Introduction

This introductory chapter flips the more common historical perspective that European imperialism led to new patterns of legal pluralism across empires that spawned possibilities for interpolity contact and trade, acting as catalysts for the emergence of global legal regimes. It demonstrates how British and Dutch territorial jurisdictions expressed very specific relationships between territory, authority, and forms of law, and it simultaneously puts into stark relief the preponderance of diasporic Arab merchants generating their own jurisdictions across the Indian Ocean in tandem with those of the European colonist. Not only were these Arabs attuned to legal pluralism being the operative condition of law, they were also acutely aware of jurisdictional ordering and the concentration of power across time and space. The chapter proposes a spatial repositioning of the Indian Ocean from the perspective of Southeast Asia outward toward Hadramawt, a region located in present-day Yemen from which most Arabs in Southeast Asia originated. Ultimately, it presents the result of the legislation after members of the Hadhrami diaspora attempted to bring their own regulation with them, inscribing territorial lines across the Indian Ocean through law.

Legal Incompetence

This chapter explores the jurisdictional problems that Arab populations experienced under Dutch colonial rule. The one thing that the Dutch feared above all else was not the slippage of Arab identity into the category of “Natives” but rather the possible equation of Arabs with themselves, Europeans. The possibility of fluid jurisdictions horrified Dutch authorities. The chapter examines the attempt by the Arab elite in the Netherlands Indies to appeal to Ottoman protection as subjects potentially led to a paradigm of diplomacy in the colony that inadvertently allowed some colonial subjects more latitude than the Dutch colonialists intended for them since they certainly did not possess equal status. The chapter also discusses how the Arab affairs — and one might even argue Muslim affairs in general — remained to some extent in Arab hands in the Netherlands Indies through the symbiotic relationships between colonial officials and the Arab elite.

Constructing the Index of Arabs

This chapter elaborates the gradual dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War contributed to the nationalization of the Arab diaspora in the British and Dutch colonial imagination. It highlights a phenomenon which linked the diaspora to an Arab nation instead of the colonies in Southeast Asia where they had established themselves. As much as the surveillance was focused on Southeast Asia, the chapter reveals that the British interests in the Middle East, in the wake of the demise of the major imperial power in the region (the Ottomans), dictated the direction of surveillance policies. It outlines how the First World War formed a watershed moment in the history of British–Arab relations in Southeast Asia. The chapter also looks at how the strained wartime resources caused colonial officials to feel more vulnerable and isolated, leading them to cement their alliance with the Arab community. Ultimately, the chapter examines the constant attempts of the members of the Arab diaspora who continually tried to prove their utility and legitimacy to colonial authorities, culminating in 1915, in the wake of the Sepoy Mutiny in Singapore, in an alliance with the British of Muslims loyal to the king of England.

Conclusion

This chapter recounts how the members of the Arab diaspora attempted legal arbitrage under colonial rule. It analyses the members' expansion and modification of Islamic law, while at other times they policed the boundaries of Islamic law even as mere translators. The chapter tells the story of the surprising involvement of the outsider — the Arab diaspora — in aiding colonialists to accumulate legislative power. The pace of change from the mid-nineteenth century onward was brisk, and the Arab diaspora capitalized on it while attempting to navigate uncertainty and risk. This chapter also investigates how Arab diaspora in Southeast Asia were able to influence the shape of law to a great extent. It takes a look on how concessions to Arabs in the Straits Settlements, in the form of the Mohamedan Marriage Ordinance, and their appointments as members of the Mohamedan Advisory Board after the Sepoy Mutiny subsequently tied them more closely to the British colonial government, along with the rest of the Muslim population in the colony.

Surat Kuasa

This chapter highlights the importance of paper as a powerful conduit for the spread of jurisdictions in the late colonial period. It compels different authorities to recognize and heed the words of colonial subjects. The chapter also discusses the Surat kuasa, the Malay and Indonesian term for power of attorney, probate, and letters of administration. The power of attorney, also known as volmacht in Dutch, was such a popular device in the Dutch colony. Produced for diverse reasons, powers of attorney were versatile and revocable, and the chapter elaborates three common kinds of powers of attorney: the first dealt with disbursing inheritance shares according to Islamic law; the second was granted by Arabs in Hadramawt to fellow Arabs, usually their relatives or business partners, specifically to manage their business and property in Southeast Asia; and the third was legally controversial and found only in the Netherlands Indies, where colonial subjects classified as “Foreign Orientals,” including Arabs, were restricted from owning certain kinds of property, such as agrarian land, which were reserved for colonial subjects classified as Natives by Dutch authorities. Ultimately, the chapter demonstrates a phenomenon called “illegal occupation,” in which some of the land was acquired through the recouping of debts and by transfer of land through powers of attorney.

Compromises

This chapter examines the institution of the religious endowment known as waqf. In the eyes of colonial authorities, the waqf was essentially a trust, a form of preemptive asset-shielding. The waqf was simultaneously an apotheosis of Arab diaspora's efforts to settle in Southeast Asia and their eventual compromise with colonial authorities. The chapter examines the waqf's complex history in the Islamic world during the fourteenth century and how its revenues are disbursed for a pious purpose. It investigates the Muslim legal practitioners' accusation to the colonial judges of deliberately misinterpreting Islamic law when presiding over cases involving waqfs. The chapter also presents the English legal definition of “charity,” the meaning of charity in colonial courts, and the legal definition of charity in England in cases involving waqfs. Ultimately, the chapter explains the putative opposition of “colonialism” to “Islamic law.” It argues that restrictions imposed by English common law concerning trusts on religious waqfs were exploited by both colonial officials and Arab Muslims who wanted to reap the profits from the sale of failed waqfs.

Resident Aliens

This chapter opens up with a short story written in 1941 by a Dutch writer, which tells of a young Javanese man named Karto and his encounter with an old Arabian. The depiction of the Arab man as a vulture suggests that Arabs in the Dutch Indies were opportunistic scavengers always ready to pounce on the spoils of Natives' misfortunes and prey on their presumed naiveté. The chapter sees how the identities of the Arabs became more rooted in prejudice as Dutch jurisdictions hardened. Drawing upon these prejudices, Dutch legal authorities intensely cultivated the exclusion of Arabs from the bulk of the Native population from the mid-nineteenth century onward. The chapter also outlines the impact of divided Foreign Orientals and scattered Arabs in the Netherlands Indies over a huge geographical expanse across several thousand islands in the colony. Ultimately, the chapter analyses how the property fell into the hands of Foreign Orientals through various mechanisms such as inheritance, powers of attorney, and transfer of debt.

The Lure of Bureaucracy

This chapter evaluates how the Arab elite in Southeast Asia played an outsized role in the development of Islamic law in the British Straits Settlements (Penang, Malacca, and Singapore) and, to a smaller extent, the Netherlands Indies. It presents how the Arabs of the Straits Settlements had already allowed the British government to regulate their intimate lives through the administration of Islamic law, four decades before the First World War. The chapter also explains the clustering around state institutions and reliance on state bureaucracy, and how it went beyond a view toward future litigation and eventual accounting. It investigates how the clustering held government authorities responsible for enforcing terms in waqf deeds, maintaining waqfs, and disciplining errant trustees. Ultimately, this chapter demonstrates how members of the Arab elite successfully persuaded colonial leaders to take on the mantle of administration of Islamic law in 1880 because they wished for the presence of a strong state regulatory agency in the form of a strong judicial system.