I had not been to Jombang before I began my PhD research, starting in October 1992 and continuing until September 1993 (see Figure 1.1 and 1.2). My knowledge of Jombang came from reading scientific reports, especially those by Dhofier (1982), and newspapers and magazines. This knowledge stemmed from my work in the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the government institution conducting research in various disciplines.
Actually I had a roomate, a santri from Jombang, when I studied in IAIN (State Institute for Islamic Studies) in Yogyakarta from 1974 to 1980. However, I was not interested in Jombang at that time, having no desire to do research. Jombang later came to my attention when my interest in Islamic studies was aroused at my work place. This was because Jombang is a medium size city which has a large number of pesantren. In addition, some famous Islamic leaders and intellectuals were and are natives of Jombang.
Based on such general knowledge, Jombang offered the impression of a Muslim city in which Islamic life flourishes. It is a place where Islamic studies are well developed in the pesantren, and where some highly regarded kiai provide religious leadership for their communities. This impression was borne out by my discovery, while taking a walk on my first day in Jombang, of a sign on the bank in the main street of Jombang city on which was written “Jombang Kota Santri” (Jombang is the City of Santri). Labelling a city with a certain characteristic is a common pattern that holds throughout Java. Every regency in Java characterises its capital city with a metaphor that marks the nature of the life of its people. In West Java, for example, there is a city called, or at least its people gave it the name of, “The City of Rice”, because it produces huge amounts of rice compared to other places in Indonesia. The same holds true for the methapor “The City of Civilization” given to Yogyakarta because in this city, local culture and civilization are well developed and maintained. For me, the sign I found in the heart of Jombang city, describing Jombang as “the City of Santri” is not merely a facet of the Javanese trend to label cities, but also indicates something of the social reality of the people of Jombang.
Nevertheless, my assumptions about the santri-ness (piousness) of Jombang was disturbed and threatened by another fact I encountered in the first week of my stay. On the same main street in Jombang I saw a large poster hanging on a cinema. The poster, which depicted a pair of naked humans was, in my judgement, most disturbing in the moral sense. The sociological question that arose was: what sort of santri-ness is it that actually surrounds the people of Jombang?
Such a question seemed to be partially answered when I began to talk with a public figure from Jombang. This person used to be an activist in NU, the biggest religious organisation in Jombang and Indonesia in general, which is currently embroiled in a tarekat-like movement. When I talked with him in his hotel, he suggested that it is not actually appropriate to call Jombang “the City of the Santri”. In his opinion, Malang[7] would be more a suitable candidate for this title.
Syifa, the person I talked to, seemed to be right in his judgement about Jombang, for after two months I found that Jombang is similar to other cities in East Java. It does not seem to have any specific character associated with the piousness of its inhabitants. It is not a city dominated by devout members of society as the metaphor describing it, but rather it can be called a mixed city, since neither it nor the life of its people are characterised by the life of the santri and devout Muslims in general. Under the cloak of santri-ness attributed to Jombang society live a substantial number of Javanese whose practice of Islam is minimal. This population could be higher in number than the devout Muslims in Jombang. While not all devout Muslims in Jombang studied Islam in pesantren, it should be noted that the metaphor “the City of Santri” is related to the fact that Jombang has so many pesantren which attract a large number of students from outside Jombang.
The difference between Jombang and other cities in East Java and, at the same time, what leads it to be known as “the City of the Santri” is the existence of four large pesantren which have been run by well known kiai. When NU was established, its early top leader was a kiai from Jombang. It is little wonder that Jombang impresses other Indonesians as “the City of Santri”.
I need to comment on my impressions to explain why I came to change the direction and scope of my study. When I wrote my research proposal, I planned to conduct the research in a kecamatan (district) of Jombang characterised by pluralism in relation to the nature of the people's attachment to their religion or their orthodoxy. In other words, I was concerned with Javanese piousness concerning their Islam. Here one needs to differentiate Muslims into two categories related to their attachment to Islam. The first category consists of devout Muslims. Devout Muslims consistently carry out what is prescribed by Islam, such as performing prayer five times a day and fasting during ramadan. This category comprises both Javanese Muslims in general and the santri in the pesantren. The second category are those whose attachment to Islam is loose and their practice of Islam is minimal. Some people in Jombang call the latter abangan.
Concerning the variation in Muslim orthodoxy, I refer to the different religious orientations among what is called the devout community. Such variation is commonly characterised by patterns of affiliation with various Islamic organisations. I thus intended to focus on the members of these organisations, for example Muhammadiyah and NU, to see how they interacted with and perceived each other. For this purpose I chose Ngoro as a suitable kecamatan for my research. This choice was supported by an Indonesian Muslim scholar, Dr Nurkholis Madjid, who is from Jombang and knew much about Ngoro, since he grew up in a village in the neighbouring kecamatan. Ngoro has a long established kauman [8] area in which a large mosque was established. The mosque is an important characteristics of a Muslim community anywhere.
In addition, Ngoro has a number of pesantren run by kiai. These pesantren, however, are not located in the areas around the kauman, since it is more common for pesantren to be erected in less Islamic environments. Ngoro has a fanatical Muslim community which inhabits the centre of its town and spreads throughout its villages. By fanatical I mean that their concern about Islam, its importance and its role on everyday behaviour, assumes immense priority in their lives. It is important to note that it is this community which has given rise to Ngoro's being regarded as a pious district in Jombang. The piousness of the Ngoro community in general is evidenced by their long affiliation with the Islamic political party, another indication of their concern about Islam.
When I was told about the piousness of Javanese Muslims in Ngoro, I questioned what maintains this state of affairs and the process of socialisation there. I received my answer when I tried to examine the tarekat (sufi order) which has a huge number of followers throughout Jombang and the nearby regency. After I had been in Ngoro for three months, I found that people's piousness was connected to several factors, such as their submission to a kiai's leadership, their membership in a tarekat or their view of Islam. These factors were interrelated and affected people's attitudes and behaviour. Muslims in Ngoro are affiliated with various tarekat and their allegiance to a kiai is not always related to the local murshid [9] (a common word referring to the spiritual leader of a tarekat), but could be connected to a murshid (or kiai) in another area in Jombang. I was therefore determined at that time to look at the role of the murshid in the tarekat itself. This meant that I had to observe the religious practice of certain tarekat and the relationship between the murshid and his followers.
The tarekat is a widespread religious movement in Jombang. I was told by an informant that the tarekat is embraced widely both in Jombang and the neighbouring regency, Kediri. After being in Jombang for three months, it became apparent that around one third of the devout population in Jombang were involved in or were members of one of the tarekat there. There are three different centres of tarekat which happen to be on three different sides of the Jombang regency. The first is the Tarekat Qadiriyah Wa Naqsyabandiyah, which is located on the eastern side of Jombang. This tarekat is affiliated with the Jam‘iyah Ahli Thoriqoh Al-Mu‘tabaroh Indonesia. The second is the Tarekat Qadiriyah Wa Naqsyabandiyah coordinated by Jam‘iyah Ahli Thoriqoh Al-Mu‘tabaroh An-Nahdliyah, which is centred in south Jombang. The third is the Tarekat Shiddiqiyah, which established its central activity in the northern area of Jombang. In addition, there is also a tarekat-like movement, Penyiar Sholawat Wahidiyah, which is located around ten kilometres to the south of the second tarekat.
In brief, the kiai leadership in Jombang in general is an important and longlasting religious leadership. People's affiliation to certain kiai is apparent when it is related to politics, and the term “Kiai Saya” (my kiai) is a common metaphor that indicates people's connectedness to certain kiai. If kiaiship in other areas of Java (see Horikoshi, 1976; and Mansoornur, 1990) has produced a pattern of patronage in relation to followers in general, it is important to note that in Jombang a stronger patronage is more likely to be established through murshidship [10]. Although such patronage could be built through kiaiship, as far as I found in Jombang, it seems to be looser than that related to murshidship. In other words, the relationship between a murshid and his followers is stronger than that between another type of kiai and his followers.
These insights gained after spending three months in Ngoro prompted me to change my research scope and focus. As Jombang is often regarded as a microcosm of Indonesian Islam, everything that transpires in Jombang could be seen as a reflection of what is happening in the wider Javanese or Indonesian context. Relocating my case study to Jombang would help to understand changes among all Indonesian Muslims. But I realise that to have limited this study of Indonesian Islam to Ngoro would not have represented Jombang as a whole due to the various intertwined socio-religious phenomena described above. Therefore I broadened the locations of my study to include Diwek, Peterongan and Ploso, the three kecamatan which are centres of tarekat movements and pesantren. I realised that I could not help studying the development of pesantren and tarekat in Jombang, since these two institutions are closely related to the people's lives. In addition, studying kiai leadership would be inadequate without taking these institutions into consideration, since they are led by kiai. Also, I was reminded by an Islamic intellectual, who comes from Jombang and is the leader of the biggest socio-religious organisation in Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid, that studying a Muslim community in Java would be inadequate without taking into consideration the political situation. I therefore tried to focus my study not simply on the transformation of people's beliefs and how they are applied in their behaviour but on the Muslims’ changing attitudes and behaviours related to kiai socio-political leadership in general.
In general I did not encounter any serious problems in the course of my fieldwork. The people I interviewed or surveyed by questionnaires understood what I was doing and cooperated with the study. I was able to attend tarekat activities, and the murshid welcomed my research on their tarekat. The same held true for the pesantren. In general, no kiai hesitated to answer my questions about his pesantren. The kiai seemed to be happy that their pesantren or tarekat was being examined. They even told me that they welcomed some input from outsiders in order to develop their pesantren or tarekat. In their opinion, research could provide information about what is lacking or what should be done in relation to their pesantren or tarekat. The one exception to the above was the Pesantren Shiddiqiyah in Ploso whose kiai, Kiai Muchtar Mu‘thi, who also leads the Tarekat Shiddiqiyah, did not allow me to research his tarekat and pesantren. I therefore have little information about this tarekat, as described in Chapter II.