al-Qandali (Tuhfat al-asfiya’), as well as an interlineary Madurese translation (by `Abd al-Majid Tamim of Pamekasan).<br /><br />The final two works are both by the pious Hadrami author and mystic `Abdallah b. `Alwi al-Haddad, well known in Indonesia as the composer of the ratib Haddad and other pious formulas (d. 1132/1720, see GAL II, 408; S II, 566). He wrote around ten books, mostly on Sufi piety, several of which have come to enjoy popularity in the Archipelago. His Al-risala al-mu`awana [wa’l-muzahara wa’l-muwazara] has for some time been one of the standard texts on proper behaviour and devotional attitude used in Javanese pesantren. It has been translated into Javanese (by Asrori Ahmad) and Malay (by Idris al-Khayat al-Patani), and more recently into Indonesian (by Muhammad al-Baqir, under the title Thariqah menuju kebahagiaan). His other popular work, Al-nasa’ih al-diniyya [wa’l-wasaya’ al-imaniyya], contains further pious admonitions. It has been translated into Malay by one of his descendants, `Alwi b. M. b. Tahir al-Haddad, under the title of Al-silat al-islamiyya.<br /><br />There is a marked revival of interest in `Abdallah al-Haddad, both in Egypt and, more recently, in Indonesia.[59] Al-risalat al-mu`awana was printed in Egypt in 1930 (and presumably became known in Indonesia in the following decades), while other works were published in the 1970s due to the efforts of the former chief mufti of Egypt, Hasanayn M. Makhluf. In Indonesia, al-Haddad and his works are actively propagated by his fellow Hadrami sayyid, notably the learned Muhammad al-Baqir, who translated several of his works into Indonesian. These books sold surprisingly well, and saw several reprints within the first years after appearance.[60] Recent translations of several works by Ghazali also were a commercial success. Quietist, orthodox Sufism apparently has a wide appeal beyond the pesantren milieu as well — which seems to be a response to the political decline of Indonesian Islam over the past decades.<br /><br />History of Islam / Texts in praise of the Prophet (Table VII)<br />The history of Islam is a new subject, not often taught in pesantren, and the range of kitab available is still very limited. Most santri derive their knowledge and awareness of the history of Islam largely from devotional works on the prophet and saints. Of the titles in Table VII, only Nur al-yaqin is a textbook proper; this and the abbreviated Khulasat nur al-yaqin are almost the only serious works of sira (biography of the Prophet) used in the pesantren. The author of the original work is the modern Egyptian Muhammad Hadari Bak; the Khulasa was prepared by `Umar `Abd al-Jabbar, the Meccan author of many madrasah textbooks. These books were at first typical madrasah literature, but are now also studied in quite a few pesantren as well. Two other historical works by the same Muhammad Hadari Bak have been printed in Indonesia and are gaining in popularity: Itmam al-wafa’ fi sirat al-khulafa’, a history of Muhammad’s successors, and Ta’rikh al-tashri` al-islami, a substantial history of the development of Islamic law.<br /><br />The other two texts listed are well-known devotional works having the Prophet’s birth and ascension to heaven as their topics. The Barzanji, Ja`far al-Barzinji’s Mawlid, is in Indonesia perhaps the most beloved text after the Qur’an itself; the Dardir is Ahmad al-Dardir’s commentary on Najm al-Din al-Ghayti’s version of the Mi`raj. Besides their ritual uses (see the next section), these texts also serve in a number of pesantren as teaching materials. The range of such devotional texts on the Prophet found in the bookshops is much wider than the two listed here: the collection contains over twenty-five of them.[61]The primary use of these books is not educational but devotional and ritual: they are read privately as an act of piety or, more typically, recited communally or at least in public at various ritual occasions. There are other kitab too that serve such non-educational purposes; to conclude our survey, a few words need to be said about the various types and uses of such extra-curricular kitab.<br /><br />Extra-curricular kitab: devotion, ritual, magic<br />Not all kitab in the collection belong to the official pesantren curriculum. A considerable number (well over 10%) serve other purposes, which may be roughly lumped together as devotional, ritual and magical: collections of prayers and other pious formulas (wird, pl. awrad) to be recited at particular occasions, guides to the spiritual exercises of various mystical orders, texts in praise of the Prophet or one of the saints to be recited at particular occasions, books for divination, magical handbooks. Such books are extremely popular and are sold in larger numbers than most others.<br /><br />In many Javanese villages the weekly communal recital of the Burda, the Diba`i or the Barzanji, poems in praise of the Prophet, constitutes one of the major social occasions. The Barzanji and other similar texts are also read at certain life cycle rituals, in fulfillment of vows or to ward off danger. The various manaqib (hagiographies) of `Abd al-Qadir Jilani are used for similar ritual and sometimes exorcistic purposes.[62]<br /><br />This is not to say that these texts are not used as pious reading matter too; but even when read privately, the emphasis is often upon the merit accumulated or spiritual and material benefits to be gained through this private act rather than on the information contents of the texts. For these purposes, a full understanding of the texts is of course not essential; they are usually recited in Arabic only.[63] Several of the texts have, however, long been available in translations beside the Arabic originals. Busiri’s Burda received a Malay translation as early as the 16th century (Drewes 1955). Javanese, Malay and Sundanese translations of manaqib of `Abd al-Qadir were in use at least from the 19th century on (Drewes & Poerbatjaraka 1938), along with similar Malay texts on the Prophet and on such saints as [M. b. `Abd al-Karim] Samman.[64] These are all still available, and in addition there are many new translations and commentaries by Indonesian `ulama on the better known Mawlid and Manaqib.[65]<br /><br />Another important category consists of the books of ‘Islamic magic’. According to close observers, the number of people seeking supernatural support to overcome spiritual, psychological or material problems has increased rather than decreased over the past two decades. The number of dukun seems to have grown, and so has that of kyai and others offering Islamic variants of magical healing and supernatural assistance. Whereas one part of the Muslim community strongly opposes such ‘superstitions’, the mystical-magical remains to perhaps the majority an integral part of the Islamic heritage.<br /><br />Santris commonly make a strict distinction between tibb (‘medicine’) and hikma (‘occult sciences’), although to most modernists both are magic and unacceptable. Hikma contains explicitly pre-Islamic elements, such as magical squares (wafaq), whereas the amulets of tibb only employ Qur’anic texts. Defenders of tibb proudly argue against modernists that it was one of Ibn Taymiyya’s chief disciples, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, who wrote a major work of this discipline, Al-tibb al-nabawi. And even hikma is not so far from the orthodox mainstream as modernists would have it: the great Ghazali wrote a book on magical squares, Al-awfaq, that is still widely used in Indonesia, and the prolific Jalal al-Din Suyuti wrote Al-rahma fi’l-tibb wa’l-hikma. The most influential works of hikma, however, are those by the 12th/13th century North African Shaykh Ahmad b. `Ali al-Buni: Shams al-ma`arif al-kubra and Manba` usul al-hikma. These and similar works (available in local editions) are widely used in Javanese pesantren, although they are not part of the formal curriculum and are rarely taught by the kyai himself. They take a central place in peer learning, however. Older santris experiment together in the various magical techniques set out in these books.<br /><br />Popular booklets based on these works of hikma, called mujarrabat (‘traditional wisdom’, lit. ‘what has proven effective’), are available in growing numbers and in various languages. They offer prayers, magical formulas and amulets for a long and heterogeneous list of different purposes: health, love, career, protection from evil spirits and traffic accidents. Related popular works list the specific beneficial effects of reciting certain Qur’anic verses and prayers. There is no clear line dividing mujarrabat booklets from the primbon, collections of ‘useful knowledge’, which may consist of the same sort of magical formulas, beside lists of auspicious days and hours, rules of thumb for divination (from dreams, the day on which a woman’s period begins, etc.), lists of supererogatory prayers, etc. Books of these types, catering for a simple and uneducated public, are printed in enormous numbers. Some are in romanized Indonesian now, but the majority are in Malay, Javanese or Sundanese with Arabic characters and seem to target, therefore, the periphery of the pesantren world, the people who have some knowledge of the Arabic script. These simple texts may be of greater influence in shaping popular religious attitudes than the more serious works studied in the pesantren.<br /><br />Bibliography<br />Abbas, K. H. Siradjuddin. 1975. Ulama Syafi’i dan kitab-kitabnya dari abad ke abad. Jakarta: Pustaka Tarbiyah.Abd al-Jabbar, Umar. 1385. 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Leiden: Brill.Calverley, Edwin E. 1933. "Al-Abhari’s "Isaghuji fi ‘l-mantiq"", in: (ed.), The MacDonald Presentation Volume, pp. 75-85,Chaidar. 1978. Sejarah Pujangga Islam Syech Nawawi Albanteni Indonesia. Jakarta: CV. Sarana Utama.Danuwijoto, H. M. 1977. "Ky. Saleh Darat Semarang: Ulama besar dan pejuang Islam sesudah Pakubuwono ke IV", Mimbar Ulama 17 pp. 68-73.Departemen Agama. 1977. Buku-2 yang dipergunakan di pondok pesantren. Jakarta: Pusat Penelitian dan Pengembangan Lektur Agama, Departemen Agama R.I.—. 1981/1982. "Laporan penelitian penyusunan bibliografi beranotasi tentang kitab-kitab karangan ulama Indonesia di Sulawesi Selatan". Ujung Pandang: Balai Penelitian Lektur Keagamaan, Departemen R.I.—. 1983/1984. "Laporan hasil penelitian lektur agama dalam bahasa daerah Bugis Makassar". Ujung Pandang: Balai Penelitian Lektur Keagamaan, Departemen Agama R.I.Dhofier, Zamakhsyari. 1982. Tradisi pesantren: Studi tentang pandangan hidup kyai. Jakarta: LP3ES.—. 1981. 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Hamidy (ed.), Riau sebagai pusat bahasa dan kebudayaan Melayu, pp. Pekanbaru: Bumi Pustaka.Hoffmann, John. 1979. "A foreign investment: Indies Malay to 1901", Indonesia 27, pp. 65-92.Hourani, Albert. 1962. Arabic thought in the liberal age 1798-1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Jansen, J. J. G. 1974. The interpretation of the Qur’an in modern Egypt. Leiden: Brill.MacDonald, Duncan B. 1903. Development of Muslim theology jurisprudence and constitutional theory. London: George Routledge and Sons.Johns, Anthony H. 1984. "Islam in the Malay World. An Exploratory Survey with some Reference to Quranic Exegesis", in: Raphael Israeli and Anthony H. Johns (ed.), Islam in Asia, vol.II. Southeast and East Asia., pp. 115-61, Jerusalem: The Magnes Press The Hebrew University.—. 1988. "Quranic exegesis in the Malay world: In search of a profile", in: Andrew Rippin (ed.), Approaches to the history of the interpretation of the Qur’an, pp. 257-87, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Mansur, H. M. Laily. 1982. Kitab Ad Durrun Nafis: tinjauan atas suatu ajaran tasawuf. Banjarmasin: Hasanu.Mas’udi, Masdar F. 1985. "Mengenal pemikiran kitab kuning", in: M. Dawam Rahardjo (ed.), Pergulatan dunia pesantren: Membangun dari bawah, pp. 55-70, Jakarta: P3M.Matheson, Virginia and M. B. Hooker. 1988. "Jawi literature in Patani: The maintenance of an Islamic tradition", Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 61 pt. 1, pp. 1-86.Meursinge, A. (ed.). 1844. Handboek van het mohammedaansche regt, in de maleische taal. Amsterdam: Muller.Nor bin Ngah, Mohd. 1980. "Some writing of the traditional Malay Muslim scholars found in Malaysia", in: Kay Kim Khoo and et al. (ed.), Tamadun Islam di Malaysia, pp. 9-12, Kuala Lumpur: Persatuan Sejarah Malaysia.—. 1983. Kitab Jawi: Islamic thought of the Malay Muslim scholars. Singapore: Iseas.Prasodjo, Sudjoko and et al. 1974. Profil pesantren. Laporan hasil penelitian pesantren Al-Falak dan delapan pesantren lain di Bogor. 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Batavia: Albrecht & Co.; The Hague: Nijhoff.Roorda, T. 1874. Kitab Toehpah, een Javaansch handboek voor het Mohammedaansche regt. Tweede verbeterde uitgaaf. Leiden: Brill.Sa`ad Abd.Rahman, Mat. 1986. Penulisan fiqh al-Shafi`i: pertumbuhan dan perkembangannya. Shah Alam/Kuala Lumpur: Hizbi.Schrieke, B. J. O. 1921. "Bijdrage tot de bibliografie van de huidige godsdienstige verschijnselen ter Sumatra’s Westkust", Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 59 pp. 249-325.Snouck Hurgronje, Christiaan. 1883. "Een en ander over het inlandsch onderwijs in de Padangsche Bovenlanden", Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 4e volgreeks, 6e deel, no.2, pp. 57-84.—. 1887. "Een rector der Mekkaansche universiteit", Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 36, pp. 344-95.—. 1887. "Een Arabische bondgenoot der Nederlandsch-Indische regeering", Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap 31, pp. 41-63.—. 1889. Mekka. Bd.II: Aus dem heutigen Leben. Haag: Martinus Nijhoff.—. 1894. "Sajjid Oethman’s gids voor de priesterraden", Indisch Tijdschrift van het Recht 63, pp. 722-44.—. 1899. "E. Sachau, Muhammedanisches Recht nach Schafiitischer Lehre", Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 53, pp. 125-67.Soebardi. 1971. "Santri-religious elements as reflected in the book of Tjentini", Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 127, pp. 331-49.Steenbrink, Karel A. 1974. "Pesantren, madrasah, sekolah: Recente ontwikkelingen in Indonesisch islamonderricht". Faculteit der Godgeleerdheid, Katholieke Universiteit te Nijmegen, Nijmegen.Yunus, H. Mahmud. 1979. Sejarah pendidikan Islam di Indonesia. Jakarta: Mutiara.Zarkasyi, K.H. Imam. 1985. "Les pondok pesantren en Indonésie", Archipel 30, pp. 163-74.Zuhri, K. H. Saifuddin. 1974. Guruku. Orang orang dari pesantren. Bandung: PT Alma’arif.Zuhri, Saifuddin. 1987. Berangkat dari pesantren. Jakarta: Gunung Agung.Dewall, H. von. 1857. "Eene inlandsche drukkerij te Palembang", Tijdschrift voor de Taal-, Land en Volkenkunde 6, pp. 193-98.Sarkis, Yousof Alian. 1928. Dictionary of Arabic printed books from the beginning of Arabic printing until the end of 1339 AH - 1919 AD. Cairo.<br /><br />Appendix: The top 100 kitab kuning<br /><br />Table I. Arabic grammar, tajwid, logic<br />region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level sarf Kailani/Syarah Kailani 2 1 7 0 4 14 `ali Maqshud/Syarah Maqshud 0 1 2 3 5 11 Amtsilatut Tashrifiyah 0 0 0 3 4 7 tsanawi Bina’ 1 0 4 1 0 6 ibtida’i nahw Jurumiyah/Syarah Jurumiyah 3 1 8 9 16 37 tsanawi Imriti/Syarah Imriti 0 0 3 6 12 21 tsanawi Mutammimah 0 1 5 0 7 13 tsanawi Asymawi 0 0 1 0 2 3 Alfiyah 0 0 8 11 11 30 `ali Ibnu Aqil 1 0 0 3 10 14 `ali Dahlan Alfiyah 0 0 1 0 3 4 `ali Qathrun Nada 3 1 0 0 0 4 tsanawi Awamil 1 0 1 1 1 4 ibtida’i/tsanawi Qawaidul I`rab 0 0 0 1 2 3 tsanawi Nahwu Wadlih 0 0 0 2 3 5 tsanawi Qawaidul Lughat 0 0 0 2 2 4 balagha Jauharul Maknun 2 0 4 5 7 18 `ali Uqudul Juman 0 0 3 0 4 7 `ali tajwid Tuhfatul Athfal 0 0 1 1 4 6 tsanawi Hidayatus Shibyan 0 0 0 1 4 5 tsanawi mantiq Sullamul Munauraq 1 0 3 1 5 10 `ali Idlahul Mubham 2 0 1 1 3 7 `ali<br /><br /><br />Table II. Fiqh and usul al-fiqh<br />region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level fiqh Fathul Muin 2 1 7 6 16 32 `ali Ianatut Thalibin 2 2 0 0 0 4 `ali Taqrib 2 0 6 5 7 20 tsanawi Fathul Qarib 2 1 4 7 9 23 `ali Kifayatul Akhyar 1 0 6 4 7 18 tsanawi/`ali Baijuri 1 0 1 0 1 3 Iqna’ 0 1 1 0 5 7 Minhajuth Thalibin 2 0 2 0 1 5 `ali Manhajuth Thullab 0 0 0 0 1 1 Fathul Wahhab 0 1 5 4 10 20 `ali Mahalli 4 1 1 2 1 9 `ali Minhajul Qawim 0 0 2 2 3 7 Safinah 1 0 6 7 7 21 tsanawi Kasyifatus Saja 0 0 1 0 3 4 Sullamut Taufiq/Syarah Sullam 0 1 5 2 13 21 tsanawi Tahrir 0 1 2 1 5 9 `ali Riyadlul Badiah 0 0 2 1 3 6 Sullamul Munajat 0 0 2 1 2 5 Uqudul Lujain 0 0 1 1 2 4 tsanawi Sittin/Syarah Sittin 0 1 2 0 0 3 Muhadzab 0 0 0 1 2 3 Bughyatul Mustarsyidin 0 0 1 0 2 3 Mabadi Fiqhiyah 0 0 1 2 5 8 tsanawi Fiqih Wadlih 0 0 0 1 3 4 tsanawi Sabilal Muhtadin 0 1 0 0 0 1 usul al-fiqh Waraqat/Syarhul Waraqat 2 1 6 1 2 12 `ali/khawass Lathaiful Isyarat 1 0 3 0 6 10 Jam`ul Jawami` 1 0 2 1 3 7 khawass Luma` 1 0 2 1 3 7 `ali/khawass Asybah wan Nadhair 0 0 1 0 4 5 khawass Bayan 0 0 1 0 2 3 tsanawi/`ali Bidayatul Mujtahid 0 0 2 0 0 1 khawass<br /><br />Table III. Doctrine (usul al-din, tawhid)<br />region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level tawhid Ummul Barahin 2 0 2 0 1 5 `ali Sanusi 2 0 3 3 3 11 tsanawi Dasuqi 0 1 1 0 5 7 `ali/khawass Syarqawi 1 1 0 0 1 3 Kifayatul Awam 4 1 2 2 8 17 tsanawi/`ali Tijanud Durari 1 0 5 2 3 11 tsanawi Aqidatul Awam 0 0 0 4 9 13 ibtida’i/tsanawi Nurudh Dhulam 0 1 1 0 1 3 tsanawi Jauharut Tauhid 1 0 3 2 1 7 tsanawi Tuhfatul Murid 0 1 0 0 2 3 tsanawi Fathul Majid 2 1 1 2 2 8 khawass Jawahirul Kalamiyah 0 0 1 3 5 9 tsanawi Husnul Hamidiyah 0 0 1 5 2 8 tsanawi Aqidatul Islamiyah 1 0 0 1 2 4 tsanawi<br /><br />Table IV. Qur’anic exegesis<br />region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level tafsir Jalalain 4 1 9 9 16 39 `ali Tafsirul Munir 0 1 3 2 5 11 `ali Tafsir Ibn Katsir 1 0 3 0 3 7 `ali Tafsir Baidlawi 1 0 1 2 0 4 `ali Jamiul Bayan (Tabari) 0 0 2 0 0 3 khawass Maraghi 0 0 2 1 0 3 `ali/khawass Tafsirul Manar 0 0 2 0 1 3 khawass Tafsir Dep. Agama 0 0 0 1 1 2 tsanawi `ilm tafsir Itqan 0 0 2 0 1 3 `ali Itmamud Dirayah 0 0 0 0 2 2<br /><br /><br />Table V. Hadith and the science of hadith<br />region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level hadith Bulughul Maram 1 0 6 5 12 24 tsanawi Subulus Salam 1 1 0 0 1 3 Riyadlus Shalihin 1 0 7 6 9 23 `ali/khawass Shahih Bukhari 2 1 6 7 5 21 khawass Tajridush Sharih 0 0 1 1 4 6 `ali Jawahir Bukhari 1 0 0 1 2 6 Shahih Muslim/Syarah Muslim 1 0 7 2 7 17 khawass Arbain Nawawi 3 0 5 1 6 15 tsanawi Majalisus Saniyah 1 0 0 0 2 3 Durratun Nashihin 1 1 2 3 4 11 `ali Tanqihul Qaul 0 1 2 1 1 5 Mukhtarul Ahadits 1 0 2 0 2 5 tsanawi Ushfuriyah 0 1 0 0 2 3 `ilm dirayat al-hadith Baiquniyah/Syarah 2 0 2 1 2 7 tsanawi Minhatul Mughits 0 0 2 1 0 3 `ali<br /><br />Table VI. Piety and appropriate behaviour (akhlaq, tarbiya) and Sufism (tasawwuf)<br />region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level akhlaq Talimul Mutaallim 0 1 5 4 9 19 tsanawi Wasaya 0 0 1 6 2 9 ibtida’i/tsanawi Akhlaq lil Banat 0 0 1 1 2 4 tsanawi Akhlaq lil Banin 0 0 1 1 1 3 tsanawi Irsyadul Ibad 0 1 1 0 5 7 Nashaihul Ibad 0 0 2 0 4 6 `ali tasawwuf Ihya Ulumiddin 1 2 4 5 12 24 `ali Sairus Salikin 1 1 1 0 0 3 Bidayatul Hidayah 0 0 2 2 8 12 tsanawi Maraqil Ubudiyah 0 1 0 0 1 2 Hidayatus Salikin 1 0 1 0 0 2 Minhajul Abidin 0 3 3 1 3 10 Sirajut Thalibin 0 2 1 0 0 3 Hikam/Syarah Hikam 2 0 1 0 6 9 tsanawi/`ali Hidayatul Adzkiya 0 0 0 1 4 5 `ali Kifayatul Atqiya 0 1 0 0 1 2 Risalatul Muawanah 0 1 1 0 4 6 `ali Nashaihud Diniyah 0 0 1 0 3 4 Adzkar 0 1 1 0 1 3<br /><br /><br />Table VII. Life histories of the Prophet (sira) and works in praise of the Prophet<br />region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level tarikh Nurul Yaqin/Khulashah 2 1 2 3 2 19 tsanawi Barzanji 0 1 1 1 0 3 Dardir 0 1 1 0 1 3<br /><br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />Notes:<br />[1]Earlier versions of this article were read and commented upon by Abdurrahman Wahid, G.W.J. Drewes, J. Noorduyn and Karel Steenbrink, and numerous others helped me with bits of information. They are not, of course, to be blamed for any mistakes or shortcomings.<br />[2]These books are kept together as a separate collection in the KITLV library in Leiden. Handlists of these book listed by author’s name, short title or popular appellation (as apart from the full title), subject matter and language have been prepared to give the user easy access and insight into the composition of this collection.<br />[3]The said agent of Dar al-Fikr has recently (early 1988) started reprinting a few titles in Indonesia as well, under the name of Dar al-Fikr Indonesia.<br />[4] See Snouck Hurgronje 1889: 386-7, where also a list of the first titles printed is given.<br />[5]Most of these verses are in Malay, but a few in Arabic, maintaining the pedestrian style of the Malay syair. An example is his verse to introduce the anonymous Malay translation of Ibn `Ata’illah’s Hikam:<br />Kitab inilah yang patut mengajinya * dan upamanya mas sudah diujinyadan upama pula makanan diidang * dan yang lain itu tudung sajinyadan upama pula buah buahan * isinya dan minyak dalam bijinyakerana iyalah yang menyampai kepada Tuhan * lagi besar pahalanya dan gajinyadan yang dapat ilmunya dan meamalkan * orang itulah sinar dan pujiansyurga itulah kediaman yang kekal * ilmu ini pintunya dan bajinyadan yang jahil dengandia api neraka * selar sangat tikamnya gergajinyaya rabbi kurniakan patuh engkau * bagi tiap tiap hamba mengajinya.<br />[6]Photomechanical reprints of this Bombay Qur’an are still published in large numbers (by Al-Ma`arif). Clearly legible with its large letters, its format still one of the most popular in the Indonesian book market.<br />[7]Mission and government-sponsored printing in Malay (of non-Islamic materials) had begun on a moderate scale, in Singapore as well as the Dutch Indies, before mid-century. In Singapore the Arabic script was used, in the Indies initially mostly the Latin alphabet. See Roff 1988: 44 and Hoffmann 1979, esp. pp. 76-89.<br />[8]On Sayyid Usman, see Snouck Hurgronje 1887b and 1894. Twelve of his numerous works (including the one reviewed in the latter article) are still available in recent reprints published in Jakarta and Surabaya.<br />[9]Von Dewall 1857. The author had from hearsay that there existed a second native press in Surabaya, but I have not yet seen this confirmed.<br />[10]See Roff 1980: 44-5; Hamidy 1983; Proudfoot 1986.<br />[11]Hamidy 1983, p. 69; Abdullah 1985, p. 3. On Zawawi, see Snouck Hurgronje 1889, p. 253.<br />[12]Yunus 1979, pp. 66-7 gives titles of textbooks written in the 1920s and 1930s by authors associated with Sumatera Thawalib. Several of those by Mahmud Yunus himself and Abdul Hamid Hakim are still used in madrasah all over Indonesia. A four-volume fiqh work in Arabic by the latter author, Al-mu`in al-mubin, was also translated in Malay and is still being used in Malaysia and southern Thailand.<br />[13]In this connection Schrieke 1921 mentions some ten books that were locally printed (at Dutch presses) in Padang, Fort De Cock (Bukittinggi) and Padang Panjang, and several journals. Other participants in the polemics published in Mecca and Cairo. During the 1920s and 1930s, more than 10 different Muslim publishers operated in various towns of West Sumatra (Sanusi Latief of Padang, personal communication).<br />[14]These paragraphs are based on interviews with the doyen of kitab publishing, Muhammad bin `Umar Bahartha (who founded in 1948 and still directs Al-Ma`arif of Bandung, the largest house), Usman bin Salim Nabhan of Surabaya, and several younger publishers.<br />[15]In the first half of the twentieth century, the Netherlands Indies government levied import duties on paper but not on printed books, which gave Singapore publisher Sulayman Mar`i an edge over his competitors established in the Indies. Indonesia now produces high-quality paper itself, and labour costs and overhead are very high in Singapore. Not only Al-Haramayn, but also the old house of Sulayman Mar`i was closed down in the early 1980s.<br />[16]Not to be confused with the Egyptian publisher of the same name, with which there are no formal relations.<br />[17]In Kelantan, the script commonly used is the Arabic not the Latin; it is therefore less easy to distinguish kitab from other books there.<br />[18]Detailed information on kitab published in Patani in Matheson and Hooker 1988.<br />[19]In some traditional pesantren in East Java, the santri "study" such manzum works by rhythmically reciting them together, to the accompaniment of tambourines and clapping hands - which has developed into a typically Muslim art form.<br />[20]This is in imitation of what the santri’s handwritten textbooks used to look like: having copied the Arabic text, they would listen to the kyai’s explanations and scribble their translations between the lines.<br />[21]On Dahlan see Snouck Hurgronje 1887, al-`Attas 1979, II, pp. 700-12; on Sayyid Bakri and his major work I`anat al-talibin, Snouck Hurgronje 1889, pp. 253, 259-60.<br />[22]On Nawawi Banten, see Snouck Hurgronje 1889, pp. 362-7; Chaidar 1978. Sarkis (1928) lists 38 printed works by Nawawi. On his major work, Al-tafsir al-munir, see Johns 1984 and 1988.<br />[23]A brief biographical sketch of Bajuri, who was shaykh al-islam of Cairo, in Snouck Hurgronje’s Verspreide Geschriften, vol. II, p. 417; an extensive discussion of his widely used work on fiqh in Snouck Hurgronje 1899.<br />[24]His biographer Abdullah (1987, pp. 45-6) mentions 38 works, several of which seem however to be lost.<br />[25]See Danuwijoto 1977. Most of Saleh’s major works (Danuwijoto lists 12) are out of print and could not be collected.<br />[26]K.H. Mahfudz has, among present-day kyai, the reputation of having been one of the most learned Javanese `ulama ever. He was the highly respected teacher of several of NU’s founding `ulama (including Hasyim Asy’ari). Little has been written about his life; there are short notices in `Abbas 1975: 460 and `Abd al-Jabbar 1385: 321-2.<br />[27]On Mahmud Yunus, who was the first Indonesian graduate of Egypt’s Dar al-`ulum and a passionate educationalist, see Abdullah 1971: 141-2, 151-4, 213-4, and Yunus 1979, passim.<br />[28]For the differences between these institutions of Islamic education, see Steenbrink 1974; remarks on the curriculum of both in Yunus 1979, passim.<br />[29]See Zarkasyi 1985 for a few examples.<br />[30]E.g. Departemen Agama 1977; Prasodjo et al. 1978: 51-68; Yunus 1979, passim; Zarkasyi 1985.<br />[31]Zuhri 1974, esp. pp. 30-43, and Zuhri 1987: 30-32, 95-105, 120-130.<br />[32]On West Javanese pesantren: notably Prasodjo et al.1978: 51-68; Amidjaja et al. 1985: 41-43; on Central and East Javanese pesantrens, there is a series of monographs prepared by the Research and Development Desk of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, prepared during the years 1980-1983.<br />[33] “Sikap dan pandangan hidup ulama Indonesia”, a LIPI-IPSK research project carried out in 1986-88. The present author took part in this project as a consultant for research methods.<br />[34]Riau and Palembang data are based on interviews with various local `ulama, those on Pariaman on interviews and observation in loco, all in the context of the said research project. Data on the PERTI curriculum are taken from Yunus 1979: 100.<br />[35]There are as yet few pondok pesantren in Kalimantan; they are a recent development, following the East Javanese example. The level of teaching is still relatively low. Before these pesantren existed, one studied privately with a teacher, using mainly Malay kitab (especially M. Arshad al-Banjari’s works).<br />[36]Almost all works mentioned by van den Berg are still in use and are among the more popular texts. Drewes, on the other hand, lists many titles that are not used now, and the books that are most frequently used now do not stand out among his list. In library collections, the relatively rare generally tends to be over-, the common under-represented (the rare appears, after all, much more worth collecting). Neither van den Berg nor Drewes mentions the Kailani and the Maqshud with their commentaries, the Amtsilah, and Bina, by Asymawi; Drewes mentions Dahlan’s work as a commentary on the Jurumiyah rather than the Alfiyah. Neither author mentions any work on balagha; it is unclear whether there are no manuscript works on the subject in the libraries or that Drewes does not consider this as part of grammar.<br />[37]I owe information on the curriculum of traditional Kurdish madrasa to my friends M.E. Bozarslan and M. Tayfun, both from northern Kurdistan, and Fadil Ahmad Karim from southern Kurdistan. Snouck Hurgronje (1883) describes a West Sumatran manuscript textbook containing, in order, a list of grammatical expressions, inflection tables, an untitled text that seems to be (part of) the Izzi, the Awamil and a commentary on the Jurumiyah (by Shaykh Khalid b. `Abdallah al-Azhari. The last work is still popular all over Sumatra, under the name of Syekh Khalid or Azhari, or by its proper title, Tamrin al-tullab.<br />[38]In several editions, the Bina and Izzi are printed together with other introductory works on sarf: Al-maqsud and Al-shafiya (by Jamal al-Din b. al-Hajib, d. 646/1249, see GAL I, 303-6), and two anonymous texts, Al-marah and Amthila mukhtalifa. All these texts are quite short: the entire collection is no more than 72 pages long.<br />[39]Van den Berg and Drewes give Ibn Hisham’s full name as [Abu] `Abdallah [Muhammad] b. Yusuf b. Hisham, but the title page of Indonesian editions of his work call him Jamal al-Din b. Hisham al-Ansari. Commentaries on this work available in Indonesia are Shihab al-Din Ahmad al-Fakihi’s Mujid al-nida’ and Ahmad al-Sija’i’s hashiya upon the latter, with further glosses by Shams al-Din al-Anbabi.<br />[40]Not murawniq as Brockelmann (S II, 705) has it.<br />[41]Thus Shaykh Yasin bin `Isa al-Padani, mudir of the Indonesian madrasa Darul Ulum in Mecca (who was considered as the doyen of Indonesia’s traditional `ulama because of this position) in interview, 6-3-1988; similarly K.H. Sahal Mahfudz, Abdurrahman Wahid and other leading `ulama. These preferences are not the same among all Shafi`i Muslims; among the Kurds, for instance, Sharbini’s Mughni’l-muhtaj is the ultimate work of reference, besides the Minhaj itself.<br />[42]A very much abridged translation of the Tuhfa, in Javanese characters, was edited by S. Keijzer in 1853 and reprinted by Roorda (1874).<br />[43]According to knowledgeable Kurdish informants, Fath al-mu`in is the most popular textbook, and the extensive commentary on it, I`anat al-talibin, the most often used work of reference in the Kurdish madrasa.<br />[44]I found one Madurese and two different Javanese interlinear translations of the Safina, and two versified versions. Ahmad b. Siddiq of Lasem, Pasuruan (East Java) wrote the nazm version Tanwir al-hija’, of which a Madurese translation exists, and which received a further commentary by Muhammad `Ali b. Husayn al-Makki al-Maliki entitled Anarat al-duja’. Kyai Sahal Mahfudz of Kajen (Central Java) wrote a commentary Fayd al-haja’ on the other nazm version, Nayl al-raja’.<br />[45] As attested by Schrieke 1921: 298-300. The interest in usul fiqh was also fed by the emerging conviction that the gate of ijtihad was not necessarily closed and that taqlid is unworthy of the intellectually adult person.<br />[46]Brockelmann incorrectly compounds the latter two authors into one (GAL S I, 672 no.9).<br />[47]Translated into English in MacDonald 1903: 315-351.<br />[48]For a discussion of the contents of some texts of this kind, see Nor bin Ngah 1983: 13-18.<br />[49]Peter Riddell (1984) has shown that the Tarjuman (or at least those sections of it that he has studied) is not, as was taken for granted by both orientalists and many Muslims (including the Tarjuman’s publishers), an adaptation of Baydawi’s tafsir but largely a straightforward translation of that by the two Jalal, with interpolations taken from Baydawi and from Khazin.<br />[50]On these two tafsir see Jansen 1980. `Abduh’s tafsir, later completed by Rida, was an original work of modernist exegesis. Jansen call’s Maraghi’s work ‘an elaborate, complete, mainly philological Koran commentary […] a lucid but not original work’ (1980: 77).<br />[51]Critical comments on this work, especially because of the poverty of sources consulted, in Johns 1984: 158.<br />[52]It is perhaps significant that in Snouck Hurgronje’s Adviezen there is only one reference to hadith, which moreover does not concern Indonesia but Arabia.<br />[53]Djohan Effendi, "Tilikan singkat terhadap berbagai kumpulan hadits Nabi Muhammad", paper presented at the seminar "Pandangan dan Sikap Hidup Ulama Indonesia", LIPI, Jakarta, 24-25 February 1988.<br />[54]Cf. similar observations in Steenbrink 1974, p. 166.<br />[55]The journalist Syu’bah Asa published an Indonesian translation of this collection, intending it to show other Indonesians something of pesantren culture.<br />[56]Almost all Sufi anecdotes and sayings of great shaykhs that he quotes come down to the same moral of complete surrender to the teacher. Some of Yusuf’s works are summarized in Tudjimah CS 1987.<br />[57]Short summary of the contents in Abdullah 1980, 107-121; analysis in Mansur 1982.<br />[58]For a good survey, see Quzwain 1985, esp. 37-51.<br />[59]See, for instance, Panji Masyarakat no.556 (1-11-1987), pp. 50-51 and no. 562 (1-1-1988), pp. 71-2. A biographical notice on al-Haddad, by his editor Hasanayn M. Makhluf, in the preface of his Al-da`wa al-tamma (in the collection).<br />[60]Published by Mizan in Bandung (directed by al-Baqir’s son, Haidar Bagir), which also publishes the Iranian thinkers Shari`ati and Mutahhari and in general targets on a public of young, well educated and committed Muslims. A few minor texts by al-Haddad were brought out in Indonesian translation by other publishers.<br />[61]These include mawlid by Barzinji, `Azb, Diba`i, Jamal al-Din al-Jawzi, `Ali b. M. al-Habshi and Sayyid Usman, the Qasidat al-burda by Busiri, Isra’-mi`raj narrations by Najm al-Din Ghayti and by Da’ud b. `Abdallah al-Patani, and various commentaries and translations of these works (four different Javanese translations of the Barzanji alone).<br />[62]There exist also manaqib of Baha’ al-Din Naqshband, Muhammad [b. `Abd al-Karim] Samman and Ahmad al-Tijani, but their use is largely (though not entirely) restricted to the mystical orders associated with these shaykhs, whereas `Abd al-Qadir is almost universally venerated. Drewes & Poerbatjaraka 1938 is still the most important study of `Abd al-Qadir’s manaqib; the Hikayat Seh (based on Yafi`i’s Khulasat al-mafakhir) to which they devote most attention, is now, however, far surpassed in popularity by Barzinji’s Lujjayn al-dani and `Abd al-Qadir al-Arbili’s Tafrih al-khatir and commentaries on these two texts.<br />[63]See however Drewes & Poerbatjaraka 1938: 31-3, on the recitation of the Hikayat Seh in regional languages.<br />[64] Such popular tales on the life of the Prophet include well-known stories as Hikayat nur Muhammad, Nabi bercukur, Nabi wafat; the Hikayat Samman narrates miracles of Shaykh Samman.<br />[65]The collection contains no less than four different Javanese translations of the Barzanji. For a list of 20th century commentaries on and translations of the Barzanji and of a manaqib by the same author (not all represented in the collection) see van Bruinessen 1987: 48-9.<br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Resource</span>:</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> http://www.let.uu.nl/~Martin.vanBruinessen/personal/publications/kitab_kuning.htm</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1