Islam dan Diplomasi

Book information:
Henri Chambert-Loir, Massir Q. Abdullah, Suryadi, Oman Fathurahman, H. Siti Maryam Salahuddin, Iman dan Diplomasi: Serpihan Sejarah Kerajaan Bima, Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia (KPG), in collaboration with École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO), and Direktorat Jenderal Sejarah dan Purbakala, Kementerian Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata, Maret 2010, 222 pages.
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Some scholars on Indonesian manuscript studies have contributed to publish a book related to the Bima Sultanate, entitled Iman dan Diplomasi: Serpihan Sejarah Kerajaan Bima (The Faith and Dicplomacy: Fragments of the History of Bima Sultanate). They are Henri Chambert-Loir, Massir Q. Abdullah, Suryadi, Oman Fathurahman, and H. Siti Maryam Salahuddin.

This book presents three articles on manuscripts originated from the Bima Sultanate. Those manuscripts were written between 1775 until 1882.

The cover of this book shows an illustration of the signature of Sultan Abdul Hamid Muhammad Syah, which is taken from the manuscript "Perjanjian antara Kerajaan Bima dan Kompeni Belanda" (the agreement between the Bima Sultanate and the Dutch Collonial)", dated on 26 May 1792.

Henri Chambert-Loir's article, in collaboration with Massir Q. Abdullah deals with a fragment of Bo', namely a daily notes from Bima, entitled Bumi Luma Rasanae, which was written in the residence of the Bima noble between 1765-1790. This article shows an excellent portrait of the Bima Sultanate under the Sultan Abdul Hamid Muhammad Syah (pp. 53-104).

The second article, written by a Minangkabau scholar, Suryadi, presents a transcription and analysis of 10 diplomatic letters by Sultan Abdul Hamid in the later periode (1790-1818). All those letters were addressed to the Dutch General Governor, but one of them to Syahbandar in Batavia.

The letters indicate diplomatic efforts and strategies of the Sultan Abdul Hamid to develop a relationship between the Sultanate and the Dutch administration. Contrary to what the text Bumi Luma Rasanae described, this article shows a general portrait of the economical decline of the Sultanate at that time.

Lastly, Oman Fathurahman, made an edition of Jawhar al-ma'arif, a Malay text by a Bima noble origin, Haji Nur Hidayatullah al-Mansur Muhammad Syuja'uddin. The text contains two main discussions: the first one is on the Sultanate ethics, and the second one is on the occult sciences should be learnt by any Bima rulers. The text mentions that the occult sciences discussed here are taken from the Ahmad ibn ‘Ali al-Buni's Shams al-ma'arif al-kubra.

The editors of the book, Henri Chambert-Loir and H. Siti Maryam Slahuddin hope that philologists and historians should collaborate to make such an inventory of any local sources in Indonesia and study them to get a comprehensive portrait of the sultanates in the past and place them in the context of history of Indonesia as a whole (h. 16).

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