In a 2006 article in the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Muhammad Ali wrote that “the patterns of networking between…ulama in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in ‘Indonesia’ and those in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Kelantan seem to be similar. Surau, mosques, pondok, and later madrasah served as the major local centres for the transmission of Islamic knowledge.” While a general comparison of selected scholars from these two periods might seem random, it is worthwhile considering how different scholars from different periods and geographical locations have been connected to a particular theme. In the context of this volume's focus on Islamic linkages between South and Southeast Asia, this chapter will give particular attention to two figures from very different time periods and contexts, who have made a powerful contribution to Islamic identity in the Malay world: Nur al-Din al-Raniri and Nik Abdul Aziz bin Haji Nik Mat. Particular attention will be especially devoted to examining how both scholars were driven by a sense of “Shari‘a-mindedness” in pursuing their respective goals, and the extent to which this mindset was rooted in events and experiences in South Asia.

INTRODUCING THE TWO SCHOLARS

Nur al-Dinal-Raniri (d. 1658)

Very little is known about the early life of al-Raniri, and scholars depend on the form of his name to deduce something about his background and childhood. The large number of nisba elements in his full name — Nur al- Din Muhammad b. Ali al-Hamid al-Shafi‘i al-Ash‘ari al-‘Aydarusi al-Raniri al-Surati — point to his origins lying in a diaspora family of the Hamid clan in Ranir (today's Rander) in Gujerat, India. There is some scholarly debate as to whether he was of Hadhrami extraction; what is clearer is that he claimed to be descended from the Quraysh. He was thus a member of an ethnic minority, and may well have been of mixed racial descent himself.