Soldier and Son-in-law, Spreader of the Faith and Scribe: Representations of ʿAlĪ in Javanese Literature

This chapter offers a preliminary exploration of ‘Ali's diverse representations in Javanese manuscript literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and considers what such representations may indicate as to his place in Javanese Muslim society. It opens with an examination of ‘Ali's appearance in the Samud corpus, the Javanese renderings of the Book of One Thousand Questions, an important textual tradition that traversed geographical boundaries across the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia. The second part of the chapter considers ‘Ali's portrayal in additional Javanese texts. The chapter also briefly engage with some of the ways ‘Ali's depictions have been understood and categorized by the few scholars who addressed the significance of his presence in the literature of Java.