Shattariyyah Genealogy (Silsila) in Minangkabau, West Sumatra

We can not but agree that local manuscripts frequently give historical information that, in certain degree, very detail regarding the past, even if the information is fragmented and found in scattered manuscripts. That’s why these manuscripts are very important in reconstructing the social-intellectual history, including the history of the Shattariyya genealogy (silsila), in which this posting will deal with.

In the past years, I have collected manuscripts deal with Shattariyya Order in West Sumatra, and West Java as well. It’s rather easy to know the silsila of the main Khalifa such as Shaikh Abdurrauf Ali al-Jawi in Aceh and his teachers, since his complete silsila usually mentioned as the integrated part of his works.

However, the question is quite different when we try to recognize the silsilah of the Khalifa and his number of students (murid), especially if we want to include murids come from a wide range of time. What we have to do is collecting the manuscripts as much as possible, contain not only the silsilah, but also anything relate to the Order, and put all those scattered information there as a whole.

In the images below you can find an example of the Shattariyya silsilah in Minangkabau, reconstructed from various manuscripts I found during the field research. Those main manuscripts are: (1) Muballigul Islam, (2) Inilah Sejarah Ringkas Auliyaullah al-Salihin Syaikh Abdurrauf (Syaikh Kuala) Pengembang Agama Islam di Aceh, (3) Inilah Sejarah Ringkas Auliyaullah al-Salihin Syaikh Burhanuddin Ulakan yang Mengembangkan Agama Islam di Daerah Minangkabau, (4) Sejarah Ringkas Syaikh Muhammad Nasir (Syaikh Surau Baru), (5) Sejarah Ringkas Syaikh Paseban al-Syattari, (6) Kitab Menerangkan Agama Islam di Minangkabau Semenjak Dahulu dari Syaikh Burhanuddin Sampai ke Zaman Kita Sekarang, (7) Pengajian Tarekat, (8) Risalah Mizan al-Qalb, (9) Kitab al-Taqwim wa al-Siyam. (10) Tanbih al-Mashi, (11) Shattariyyah, and (12) al-Simt al-Majid. This silsila includes some of the Shattariyya followers came from the 18th and 21th centuries.

Please scroll down the right bar to see all photos, and click photo to enlarge view... (click here to download the silsila in PDF format)