Tjandrasasmita, Uka. Pertumbuhan dan Perkembangan Kota-Kota Muslim di Indonesia Dari Abad XIII Sampai XVIII Masehi. Kudus: Menara Kudus, 2000, 239pp.
ABSTRACT
Growth and Development of Muslim Cities in Indonesia from the Thirteenth to the Eighteenth Century CE
Pertumbuhan dan Perkembangan Kota-Kota Muslim di Indonesia Dari Abad XIII Sampai XVIII Masehi
The book is a socio-historical study on Muslim cities in the Indonesian archipelago. It tries to reconstruct the urban life of preindustrial cities from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, namely in the period of Muslim kingdoms. The study refers to various coastal and inland cities, such as Samudra-Pasai, Aceh, Banten, Cirebon, Demak, Gresik, and Gowa-Tallo, which were once capital cities of Muslim kingdoms, and or important trade and commercial cities.
The book applies an urban sociological approach as well as a historical and archaeological one. It also provides a topography and morphology of cities. It uses various kinds of sources, from local writings, foreign travel reports, ancient map, diaries, and archaeological artefacts.
The work provides a background to the coming and spread of Islam in the archipelago, and how Muslim cities grew and developed alongside the growth of Islam. It reconstructs the pattern of traditional cities, their economy, trade commodities, social structure, social and religious institutions, population, culture, and religious life.
It shows that most of the coastal cities were influenced by Islam or the Muslim population. There was a process of accommodation and adaptation between pre-Islamic local culture and Islamic cosmopolitan culture brought by Muslim traders of different nationalities, which influenced cities and their social structures. It finds that coastal cities were more dynamic and cosmopolitan compared to inland cities. Some of the coastal and inland cities expanded to become Muslim kingdoms.
There are useful pictures and drawings, but they are of poor quality. Even though there are many erroneous words and sentences, the book remains readable and fills a gap in the socio-historical field on cities in Indonesia.
Amelia Fauzia
