Indonesian writer
Hamzah Fansuri
(
Jawi
: ???? ?????? ; also spelled
Hamzah Pansuri
, d.
c.
1590 ?) was a 16th-century
Sumatran
Sufi
writer, and the first writer known to write
mystical
panentheistic
ideas in the
Malay language
. He wrote poetry as well as prose. He has been called the "first Malay poet" and the first known poet to have written in the Malay poetic form
syair
.
[1]
Life
[
edit
]
Information on Hamzah's life comes largely from the
takhallus
bait
(pen-name stanza) that ends his poetry (
syair
), as well as from the work of his disciple Hasan Fansuri and commentaries on Hamzah's poems. However, many of his biographical details are uncertain.
[2]
His name indicates that he may be from
Barus
(also known as Fansur to the Arabs), or have spent a large part of his life there.
[3]
[4]
A link to the Siamese
Ayutthaya
(
Shahr-i-Naw
) has also been proposed, although it may be that he travelled to Ayutthaya rather than that being his birthplace.
[5]
He was inducted into a Sufi order
[6]
and it is thought that he may have worked at the court of the
Aceh Sultanate
.
Hamzah travelled widely, and was known to have visited the
Malay Peninsula
,
Mughal India
,
Mecca
and
Medina
, and
Baghdad
.
[4]
He was one of the earliest Southeast Asians to have completed the
hajj
during the early 16th century.
[7]
[6]
The date of his death is generally assumed to be around 1590 or earlier,
[5]
although a later date during the reign of Sultan
Iskandar Muda
has also been proposed.
[2]
However, an inscription on a gravestone found in Mecca for a Shaykh Hamza b. Abd Allah al-Fansuri recorded a date of April 11, 1527, although that identification has been challenged.
[8]
Such an early date, if confirmed, may suggest that Hamzah did not live or work in Aceh, rather he was in Barus before leaving for Mecca where he died.
[3]
Panentheism
[
edit
]
Hamzah Fansuri's panentheism was derived from the writings of the
medieval
Islamic
scholars
. He was influenced by
Ibn Arabi
's doctrine of
Wa?dat al-Wuj?d
popular in Persia and Mughal India during the 16th century.
[4]
He perceived
God
as immanent within all things, including the individual, and sought to unite one's
self
with the indwelling spirit of God. He employed the doctrine of seven stages of emanation (
martabat
) in which God manifests Himself in this world, ending in the Perfect Man, a doctrine widespread in Indonesia at the time. His teachings were promoted by Aceh theologian Shamsuddin al-Sumatrani.
However, his views were later deemed heretical by
Nuruddin ar-Raniri
for not conforming to the Islamic belief that God remained unchanged by His creation.
[9]
Nuruddin travelled to Aceh and under his influence, the Sultana
Taj ul-Alam
attempted to eradicate Hamzah's works and name, and his writings were burnt.
[4]
Works
[
edit
]
The poetry,
syair
or
ruba'i
, of Hamzah Fansuri are usually not more than 13-15 stanzas, but some may be up to 21.
[10]
32 of his poems have survived, and Hamzah included in each poem his name and information about himself in the last stanza (
takhallus bait
). Scholars have commented on his technical skill and mastery in his rhymes, the effective blending Arabic words into Malay poetic structure. They also noted a fondness for pun in his works that displays his humour and poetical flair.
[5]
[11]
He also wrote prose, and his three surviving works in prose are:
- Sharab al-'ashiqin
("The Lovers' Beverage")
- Asrar al-'arifin
("The Secrets of the Gnostics")
- Kitab al-Muntahi
("The Adept") ? a collection of Arabic and Persian quotations with discussions in Malay.
He was the first writer to write about Sufi doctrines poetically in the Malay language, or indeed any other languages of the Malay archipelago.
[12]
[1]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Syed Muhd. Khairudin Aljunied (2019).
Islam in Malaysia: An Entwined History
. Oxford University Press. p. 44.
ISBN
9780190925192
.
- ^
a
b
Vladimir I. Braginsky (1999).
"Towards the Biography of Hamzah Fansuri. When Did Hamzah Live ? Data From His Poems and Early European Accounts"
.
Archipel
.
57
(2): 135?175.
doi
:
10.3406/arch.1999.3521
.
- ^
a
b
R Michael Feener; Patrick Daly; Anthony Reed, eds. (January 1, 2011).
Mapping the Acehnese Past
. Brill. p. 33.
ISBN
978-9067183659
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Keat Gin Ooi, ed. (13 October 2004).
Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor, Band 1
. ABC-CLIO. p. 561.
ISBN
978-1576077702
.
- ^
a
b
c
G.W.J. Drewes and L.F. Brakel (eds. and tr.).
The poems of Hamzah Fansuri
. Dordrecht and Cinnaminson: Foris Publications, 1986.
ISBN
90-6765-080-3
, pp-3?18
- ^
a
b
Tagliocozzo, Eric (2013-04-25).
The Longest Journey: Southeast Asians and the Pilgrimage to Mecca
. Oxford University Press. p. 21.
ISBN
978-0-19-530827-3
.
- ^
Mary Somers Heidhues.
Southeast Asia: A Concise History
. London: Thames and Hudson, 2000. p. 81
- ^
Vladimir I. Braginsky (2001).
"On the Copy of Hamzah Fansuri's Epitaph Published by C. Guillot & L. Kalus"
.
Archipel
.
62
(1): 21?33.
doi
:
10.3406/arch.2001.3656
.
- ^
M.C. Ricklefs.
A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1300
, 2nd ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994. p. 51
- ^
Stefan Sperl; Christopher Shackle, eds. (1996).
Classical Traditions and Modern Meanings
. Brill Academic Publishing. p. 383.
ISBN
978-9004102958
.
- ^
L.F. Brakel (1979). "HAMZA PANSURI: Notes on: Yoga Practies, Lahir dan Zahir, the 'Taxallos', Punning, a Difficult Passage in the Kit?b al-Muntah?, Hamza's likely Place of Birth, and Hamza's Imagery".
Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
.
52
(1:235): 73?98.
JSTOR
41492842
.
- ^
Syed Muhammad Naguib Al-Attas (1970).
The Mysticism of Hamzah Fansuri
. University of Malaya Press.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Muhammad Naguib al-Attas.
The mysticism of Hamzah Fansuri
. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1970.
- G.W.J. Drewes and L.F. Brakel (eds. and tr.).
The poems of Hamzah Fansuri
. Dordrecht and Cinnaminson: Foris Publications, 1986.
ISBN
90-6765-080-3
External links
[
edit
]
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