scholarly journals The Word ‘Lebai’ and Its Ethnic Origins: Reassessing an Early Designation for Muslim Religious Officials in the Malay World

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Wain
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Religious Service ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Ethnic Origins

This article proposes a new etymon for the Malay word lebai (minor religious official/scholar), namely the Sino-Muslim term libai (禮拜, worship or religious service conducted in a mosque). Scholars have traditionally argued that lebai, a loanword introduced during the early stages of Islamization, derives from the Tamil leppai (or lebbai), likewise signifying (amongst other things) a minor religious official/scholar. On this basis, it has been argued that Tamil Muslims acted as Southeast Asia’s earliest Islamic officials. This article critically reassesses the evidence underlying this attribution. By tracing the earliest known Malay usage of lebai to Java –where it emerged alongside Sino-Muslim influences associated with Cirebon, Gresik and Demak– the etymon libai is proposed: since the Song dynasty (960-1279), Sino-Muslims have used the noun libai as a designate for religious affairs (particularly prayers) conducted in a mosque. This study suggests that lebai originates with this term, making it indicative of Sino-Muslim influence during Java’s Islamization.

Guan Yu

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barend J. ter Haar
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Oral Culture ◽  
Literary Traditions ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Oral Practice ◽  
Imperial China ◽  
Violent Action ◽  
A Minor

Guan Yu was a minor general in his own day, who supported one of numerous claimants to the throne in the early third century CE. He was captured and executed by enemy forces in 219. He eventually became one the most popular and influential deities of imperial China under the name Lord Guan or Emperor Guan, of the same importance as the Buddhist bodhisattva Guanyin. This is a study of his cult, but also of the tremendous power of oral culture in a world where writing became increasingly important. The book follows the rise of the deity through his earliest stage as a hungry ghost, his subsequent adoption by a prominent Buddhist monastery during the Tang (617–907) as its miraculous supporter, and his recruitment by Daoist ritual specialists during the Song dynasty (960–1276) as an exorcist general. It continues on with his subsequent roles as a rain god, protector against demons and barbarians, and, eventually, moral paragon and almost messianic saviour. Throughout his divine life, the physical prowess of the deity, more specifically Lord Guan’s ability to use violent action for doing good, remained an essential dimension of his image. Most research ascribes a decisive role in the rise of his cult to the literary traditions of the Three Kingdoms, best known from the famous novel by this name. This book argues that the cult arose from oral culture and spread first and foremost as an oral practice.

Chinese Historiography in the Age of Maturity, 960–1368

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Hartman
Keyword(s):  
South China ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Examination System ◽  
Economic Expansion ◽  
New Class ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
The North ◽  
System A ◽  
Age Of Maturity

This chapter looks at how the Song dynasty (960–1279) reconsolidated central power and eliminated the provincial regimes that had developed in the wake of Tang decentralization. During the first thirty years after 960, they fostered astute policies that promoted and took advantage of continuing economic expansion. To administer their new polity, the Song emperors recruited through the examination system a new class of bureaucratic elite that Western writings on China often call the ‘literati’. The aristocrats of Tang had given way to the merchants and bureaucrats of Song. However, although the Song expanded Chinese economic and political power into South China, it never completed the conquest of all the traditional Chinese lands in the north. The Song coexisted with a series of alien or conquest dynasties to its north and west.

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