| Tarekat is strongly associated with rural society. However, the recent popularity of tarekat in the expanding urban centres shows that mystical association plays an important role in the process of religious and social accommodation to urbanization. The emotional bond with tarekat leaders and fellow followers, the experience-oriented approach and the protection against - at least - some of the hazards of modern urban life attract followers from various social and regional backgrounds. Tarekat offer ways for individual and communal self-improvement and discipline. One of the important qualities of tarekat is that they are cross-class. The thriving middle classes demonstrate a growing demand for emotional religious alternative or additions to the rational 'modernist' trends, which have accompanied urbanization. Tarekat also facilitate the social and cultural accommodation of recent rural migrants, without alienating them from traditional values, and, at the same time, connecting them to urban based networks. Given that numerous tarekat in Indonesia are associated to international mystical orders, tarekat render a strong sense of belonging to the umma, the world community of Muslims. Dakwah is an important element in tarekat activities. So far, the dynamics and dissemination of tarekat based authority in urban centres, hardly have received systematic attention. Among the questions addressed by this advanced research programme will be: the composition of tarekat leadership and followings; the strategies to sustain and enlarge tarekat; and the social functions it provides, in particular considering the cross-class nature of tarekat. Research Topics A change of heart; Reflections on the shifting foci of mystical orders between the Hijaz and Indonesia c.1900 - c.1950 Laskar Jihad: Islam and identity in the era of transition in Indonesia Sufi orders in a modern urban middle class environment, Jakarta, Indonesia. |
