Surau Texts Translated: Translation in Form, Textual Analysis in Substance

edited by Ronit RICCI and Fadhli LUKMAN • 25.3 (2025) ISSN 0806-198X DOI 10.5617/jais.12772 ACROSS THE MUSLIM WORLD A Comparative Perspective Themed Section Contents FADHLI LUKMAN and RONIT RICCI Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 5 A.C.S. PEACOCK Medieval Eastern Turkish Interlinear Translation: Their Manuscripts, Audience, and Persian Background................................................................................... 19 AGLAIA IANKOVSKAIA A World of Words and Words for the World: Encyclopaedism and Language Learning in a 19th-century Arabic-Malay Vocabulary ...................................... 51 RAPHAEL MICHAELI Interlinear Translation in Textual Performance: The Usage of Swahili in Arabic Mawlid Readings from East Africa ................................................................... 73 FADHLI LUKMAN Surau Texts Translated: Translation in Form, Textual Analysis in Substance .................. 103 MIDORI KAWASHIMA Ingenuity Between the Lines: Interlinear Translation from Arabic to Malay to Vernacular in Mindanao ................................................................................................ 123 MUHAMMAD DLUHA LUTHFILLAH Not the Utawi You Think You Know: Some Preliminary Notes on Early Javanese Interlinear Translations ...................................................................................... 175 RONIT RICCI Interlinear Texts from Indonesia: Preliminary Thoughts on Their Study ......................... 197 Notes on Contributors ....................................................................................................... 221 Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 © Fadhli Lukman, UIN Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta, Indonesia ISSN 0806-198X DOI 10.5617/jais.12696 Surau Texts Translated: Translation in Form, Textual Analysis in Substance FADHLI LUKMAN (UIN Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta)1 Abstract This article investigates the translation tradition of surau communities in the Minangkabau world, with a focus on interlinear translation. With its prominent role in the Islamization of the region, the surau held an important historical function as a vital centre for the production, teaching, learning, and preservation of Islamic manuscripts—mostly composed in Arabic, while those written in Malay are filled with rich Arabic concepts, vocabulary, and technical expressions. As such, translation emerges as an integral aspect of engagement with the manuscripts, supporting both comprehension and instruction. Focusing on the manuscript collection of Surau Simaung in Sijunjung, West Sumatra, the study explores two central questions: first, the role and positioning of Arabic and Malay within the translation practices of surau manuscripts; and second, the origins of grammatical literalism, a feature often associated with interlinear translation in the surau tradition. This study shows that translation practices in the surau were diverse, encompassing holistic, running-sequential, and interlinear paradigms. Among these, occasional interlinear translation predominates, revealing a distinctive form of grammatical literalism rooted in the Arabic linguistic structure, reflective of post-classical scholarly practices. Rather than producing idiomatic Malay renderings, surau scholars pursued rigorous grammatical engagement with Arabic texts, transforming translation into a tool of learning and inquiry. Translation was not primarily about finding lexical equivalents in Malay but was fundamentally an exercise in textual analysis. It served as a vernacular expression of the post-classical Islamic intellectual project—translation in form, textual analysis in substance. Keywords: Surau, Minangkabau, translation, literalism, textual analysis 1 This research was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project Textual Microcosms: A New Approach in Translation Studies, grant agreement no. 101001731). I am deeply grateful to Ronit Ricci and all members of the Textual Microcosms research group for their invaluable support, guidance, and feedback throughout the research and writing of this article. I also extend my sincere appreciation to Yulfira Riza, Ahmad Taufik Hidayat, Rahmi Yunita, Shafwatul Bary, Apria Putra, Nofel Nofiadri, and Novizal Wendri for their kind assistance and insightful discussions during the research. Fadhli Lukman • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 Page | 104 Introduction This article examines the tradition of translating Arabic texts into Malay within the Minangkabau world (Alam Minangkabau). The Minangkabau are an ethnic group inhabiting the central region of the island of Sumatra. They refer to their homeland as Alam Minangkabau, which encompasses the highland heartland villages in the Bukit Barisan mountain range—known as Darek—as well as the expanding coastal regions to the east and west, referred to as Rantau.2 Although the Minangkabau are today commonly associated with the province of West Sumatra, this association is “arbitrary and a shadow of colonial partitioning.”3 The language spoken in this region is Minangkabau, a variety or dialect of Malay. It is predominantly oral in character, with a strong cultural emphasis on oral eloquence and a rich oral literary tradition.4 While the Minangkabau language has distinctive features of its own, the shared use of Arabic script in the writing system of both Minangkabau and Malay prior to the dominance of the Roman script further blurred the boundaries between the two.5 There is a record of Islamization of one of the Minangkabau kings through marriage with a sister of Sultan Mansur Syah of Melaka (1459– 1477),6 yet it seems that 2 M Yusuf, ed., Katalogus Manuskrip dan Skriptorium Minangkabau (C-DATS-TUFS, 2006), 1; Jeffrey Hadler, Muslims and Matriarchs: Cultural Resilience in Indonesia through Jihad and Colonialism (Cornell University Press, 2008), 3, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt7zc7n. 3 Hadler, Muslims and Matriarchs, 4. 4 Khaidir Anwar, “Minangkabau, Background of the Main Pioneers of Modern Standard Malay in Indonesia,” Archipel 12, no. 1 (1976): 83, https://doi.org/10.3406/arch.1976.1296. 5 P Voorhoeve, Critical Survey of Studies on the Languages of Sumatra, Bibliographical Series 1 (Netherlands: 1955), 16. 6 Jane Drakard, “A Kingdom of Words: Minangkabau Sovereignty in Sumatran History” (Ph.D. Fig. 1 The Province of West Sumatra in Indonesia, which is currently strongly associated with the Minangkabau region. Surau Texts Translated • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 Page | 105 surau, a traditional Islamic learning institution in the region, is more responsible for the Islamization of the region than politics. The reason is that, on the one hand, the loyalty of the Minangkabau community was more closely aligned with the nagari (villages) than with the central authority of the kingdom; and on the other hand, most surau were rooted in the nagari and local market networks.7 This suggests that the spread of Islam in Minangkabau was shaped more by grassroots religious education and local sociocultural structures than by topdown political initiatives. Integral to the surau’s role in the Islamization of the region is their historical function as vital centres for the production, teaching, learning, and preservation of Islamic manuscripts.8 Functioning as scriptoria, surau not only stored manuscripts but also fostered vibrant intellectual activity through live oral instruction.9 The digital collections of Minangkabau manuscripts preserved across several platforms—such as the Leiden Digital Collection, the Endangered Archives Programme of the British Library, and the DREAMSEA Project— stand as testament to the unparalleled importance of the surau in the Minangkabau manuscript tradition. Local accounts and catalogues also document private collections, yet these manuscripts are typically inherited from surau or from the leaders of a ṭarīqa associated with a particular surau.10 The majority of surau manuscripts bear strong pedagogical characteristics, often taking the form of personal or instructional notes.11 As such, the surau manuscripts stand as written monuments to the dynamic oral teaching practices that animated these institutions. These manuscripts are mostly composed in Arabic, while those written in Malay are heavily laden with Arabic concepts, vocabulary, and technical expressions. Translation emerges as an integral aspect of engagement with the manuscripts, indispensable both for understanding the content and for facilitating the teaching process. Grasping the modes of translation employed within the surau tradition thus offers critical insights into the mechanisms of education and knowledge transmission in these institutions. This article investigates the translation tradition of surau communities in the Minangkabau world, with a focus on interlinear translation. However, I argue that the existing surau corpus suggests that interlinear translation cannot be studied in isolation from the broader manuscript culture of the surau. Accordingly, this study examines interlinear translation in close connection with other translation practices also found within the surau tradition. In doing so, it draws on the manuscript collection of Surau Simaung in Sijunjung, Dissertation, The Australian National University, 1993), 35. 7 Drakard, “A Kingdom of Words,” 1–15; Christine Dobbin, Kebangkitan Islam dalam Ekonomi Petani yang Sedang Berubah, Sumatra Tengah, 1784–1847, trans. Lillan D. Tedjasudana (INIS, 1992), 144; Anwar, “Minangkabau,” 80. 8 Azyumardi Azra, Surau: Pendidikan Islam Tradisi dalam Transisi dan Modernisasi (PT. Logos Wacana Ilmu, 2003); Oman Fathurahman, “Naskah dan Rekonstruksi Sejarah Lokal Islam; Contoh Kasus dari Minangkabau,” Wacana 7, no. 2 (2005). 9 Pramono, Khazanah Naskah Minangkabau (Penerbit Erka, 2018), 7. 10 Yusuf, Katalogus Manuskrip; Pramono, Khazanah Naskah Minangkabau. 11 Arif Maftuhin, “Translating the Untranslatable: The Jalālayn Learning as a Translation Practice,” Indonesia and the Malay World, January 4, 2024, 1–25, https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2023.2264672. Fadhli Lukman • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 Page | 106 West Sumatra, which houses eighty-eight manuscripts encompassing 209 texts across a wide range of Islamic disciplines, including taṣawwuf, kalām, Qur’an and tafsīr, hadith, fiqh, history, falak, and Arabic linguistics.12 The majority of these texts are Arabic with Malay translations and annotations, and even original Malay compositions frequently contain Arabic expressions—whether Qur’anic verses, prophetic traditions, or technical terminology—most of which are accompanied by translations. Although many of the texts are undated, those with dates predominantly originate from the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries. Earlier materials—or at least copies of texts from the earlier period— are also present, including works attributed to earlier Malay authors, such as ʿAbd al-Raʾūf al-Sinkilī (d. 1693), Shams al-Dīn al-Sumatrānī (d. 1630), and ʿAbd al-Ṣamad al-Falimbānī (d. c. 1789). In light of its breadth and diversity, the Surau Simaung collection may be considered representative of the broader surau textual tradition. To uncover the translation tradition of the surau manuscript culture, this study is guided by two central questions: first, the role and positioning of Arabic and Malay within the translation practices of surau manuscripts; and second, the origins of grammatical literalism, a feature often associated with interlinear translation in the surau tradition. Both questions reveal important aspects of surau manuscript culture, in which the majority of texts take the form of occasional interlinear translations, with Arabic functioning as the primary language of discourse and Malay serving a secondary, supportive role. This suggests that the Surau Simaung collection represents the apex of the surau textual tradition, where engagement with Arabic had become institutionalized. Moreover, the meticulous attention to fine-grained Arabic grammar evident in the collection indicates that, for surau communities, translation was not merely a matter of rendering Arabic into Malay, but a deeper intellectual endeavour aimed at mastering the Islamic sciences through post-classical engagement with Arabic texts. The Surau Manuscript Tradition: Between Arabic and Malay Ronit Ricci has identified three distinct paradigms to the translation of Islamic manuscripts in Malay and Javanese literary traditions. The first paradigm, which she terms “holistic translation,” involves rendering and adapting entire works from Arabic or Persian into Malay or Javanese. These translations often preserve overarching storylines, dialogic structures, or theological themes, but also display considerable flexibility, as translators reshape the texts to suit local literary tastes and their own agendas in disseminating Islamic knowledge. The second paradigm transpires at the sentence level, in which Arabic phrases are immediately followed on the page by their Malay or Javanese counterparts. These renderings range from highly literal to paraphrastic or interpretive, where the bilingual layout often invites readers or listeners to move back and forth between languages. The third paradigm is interlinear 12 The current caretaker himself notes that the digital copies made available through the DREAMSEA Project does not represent the entirety of his holdings. All sources consulted in this study are drawn from the digital copies of the DREAMSEA Project, under the collection code DS 0043. (https://www.hmmlcloud.org/dreamsea/manuscripts.php?country=&tags=&city=&author=&library=Surau+Si maung&language=&projnum=&writingSupport=&title=&script=&searchType=1) Surau Texts Translated • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 Page | 107 translation, in which Malay or Javanese words are inserted between the lines of Arabic text in a near word-for-word fashion. This mode lays bare the mechanics of translation, revealing how translators grappled with the linguistic structure of Arabic while attempting to maintain clarity in the target language. Among the three, it is the most linguistically meticulous and closely tied to the grammatical features of the source text.13 With a minor adjustment, Ricci’s categorization proves particularly useful for examining the tradition of Arabic translation within the Minangkabau surau context, as all three paradigms are represented in the surau manuscript collection. Within the Surau Simaung collection, texts belonging to the first paradigm, holistic translation, are largely derivative of certain more popular works. The most prominent examples are texts concerning the Sifat dua puluh (the twenty attributes of God), which are derived from the textual traditions of alSanūsī and Tilimsānī.14 One narrative text, Hikayat Puti Bilqis (The Tale of Princess Bilqis) also appears to follow this paradigm, although further investigation is required to determine the original Arabic source from which it was translated.15 Texts following this first paradigm are, in principle, monolingual. However, given that the whole collection of Surau Simaung largely consists of Islamic works, it is unsurprising that Arabic words and quotations frequently appear within the texts of this translation paradigm. For the second paradigm, while Ricci refers to this as sentence-level translation, this article adopts the term running-sequential translation, as the same format may also apply to smaller units, such as phrases, rather than complete sentences. This adjustment more accurately captures the granularity of translation practices in the surau tradition. This translation paradigm is characterized by a bilingual layout in which the Arabic source text appears first, followed directly by its Malay translation. The Arabic segments may range from a single phrase to sentences of several lines, sometimes extending to half of, or an entire page. The Malay translation continues along the same horizontal line or textual flow, resulting in a unified manuscript in which source and translation are read as part of a continuous sequence. A variation of this format involves texts primarily composed in Malay but interspersed with Arabic expressions—drawn from the Qur’an, hadith, Islamic treatises, or technical terminology—each followed by a corresponding Malay explanation. These texts are written in Jawi, a modified Arabic script adapted to represent Malay phonemes absent in Arabic. To visually distinguish between the two languages, scribes commonly used red ink for Arabic and black for Malay. In some cases, verbal cues such as artinya (its meaning is) are also employed to signal transitions. In the absence of colour differentiation or verbal markers, however, the visual uniformity of the script and layout can 13 Ronit Ricci, “Story, Sentence, Single Word: Translation Paradigms in Javanese and Malay Islamic Literature,” in A Companion to Translation Studies, by Sandra Bermann and Catherine Porter, Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture 86 (West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2014), 543–56; For interlinear translation, see also: Ronit Ricci, “Reading between the Lines: A World of Interlinear Translation,” Journal of World Literature 1, no. 1 (2016): 68–80, https://doi.org/10.1163/24056480-00101008. 14 Philipp Bruckmayr, “The Šarḥ/Ḥāšiya Phenomenon in Southeast Asia: From al-Sanūsī’s Umm al-Barāhīn to Malay Sifat Dua Puluh Literature,” MIDÉO. Mélanges de l’Institut Dominicain d’études Orientales, no. 32 (May 15, 2017): 27–52. 15 DS 0043 00007. Fadhli Lukman • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 Page | 108 obscure the bilingual structure, making the presence of translation less readily apparent to untrained readers. Examples 1 and 2 below are excerpts from Murād al-ʿishq (the desire of love) of Shams al-Dīn al-Sumatrānī (d. 1039/1630).16 This text is written entirely in black ink. As such, the visual aspect alone does not indicate that it contains an Arabic text accompanied by a Malay translation. The two samples illustrate how Arabic words are translated sequentially into Malay within a sentence, with the translation often presented in an appositive phrase or clause, resulting in a multilayered sentence structure. I have provided a literal English translation for both examples, along with visual markers to aid understanding. Words in bold represent Arabic terms or expressions, those that are underlined are their translations, and italicized words are verbal cues that connect the two. The integration between translation and source text makes this format challenging to read, but it reveals how the practice of translation facilitated the encounter with, and introduction of Arabic terminology to a Malay audience. 1. Maka inilah kitab yang menghimpun pada menyatakan tauhid dan hati taʾlīf shaikh Shamsy al-Dīn maʿnānya daripada kitab tasawwuf artinya perkataan pada ilmu ṣūfī artinya orang taḥqīq yang suci iʿtiqādnya, karangan Shaikh Muḥy al-Dīn ibn ʿArabī qaddasa-llāhu sirrahu artinya dipersuci Allah taʿālā rahasianya. This is the book that gathers explanations of tawḥīd and the (spiritual) heart, composed by Shaykh Shams al-Dīn; which means it is a book of taṣawwuf—that is, a work on ṣūfī knowledge—referring to people of realization (taḥqīq), whose faith is pure, authored by Shaykh Muḥy al-Dīn ibn ʿArabī, qaddasa-llāhu sirrahu—meaning, may Allah Most High sanctify his inner reality.17 2. Maka hati ʿārif yang nūrānī itu artinya hati yang Cahaya itu amat besar lagi amat luas daripada segala alam, sehingga daripada ʿarash pun amat luas, maka daripada pihak amat besarnya dan amat luas dan amat latifnya artinya halus maka ia menerima tajallī dhāt Allah taʿālā … So the heart of the ʿārif that is luminous (nūrānī)—that means the heart that is Light—is extremely vast and exceedingly expansive beyond all the worlds, even more expansive than the Throne (ʿarsh). So, from the aspect of its immensity, vastness, and latīf—that is, its fineness—it receives the tajallī (divine manifestation) of the Essence (dhāt) of Allah, the Exalted… Not all translations that belong to this category are as complex as the two examples above. Zahrat al-murīd fī bayān kalimat al-tawḥīd (the flower of the seeker in elucidating the word of Divine unity), attributed to ʿAbd al-Ṣamad al-Falimbānī,18 and an untitled treatise by ʿAbd 16 DS 0043 00018, 41v-42v 17 I intentionally set aside stylistic conventions concerning bolding or italicization in this and similar sentences in order to more clearly distinguish between the original terms, their translations, and the verbal cues that serve as bridges between the two. 18 DS 0043 00008 Surau Texts Translated • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 Page | 109 Fig. 2 Sharḥ umm al-barāhīn or Tilimsāni by ʿAbdullāh Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm al-Tilimsānī (d. 897/1492), The DREAMSEA Project, DS 0043 00087, illustrating the typical pattern of occasional interlinear translation found in the surau manuscript tradition Fadhli Lukman • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 Page | 116 Fig. 4 al-Sanūsī by Abū ʿAbdillāh Abū Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Sanūsī al-Ḥusaynī (d. 895/1490), DS 0043 00019, 178r Fig. 5 Tanbīh al-māshi by ʿAbd al-Raʾuf al-Sinkīlī al-Jāwī (d. 1693), DS 0043 00018, 12v However, the Surau Simaung collections show that such literalism is not the exclusive property of interlinear translation. Running-sequential translation also follows the same tendency. Note that the source consulted by Riddell in his aforementioned study for the argument of translationese is not an interlinear translation. Just like the case with Ricci’s source in the Sri Lankan Malay manuscript, example 4 follows the original Arabic that commences the clause with a verb-subject order, something that is not conventional for Malay.31 4. qaddasa-llāhu sirrahu artinya dipersucikan Allah taʿālā rahasianya ([may] sanctified Allah his secret which means sanctified [by] Allah may He be Exalted his secret)32 31 Ricci, “Reading between the Lines,” 72. 32 In this and the following example, the underlined English corresponds to the underlined Arabic sentence. Surau Texts Translated • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 Page | 117 5. … wa jaʿala al-jannata maskanahu wa mathwāhu dan yang menjadikan surga akan tempat mukmin dan akan dia kediamannya (…and He made Paradise his dwelling and his abode and that which makes Paradise a dwelling of a believer and it his abode) Example 5 provides a more compelling illustration of how Arabic syntax, even outside an interlinear format, structurally binds Malay vocabulary to the original. This includes elements that are not explicitly present in the Arabic text but are syntactically implied. Each word in the Malay translation is anchored to an Arabic counterpart: wa (and) becomes dan (and), jaʿala (he made) becomes menjadikan (makes), al-jannata (the garden) becomes surga (paradise), and maskanahu (his dwelling) is rendered as tempat mukmin (a dwelling of a believer). In this last case, the pronoun -hu in maskanahu is resolved by referring back to muʾmin, a noun mentioned earlier in the text. Notably, the word yang (that/which) in dan yang menjadikan (that which makes) has no direct lexical counterpart in the Arabic, but its presence is informed by the syntactic role of wa (and) at the beginning of the expression. This conjunction links jaʿala (he made) to a preceding verb, ḥafiẓa (he protected), which itself follows alladhī (those), a relative pronoun typically translated as yang in Malay. Thus, the translator’s insertion of yang signals an awareness of the underlying conjunctive structure of the Arabic. The phrase dan akan dia kediamannya (and it his abode) for wa mathwāhu (and his abode) reflects an impressive syntactic sensitivity. Here, dan (and) corresponds to wa (and), functioning as a conjunction linking maskanahu (his dwelling) and mathwāhu (his abode). A straightforward translation might have rendered the passage as menjadikan surga akan tempat mukmin dan kediamannya ([to] make Paradise a dwelling of a believer and his abode). However, the translator chooses menjadikan surga akan tempat mukmin dan akan dia kediamannya (makes Paradise a dwelling of a believer and [make] it his abode), revealing a distinct grammatical interpretation. Rather than viewing wa as connecting maskanahu and mathwāhu directly, the translator appears to interpret wa as linking two complete predicates: al-jannata maskanahu and (hiya) mathwāhu. The subject hiya is not textually present but is understood through ellipsis (muqaddara), a common feature in Arabic whereby syntactic elements are omitted yet implied. It refers back to al-jannata (the garden), a feminine noun. Accordingly, the phrase akan dia kediamannya reflects this: akan indicates the object, dia realizes the elided pronoun hiya, and kediamannya renders mathwāhu, with the possessive - nya (his) pointing back to muʾmin. In his study, Riddell argues that the tendency towards translationese is inherited from the literal scriptural translation that was observed by ʿAbd al-Raʾūf al-Sinkīlī, the author of Tarjumān al-mustafīd that he consulted, while the Tarjumān author was in the Middle East.33 This argument situates the Qur’anic text and its translation at the core of a literal impulse. Van Ronkel in his study also emphasized the role of the Qur’an in this respect alongside fiqh.34 The manuscripts from Surau Simaung, however, suggest that this technique of translation may not directly related to scriptural translation, nor is it exclusive to fiqh 33 Riddell, “Literal Translation,” 10. 34 Van Ronkel, Mengenai Pengaruh Tatakalimat, 37. Fadhli Lukman • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 Page | 118 literature. Rather, it derives from the prevailing approach to studying Islamic texts within the tradition of post-classical scholasticism. Commentary and gloss constituted the dominant modes of intellectual composition in post-classical Islam, spanning the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries.35 Significantly, the majority of texts in the surau collection fall within this category. Texts featuring runningsequential translation, although original compositions by Malay authors, are deeply rooted in Arabic Islamic scholastic works. They function primarily as commentaries on selected passages extracted from these Arabic source texts as well as their own texts.36 Likewise, texts with interlinear translation are rarely devoid of glosses and marginal annotations. Another key feature of the post-classical intellectual tradition was its sustained preoccupation with the lexical, rhetorical, and logical dimensions of the commented-upon texts. Within this approach, substantial portions of the commentary are often devoted to lexicographical treatment of individual words.37 The surau texts strongly resonate with this mode of inquiry, and this orientation is clearly reflected in their translation practices. Arabic language texts occupy a prominent place in the Surau Simaung collection. The most illustrative examples in this context are works belonging to the genres of tarkīb (structure; composition) and iʿrāb (the system of declension). These are derivative, commentarial genres that focus on the linguistic analysis of a base text. It remains a subject of inquiry whether tarkīb and iʿrāb represent distinct genres or are essentially the same with different names. The evidence from Surau Simaung, however, indicates that iʿrāb tends to involve a more detailed analysis than tarkīb. In the collection, we find three different copies of Tarkīb al-ʿawāmil, one copy of Tarkīb al-Ājurrūmiyya, and one of Iʿrāb matan al-kāfiya. The tarkīb/iʿrāb genre demonstrates that such linguistic analysis was not merely applied as a method of examining texts, but also gave rise to a distinct genre of intellectual endeavour in its own right. Each of these texts investigates the linguistic features of individual words within their respective base texts—namely, al-ʿAwāmil, Ājurrūmiyya, and Matan al-kāfiya. They explore the types of words or particles mentioned, their syntactic positions, grammatical inflection (iʿrāb), and morphological patterns, number, semantic connotation, and other relevant linguistic features. Fig. 6 illustrates how tarkīb functions. The text in red represents the base text, while the black text—breaking down the base text, largely into individual words—constitutes a linguistic analysis of each word or phrase from the Arabic source. This particular page offers only minimal commentary for most of the words, although it is not uncommon to find pages containing more elaborate explanations. This analysis extends beyond the level of individual words, encompassing phrases and clauses as well. 35 Ahmed El Shamsy, Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition (Princeton University Press, 2020), 9; 31. 36 Mahmood Kooria, Islamic Law in Circulation: Shāfiʻī Texts across the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization (Cambridge University Press, 2022), 327. 37 El Shamsy, Rediscovering the Islamic Classics, 35. Surau Texts Translated • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 Page | 119 Fig. 6 Tarkīb al-ʿawāmil, DS 0043 00004 The concept of ellipsis (muqaddara) is integral to understanding the practice of Malay translation. In Arabic grammar, the principle is that a sentence must complete all the basic structural elements, whether it is a nominal or verbal sentence. When a structural element is missing, it is the reader’s duty to analyse the construction and supply the implied component. Fig. 6 illustrates how the basmala formula is linguistically analysed in the tarkīb genre. The full basmala phrase—bi-smi-‘l-lāh al-raḥmān al-raḥīm—is divided into four segments, each written in red ink. Interspersed between these segments is the grammatical explanation, written in black ink. The first segment, bi-smi (in the name [of]), is analysed beginning with the identification of bāʾ as a ḥarf jarr (preposition) and ism as a majrūr (a noun governed by a preposition), resulting from the effect of bāʾ. The analysis then proceeds to determine the grammatical position of bi-smi as a phrase linked to an ellipsis (al-maḥẓūf). The text then provides the resolution, stating taqdīruhu abtadiʿu bi-smi… (its taqdīr, “implied phrase,” is: I commence in the name [of]…). This analysis explains the way authors and translators render the basmala whenever composing or copying a text, by expressions such as Kumulai membaca kitab ini… (I begin to read this book…) or Kumulai risalah ini… (I begin this treatise…). This case illustrates an expansion of meaning proposed by translators, transmitting an Arabic linguistic examination of the sentence into Malay. The manuscript collection of Surau Simaung demonstrates that this mode of intellectual inquiry remained deeply embedded within surau communities. The study of Arabic undertaken in these settings was not merely a theoretical endeavour grounded in standard textbooks—such as the Ājurrūmiyya, Qaṭr al-nadāʾ, Alfiyya Ibn Mālik, al-Kāfiya, and alʿAwāmil, together with their accompanying sharḥ (commentaries)—but was also complemented by practical engagement with the tarkīb and iʿrāb traditions. This analytical approach was not limited to linguistic texts; works from other disciplines were likewise Fadhli Lukman • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 Page | 120 subjected to grammatical scrutiny. Although we currently lack evidence of texts in other fields—such as kalām, mysticism, and others38—developing into distinct genres akin to tarkīb and iʿrāb, linguistic annotations, whether brief or elaborate, are nonetheless commonly found beneath the lines or in the margins of many texts. Not limited to interlinear translation, this grammatical attentiveness is also reflected in running-sequential translations. For instance, when ʿAbd al-Ṣamad explicates the core theological formula lā ilāha illā-‘l-lāh (there is no God but Allah), he begins by analysing the type of lā used in the phrase and outlining its semantic implications. Translation in this context reflects a deeper concern on the part of Malay translators from the surau community than merely bridging two different languages. Snouck Hurgronje’s observation of the difficulties faced by Southeast Asian Muslim communities in learning and reading Arabic can be understood as their effort to overcome the language barrier— particularly given Arabic’s considerably more complex grammatical structure compared to Malay.39 While the difference in language is undeniably a significant factor in any act of translation, the tradition of Arabic translation in the surau goes beyond this. Linguistic difference is part of the puzzle, but not its foundation. What lies at the core is textual examination. For this reason, the conventional definition of translation—such as: “reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style”40—fails to capture the nature of translation within the Malay/Minangkabau surau tradition. This textual corpus of Surau Simaung shows that for the surau communities, translation was not primarily a matter of seeking equivalents in Malay, but first and foremost an exercise in textual examination. The accuracy of translation lay not in finding a natural equivalent in Malay, but in the successful exploration of all the grammatical details of the Arabic text. Clarity lies not in seamless, idiomatic Malay expression, but rather in the strongest resonance with the original semantic connotation of the Arabic expression. Ricci suggests that interlinear translation “divulges the detailed mechanism of translating prepositions, markers of gender, case, and tense into a very different linguistic context.”41 Indeed, the actual practice of translation was the transfer of Arabic textual analysis into Malay. For the surau communities, translation was an act of textual analysis of Arabic in the vernacular; it thus became the vernacular practice of a postclassical linguistic examination of texts. 38 A comparable genre of text is found in tajwīd, in which the author examines the tajwīd rules for every individual word of the Qur’an (DS 0043 0008, p. 70r). 39 C. Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19th Century: Daily Life, Customs and Learning, the Moslims of the East-Indian Archipelago (Brill, 2007), 284. On this question see Ricci’s article in the present issue. 40 Eugene A. Nida and Charles R. Taber, The Theory and Practice of Translation (Brill, 1982), 12. 41 Ricci, “Reading between the Lines,” 78. Surau Texts Translated • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 Page | 121 Conclusion The surau functioned as a vibrant ecosystem for the transmission of Islamic texts in the Minangkabau world, where scholars and students engaged in the continuous practice of teaching, reading, and translating texts. The Surau Simaung collection stands as a remarkable testament to this tradition, comprising 88 manuscripts and 209 texts. The collection spans works from the early Malay scholars at the turn of the seventeenth century to texts produced well into the twentieth century, offering a broad and rich corpus for understanding the surau textual tradition. This study has shown that translation practices in the surau were diverse, encompassing holistic, running-sequential, and interlinear paradigms. Among these, occasional interlinear translation predominates, revealing a distinctive form of grammatical literalism rooted in the Arabic linguistic structure. This grammatical literalism, noted as early as Van Ronkel’s observations, reflects a deliberate and nuanced engagement with Arabic grammar, lexicon, and syntax—a reflection of post-classical scholarly practices. What emerges from the Surau Simaung corpus is not simply a record of Malay translations of Arabic texts, but a vernacularized mode of textual analysis. Translation functioned as an instrument of grammatical inquiry, enabling students to penetrate the structure and meaning of Arabic discourse through the medium of Malay. This approach departs from conventional models of translation as equivalence, and instead foregrounds translation as a pedagogical and analytical act. At its core, translation in the surau tradition was a vernacular expression of the postclassical Islamic intellectual project. Translation, in this context, was not primarily about finding lexical equivalents in Malay, but fundamentally an exercise in textual analysis. Its accuracy was measured not by how naturally it read in Malay, but by how thoroughly it engaged with the grammatical structure of the Arabic source. Clarity was achieved not through idiomatic fluency, but through the closest possible alignment with the semantic nuance of the original Arabic expression. The surau thus emerges not only as a site of transmission, but as a site of transformation: where Arabic knowledge traditions were not merely received but reconstituted through local, oral, and linguistically exacting modes of engagement. References ANWAR, Khaidir. “Minangkabau, Background of the Main Pioneers of Modern Standard Malay in Indonesia.” Archipel 12, no. 1 (1976): 77–93. https://doi.org/10.3406/arch.1976.1296. AZRA, Azyumardi. Surau: Pendidikan Islam Tradisi dalam Transisi dan Modernisasi. PT. Logos Wacana Ilmu, 2003. BRUCKMAYR, Philipp. “The Šarḥ/Ḥāšiya Phenomenon in Southeast Asia: From al-Sanūsī’s Umm alBarāhīn to Malay Sifat Dua Puluh Literature.” MIDÉO. Mélanges de l’Institut Dominicain d’études Orientales, no. 32 (May 15, 2017): 27–52. DOBBIN, Christine. Kebangkitan Islam dalam Ekonomi Petani yang Sedang Berubah, Sumatra Tengah, 1784–1847, translated by Lillan D. Tedjasudana. INIS, 1992. Fadhli Lukman • 25.3 (2025) IntlinTr: 103–122 Page | 122 DRAKARD, Jane. “A Kingdom of Words: Minangkabau Sovereignty in Sumatran History.” PhD. Dissertation, The Australian National University, 1993. EL SHAMSY, Ahmed. Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition. Princeton University Press, 2020. FATHURAHMAN, Oman. “Naskah dan Rekonstruksi Sejarah Lokal Islam; Contoh Kasus dari Minangkabau.” Wacana 7, no. 2 (2005). HADLER, Jeffrey. Muslims and Matriarchs: Cultural Resilience in Indonesia through Jihad and Colonialism. Cornell University Press, 2008. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt7zc7n. KOORIA, Mahmood. Islamic Law in Circulation: Shāfiʻī Texts across the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization. Cambridge University Press, 2022. MAFTUHIN, Arif. “Translating the Untranslatable: The Jalālayn Learning as a Translation Practice.” Indonesia and the Malay World, January 4, 2024, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811. 2023.2264672. NIDA, Eugene A., and Charles R. Taber. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Brill, 1982. PRAMONO. Khazanah Naskah Minangkabau. Penerbit Erka, 2018. RICCI, Ronit. “Reading between the Lines: A World of Interlinear Translation.” Journal of World Literature 1, no. 1 (2016): 68–80. https://doi.org/10.1163/24056480-00101008. — . “Story, Sentence, Single Word: Translation Paradigms in Javanese and Malay Islamic Literature.” In A Companion to Translation Studies, by Sandra Bermann and Catherine Porter, 543–56. Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture 86. West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2014. RIDDELL, Peter G. “Literal Translation, Sacred Scripture and Kitab Malay.” Studia Islamika 9, no. 2 (2002): 1–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.15408/sdi.v9i1.672. SNOUCK HURGRONJE, C. Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19th Century: Daily Life, Customs and Learning, the Moslims of the East-Indian Archipelago. Brill, 2007. RONKEL, Ph. S. van. Mengenai Pengaruh Tatakalimat Arab Terhadap Tatakalimat Melayu, translated by A. Ikram. Seri Terjemahan Karangan-karangan Belanda (Bhratara, 1977). First published as “Over de Invloed der Arabische Syntaxis op de Maleische,” Tijdschrift voor Indische TaalLanden Volkenkunde, no. 41(1899): 498–528 VOORHOEVE, P. Critical Survey of Studies on the Languages of Sumatra. Bibliographical Series 1. Netherlands: 1955. YUSUF, M, ed. Katalogus Manuskrip dan Skriptorium Minangkabau. C-DATS-TUFS, 2006. © Fadhli Lukman, UIN Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta, Indonesia ◄ fadhli[email protected] ►