The Malay Jambi Ulama Network in the 19th–20th Centuries: Scholarly Transmission and the Influence of the Thought of Shaykh Abd al-Majid and Shaykh Abdus Shamad al-Palimbani

Abstract

The Malay Jambi ulama network in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was part of the wider Islamic intellectual network connecting local centers of learning with Mecca and Medina. This study analyzes the position of Shaykh Abd al-Majid in the transmission of Islamic knowledge in Jambi and the influence of Shaykh Abdus Shamad al-Palimbani’s thought. It employs a historical method and literature-based approach through heuristics, source criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The findings show that knowledge was transmitted through journeys to Mecca, teacher–student relations, classical texts, manuscript copying, and student mobility. Abd al-Majid functioned as a bridge between Jambi’s scholarly environment and the Haramayn. The influence of al-Palimbani is better understood as intellectual and textual transmission through his works, particularly in Sufism, ethics, religious education, and resistance to colonialism. The Jambi ulama network therefore sustained Islamic intellectual traditions and supported the development of Islamic education in Jambi.