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  1. Home
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  3. Miracles and Material Life
  • Cited by 9
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2020
Print publication year:
2020
Online ISBN:
9781108569781
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108569781
Series:
Asian Connections
Subjects:
Islam, Area Studies, Regional and World History: General Interest, Asian Studies, History, Religion, South-East Asian History, Global History
Information

Book description

In this ground-breaking new study, Teren Sevea reveals the economic, environmental and religious significance of Islamic miracle workers (pawangs) in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Malay world. Through close textual analysis of hitherto overlooked manuscripts and personal interaction with modern pawangs readers are introduced to a universe of miracle workers that existed both in the past and in the present, uncovering connections between miracles and material life. Sevea demonstrates how societies in which the production and extraction of natural resources, as well as the uses of technology, were intertwined with the knowledge of charismatic religious figures, and locates the role of the pawangs in the spiritual economy of the Indian Ocean world, across maritime connections and Sufi networks, and on the frontier of the British Empire.

Awards

Winner, 2022 Harry J. Benda Prize, Association for Asian Studies

Reviews

‘This is a truly remarkable book. Combining empathy for Malay miracle-workers (pawang) with a sensitive analysis of ‘magical' texts, Terenjit Sevea draws readers into a nineteenth century Malay world where the entwining of Islam with indigenous beliefs equipped pawangs with the esoteric knowledge that made them essential consultants in a range of socioeconomic activities.'

Barbara Watson Andaya - University of Hawai'i

‘Based on fine-grained analyses of a rich set of unexplored Malay sources, this book illuminates religion's constitutive role in economic and political relations. Informative and absorbing, it is an outstanding addition to the study of Islam, Sufism, and modern Asian history.'

Shahzad Bashir - Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Humanities, Brown University, Rhode Island

‘In this subtle and evocative work, Terenjit Sevea links the world of religiosity and wonders in colonial and Islamic Southeast Asia with the material world of agriculture, mining and hunting. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, some very unusual, he brings together material and cultural histories in ways that will be profitable for scholars of many other world regions. His analysis takes us far beyond the 'disenchantment' paradigm that long dominated colonial histories.'

Sanjay Subrahmanyam - University of California, Los Angeles

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