Description

Islam was known in Indonesia from the eighth century, but it appears to have taken hold in the 13th century, first in Sumatra and then across the archipelago. During the Dutch colonial period, civil servant L.W.C. Van den Berg (1845‒1927), who was known as a scholar of indigenous languages and advisor on Islamic law, proposed that Islamic law should be binding upon the indigenous Muslims of Indonesia. In support of that end, he translated into French Minhāj al-ṭālibīn by Imam al-Nawawi (1233‒77), a highly influential manual ...