1

Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World

 Matrilineal Islam Mother Kinship in Indo
Malay World
First Published in the United Arab Emirates 2023

by Communities Center Publishing

Authorized by:

Media Regulatory Office - Ministry of Culture and Youth

Printing Permit: MC-02-01-4135500

ISBN: 978-9948-785-41-5

The age category of this book has been classified and determined
according to the age classification system issued by the Ministry of
Culture and Youth (E).

All rights reserved. The use, reproduction, or transmission of any

materials included in this book, in whole or in part, in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or using any information storage and retrieval system, is
prohibited without a written permission from the publisher.

The ideas and opinions published in this book are those of the
author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher in
any way

Contact us at: [email protected]

2
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
 3
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
 The World Muslim Communities Council is an
international non-governmental organization,
founded on 8 May 2018 in Abu Dhabi. It includes
more than 900 Islamic organizations and
institutions from 142 countries. It is a think tank
to help organizations and associations operating
in Muslim communities, renew their thinking,
improve their performance, and coordinate their
joint work.

4
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
 5
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
 CONTENTS

Page Introduction

7
Page Chapter I

10 Matrifocal, Matrilineal, or Matriarchal?

Cultural Resilience and Vulnerability among
the Matrilineal and Muslim Minangkabau in
Indonesia

Lyn Parker

Page Chapter 2

48 Adat Perpatih in Malaysia:

Nature, History, Practice, and Contemporary
Issues
Alexander Wain and Norliza Saleh

Page Chapter 3

79 Cultural and Social Integrations in Matrilineal,

Matriarchal, Matrifocal Muslim Communities
of South India
Abbas Panakkal
6
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
 7
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
 Introduction

Matrilineal and Matriarchal Islam is a social system that appears to be drawn

largely from the customary practices that involve tracing inheritance through
the maternal lines and giving prominent roles to women in public province as
well as family dominance. In these communities economic and social stability
for women gave them the upper hand in fiscal and personal choices. In this
volume, four chapters on various matrilineal communities in Indo-Malay world
highlight diverse cultural scenarios connected with distinctive social practices
related to ownership of property, transfer inheritance from mother to daughter.
The power, freedom and comfort enjoyed by ladies in their ancestral home
and community are also matter of discussion along with the comparisons of
practices in the similar patriarchal Muslim communities.

Lyn Parker, in Chapter One “Matrifocal, Matrilineal or Matriarchal? Cultural

Resilience and Vulnerability among the Matrilineal and Muslim Minangkabau
in Indonesia” narrates vulnerability and resilience among the matrilineal
and Muslim Minangkabau in Indonesia,” which is considered as the largest
matrilineal group in the world with number of 6.5 million in 2010. The author
surveys many studies at different times, which variously claimed that
Minangkabau society is matrifocal, matrilineal and matriarchal. Traditionally,
in Minangkabau , three or four generations of matrikin were accommodated
in the famous, buffalo-horn-shaped longhouses. This chapter explores how
various integrations and adaptations contributed to the cultural resilience
of the Minangkabau.The chapter investigates some distinctive features of
Minangkabau society – their descent, residence and inheritance patterns,
their education, occupations, mode of governance and their Islamic identity
with a view to measuring the vulnerability and resilience of the Minangkabau.
The society remains matrifocal in fields such as family and village organisation,
and the village economy defending against the Wahhabi-style of invasions
and infiltrations, which failed to dislodge matrilineality. The author illustrates
how adat has been remarkably resistant to change and capable of adaptability
addressing the question of its vulnerability or resilience. The matrilineal adat
thrives and embraced as practicing Islam in the region. Adat provides many
women with cultural, political and practical resources (assets) that enable
them to be comparatively powerful, not only in family life but also in village life
and the village economy. Though there are adat explicitly estrange with parts
of Islamic law such as inheritance practices, the Minangkabau integrated
8
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
traditional law and indigenized the religion of Islam in the region with greater
societal acceptance. Muslims, in Minangkabau region, integrated matricentric
traditions facilitating the cultural, economic and social resources that sustain
the distinctive way of life. The practical power of matrilineal adat might recede,
but one suspects that the rich and flexible intermeshing of Islamic fervour and
matrilineal ethnic identity will survive.

In Chapter Two, under the title of “Adat Perpatih in Malaysia: Nature, History,
Practices, and Contemporary Issues”, Alexander Wain & Norliza Saleh explore
the evolution of adat perpatih, the traditional matrilineal system, which
is found primarily across Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The authors outline
along with the early historical adat perpatih, how the practice buttonholes
the concerns of community leadership, marriage, and property ownership,
inheritance etc. This chapter also highlights how adat perpatih protects the
fundamentals of the matricentric community, in which tradition upholds covet
to shield the status of women as mothers of society and shelter matricentric
social and community structure in vernacular Islam. Marriage customs in
adat perpatih endorses the principle of exogamy, where marriage within the
same suku is strictly forbidden; all members of the same clan are considered
siblings, between whom marriage is unacceptable for the sake of the suku’s
long-term health and prosperity. The chapter also illustrates adat perpatih’s
degeneration from the mid-Nineteenth century onwards as societal changes
linked to colonialism began to manifest across Southeast Asia.

“Cultural and Social Integrations in Matrilineal, Matriarchal, Matrifocal Muslim

Communities of South India” is discussed in Chapter Three by Abbas Panakkal.
This chapter sheds lights on the early traces of matrilineal Islam in Indian sub-
continent by analyzing the the manuscript copy of ‘Futûhât al Jazāʾir’. This
study redefines matrilineal Muslim identity, which was solely connected to the
Nair communities by early researchers, negating existence of the matrilineal
traditions even in tribal communities. The chapter reconnoiters the long dure
legal traditions that supported the sustainability of the matrilineal ethnic
groups of Malabar Muslims, when the British imposed colonial law aiming to
curb the matrilineal logics, which was pigeonholed as un-Islamic.The chapter
also analyses matrilineal, matrifocal, matriarchal and matrilocal practices
prevalent among Muslim communities that helped for integration well
into the local socio-cultural context, exploring its history, various responses
from traditional Ulema, Salafi and Wahhabi ‘reformists’ and the British. It
is significant that how Muslims could prevent in large extent the colonial
move to curtail women’s rights enjoyed in matrilineal Muslim families. How

9
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
matricentric practices being continued at different levels through distinctive
systems and procedures are also discussed. This chapter opens up hefty
endeavors of Muslim communities to prevent and overcome the classing of
‘un-Islamic’ and infuses the strains of the traditional Muslim communities to
retain the integrated cultures in the arduous un-Islamic labelling by Wahhabi
- Salafi ‘reformists’ from own community. Matrilineal Islamic practices were
accepted and adopted by early Muslim scholars and leaders of Malabar. In the
modern day, Salafi, Wahhabi and other political Islamist movements negated
matrilineal Islam and its distinctive natures and labeled un-Islamic. In contrary
to supporting women centric Islam in matrilineal Muslim communities, so
called ‘reformers’ excluded and disproved incorporated practices, classifying
as outcaste. This chapter endeavore to review the position of legal and social
integration of matrilineal culture in Indian subcontinent, different from the
early studies in the region. In these Muslim Communities women›s centrality
was unambiguously visible. The matrilineal, matrifocal and matriarchal natures
were unequivocally amalgamated in womanhood groups. The design of
production and the division of control, patterns of physical progress, parental
privileges over children and property, the temperament and disposition of
connubial, license and mandate on policymaking were seldom solely done
by men without much consolation of women. The author concludes that
matrilineal family structures and traditions were legalized using prominent
terminologies. It is amazing to see that matrilineal societies verged to preserve
their community and cultural moorings, where we could see men happily
sacrifice the neo-colonial patriarchal legal backings to uphold the integrated
family traditions.

10
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
 Chapter 1
Matrifocal, Matrilineal, or Matriarchal?
Cultural Resilience and Vulnerability among
the Matrilineal and Muslim Minangkabau in
Indonesia
Lyn Parker
Abstract

Minangkabau society has been variously claimed to be matrilineal, matrifocal

and matriarchal. This paper surveys some distinctive features of Minangkabau
society—their kinship system and residence and inheritance patterns; their
propensity to move away from their homeland (merantau); their education,
occupations, and mode of governance; and their Islamic identity—in order
to assess these claims and to gauge the vulnerability and resilience of the
Minangkabau. The paper agrees that the kinship system is matrilineal and
the society matrifocal, but not matriarchal. Social adaptations such as the
increasing importance of husbands/fathers and the concomitant decline
in the importance of the mamak (mother›s brother), the growth of private
property, and the growing importance of the nuclear family and neolocal
residence patterns contribute to the cultural resilience of the Minangkabau.

Keywords: matrilineal, matrifocal, vulnerability, resilience, Minangkabau.

The Minangkabau are reputed to be the largest matrilineal group in the world.
At the last census in Indonesia, in 2010, they numbered around 6.5 million.(1)
Of these, 4.2 million live in their homeland of West Sumatra, one of the most
ethnically homogenous provinces in Indonesia.(2) The remainder live primarily
in the neighbouring provinces of Riau and North Sumatra, and in Jakarta—the
capital city—and the surrounding urban areas that make up the megalopolis
of Jabodatabek.(3) Others live in Negeri Sembilan, in Malaysia, or scattered
around the archipelago.

1 BPS (Badan Pusat Statistik), Sensus Penduduk 2010 (2010 Census).

2 PCGN (The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names), Indonesia: population and admin-
istrative divisions, 2003, 6, table 3.
3 BPS (Badan Pusat Statistik), Kewarganegaraan, Suku Bangsa, Agama dan Bahasa Sehari-hari
Penduduk Indonesia Hasil Sensus Penduduk 2011, 36.
11
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
The equatorial homeland of the Minangkabau (alam Minangkabau)
experiences frequent natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions,
earthquakes, and tsunamis. Running through and beyond the province of
West Sumatra, parallel to the west coast, is the Bukit Barisan—a spectacular,
jungle-clad mountain range consisting of several active volcanoes—that
divides the coastal plain from the beautiful upland. This fertile volcanic upland
is the original homeland of the Minangkabau, the darek, and roughly consists
of the contemporary administrative districts of Agam, Limapuluh Kota, and
Tanah Datar, marked by Mount Singgalang to the west and Lake Singkarak to
the south. To the north, south, and east, as well as the western coastal plain,
including the provincial capital city, Padang, is the rantau, the traditional
frontier region.

At different times, scholars have variously claimed that Minangkabau society

is “matrifocal,”(4) “matrilineal,”(5) and “matriarchal.”(6) Minangkabau adat (social
organisation, tradition and custom) is distinctive:

The core of Minangkabau social organisation was the adat pusako, the adat
of matrilineal heritage that regulated kinship, group affiliation, inheritance of
property and succession to office within the nagari [village].(7)

It is often seen as a paradox that the Minangkabau, while enjoying this

matrilineal heritage, are also fervently Muslim, and known for being among
Indonesia’s most pious. This paper surveys some distinctive features of
Minangkabau society—their descent, residence, and inheritance patterns;
their social life; their propensity to move away from their homeland (merantau);
their education, livelihoods, and economy; their mode of governance; and their
Islamic identity—in order to assess the claims of matrifocality, matrilineality,
and matriarchy, and concludes that Minangkabau social organisation is both

4 For example, Nancy Tanner, «Matrifocality in Indonesia and Africa and Among Black Ameri-
cans,» in Michelle Z. Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (eds.), Woman, Culture and Society (Stanford:
University of Stanford Press, 1974), 129-56.
5 For example, Joke van Reenen, Central Pillars of the House: Sisters, Wives and Mothers in a rural
community in Minangkabau, West Sumatra, Leiden: Research School CNWS, Leiden University,
1996, and Evelyn Blackwood, Webs of power: Women, kin and community in a Sumatran village,
Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000.
6 For example, Peggy Reeves Sanday, Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy, Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 2002.
7 Franz and Kebeet von Benda-Beckmann, Political and Legal Transformations of an Indonesian
Polity: The Nagari from Colonisation to Decentralisation (New York: Cambridge University Press,
2013), 11.

12
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
matrifocal and matrilineal, but not matriarchal. The paper also has a second
aim: to note how these features, and recent changes, contribute to both the
vulnerability and the resilience of the Minangkabau.

I begin with some definitional discussion of the terms under examination:

first matrifocality, matrilineality, and matriarchy, and then resilience and
vulnerability. I next introduce the distinctive melding of Islam and adat
practised by the Minangkabau through a brief historical survey. The paper
then shifts to a more ethnographic mode, examining social organisation—
the structure of families and households, the position of men, matrilocal and
neolocal residence, sibling bonds, the practice of merantau (migration)—
followed by education, ancestral inheritance (harto pusako), work and the
village economy, the larger economy, merantau and remittances, and
governance, arguing for the continuing vitality of matrilineal adat in this
strongly Muslim society.

Key Concepts

Matrifocality
Nancy Tanner’s excellent 1974 paper on “Matrifocality in Indonesia, Africa and
among Black Americans” was not the first to use this term, but was the clearest
exposition of the concept and the first to identify the Acehnese, Minangkabau
and Javanese societies in Indonesia as “matrifocal”. She provided a useful
summary of matrifocality as referring to “the cultural elaboration and valuation,
as well as the structured centrality, of mother roles within a kinship system.”(8)
For the Minangkabau, she identified the following features as constituting
its matrifocality: “the woman, as mother, is focal in terms both of affect
and of effective power within the minor lineage, the matrilineally extended
family, and the nuclear family. … [Other] structural features include women’s
important economic roles, women’s extensive participation in decision
making, and a residential pattern that enhances ties among kinswomen.”(9) To
my knowledge, the aptness of the term for the Minangkabau has never been
challenged. Ng makes the argument that Minangkabau society is matrifocal
the central argument of her thesis, and I would also subscribe to its validity.(10) It

8 Tanner, “Matrifocality in Indonesia,” 154 (italics in original).

9 Tanner, “Matrifocality in Indonesia,” 143.
10 Cecilia Ng, The Weaving of prestige: Village women›s representations of the social categories of
Minangkabau society, Ph.D. dissertation: The Australian National University, 1987.

13
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
is worth noting, though, that matrifocal societies do not have to be matrilineal:
indeed, the Javanese kinship system is bilateral, not matrilineal.

Matrilineality
Matrilineality among the Minangkabau is assumed by Tanner, and their
matrilineality is generally accepted as fact in Indonesia—in anthropology
textbooks, for example. Matrilineality refers to a kinship system where descent
is traced through the female line. For the Minangkabau it is associated with
matrilocal residence (newly-married couples live with the bride’s mother) and
matrilineally-traced descent groups (suku), with descent traced to an apical
ancestress, as well as with exogamy of descent groups, inheritance from
mother to daughter of descent-group-owned assets such as land and multi-
generational longhouses—and an important role for the mother’s brother
(mamak).

The place of men in matrilineal societies has often been problematised by

anthropologists, because a man’s loyalties are seen to be divided between
responsibilities to his mother, sister, and larger matrilineage on the one hand,
and to his wife and children on the other. Upon marriage, a man typically leaves
his mother’s house for his wife’s house. Schneider claims that in matrilineal
kinship systems,

the role of men as men is defined as … having authority over women and
children (except perhaps for specially qualifying conditions applicable to
a very few women of the society). Positions of highest authority within the
matrilineal descent group will, therefore, ordinarily be vested in statuses
occupied by men.(11)

Feminist scholars have challenged the patriarchal assumptions of Schneider

and others—for example that it is a problem for men to be exchanged in
marriage and for men not to have authority over women; that men are
“missing” in matrilineal societies; and that men have no place in matrilineal
societies and so are pushed “out” to migrate or wander.(12) Such scholars have
also convincingly shown that Minang women command respect and have
considerable authority in Minang society(13) and that they wield “practical

11 David M. Schneider, «Introduction: The Distinctive Features of Matrilineal Descent Groups,»

in David M. Schneider and Kathleen Gough (eds.), Matrilineal Kinship (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1961), 6.
12 See also Evelyn Blackwood, «Wedding Bell Blues: Marriage, Missing Men, and Matrifocal
Follies,» American Ethnologist 32:1 (2005), 3-19, and Jennifer Krier, «The Marital Project: Beyond the
Exchange of Men in Minangkabau Marriage,» American Ethnologist 27:4 (2000), 877-97.
13 Blackwood, Webs of Power; van Reenen, Central Pillars of the House; Sanday, Women at the
Center; Ng, The Weaving of Prestige; Lucy A. Whalley, Virtuous Women, Productive Citizens: Negoti-
14
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
power,”(14) even if they do not always appear in public to be the decision-
makers.

Scholars of the alam Minangkabau—the Minangkabau world—have long

predicted the demise of matrilineality due to the incursions of a patriarchal
national gender ideology, a revitalised Islam in Indonesia, and global capitalism,
which entails private property. Neolocal residence has become common in
towns and cities in West Sumatra, and many multi-generational longhouses
are no longer maintained and are now defunct. The role of men in families
is changing, with fathers and husbands becoming more important and the
nuclear family emerging as a significant social unit. However, Minangkabau
society is still based on matriliny, and I agree with Simon that the matrilineal
kinship system is “thriving” and basically uncontested today.(15) I am interested
to see how matriliny provides resources to sustain people, especially women
and girls, and, in turn, to see if it somehow makes men vulnerable.

Matriarchy
Matriarchy is a contested concept in anthropology, and the designation of
Minangkabau society as matriarchal is also contested. Etymologically, the
word means “rule by mothers,” and more generally refers to “domination by
female members of society”.(16) However, some feminist anthropologists have
advocated for a different view of matriarchy that aims to avoid what they see
as a sexist focus on power and substitute a socio-cultural definition:

in terms not of power but of the cultural roles of mothers in knitting together
the social ties of daily life in their various activities including the ritual exchange
of gifts in the life cycle [….] [M]atriarchy [is] applicable to archetypically mother-
centered societies [and is] reflected in life-cycle and daily activities based on
maternal–fraternal values, consensus decision making, peace building, and
negotiating controversy toward peaceful ends.(17)

The two main meanings might be understood as relating to different domains,

ating Tradition, Islam and Modernity in Minangkabau, Indonesia, Ph.D. dissertation: University of
Illinois, 1993.
14 Gregory M. Simon, Caged in on the Outside: Moral Subjectivity, Selfhood, and Islam in Minangk-
abau, Indonesia (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2014), 36.
15 Simon, Caged in on the Outside, 8.
16 Anne Siegetsleitner, «Matriarchy», in H. James Birx (ed.) Encyclopedia of Anthropology (Thou-
sand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2006), 1554-5.
17 Peggy Reeves Sanday, «Matriarchy,» in Hilary Callan (ed.) The International Encyclopedia of
Anthropology, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2018.
15
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
so the definition that refers to dominance and “rule” focuses on the politico-
jural domain while the other refers to the social or perhaps only the domestic
domain.(18) Nevertheless, Sanday, a prominent feminist anthropologist of the
Minangkabau, is one of the principal advocates of this socio-cultural view of
matriarchy,(19) and sees the Minangkabau as a clear example. On the other
hand, some anthropologists, myself included, do not:

Whether these societies [such as the Minangkabau] are not only matrilineal
but also matriarchal is a matter of debate. Most anthropologists sharply
distinguish matrilineal descent from matriarchy and refuse the term
matriarchy for these societies. They point to studies showing that matrilineal
descent and the distribution of power, though interrelated, are separate.(20)

I find that one can only describe the Minangkabau as matriarchal if one
accepts Sanday’s definition of matriarchy, and to me it is not significantly
different from Tanner’s matrifocality. In my estimation, Minangkabau society is
both matrilineal and matrifocal—but not matriarchal. This section has flagged
some of the issues inherent to these matri-kinship terms, which will be teased
out for the Muslim Minangkabau in the main body of the chapter.

This introductory section now moves to two other key words that shape this
paper: resilience and vulnerability. Why discuss the resilience and vulnerability
of the Minangkabau? One obvious answer might be because scholars—and
the Minangkabau themselves—have been engaged in a long debate about
the fate of their ethnic identity. While this debate is interesting and important
to many Minangkabau, my purpose in addressing Minangkabau resilience
and vulnerability is not to join this debate. I do not see Minangkabau culture
and society as being in danger of moral decay, dysfunction, or extinction, and
have discussed what I see as a moral panic elsewhere.(21) Rather, here I am
interested in examining the resources that matrifocality, matrilineality and
Islamic religiosity offer the Minangkabau, and, conversely, if and how these
social arrangements and ideologies are sources of vulnerability.

The research underpinning this paper is part of a larger team project on

economic, social, and health vulnerabilities in Indonesia, and the Minangkabau

18 André Béteille, «Inequality and Equality,» in Tim Ingold (ed.) Companion Encyclopedia of An-
thropology: Humanity, Culture and Social Life, London: Taylor & Francis Group, 1993.
19 Sanday, Women at the Center.
20 Siegetsleitner, «Matriarchy», 1555.
21 Lyn Parker, «The Moral Panic about the Socializing of Young People in Minangkabau,» Wacana:
Journal of the Humanities in Indonesia 15:1 (2014), 19-40.
16
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
site is one of several around the archipelago.(22) That project is about the
conditions that make people vulnerable as individuals and as sub-populations.
We are particularly interested in the resources that cultures offer to those
who are disadvantaged or suffer mishaps, and the ways that people adapt
to misfortune. This investigation is multi-scalar: while cultural resources apply
more or less to groups, and indeed can be negotiated and adapted in group
decision-making, they also apply to individuals who are differently positioned
within these groups, and individuals have to cope with disadvantage and
change on a daily basis.

Vulnerability
Vulnerability involves a precarious balance between risks and resources.(23) Risks
can be sudden events, such as health shocks, environmental disasters, or sudden
unemployment; gradual social change, such as changing family structures; or
longer-term social and individual conditions such as intergenerational poverty,
persistent food scarcity, lack of education, or individual disability. Resources
can include material capital (income, assets), social capital (social networks,
social welfare), cultural capital (such as education, religious expertise), and
natural resources (reliable rainfall, fertile soils, accessible forest or sea, access to
arable land), as well as human capital (health, resourcefulness) and symbolic
capital (status, reputation). When the risks outweigh the resources, people
are made vulnerable. I take it as axiomatic that vulnerability will be culturally
mediated—that is, that people’s perceptions of risks, threats, vulnerability,
and resources to pre-empt or ameliorate the worst possible outcomes will be
shaped by the cultural context. Here, I place agency centre-stage, examining
how individuals and networks negotiate challenges, mobilise resources, and
engage in diverse strategies to avoid bad outcomes.(24)

Resilience
Resilience has become a key word in several fields—including poverty
reduction/development studies, disaster risk reduction, climate change
adaptability, and social protection—and is now ubiquitous in public discourse,

22 This paper is part of a large team project on Social, Economic and Health Vulnerabilities in In-
donesia, funded by the Australia Research Council, DP160101559. Fieldwork in villages and the town
of Bukittinggi in West Sumatra has been conducted intermittently since 2004.
23 Elisabeth Schrӧder-Butterfill and Ruly Marianti, «Understanding Vulnerabilities in Old Age,» Ageing and Society
26:1 (2006), 3-8.
24 Lyn Parker (ed.), The agency of women in Asia, Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Academic, 2005; Schrӧder-Butterfill
and Marianti, «Understanding Vulnerabilities in Old Age.»
17
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
such as media reportage of natural disasters, Covid19-, and so on. A simple
definition is that resilience is the “ability to resist, recover from, or adapt to
the effects of a shock or a change;”(25) a more substantial one incorporates
three dimensions of resilience: absorptive capacity or persistence (the various
strategies by which individuals and/or households resist, moderate, or buffer
the impacts of shocks on their livelihoods and basic needs); adaptive capacity
(the ability of a system to adjust to change to moderate potential damage,
take advantage of opportunities, and/or to cope with the consequences); and
transformability (the “capacity to create a fundamentally new system when
ecological, economic or social structures make the existing system untenable.”(26)
It is these three dimensions that will be referenced in the body of this paper.

The Minangkabau
Most discussions about the vulnerability and resilience of the Minangkabau
have centred on the possibility that the distinctive Minangkabau adat was
under threat, and that the continued existence of Minangkabau ethnicity
was therefore open to question. The conclusion of most recent scholars has
been that the matrilineal adat is alive and well, having resisted or adapted
to various incursions over the last two centuries. This may be called “cultural
resilience”.(27) A second, related question has been the reason for the decline in
the influence of the Minangkabau in the Indonesian public sphere—in politics,
education, literature, and intellectual life. This question is not addressed here,
but has been discussed by various authors.(28) A third question is “whether
Minangkabau society is properly Islamic”.(29) Today, the formulaic response to
this last question would be “ABS-SBK”, an acronym from “adat basandi syarak,
syarak basandi kitabullah” meaning that adat is based on Islamic law and

25 Tom Mitchell and Katie Harris, “Resilience: A risk management approach”, ODI Background
Note, London: Overseas Development Institute, 2012.
26 Walker et al. 2004, 5, cited in Christophe Béné et al., «Resilience: new utopia or new tyranny?
Reflection about the potentials and limits of the concept of resilience in relation to vulnerability
reduction programmes,» IDS Working Papers 2012 (405), 21.

27 Jeffrey Hadler, Muslims and Matriarchs: Cultural Resilience in Indonesia through Jihad and
Colonialism, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2008.
28 See Hadler, Muslims and Matriarchs; Franz and Kebeet von Benda-Beckmann, Political and Le-
gal Transformations of an Indonesian Polity; Franz and Kebeet von Benda-Beckmann, «Ambivalent
Identities: Decentralization and Minangkabau Political Communities,» in H. Schulte-Nordholt and
G. van Klinken (eds.) Renegotiating Boundaries: Local Politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia (Leiden:
KITLV Press, 2007), 417-42; Audrey Kahin, Rebellion to Integration: West Sumatra and the Indone-
sian polity 1926–1998, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1999.
29 Simon, Caged in on the Outside, 50.
18
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Islamic law is based on the Qurʾān. ABS-SBK is patently ahistorical, but to the
Minangkabau it “conveys the notion that Islam, as Truth, is the eternal and
immutable source of adat”.(30) However, there is another, earlier version of this
saying, which gives adat more authority: “adat is based on syarak (Islamic law),
syarak is based on adat” (ABS-SBA). This version is no longer in use. History
provides some answers as to how ABS-SBK came to be the answer to the
apparent paradox posed by the co-existence of adat and Islam.

The History of Adat and Islam in the Alam

Minangkabau
Central Sumatra, which includes the contemporary province of West Sumatra,
became secure in its Islamic identity during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.(31) Much of what is now called adat, or custom, predates Islamisation,
and is a complex mix of animistic beliefs; belief in the divinity of the ruler; lore
enshrined in Minangkabau myths, folk stories (carito), and chronicles (tambo);
and a distinctive, hierarchical, matrilineal social organisation.(32) Islamisation
occurred via the west coast entrepôts and east coast rivers, with rulers and
important brokering families leading the way. Three Sufi orders (tarekat)
were well established in Minangkabau by the eighteenth century; Islam was
attractive to local rulers and traders; and there was an easy accommodation
between Sufi Islam and pre-existing animistic traditions.(33)

The Padri Wars of 37–1821 had a decisive influence on the construction of

Minangkabau identity. Sometimes presented as a civil war, sometimes as a
war of independence between local people and the Dutch, this intermittent
conflict was both. At the beginning there were two opposed local Minangkabau
sides, both nominally professing Islam. One side, the traditionalists or adat
followers, saw much value in their pre-Islamic traditions. They were opposed
by the Padris: Wahhabi Muslim reformers or ‘modernists’, some of whom
had gone to the Middle East to perform the hajj and to study, then returned,
inspired to cleanse their homeland of what they saw as local accretions. This
was the conflict that triggered, or presented itself as an excuse for, Dutch
intervention in the Sumatran highlands from 1821 to 1837, and so began

30 Simon, Caged in on the Outside, 51.

31 Christine Dobbin, Islamic revivalism in a changing peasant economy: Central Sumatra, 1784-
1847, London and Malmo: Curzon Press, 1983.
32 von Benda-Beckmann, Political and Legal Transformations of an Indonesian Polity, chapter
two.
33 Dobbin, Islamic revivalism in a changing peasant economy, 117-21.
19
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
the colonial period.(34) The challenge posed by the returning Padri forced
the Minangkabau to articulate a defence of their matrilineal society and to
evaluate their own response to the impositions of the colonial state. Matriliny
survived in Minang, not in spite of the violent Islamic revival but because of it.(35)

Nearly a century later, in the 1910s and 20s, another unequivocally ‘modern’
nationalist movement rocked the alam Minangkabau.(36) The first aim of the
modernist reformists (the Kaum Muda, literally the “Young Group”) was a re-
run of the Padri efforts almost a century before, but it was the second of their
aims that really revolutionised Minangkabau society:

The religious and educational activities of the Kaum Muda ulama and their
students and followers brought about an expansion and modernization of
religious schools. By using Islam as the basis of their programs, the Islamic
modernists could claim religious sanction for their activities.(37)

Their antagonists were the Kaum Tua, literally the “Old Group,” who were
either committed to matrilineal adat or to tarekat-based (Sufi) Islam.

I will return to education in more detail later, but the Kaum Muda movement
and the new, politicised Islamic schools—particularly the Sumatra Thawalib
school in Padang Panjang—were a significant force, producing “a peculiar form
of intellectualized Islamic communism».(38) The new movement introduced
schools for girls, promoted the growth of government schools, fostered a
vibrant new journalism, and heralded a strong women’s movement, which
encouraged women to be active in politics, social welfare, and media.(39) A
devastating earthquake in 1926 was followed by the 1927 “Communist” uprising
by tin and coal miners. The Dutch quelled the uprising with considerable force.
The Kaum Muda movement was over, but once again the Minangkabau had
been forced to defend their adat, rationalise it, write it down, and justify it.
The opposition the Kaum Muda protagonists had provoked had shown that
Minangkabau matrilineal adat was both strong and adaptable.

34 Dobbin, Islamic revivalism in a changing peasant economy; Taufik Abdullah, Schools and
politics: The Kaum Muda movement in West Sumatra, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Modern Indo-
nesia Project, 1971; Elizabeth E. Graves, The Minangkabau response to Dutch colonial rule in the
nineteenth century, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1981; Joel Kahn, Constituting the Minangkabau:
peasants, culture and modernity in colonial Indonesia, Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1993.
35 Hadler, Muslims and Matriarchs, 180.
36 Abdullah, Schools and Politics; Kahin, Rebellion to Integration.
37 Abdullah, Schools and Politics, 1.
38 Hadler, Muslims and Matriarchs, 139.
39 Hadler, Muslims and Matriarchs.
20
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
The history of the Minangkabau through the twentieth century is interesting,
but here my focus must be on matriliny and Islam, so I will only mention the
nationwide movements of Islamisation since the 1980s, and democratisation
and decentralisation post- 1998.

Islamisation is a global process, and has been active in Indonesia since the
1980s.(40) It has created a more Islamic public space in Indonesia, and a much
more public expression of piety. Perhaps the most noticeable change has
been the widespread wearing of the Islamic headscarf (jilbab). While Islam
is extremely diverse in Indonesia, there has been an obvious shift from an
open, tolerant Islam that was “inclined to compromise” to a more conservative
and fundamentalist expression of religion.(41) Fundamentalism has emerged
as an important force in Indonesian society, encouraged by the presence
of transnational Islamic movements such as Wahhabism and the Muslim
Brotherhood.

In West Sumatra, the widespread adoption of the jilbab, the building of

many mosques, and the increased popularity of Islamic schooling are salient
manifestations of Islamisation. There is a renewed interest in personal practices
of faith and the cultivation of one’s own identity as a moral and devout person.
This project of personal morality occurs within a strengthened community
commitment to Islamic values. People are constantly monitoring themselves
and their friends and family through questions such as “Have you prayed yet?”
or suggesting “Let’s pray first before we do that!” Such reminders punctuate
conversations in a remarkable effort of community piety. Exhortations to
pray regularly pepper sermons and other religious talks, which are relayed
over loud speakers—sometimes for entire days. The twin aims are to work on
oneself, to become truly ikhlas, or sincere, with a “genuine devotion to fulfilling
the moral and ethical teaching of Islam”(42) and to implement dakwah (the call
to Muslims to obey Allāh and model the life of the Prophet). It is apposite to
describe Islamisation as a project of personal morality.

In Minangkabau, the long history of reconciling adat with Islam has no doubt

40 Greg Fealy and Sally White (eds.), Expressing Islam: Religious Life and Politics in Indonesia.
Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2008.
41 Martin van Bruinessen, «Introduction: Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam and
the «Conservative Turn» of the early twenty-first century,» in Martin van Bruinessen (ed.), Contem-
porary Development in Indonesian Islam: Explaining the «Conservative Turn,» (Singapore: Institute
of Southeast Asian Studies, 2013), 3.
42 Mitsuo Nakamura, The crescent arises over the banyan tree: a study of the Muhammadijah
movement in a Central Javanese town, Ph.D. dissertation: Cornell University, 1976.
21
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
left a legacy of some insecurity about the extent to which their version of Islam
is adequate, yet people are loathe to discuss “versions” of Islam and are much
happier to see it as the objective Truth— hence the way that the aphoristic
acronym ABS-SBK (Adat is based on Islamic law, Islamic law is based on the
Qurʾān) is used as a way to rhetorically but definitively end any questioning.
Islamisation in Minangkabau has not been directed at changing the basic
structures of society but rather at cultivating sincere and pious Muslim
subjects.(43) They do not always agree on what being a good Muslim means—
there is disagreement on whether or not young people are allowed by Islam
to have boy- and girlfriends, for instance—but the desirability of being a good
Muslim is unquestionable.

A feature of rejuvenated Islam is that behaviour is thought to reveal the inner

self. The regular performance of prayers indicates a person who will not steal,
gamble, or defraud others. Learning to recite the Qurʾān will automatically
lead to piety and good behaviour.

…[T]he person is evident on the surface, and the moral person is one who is
apparent conforming to accepted standards of sociality. The intense focus on
socializing (bagaua), on conforming (being biaso), and on situating oneself
within the social body (awak) rather than separating oneself from it as an
individual (being sombong) all fit well into this moral and epistemological
framework in which the value of persons lies in their realization of integration
with others… Minangkabau people tend to understand etiquette as realizing
a genuine part of self. Social appearances, as part of the lived fabric of human
life, are themselves morally significant.(44)

Islamisation was already underway in Indonesia when the 1998 downfall

of long-term authoritarian ruler President Suharto ushered in an era of
democracy and decentralisation. It was the notion of local, community
participation that articulated democratisation and decentralisation in
Indonesia.(45) Decentralisation connoted the devolution of finances, power,
and control of local affairs to local authorities, made local constituencies
accountable for local authorities, and made each region responsible for the
equitable distribution of its own wealth.(46) Local institutions were revived and

43 Simon, Caged in on the Outside.

44 Simon, Caged in on the Outside, 79.
45 M. Turner, O. Podger, M. Sumardjono, and W.K. Tirthayasa (eds.), Decentralisation in Indonesia:
Redesigning the State (Canberra: Asia Pacific Press, 2003), 6.
46 E. Aspinall and G. Fealy (eds.) Local power and politics in Indonesia: Decentralisation & democ-
22
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
reformed, and there was a great rediscovery (and sometimes invention) of
adat and tradition.(47)

In West Sumatra, the original form of the village, the nagari, was revived, and
there was a great movement, baliak ka nagari (return to the nagari), which
became provincial policy in 1998.(48) The (re-)establishment of the nagari
in West Sumatra as the lowest level of government became the example
par excellence of decentralization in Indonesia. (Since the mid1970-s and
especially since the 1979 Law on Village Government, villages in West Sumatra
had had to conform with the national model of a village (desa), basically
following a Javanese model. This had caused the restructuring and splitting of
nagari, which were seen by the Minangkabau to embody adat and traditional
leadership structures.)

A further development after 1998 was the passing of multiple provincial and
district regulations that attempted to implement aspects of sharīʿa and thereby
create more moral Muslims. This movement was part of decentralisation—
carried out under the Regional Autonomy Laws No. 1999/22 and 1999/25—but
was also a response to nationwide unease and anxiety as the country moved
to democracy, freeing the media from censorship and opening up to the
incursions of global pop culture. The regulations mainly focused on restricting
the mobility of women (especially at night) and imposing the wearing of
the jilbab and modest dress, as well as requiring schoolchildren and people
wanting to marry to recite certain passages of the Qurʾān.(49) All this activity
focussed on conduct in public, and led to increased levels of surveillance and
monitoring, especially on women and young people. Those who were not
much interested in religion, or who preferred a more free-and-easy lifestyle,
found themselves subject to heightened social pressure to conform to an
increasingly puritan way of life.

ratisation (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003), 2.

47 Henk Schulte Nordholt and Gerry van Klinken (eds.) Renegotiating Boundaries: Local Politics
in Post-Suharto Indonesia, Leiden: Brill, 2007.
48 von Benda-Beckmann, Political and Legal Transformations of an Indonesian Polity, 7.
49 Lyn Parker and Pam Nilan, Adolescents in Contemporary Indonesia (New York: Routledge,
2013), 112-3; Edriana Noerdin, «Customary Institutions, Syariah Law and the Marginalisation of
Indonesian Women» in Kathryn Robinson and Sharon Bessell (eds.), Women in Indonesia: Gender,
Equity and Development (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2002), 179-86; M.B.
Hooker, Indonesian Syariah: defining a national school of Islamic law (Singapore: ISEAS Publishing,
2008), 265-73.
23
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
The essential and immutable ingredient of Minangkabau adat is the
matrilineal kinship system. Matriliny and its economic base in addition to
matrilocal residence are the basis not only of the social structure and social
life but also the local governance system. The following sections examine
these, with a view also to highlighting the sources of vulnerability for different
subpopulations, and the different ways the Minangkabau have resisted and
adapted to cope with, and embrace, changes.

Social Organisation
Minangkabau society is organised according to matrilineages or matri-
clans (suku).(50) The most basic unit consists of a mother and her children
(samande, meaning “of one mother”), who traditionally occupied one room
(bilik) in a longhouse (rumah gadang), with a roof shaped like buffalo horns.
A woman’s husband (sumando) was not considered part of that unit: he
was considered a visitor, who came at night and had a marginal place in the
household. His primary duties and rights were as mamak (mother’s brother)
to his sister and her children, and they lived elsewhere. In the longhouse lived
the grandmother, her daughters, and their children, in different bilik—usually
three or four generations of women. They cooked and ate together, raised
children communally, and, it should be mentioned, constituted a secure and
stable female-dominated home. The longhouse was lively with sociality.

The sumande unit is not often spoken of these days, and has largely been
replaced by the nuclear family (keluarga) as the basic unit in society. Reasons
for the shift are many and complex, but urbanisation, the rise of private
property, and changing ideas of the family are clearly major factors. Women
told me that life in the rumah gadang was dense with communal surveillance
and afforded little privacy. The composition of families that constitute a
household (i.e. those who live, sleep, and eat together) is now quite various
and people come and go, but the augmented nuclear family—the nuclear
family with additional members such as the wife’s mother, or her sisters and
their children—is perhaps the most common.

50 The clan system described here is a simplified version, and there is considerable regional
variation. In the village (nagari) of field research, there were more levels (or subdivisions) than are
described here. Various authors provide descriptions (van Reenen, Central Pillars of the House; Ng,
The Weaving of Prestige; Ok-Kyung Pak, Lowering the High, Raising the Low: The Gender, Alliance
and Property Relations in a Minangkabau Peasant Community of West Sumatra, Indonesia, Ph.D.
dissertation: University of Toronto, 1986; Franz von Benda-Beckman, Property in social continuity:
Continuity and change in the maintenance of property relationships through time in Minangka-
bau, West Sumatra, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979.)
24
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Nowadays, the husband/father, along with the wife/mother, is responsible for
the upkeep and education of the children. The Marriage Law of 1974 and the
state gender ideology place the husband/father as the head of the household
(kepala keluarga), and if asked who the head of the household is, in a formal
context, people usually respond that it is the husband/father. This no doubt
is due to the bureaucratisation of everyday life: for censuses, registration for
social welfare, school enrolment, clinic attendance, and a host of other daily
activities that involve interaction with the state, people have been trained to
provide this answer. Yet there is no doubt that both men and women have
claims to authority in the household. In villages, where a version of matrilocal
residence prevails and women own the houses, it would be quite difficult for a
man to have authority over his wife. In towns, my feeling is that this is changing.
Certainly in the household where I lived, in Bukittinggi, the man, who was the
sole breadwinner in the household, could wield power over his wife. On one
occasion, for instance, he prohibited her from taking a desired trip to Jakarta to
visit her family. Simon reports that one of his informants in Bukittinggi forbad
his wife from working, but this is highly unusual.(51) Krier presents a memorable
case of larger family conflict in which a woman’s spirited self-defence worked
against her, showing that this matrilineal system does not always work well for
women.(52) But I would say that decisions within families are usually made by
women; for broader kinship matters, men might appear publicly to be making
a decision, but often women have already arranged matters beforehand.(53)

As Narny emphasises, “[T]he traditional context places women as the heads

of families and the main decision-makers in the extended family”.(54) The man
is not a member of the matrilineage into which he has married, and remains
a member of his mother’s lineage. Men are usually structurally marginal in
houses. A Minangkabau man “does not really have a house or a place he
can call his own.... The house itself is for his mothers and sisters,” according
to Kato,(55) and Simon adds that “[b]eing a Minangkabau man thus means
acknowledging that one’s place is outside the household sphere.”(56)

51 Simon, Caged in on the Outside, 35.

52 Jennifer Krier, «Narrating Herself: Power and Gender in a Minangkabau Woman’s Tale of Con-
flict,» in Aihwa Ong and Michael G. Peletz (eds.) Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body
Politics in Southeast Asia, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995.
53 Blackwood, Webs of Power.
54 Yenny Narny, Resilience of West Sumatran women: historical, cultural and social impacts,
(Ph.D. dissertation: Deakin University, 2016), 150.
55 Tsuyoshi Kato, Matriliny and Migration: Evolving Minangkabau Traditions in Indonesia (Ithaca,
NY: Cornell University Press, 1982), 61.
56 Simon, Caged in on the Outside, 33.
25
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
These days men usually live with their wives, but:

…as domestic outsiders, are in a position of vulnerability in which they need to

continually renew their social involvements. As guests in their wives’ homes
and kampuang [hamlets], men need to reach outside this sphere to form
relationships. Both men and women emphasized to me that men who did
not do this would be isolated.(57)

Younger men often sleep at a friend’s place, having spent the evening with
friends, at the local coffee-shop, snooker-hall or bengkel (motorcycle repair
garage). Young women do not stay over at friends’ places: they should be
home by magrib (sunset prayer-time), and stay there.

Often the nuclear family occupies its own house. Sometimes, when there are
nuclear families, the husband builds a house for his wife and it becomes her
house.(58) In the village, and also in towns where the house block surrounding a
longhouse is large enough to accommodate more buildings, nuclear families
of sisters occupy houses in a single block; in towns and the city of Padang,
sisters typically try to buy next-door or nearby house blocks.(59) In the town of
Bukittinggi, I lived in a house with a nuclear family, where the wife’s mother
would come to visit for two or three months, in rotation with visits to her
other children in West Sumatra and Jakarta. The neighbouring house block
contained four houses, one accommodating two elderly widows (sisters), and
three accommodating the nuclear families of sisters, who were daughters of
one of the elderly widows. There was no longer a longhouse. One family I knew
well, who lived in a densely settled village that was not far from Bukittinggi,
occupied a cramped and rickety wooden, three-storey house accommodating
the elderly great-grandmother, her daughter (a primary school teacher) and
son-in-law (a butcher, listed formally as the head of the household), their seven
adult children, one Javanese grandson-in-law, and the great-grandchildren. It
was not a longhouse in design, but functioned much like one in everyday life.
Such multigenerational households and house compounds, clustered around
the matriline, are common; Blackwood calls them “matrihouses.”(60) Thus
matrilocal residence persists, alongside neolocal residence, albeit adapted to
municipal town plans.

57 Simon, Caged in on the Outside, 67.

58 Blackwood, “Wedding Bell Blues.”
59 Mina Elfira, The Lived Experiences of Minangkabau Mothers and Daughters: Gender Rela-
tions, Adat, and Family in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Ph.D. dissertation: The University of
Melbourne, 2010.
60 Blackwood, “Wedding Bell Blues.”
26
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
It has not been mentioned in the literature, to my knowledge, but since we
now know that nuclear family houses are not necessarily safe spaces for
women, it is worth mentioning that the matrilocal longhouse did provide
safety for women: indeed, it is hard to imagine how intimate partner violence
could be perpetrated in a longhouse. There are increasing reports of gender-
based violence in West Sumatra, and newspapers now routinely report on
women being injured and even killed by their partners or partners’ male kin.
It is easy to see that urbanisation and the rising prevalence of nuclear-family
households are contributing to the increasing vulnerability of women to the
threat of gender-based violence.(61)

Matrilocal residence carries many advantages for women besides care of

children, sharing of housework, and a safe, stable home environment. Women
have authority in their own homes, and generally control the household
economy. While they are usually the carers for the elderly, sick, and disabled,
these burdens can be shared, especially among sisters; old age, a time of
vulnerability for most, is not such a problem for the Minangkabau. Typically,
widowed elderly men and women who can no longer work are looked after
by their daughters. Unlike in some societies in Indonesia, this is not seen as
shameful: rather, it is a source of pride that they have produced caring families.
Childless elderly, however, can be vulnerable, as can those whose children
have migrated away from the village. It can be difficult to find hands-on care
for those who are bedridden and dependent.

While the most basic bond in Minang society is that between mother and
daughter, the bond between siblings is also very strong. Brothers and sisters
share a mother and therefore common goals: the strength of the matrilineage.
Traditionally, a mother’s brother (mamak) was the “sociological father” to
his sister’s children,(62) but a boy did not share his mother and sisters’ living
space once be began to approach puberty; around the age of ten he would
move to sleep at the community surau (prayer house). Physical distance and
a formal, polite relationship between brothers and sisters were required.

61 It is difficult to collect good data on domestic violence in Indonesia. Fatmariza and Febriani
(«Domestic Violence and The Role of Women in Modern Minangkabau Society,» 2019) present
police statistics that show a rising incidence of domestic violence in West Sumatra, but the time
span is short (2011-2013) and in any case the concept of domestic violence is still new, and many do
not report it because of the stigma. Fatmariza and Febriani suggest that the incidence of domestic
violence in West Sumatra is quite high because of patriarchal attitudes towards women, though “…
women who remain in their matrilineal relationship after marriage can prevent domestic violence.”
62 Elfira, The Lived Experiences of Minangkabau Mothers and Daughters, 172.
27
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
This has changed recently, partly, no doubt, because brothers remain with
their sisters in their natal home, so the physical distancing rule has relaxed.
Moreover, Islamic law treats the brothers of women and girls as muhrim,
close relatives, which means that, for instance, young women these days do
not cover (wear the jilbab) in the company of their brothers. So the brother-
sister relationship has become closer and less formal, even as the role of the
mamak has declined to that of a benevolent and interested but distant uncle.
Generally, the mamak is kept informed of plans regarding his nieces and
nephews and their whereabouts, but does not take part in decision-making
regarding education, employment, and marriage, and in my experience does
not financially support his sister’s children.

Ties between sisters are very strong. The oldest daughter in a family is respected
and has authority; she, in turn, is responsible for younger siblings, and for the
care of their ageing mother. If a woman should die, her sister would almost
automatically take over responsibility for her dead sister’s children, even if
she were not (yet) married. Older sisters these days frequently help with the
schooling and university costs of their younger siblings.

This matrilineal social structure and matrilocal residence pattern, with its clan-
based economic foundation (discussed below), is a source of security and
power for women. It means that men have to “make themselves” in a way that
women do not.

The tradition of merantau (wandering, migration) should be mentioned

here, and I will say more below. The pattern was that young men would leave
home for a period away, in order to seek wealth and experience and prove
themselves as worthy husbands.(63) An older male informant told me that it
used to be simply a seasonal search for work, with the destination and timing
dependent upon the crops—for instance, when it was gambir season the
young men would go to north Sumatra as seasonal day labourers. However,
it was more usually presented as a product of the unique Minangkabau adat.
Earlier writers on the Minangkabau always associated male out-migration
with matrifocality and the practice of matriliny and matrilocal residence. There
were various ways that this association was explained. Two explanations stress
the ways in which men could have been perceived as vulnerable: they had
“no place” at home, and matrilineal inheritance of land and other property

63 Kato, Matriliny and Migration; Mochtar Naim, Merantau: Minangkabau voluntary migration,
Ph.D. dissertation: University of Singapore, 1974.
28
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
meant that they had to seek their own fortune “away”. Murad, for instance,
stated that “the effect of this [matrilineal] system is often to compel men in
disadvantaged kinship positions in their homeland to merantau.”(64) Other
scholars have put forward very different arguments: that men allowed women
to make decisions and gave them land because husbands were unreliable
and/or absent, and brothers had other resources. Blackwood calls this the
“altruism” argument, a subset of the “missing man” phenomenon in those
writings that see matrifocality and matrilineality as aberrant and as requiring
explanation.(65) Another explanation assumes the inferiority of women:

women are believed to require greater subsistence guarantees than men

partly because they are held to be less flexible, resourceful, and adaptive than
men, who can eke out a living wherever they find themselves, be it in the
village in which they were born (or into which they married) or a …city.”(66)

Today, one of the strongest discourses is what I call the “protection of women”
or “women on a pedestal” discourse; according to female informants, it
combines Islamic ideas about the place of women in Islam with concepts
and practices of adat. In this narrative, Islam and Minangkabau adat both
honour women; women are regarded as noble (mulia), and are so precious
that they should be protected.(67) In Minang adat, women have a high position
and are provided with economic resources through inheritance to ensure
their wellbeing. Sometimes, however, this discourse of protection is based
less on the high position of women than on the idea of their inferiority, as
previously discussed. The respected Minang scholar and adat expert, Datuk
Rajo Penghulu, wrote:

According to Minangkabau adat, economic resources (rice land and dry fields)
are primarily for the benefit of women.... Because men are stronger physically
and have greater capabilities than women, to them is given the responsibility
and control of the rice land and dry fields. Men are the strong backbone for
women; women always work within men›s protection. As Islamic law says:
Men are the backbone of women.(68)

64 Auda Murad, Merantau: Aspects of Outmigration of the Minangkabau People (Masters disser-
tation: Australian National University, 1978), iii, emphasis added.
65 Blackwood, “Wedding Bell Blues,” 11.
66 Michael G. Peletz, «Comparative Perspectives on Kinship and Cultural Identity in Negeri Sem-
bilan,» Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 9:1 (1994), 23.
67 This was advanced by some young female participants as a reason why Indonesia does not
need feminism, which is viewed as a Western discourse.
68 Rajo 1994, 65, cited in Blackwood, “Wedding Bell Blues,” 11.
29
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
There is no doubt that there is a connection between matriliny and matrifocality
on the one hand and the practice of male merantau on the other, but it is
worth mentioning two points: first, there are other ethnic groups in Indonesia
where the men are encouraged to seek fortune “away”, such as the Bugis of
South Sulawesi,(69) but their kinship systems are patrilineal or bilateral. Second,
these days merantau is not gendered male. Young women are just as likely
as young men to leave home for work or university, and nuclear families often
migrate. Further, when young women migrate they do not simply follow a
sibling or husband: they go on their own, to further their education or to see
work, often in open-ended quests.(70) This “going away” is so common that
the village where I carried out fieldwork often felt quite empty. There were
literally empty houses everywhere. So while there may have been a stronger
connection between matriliny and merantau in the past, I do not see that
matrifocality, matriliny, or matrilocal residence is such a strong centrifugal
force that it is a necessary or sufficient cause of merantau. Nevertheless, the
association between matriliny and the perceived need for Minang men to
prove themselves by successfully migrating has become entrenched in the
literature.(71)

Education
With censuses in 1920 and 1930, then a gap until 1971, followed by a census
in 1980 and every ten years thereafter, we have good evidence of high levels
of education generally in West Sumatra, and, more notably, consistently high
levels of female education. While definitions of literacy and administrative
boundaries have changed over time, the comparison of literacy in Minangkabau
/ West Sumatra with national levels always shows these high levels of female
literacy and education. For instance, using 1980 census data, Oey-Gardiner
showed that the Minangkabau female:male ratio of the school-attending

69 G. Acciaioli, Searching for Good Fortune: The Making of a Bugis Shore Community at Lake
Lindu, Central Sulawesi, Ph.D. dissertation: Australian National University, 1989; Kees van Dijk, Greg-
ory Acciaioli, and Roger Tol (eds.), Authority and Enterprise among the Peoples of South Sulawesi,
Leiden: KITLV Press, 2000.
70 See, for example, Diah Tjahaya Iman and A. Mani, «Motivations for migration among Minang-
kabau women in Indonesia,» Ritsumeikan Journal of Asia Pacific Studies 32 (2013), 114-24; and Diah
Tjahaya Iman and A. Mani, «The “Positioning” of Identity among Minangkabau Female Migrants in
Indonesia,» Asia Pacific World 6:1 (2015), 47-62.
71 Statements such as the following are common, for example: “Several ethnic groups are
renowned for their long traditions of migration (Ind: merantau), which is, for example, a rite of
passage for Minang men from West Sumatra.” Ariane J. Utomo and Peter F. McDonald, «Internal
migration, group size, and ethnic endogamy in Indonesia,» Geographical Research (2020), 4.
30
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
population aged 18-16 was 99:100, while nationally it was 66:100. Much of the
difference was probably due to the propensity of Minangkabau parents to
send their daughters to religious schools.(72)

While large-scale statistics in Indonesia should always be examined critically,

other data sets provide corroborating evidence. The Indonesia Demographic
and Health Survey (DHS) for 2017 presents information on education for
almost 50,000 women aged 49-15 in all provinces of Indonesia. Only %0.9 of
women in this age range in West Sumatra had no education.(73) Looking at
these women’s median years of education completed, the province of West
Sumatra (11.1 years) is only bettered by the university city of Yogyakarta and
the capital, Jakarta (11.4 and 11.2 years respectively); the national median years
of education for these women was 8.9 years.(74) The Demographic and Health
Survey 2017 also collected information on 10,000 currently married men aged
54-15. The figures for West Sumatran men were: %0.00 had no education at all,
and there was a median of 8.7 years of education. Men in 16 other provinces
scored higher: the national median years of education for men was the same
as for West Sumatra, at 8.7 years.(75) One can conjecture that parents consider
that education is more important for girls than for boys; that the push, or urge,
to merantau for work is stronger for boys than for girls; and/or that the range
of occupations open to girls requires a higher level of education than those
open to boys. I certainly know of married Minang couples where the woman is
more highly educated than her husband. It is possible to conclude, then, that
both men and women are well-educated, relative to the situation elsewhere
in Indonesia, and suffer no disadvantage or vulnerability in the sphere of
education.

Ancestral Inheritance (harto pusako), Work, and

the Village Economy
The economy of rural West Sumatra is based on agriculture: where landform
and rainfall allow, wet rice dominates; elsewhere, dry agriculture of annual
crops (mostly vegetables such as tomatoes, aubergine, onions and other

72 M. Oey-Gardiner, «Gender Differences in Schooling in Indonesia,» Bulletin of Indonesian Eco-

nomic Studies 27:1 (1991), 61, 64.
73 BKKBN (National Population and Family Planning Board), Statistics Indonesia (BPS), Ministry
of Health (Kemenkes), and ICF, Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey 2017 (Jakarta: BKKBN,
BPS, Kemenkes, and ICF, 2018), 259.
74 BKKBN et al., Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey 2017, 259.
75 BKKBN et al., Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey 2017, 260.
31
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
alliums, cabbages, and corn) and perennials (such as coffee bushes, fruit trees,
and cinnamon trees) prevail. In the village of fieldwork, which profits from the
rich, fertile soil of the lower slopes of the active volcano Mt Merapi, nearly %90
of agricultural land is owned by clans and lineages. Some is devoted to wet
rice—although conditions usually only allow one crop a year—and some to dry
crops (annuals that alternate with wet rice, and large areas of fruit trees often
inter-planted with coffee and cinnamon).

The economic importance of the matrilineal clans is striking. Theoretically,

their land is collectively owned by their lineage (harato pusako) and inherited
matrilineally, and can never be sold. Harato pusako is considered to have been
inherited from the ancestors, who divided it among the various rumah gadang.
However, most disputes in villages are about access to land, and it seems
to me that disputed access to land is the main source of conflict in Minang
society. Obviously, where land cannot be sold use rights are very important.
The allocation of use rights can be simple—for example from a senior woman
(bundo kanduang) to her daughters, shared equally, or in yearly rotation if the
area is limited—but if the area of land is large and the “owner” a large clan, or
there are no female descendants, it can become complicated and contested.
The senior woman of one dominant clan in the fieldwork village had recently
died; the penghulu was not actually living in the village, although he visited
almost daily, and he had a male manager to organise the allocation of use
rights. Lineage land is often managed by the penghulu and/or the senior
woman. Land of smaller units is usually managed by the oldest woman in the
sub-lineage. “The oldest woman in the rumah … is in actual control: she holds
the prime responsibility for the daily management, the modes of cultivation,
and the distribution of the produce.”(76)

Besides the harato pusako there is also pancarian, or individually acquired

and owned private property. In the village of fieldwork, only a little over %10
of agricultural land was classified as pancarian. Pancarian can be owned by
individual men or women, or by a married couple (in which case it is called
suarang), but it is often considered to mean land that men have bought
for themselves as private property. Some have seen this as a threat to adat
pusako, and even as a conflict between men’s and women’s interests, but
that would be an over-simplification. In earlier times, pancarian was added
to the matrilineage of the person who bought it—so men were encouraged

76 van Reenen, Central Pillars of the House, 97.

32
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
to acquire land for their mother’s and sisters’ lineage—but these days it is
usually sold or passed on to the daughters, and often in the next generation
becomes pusako rendah (low ancestral property). Thus, perhaps surprisingly,
“pusako-isation” is still happening—an indicator of the continuing strength of
matrilineal inheritance practices.(77) However, as van Reenan notes, in the past a
man’s pancarian would likely become the pusako of his mother’s matrilineage;
today it will likely become the pusako of his wife and daughters’ matrilineage.(78)
In recent times, the state has embarked upon a vigorous project of trying
to register adat and privately owned land across the country, and pusako
and pancarian land have been caught up in this process, producing a large
number of court cases.

There is also ulayat—land that is not used for agriculture, usually uncleared
forest. It used to be considered communal village land (ulayat nagari) under
Dutch interpretations of adat, but under Suharto was classified as being
owned by the state; since the downfall of Suharto, the state has been trying
to regulate the status of communal land, culminating in the Regulation on
Ulayat Land (2008/16), which seemed to reinforce adat (matrilineal) rights.(79)

It is impossible to explore the intricacies of inheritance and property law

here, but important to note that conflicts over land can be long and bitter,
and often result in serious fissures within and between families and lineages.
Court cases have to explore “usually long-lasting and complex histories of
inheritance, registration and conversion,”(80) involving negotiations under
conditions of legal pluralism: adat law, state law, and Islamic law. Typically,
property and inheritance issues are considered to be adat affairs; if the land
is considered pancarian, state law might also be invoked; if gifts (hibah) are
involved, conflicts might be seen as matters of both Islamic law and adat
because they usually involve pusako land.(81) Despite all of the above, the von
Benda-Beckmanns report that the matrilineal “inheritance consensus” of
female inheritance rights has prevailed.(82)

Clearly, these matrilineal inheritance practices are not commensurate with

Islamic inheritance laws. Islamic reformists during and since the Padri Wars

77 von Benda-Beckman, Property in social continuity.

78 van Reenen, Central Pillars of the House, 103.
79 von Benda-Beckmann, Political and Legal Transformations of an Indonesian Polity, 350-7.
80 von Benda-Beckmann, Political and Legal Transformations of an Indonesian Polity, 373.
81 von Benda-Beckmann, Political and Legal Transformations of an Indonesian Polity, 363.
82 von Benda-Beckmann, Political and Legal Transformations of an Indonesian Polity.
33
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
have focused on this basic incompatibility, but adat persists and even thrives.(83)
Most research participants understood Islamic inheritance laws to be that
sons should inherit two-thirds and daughters one-third. They often argue that
there is no real contradiction, since daughters do not inherit as individuals; and
also maintain that sons are granted two-thirds on the assumption that they
will care for their parents in old age, while in Minang this is the responsibility
of daughters. More generally, many Islamic concepts in Islamic law are
used and recognised in Minang adat, for example terms such as hak (right),
milik (property, ownership), hibah (gift) and warith (heir), though with local
understandings, so warith in Minang denotes matrilineal heirs. Often property
disputes are settled (or pre-empted) through hibah—a gift of land—but in
Minang this is revocable and only effective at the time of the donor’s death,
and the amount of the gift is severely restricted.(84)

It should be noted that both men and women are considered farmers.(85)
Women are more often landowners and have more secure access to land than
men in the village of fieldwork, because their kin groups own the land. Men
usually work their wives’ land, while some also work that of their mother. They
typically inherit nothing and have no rights, unless they are senior titled men,
such as the penghulu. Women do not usually inherit land individually: they are
co-owners of kin group land, but often have exclusive use rights, or in rotation
with sisters. In terms of property rights, there is no doubt that men are more
vulnerable than women in Minangkabau society, though penghulu and other
elite men (see below) are relatively privileged and secure.

In this rural society, access to land is the usual guarantee of livelihood. If one
can farm wet rice land then subsistence is guaranteed, and sometimes a cash
income after harvest as well— depending on the amount of land, the type of
access granted, the share of harvest and crops, and various other factors. Dry
land farming produces cash crops, and, depending on the type of crop and the
location, these are sold in local markets or to intermediaries. Sharecropping is
the most common (and preferred) form of access to land; after that comes

83 Hadler, Muslims and Matriarchs, 20, 56; Franz and Kebeet von Benda-Beckmann, «Transfor-
mation and Change in Minangkabau,» in Lynn L. Thomas and Franz Von Benda-Beckmann (eds.),
Change and Continuity in Minangkabau: Local, Regional, and Historical Perspectives on West
Sumatra (Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 1985), 235-78.
84 von Benda-Beckmann, «Transformation and Change in Minangkabau.»
85 See below for a discussion of female occupations; also Evelyn Blackwood, «Not your average
housewife: Minangkabau women rice farmers in West Sumatra,» in F. Michele and L. Parker (eds.)
Women and Work in Indonesia, London and New York: Routledge, 2008.

34
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
wage labour and pawning. Sharecropping is preferred because it entails an
ongoing relationship, sometimes over decades, and is more guaranteed and
less precarious. Wage labour, in a context where daily wages are low—about
2.50$ a day—is not desirable because illness, lack of work, and weather and
market conditions make it insecure. Pawning, when the owner is paid a lump
sum for the right to use land, is not unpopular, but if it takes generations for
the owner to pay back the pawn then ill-feeling and suspicion of theft can
arise. It is also worth noting that at any one time an individual woman may
be (co-)landholder, sharecropper, and wage labourer. This means that villages
are not usually clearly demarcated into wealthy landowners and a landless
labouring “proletariat”.

This is not an egalitarian society, however. Nor is it highly unequal. Matrilineal

kinship still structures the society and the economy in rural villages, in concert
with the history of settlement and a largely kinship-based patron-client
network. Some villages, such as that studied by Blackwood, have a clear
stratification consisting of three layers:

…elites (orang asli), who are members of the original founding lineages (suku);
commoners or client kin (orang datang), newcomers or outsiders who arrived
later and were adopted into the original lineages; and descendants of slaves,
who were bought by and became subordinate members of the original
lineages.(86)

The nagari studied in this fieldwork consisted of four jorong (hamlets), two of
which were studied in detail. Jorong I is the centrally located, original village:
it consists of four main lineage groups (suku), especially Bodi-Caniago. It is
densely settled and consists of many rumah gadang; many houses are made of
timber; there is a mosque built fairly recently, mainly financed by remittances
from the many people who have moved away as perantau. Their houses have
been left empty, but they come back to visit—often at Ramadan. People in
this jorong are well educated. There are many professional and middle-class
members of this jorong; while many people own (or enjoy use rights to)
harato pusako, most do not actually work the land. Jorong II is considered
by inhabitants of Jorong I to be a village of newcomers (pendatang), many of
whom are described as anak buah (clients) of patrons and lineages in Jorong
I. Their status as newcomers (pendatang) is contested. Many people in Jorong
II have moved around a lot; they used to be seen as poor, but many have

86 Blackwood, «Not your average housewife,” 22.

35
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
been sharecroppers or wage labourers of harto pusako owned by lineages in
the original village. Nowadays some have brick houses and cars, and some
have bought dry land so they have some disposable property. The settlement
pattern is dispersed, with no centre and no market; houses tend to be built
on productive land, hidden amidst fruit trees. Jorong II has a “bushy”, almost
pioneering feel. There is a tendency for inhabitants of Jorong I to look down on
those of Jorong II as “beyond the pale” —considering them coarse, irreligious,
and even criminals.

Kin groups, kinship obligations, and patron-client relations (couched in

terms of matrilineal kinship) shape village economies, and most of these
are managed by women.(87) Women’s control of land and labour—especially
that of senior elite women who control considerable harato pusako—mean
that women are powerful in the local economy. They are highly visible in
public, as economic actors and managers—in the fields, in the market, and in
negotiations with external traders. Elite women own rice mills, export coffee,
and have professional jobs. In short, they are active in the public sphere and
exert economic power and political influence.

The larger economy

The above view from inside the village is not really reflected in national
statistics. For instance, the Demographic and Health Survey 2017 reports that
%98.8 of men aged 54-15 in West Sumatra are currently employed, compared
to only %57 of women aged 49-15.(88) The latter figure for all of Indonesia is %53.
One explanation for this reported low female labour force participation rate in
Minang is that it does not reflect reality, because women tend not to report
that they work in surveys and censuses: instead, they often prefer to say that
they are housewives (ibu rumah tangga). This status complies with the state
gender ideology that idealises the nuclear middle-class family, with the man
as the head of the household and breadwinner and the woman as housewife.(89)
I have witnessed women saying that their occupation is housewife as they
attend to customers at their warung (stall) at the front of their house, or trade
produce on the phone.(90) This would be even more likely for elite or wealthy

87 Evelyn Blackwood, «Women, land, and labor: Negotiating clientage and kinship in a Minangk-
abau peasant community,» Ethnology 36:4 (1997), 277-93.
88 BKKBN et al., Demographic and Health Survey 2017, 267-8.
89 Blackwood, “Not your average housewife.”
90 This is not unique to Minang women, however. The preference for stating that one is a house-
wife because of status was reported as long ago as 1982 by Valerie Hull, «Women in Java’s Rural
36
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
women, for whom “not working” would mean high status—even though they
manage a coffee export business or the labour arrangements for hectares
of wet rice crops. Rural Minangkabau women usually work, though often in
the informal sector, and often in such a way that they combine childcare,
housework, and other domestic duties with income-generating work, usually
as farmers, or in sales or trade.(91) For both men and women, it is praiseworthy to
have a good work ethic, to be energetic, innovative, and pro-active in seeking
work and in finding a new product to make or sell, or a new niche to occupy,
and to be flexible in finding different kinds of work.

However, the national statistics better reflect reality—and in particular the high
educational level of Minang women—when they examine women who report
that they are employed. According to the Demographic and Health Survey
data, women in West Sumatra are present in the professional/ technical/
managerial (PTM) field, sales, and agriculture at well above national averages,
particularly in PTM occupations (%17.6 of employed women in West Sumatra,
compared to the national average of %11), and are less well represented in
clerical, industrial, and services occupations.(92)

Merantau and remittances

As noted at the beginning, there are some 4.2 million inhabitants of the province
of West Sumatra—and it is remarkably homogeneous ethnically—but around
6.5 million Minangkabau in Indonesia. This huge Minang diaspora is the result
of both push and pull factors linked to culture and economic opportunity. The
link between matriliny, matrifocality, and merantau has already been discussed,
and I have mentioned that there are limited employment opportunities in
West Sumatra. Many young people, of all genders, leave their village and even
province after school for work or university. There are several universities in
Padang, including Andalas University, which is well regarded, but top students
aim for the better universities in Java. Once graduated, however, employment
opportunities are extremely limited. For me, the symbol of this problem was
the egg-seller in the market in Bukittinggi: a young man who had graduated
from Andalas University, majoring in English literature.(93) An example of the

Middle Class: Progress or Regress?» in Penny Van Esterik (ed.), Women of Southeast Asia (De Kalb:
Northern Illinois University Press, 1982), 78–95.
91 Blackwood, “Not your average housewife.”
92 BKKBN et al., Demographic and Health Survey 2017, 269.
93 The problem of graduate unemployment and underemployment is a national one – not at all
unique to Minang or West Sumatra; the mis-match of qualifications and occupations is also part
37
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
alternative—merantau—was provided by my research assistant, whom I will
call Debi. She is the oldest of a three-child family; her mother is a widow, a
primary school teacher. They lived in a rural village not far from Bukittinggi.
Debi went to an Islamic high school and learnt to wear the jilbab there—
she has worn it ever since. After graduating in anthropology from Andalas
University, she worked for me for some years, intermittently, then obtained a
job in Jakarta at an international bank. Her two brothers graduated in finance
and engineering, and found jobs in their fields in Bandung and Banjarmasin.
Some ten years later, all are married and living in Jabodatabek. The widowed
mother has moved there too, to be with the children and grandchildren now
that she is retired from teaching and has problems with her health.

Both men and women merantau these days; it is not at all gendered. The
two jorong in the village of fieldwork present contrasting patterns. Jorong I is
largely missing the generation aged between 20 and 49, due to their merantau.
Unsurprisingly, it has few young children. There is a high proportion of elderly
people, with many households being female-headed, and the issue of care
for the elderly is a serious one. Jorong II has a much younger population, with
many young children, and many women in their 20s and 30s reporting that
they are housewives. Lack of childcare is an issue, especially as the extended
family household is rarer here. There are few youth (24-15 years), even though
there is a senior high school, and few elderly.

The perantau (out-migrants) are obviously a major source of revenue for

Jorong I. The lineages and the jorong have organisations that exist in order
to keep the lines of communication open between the folks at home and
the perantau; leaders such as senior women and the penghulu sometimes
physically go to Jakarta or other migration sites, such as Pekanbaru, in order to
solve disputes and seek funds for special projects; phone calls and WhatsApp
groups are common.

Given the significant investment in education, especially in Jorong I, and

the necessity then for young people to move away in order to capitalise on
the investment, the long-term cost for parents is considerable if they are

of a nationwide problem. Chris Manning, The Political Economy of Reform: Labour After Soeharto,
Sydney: University of Sydney, 2008; Chris Manning and Sudarno Sumarto, «Employment, Living
Standards and Poverty: Trends, Policies and Interactions,» in Chris Manning and Sudarno Sumarto
(eds.), Employment, Living Standards and Poverty in Contemporary Indonesia, (Singapore: Institute
of Southeast Asian Studies, 2011), 1-20.

38
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
neglected in old age. Apart from the now-established pattern symbolised
by Debi’s widowed mother—follow the children and migrate too—there is
also the pattern followed by my host family in Bukittinggi: the grandmother
rotated between her grown-up children who lived in various places, including
Jakarta, spending two or three months with each.

Evidence from the village of research and from a limited number of other
studies(94) shows not only that migrants are altruistically sending remittances
to needy and also comfortable families, but also that they are sponsoring a
considerable amount of infrastructure improvement in home villages. Both
men and women send money regularly, meaning that this external support
has become expected, normal, and important.

[T]he many long-distance migrations are the major source of wealth and
prestige for the matriline, and elders are identified with, and receive the
benefits of, successful family migration networks. Matrilines in the lowest
strata are at a considerable disadvantage because they do not benefit to the
same extent from such networks and the social and economic capital that
theyaccumulate.(95)

Governance
In villages (nagari) in West Sumatra, local governance is shaped by kinship. It
is not at all the case that matriliny rules in the private or domestic domain but
is irrelevant in the public domain.

I agree with the position of van Reenan and Blackwood that the public-
private split and its gendering (male=public, female=private) is not apposite in
Minangkabau society, at least at village level.(96) The study of the nagari from
the colonial period to today by the von Benda-Beckmanns is an excellent
work on this subject, and they make it very clear that the village is a male
institution, run by men, who are basically the penghulu of the major lineage
groups.(97) Nevertheless, the source of their power and authority is the women
behind them, in their lineages.

94 See, for example, Ismawati Iis, Mustadjab Muslich, Hanani Nuhfil, and Syafria, «Factors Driving
Remittances by Minangkabau›s Migrants to Sending Households in Rural Areas ,» Russian Journal
of Agricultural and Socio-Economic Sciences 80:8 (2018), 318-26.
95 Philip Kreager, «Migration, social structure and old-age support networks: A comparison of
three Indonesian communities,» Ageing & Society 26:1 (2006), 49.
96 van Reenan, Central Pillars of the House; Blackwood, Webs of Power.
97 von Benda-Beckmann, Political and Legal Transformations of an Indonesian Polity.
39
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
The status of the nagari today is quite different from what it once was. Virtually
an autonomous unit in the past, it is now the lowest level of state governance
and typically hosts a variety of state institutions including schools, clinics,
agricultural extension offices and its own administrative office, as well as the
civil service personnel who provide the services. Thus the nagari is both an
adat law institution, representing matrilineages, administering matrilineal
rights and arbitrating disputes, and the lowest unit of the nation-state,
administering state law, educating the younger generation, tending the sick
and poor, and making decisions about large amounts of development funds.
Here I quote at length from the major historical and legal study of the nagari
by the von Benda-Beckmanns:

The nagari is the embodiment of Minangkabau adat. With its adat council
hall and mosque it stands for the unity of adat and Islam in Minangkabau
society. It is in the nagari that the general principles of Minangkabau adat
and adat law are concretised and specified. It is the nagari where matrilineal
organisation was lived, and until the mid twentieth century matriliny was
largely maintained through the rule of endogamy within the nagari. It is the
nagari, as represented by its clan and lineage heads and the adat council, that
held socio-political control over the village territory. It is through the nagari
that people experience government. And it is the nagari with which people
identify.

In the course of our study we realised that we were dealing to an overwhelming

degree with the views and experiences of men. To be sure, several female
judges and female activists gave us their views on the political and legal
developments in West Sumatra. And the only female elected mayor and some
women in district and provincial offices or in village government discussed
village government with us. But if women with an official function in village
government talked about village government at all, they rarely discussed
more than their particular tasks. Most women felt they had little to say about
village government in general. Village government, whether in the sense of
adat or of the state, turned out to be a predominantly male domain.(98)

And, to be sure, the higher levels of government, law, education, and religious
authority are in the hands of men. When I arrived in West Sumatra, having
read the work of late twentieth-century feminist scholars, I was surprised and
disappointed to see that the governorship, district headships, and mayoral

98 von Benda-Beckmann, Political and Legal Transformations of an Indonesian Polity, 13.

40
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
positions—indeed all major political positions—were held by men. Most
judges, school principals, university rectors and deans, as well as ulama and
adat experts, were men. So the reach of matrilineal adat does not extend to
the middle or higher levels of government and administration, and the term
“matriarchy” is clearly inappropriate.

Perhaps it should also be mentioned that women seemed to become

more active in supra-village political life in West Sumatra after 1998, with
democratisation and decentralisation, the precedent set by Megawati
Sukarnoputri, Indonesia’s first female President, and the introduction of a
quota (at national level) specifying that at least %30 of candidates from each
political party must be female. Local scholars have been researching this
phenomenon, and have found that actually women are comparatively absent
from politics in West Sumatra. Scholars did find that extended family support
helped Minang women to become politicians—but this is also a feature in
many places where matriliny does not operate. One of the major findings
in West Sumatra has been that the matrilineal arrangement of society did
not seem to have made much difference to women’s ability or success as
politicians.(99)

99 Jendrius, Decentralization, Local Direct Elections and the Return to [the] Nagari: Women’s
Involvement and Leadership in West Sumatra, Ph.D. dissertation: University of Malaya, 2014; Seli-
naswati, Women in Politics in Matrilineal Society: A Case Study of West Sumatra, Indonesia, Ph.D.
dissertation: Deakin University, 2014.
41
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Conclusion

The matrilineal organisation of Minangkabau society is uncontested today.

While the adoption of Islam during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
no doubt transformed society, Wahhabi-style incursions at the beginning
of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries failed to dislodge matrilineality.
Society remains matrifocal in fields such as family and village organisation,
and the village economy. With reference to the question of its vulnerability
or resilience, one can say that Minangkabau adat has been both remarkably
resistant to change and capable of adaptability. It can therefore be labelled
“culturally resilient”. Larger structures—such as provincial government, the
legal system, religious authority, and educational administration—are not
noticeably different from such structures elsewhere in Indonesia when it comes
to their patriarchal nature, so the labelling of Minang society as matriarchal
seems a misnomer. While the matrilineal adat thrives today, so too does Islam.
The relationship between the two has been worked out over centuries. While
some unease remains with aspects of adat, such as inheritance practices—
clearly at odds with parts of Islamic law—there is no doubt that for the
Minangkabau, Islam is Truth, and the eternal and immutable source of adat.

Adat provides many women with cultural, political and practical resources that
make them comparatively powerful, not only in the domestic sphere but also
in village life and the village economy. Further, their high level of education
and mobility—at least before they have children—enables them to compete
well in the modern economy beyond the village, and these days they are just
as mobile as Minangkabau men. Adat practices do not guarantee security and
prosperity for all women, however. Women who are not well embedded in
matrilineages, who are members of small or insignificant matrilineages, or
who are newcomers or in-marrying outsiders, struggle to attach themselves
to patrons and thereby gain access to land and networks of support.

The position of men is changing. Although their traditional place in lineages was
marginal, and their adat role as mamak (mother’s brother) is almost defunct,
as husbands and fathers they are finding a new importance, both within the
household and family and in wider society, in a way that accords with both
Islamic gender ideology and that of the Indonesian nation-state. Their adat
role of penghulu (head of the suku or matrilineage) is of continuing and even
increasing importance, due to the revitalisation of the nagari (village based on
matrilineages). These senior men also often represent their village and district
at higher levels of government. Nevertheless, men in this matrilineal society
have to make their own way in ways that women do not, and so they are more
42
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
vulnerable structurally than women. They have to exploit their individual
abilities—for socialising and networking, for trade or other enterprises, for
developing a range of skills, and for finding a livelihood—to a much greater
extent than women, who tend to inherit their secure position. In this way, the
usual disadvantages that women suffer—that they are ultimately responsible
for their dependent children and bear the largest portion of the unpaid care
burden, and yet are economically underpaid and under-resourced—are, to a
large extent, mitigated in Minangkabau society.

Nevertheless, both male and female Minangkabau share some sources of

vulnerability with Indonesians elsewhere: childlessness (either biological, or
because of social dysfunction) can lead to lack of care in old age or when ill or
disabled; losing a spouse can leave a person alone or lonely, especially when
daughters are absent. In this way, the Minangkabau propensity to migrate
can be seen as both a successful adaptation that supports the vitality and
longevity of villages in the homeland and also a source of vulnerability for those
“left behind”. Two forms of adaptation by the older generation are apparent:
moving away to join adult children, and rotating among adult children who
live away. Another successful adaptation is the institutionalisation of the
maintenance of relationships with migrants: the penghulu and senior women
are generally energetic in maintaining contact and soliciting funds for various
causes in the village, and both remittances to family and donations to the
village are generally an important source of support for rural villagers and
villages.

Poor health infrastructure is ubiquitous in Indonesia (except, perhaps, in

Jakarta) and the village of fieldwork was no exception. Babies and women
were dying needlessly in childbirth; women were not treated for post-birth
problems; people with some types of cancer were left untreated; diabetes,
strokes and heart attacks were becoming common. Most men smoked,
creating huge vulnerabilities for their future. The problem of stunting among
children was not apparent in Jorong I but is likely quite common in Jorong II.
While the educational level of the Minangkabau has been historically high,
there are weaknesses. Early childhood education was sadly lacking in the
village. Nearly one quarter of household heads and spouses (%23) in Jorong I
had graduated from senior high school, but in Jorong II only %9.7 had achieved
this level of education. The problem of school-to-work transition is also
ubiquitous throughout Indonesia, and was a major reason for the emptying of
young people from the village.

Looking to the future, one expects that matriliny and Islam will continue to
43
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
provide the cultural, economic, and social resources that sustain the distinctive
way of life of village Minangkabau. However, the flight from agriculture and
the emptying of the villages raise questions about the ability of this way of
life to migrate to the cities: matrilocal residence will be difficult to sustain,
the inheritance of lineage land will become largely irrelevant, and livelihoods
will be earned from outside the alam Minangkabau. The practical power
of matrilineal adat may recede, but one suspects that the rich and flexible
intermeshing of Islamic fervour and matrilineal ethnic identity will survive.

44
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
 Bibliography
Abdullah, Taufik, Schools and politics: The Kaum Muda movement in West
Sumatra, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Modern Indonesia Project, 1971.

Acciaioli, G., Searching for Good Fortune: The Making of a Bugis Shore
Community at Lake Lindu, Central Sulawesi, Ph.D. dissertation: Australian
National University, 1989.

Aspinall, E., and G. Fealy (eds.) Local power and politics in Indonesia:
Decentralisation & democratisation, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies, 2003.

Béné, Christophe, Rachel Godfrey Wood, Andrew Newsham, and Mark Davies,
«Resilience: new utopia or new tyranny? Reflection about the potentials
and limits of the concept of resilience in relation to vulnerability reduction
programmes,» IDS Working Papers 61-1 ,)405( 2012.

Béteille, André, «Inequality and Equality,» in Tim Ingold (ed.) Companion

Encyclopedia of Anthropology: Humanity, Culture and Social Life, London:
Taylor & Francis Group, 1993.

BKKBN (National Population and Family Planning Board), Statistics Indonesia

(BPS), Ministry of Health (Kemenkes), and ICF, Indonesia Demographic and
Health Survey 2017, Jakarta: BKKBN, BPS, Kemenkes, and ICF, 2018.

Blackwood, Evelyn, «Women, land, and labor: Negotiating clientage and

kinship in a Minangkabau peasant community,» Ethnology 93-277 ,)1997( 36:4.

Blackwood, Evelyn, Webs of power: Women, kin and community in a Sumatran

village, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000.

Blackwood, Evelyn, «Wedding Bell Blues: Marriage, Missing Men, and Matrifocal
Follies,» American Ethnologist 19-3 ,)2005( 32:1.

Blackwood, Evelyn, «Not your average housewife: Minangkabau women rice

farmers in West Sumatra,» in M. Ford and L. Parker (eds.) Women and Work in
Indonesia, London and New York: Routledge, 2008.

BPS (Badan Pusat Statistik), Sensus Penduduk 2010( 2010 Census).

BPS (Badan Pusat Statistik), Kewarganegaraan, Suku Bangsa, Agama dan

Bahasa Sehari-hari Penduduk Indonesia Hasil Sensus Penduduk 2011.

45
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Dobbin, Christine, Islamic revivalism in a changing peasant economy: Central
Sumatra, 1847-1784, London and Malmo: Curzon Press, 1983.

Elfira, Mina, The Lived Experiences of Minangkabau Mothers and Daughters:

Gender Relations, Adat, and Family in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Ph.D.
dissertation: The University of Melbourne, 2010.

Fatmariza, Fatmariza and R. Febriani, «Domestic Violence and The Role of

Women in Modern Minangkabau Society,» 2nd International Conference on
Local Wisdom, Padang, 2019.

Fealy, Greg, and Sally White (eds.), Expressing Islam: Religious Life and Politics
in Indonesia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2008.

Graves, Elizabeth E., The Minangkabau response to Dutch colonial rule in the
nineteenth century, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1981.

Hadler, Jeffrey, Muslims and Matriarchs: Cultural Resilience in Indonesia

through Jihad and Colonialism, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press,
2008.

Hooker, M.B., Indonesian Syariah: defining a national school of Islamic law,

Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, 2008.

Hull, Valerie, «Women in Java’s Rural Middle Class: Progress or Regress?» in

Penny Van Esterik (ed.), Women of Southeast Asia (De Kalb: Northern Illinois
University Press, 95–78 ,)1982.

Iis, Ismawati, Mustadjab Muslich, Hanani Nuhfil, and Syafria, «Factors Driving
Remittances by Minangkabau›s Migrants to Sending Households in Rural
Areas ,» Russian Journal of Agricultural and Socio-Economic Sciences 80:8
26-318 ,)2018(.

Iman, Diah Tjahaya, and A. Mani, «Motivations for migration among

Minangkabau women in Indonesia,» Ritsumeikan Journal of Asia Pacific
Studies 24-114 ,)2013( 32.

Iman, Diah Tjahaya, and A. Mani, «The “Positioning” of Identity among

Minangkabau Female Migrants in Indonesia,» Asia Pacific World -47 ,)2015( 6:1
62.

Jendrius, Decentralization, Local Direct Elections and the Return to [the]

Nagari: Women’s Involvement and Leadership in West Sumatra, Ph.D.
dissertation: University of Malaya, 2014.
46
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Kahin, Audrey, Rebellion to Integration: West Sumatra and the Indonesian
polity 1998–1926, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1999.

Kahn, Joel, Constituting the Minangkabau: peasants, culture and modernity in

colonial Indonesia, Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1993.

Kato, Tsuyoshi, Matriliny and Migration: Evolving Minangkabau Traditions in

Indonesia, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982.

Kreager, Philip, «Migration, social structure and old-age support networks: A

comparison of three Indonesian communities,» Ageing & Society ,)2006( 26:1
60-37.

Krier, Jennifer,»Narrating Herself: Power and Gender in a Minangkabau

Woman’s Tale of Conflict,» in Aihwa Ong and Michael G. Peletz (eds.) Bewitching
Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia, Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press, 1995.

Krier, Jennifer, «The Marital Project: Beyond the Exchange of Men in

Minangkabau Marriage,» American Ethnologist 97-877 ,)2000( 27:4.

Manning, Chris, The Political Economy of Reform: Labour After Soeharto,

Sydney: University of Sydney, 2008.

Manning, Chris, and Sudarno Sumarto, «Employment, Living Standards and

Poverty: Trends, Policies and Interactions,» in Chris Manning and Sudarno
Sumarto (eds.), Employment, Living Standards and Poverty in Contemporary
Indonesia, (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 20-1 ,)2011.

Mitchell, Tom, and Katie Harris, “Resilience: A risk management approach,”

ODI Background Note, London: Overseas Development Institute, 2012.

Murad, Auda, Merantau: Aspects of Outmigration of the Minangkabau People,

Masters dissertation: Australian National University, 1978.

Naim, Mochtar, Merantau: Minangkabau voluntary migration, Ph.D.

dissertation: University of Singapore, 1974.

Nakamura, Mitsuo, The crescent arises over the banyan tree: a study of the
Muhammadijah movement in a Central Javanese town, Ph.D. dissertation:
Cornell University, 1976.

Narny, Yenny, Resilience of West Sumatran women: historical, cultural and

social impacts, Ph.D. dissertation: Deakin University, 2016.

47
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Ng, Cecilia, The Weaving of prestige: Village women›s representations of the
social categories of Minangkabau society, Ph.D. dissertation: The Australian
National University, 1987.

Noerdin, Edriana, «Customary Institutions, Syariah Law and the Marginalisation

of Indonesian Women» in Kathryn Robinson and Sharon Bessell (eds.),
Women in Indonesia: Gender, Equity and Development (Singapore: Institute
of Southeast Asian Studies, 86-179 ,)2002.

Oey-Gardiner, M., «Gender Differences in Schooling in Indonesia,» Bulletin of

Indonesian Economic Studies 79-57 ,)1991( 27:1.

Pak, Ok-Kyung, Lowering the High, Raising the Low: The Gender, Alliance and
Property Relations in a Minangkabau Peasant Community of West Sumatra,
Indonesia, Ph.D. dissertation: University of Toronto, 1986.

Parker, Lyn (ed.), The Agency of women in Asia, Singapore: Marshall Cavendish
Academic, 2005.

Parker, Lyn, «The Moral Panic about the Socializing of Young People in
Minangkabau,» Wacana: Journal of the Humanities in Indonesia ,)2014( 15:1
40-19.

Parker, Lyn, and Pam Nilan, Adolescents in Contemporary Indonesia, New

York: Routledge, 2013.

PCGN (The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names), Indonesia:

population and administrative divisions, 2003.

Peletz, Michael G., «Comparative Perspectives on Kinship and Cultural Identity

in Negeri Sembilan,» Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 53-1 ,)1994( 9:1.

Sanday, Peggy Reeves, Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy,

Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002.

Sanday, Peggy Reeves, «Matriarchy,» in Hilary Callan (ed.) The International

Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2018.

Schneider, David M., «Introduction: The Distinctive Features of Matrilineal

Descent Groups,» in David M. Schneider and Kathleen Gough (eds.), Matrilineal
Kinship (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 29-1 ,)1961.

Schrӧder-Butterfill, Elisabeth, and Ruly Marianti, «Understanding

Vulnerabilities in Old Age,» Ageing and Society 8-3 ,)2006( 26:1.

48
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Schulte Nordholt, Henk, and Gerry van Klinken (eds.) Renegotiating
Boundaries: Local Politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia, Leiden: Brill, 2007.

Selinaswati, Women in Politics in Matrilineal Society: A Case Study of West

Sumatra, Indonesia, Ph.D. dissertation: Deakin University, 2014.

Siegetsleitner, Anne, «Matriarchy», in H. James Birx (ed.) Encyclopedia of

Anthropology (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 5-1554 ,)2006.

Simon, Gregory M., Caged in on the Outside: Moral Subjectivity, Selfhood, and
Islam in Minangkabau, Indonesia, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2014.

Tanner, Nancy, «Matrifocality in Indonesia and Africa and Among Black

Americans,» in Michelle Z. Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (eds.), Woman,
Culture and Society (Stanford: University of Stanford Press, 56-129 ,)1974.

Turner, M, O. Podger, M. Sumardjono, and W.K. Tirthayasa (eds.), Decentralisation

in Indonesia: Redesigning the State, Canberra: Asia Pacific Press, 2003.

Utomo, Ariane J., and Peter F. McDonald, «Internal migration, group size, and
ethnic endogamy in Indonesia,» Geographical Research (22-1 ,)2020.

van Bruinessen, Martin, «Introduction: Contemporary Developments in

Indonesian Islam and the «Conservative Turn» of the early twenty-first century,»
in Martin van Bruinessen (ed.), Contemporary Development in Indonesian
Islam: Explaining the «Conservative Turn,» (Singapore: Institute of Southeast
Asian Studies, 20-1 ,)2013.

van Dijk, Kees, Gregory Acciaioli, and Roger Tol (eds.), Authority and Enterprise
among the Peoples of South Sulawesi, Leiden: KITLV Press, 2000.

van Reenen, Joke, Central Pillars of the House: Sisters, Wives and Mothers in
a rural community in Minangkabau, West Sumatra, Leiden: Research School
CNWS, Leiden University, 1996.

von Benda-Beckman, Franz, Property in social continuity: Continuity and

change in the maintenance of property relationships through time in
Minangkabau, West Sumatra, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979.

von Benda-Beckmann, Franz, and Kebeet Von Benda-Beckmann,

«Transformation and Change in Minangkabau,» in Lynn L. Thomas and
Franz Von Benda-Beckmann (eds.), Change and Continuity in Minangkabau:
Local, Regional, and Historical Perspectives on West Sumatra (Athens: Ohio
University Center for International Studies, 78-235 ,)1985.
49
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
von Benda-Beckmann, Franz, and Kebeet von Benda-Beckmann, «Ambivalent
Identities: Decentralization and Minangkabau Political Communities,» in H.
Schulte-Nordholt and G. van Klinken (eds.) Renegotiating Boundaries: Local
Politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia (Leiden: KITLV Press, 42-417 ,)2007.

von Benda-Beckmann, Franz , and Kebeet von Benda-Beckmann, Political and

Legal Transformations of an Indonesian Polity: The Nagari from Colonisation
to Decentralisation, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Whalley, Lucy A., Virtuous Women, Productive Citizens: Negotiating Tradition,

Islam and Modernity in Minangkabau, Indonesia, Ph.D. dissertation: University
of Illinois, 1993.

50
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
 Chapter 2
Adat Perpatih in Malaysia:

Nature, History, Practice, and Contemporary

Issues
Alexander Wain and Norliza Saleh

Abstract

This chapter explores the nature and evolution of adat perpatih, the traditional
matrilineal system found primarily across Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. A complex
social and legal system with its origins in the Minangkabau highlands of
Sumatra, Indonesia, adat perpatih first began to evolve over the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, combining pre-existing customs and recently introduced
Islamic practices to form a unique Muslim matrilineal tradition. This chapter
begins by briefly outlining the nature and history of adat perpatih before
proceeding to consider how that system approaches issues of community
leadership, marriage, and property ownership (including inheritance).
Drawing particular attention to how adat perpatih both converges with and
diverges from Islamic orthopraxis, we argue that, regardless of any superficial
differences, the core of each tradition shares the same desire to protect the
status of women as mothers of society. Finally, we consider adat perpatih’s
decline from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, as societal changes linked
to colonialism began to manifest across Southeast Asia.

Keywords: adat perpatih, Malaysia, Indonesia, Negri Sembilan, Minangkabau,

inheritance, marriage, jurisprudence

Introduction

Modern-day Malaysia is famed for its culturally, religiously, and ethnically

diverse makeup. Although a Muslim majority nation, it is home to a broad
variety of different religious and cultural groups with origins across wider Asia
and much further afield. Far from a recent phenomenon, this diversity stretches
back millennia, being a natural by-product of the commercial interaction
characteristic of Malaysian history. The mercantile nature of Malaysia’s earliest

51
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
polities prompted extensive interaction with and, finally, migration from other
parts of the world, including the broader Southeast Asian region. Ultimately,
this allowed a unique matrilineal tradition known as adat perpatih (or lareh
bodi caniago) to develop on the Malay Peninsula, primarily in the region
known today as Negeri Sembilan (The Nine States).

Matrilineal culture first arrived in Negeri Sembilan from Minangkabau, a

highland region of West Sumatra in modern-day Indonesia. For centuries,
Minangkabau had practised a form of matrilineality known as adat alam
Minangkabau (traditions of the Minangkabau world). From at least the
fifteenth century, this unique system began to disperse across wider
Southeast Asia under the aegis of another Minangkabau tradition called
merantau (lit. ‘wandering’). This migratory practice saw many Minangkabau
people leave their homeland in search of new frontiers; later, after travelling
far and wide, a large proportion of them settled in what is now Negeri
Sembilan, where succeeding centuries saw their complex matrilineal culture
combine with pre-existing local customs and Islamic practices to form adat
perpatih. This resultant and unique matrilineal system not only emphasised
women’s rights but also equality before the law, respect for nature, and the
moral necessity of correction and reform. This chapter describes the nature,
history, practice, and contemporary condition of this tradition. In particular, we
consider adat perpatih’s approach to community leadership, marriage, and
property ownership (including inheritance). Each of these issues is discussed
in ideal terms, as they would manifest were adat perpatih given full rein.
While considering how adat perpatih converges and diverges with Islamic
orthopraxis, we argue that behind an array of superficial differences lies a
common desire to protect the status of women. Finally, the chapter considers
adat perpatih’s decline in the wake of European colonialism.

The nature of Adat Perpatih

To begin, let us consider what adat perpatih is, precisely. Academic literature
typically defines the Malay word adat (from the Arabic ādāt, or ‘custom’) in
legalistic terms, as denoting a prescriptive set of laws—often codified—
governing social interaction.(100) Traditional manifestations of this concept,
however, including adat perpatih, subsume far more than just law. As
succinctly outlined by R. J. Wilkinson:

100 For example, see M. B. Hooker, “A Note on the Malayan Legal Digests,” Journal of the Malay-
sian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 4:1 (1968), 157-70.

52
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
 Adat includes laws of nature, the conventions of society, the rules
of etiquette and even the doctrines of common sense. Adat is
right action in matters of everyday life as well as in obedience to
the laws of the land.(101)

Rather than a strictly legal concept, therefore, adat denotes “right action”
in a more general sense, incorporating the observance of perceived natural
laws, commonly held cultural norms, and generally accepted ethical and
moral standards. In this context, adat perpatih constitutes the central plank
in a complex social system defined by familial descent, whether individual or
collective, through the female line. From specific individuals to households
(rumpun) to overarching matriclans (suku), this system expresses identity in
terms of common female ancestry.(102) The majority of the ideals underlying
this matrilineal system are encoded in perbilangan (proverbs), traditional oral
statements transmitted as either prose or poetry. Although written down
over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these proverbs are still
memorised by ruling chiefs and adat officials (below) so they can be passed
from generation to generation as a guide in decision making processes.
They cover various aspects of life, including the appointment of leaders, the
punitive justice system, and social conduct. All ruling chiefs or leaders must
understand them and be skilled in their use.(103)

Another common perception within the literature is that adat, both generally
and in terms of adat perpatih specifically, is oppositional to sharīʿa. The more
adat a tradition contains, the less Islamic it is often thought to be.(104) Although
consistently applied to adat perpatih,(105) this perspective is problematic;
adherents of the tradition itself interpret it as complementary to Islam rather
than contradictory, being an expression of the same natural order.(106) As clearly

101 Richard James Wilkinson, “Rembau: Its History, Customs and Constitution,” Journal of the
Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 56 (1910), 13-14.
102 Tsuyoshi Kato, “Change and Continuity in the Minangkabau Matrilineal System,” Indonesia 25
(1978), 3.
103 This chapter cites numerous perbilangan, each taken from Negeri Sembilan’s adat perpatih
tradition, with some additions from nearby Naning, Melaka. Readers should note that all cited
perbilangan have an (often direct) equivalent in Minangkabau. See Michael B. Hooker, Adat Laws in
Modern Malaysia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), 34.
104 Hooker, “Note on Malayan Legal Digests,” 169; Yock Fang Liaw, Undang-Undang Melaka: The
Laws of Melaka, Bibliotheca Indonesica 13 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976), 31-2.
105 For example, see Cecil William Chase Parr and W.H. Mackray, “Rembau, One of the Nine
States: Its History, Constitution and Customs,” Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society 56 (1910), 1-57.
106 Taufik Abdullah, “Adat and Islam: An Examination of Conflict in Minangkabau,” Indonesia 2

53
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
stated in one perbilangan:

Adat bersendi hukum, Adat is based on religious law,

Hukum bersendi kitabullah, Religious law on the Book of God,

Kuat adat, tak gaduh hukum, If adat is strong, religious law is not
troubled,

Kuat hukum, tak gaduh adat, If religious law is strong, adat is not
troubled,

Ibu hukum muafakat, The mother of religious law is

consensus,

Ibu adat muafakat. The mother of adat is consensus.

This proverb clearly posits a dependency between adat and sharīʿa, rooting
the former in the latter and making the legitimacy of both dependent on
kitabullah (the Book of God, or the Qurʾān).(107) Islam and adat are therefore
interrelated, both laws of values (what is proper, good, and right) ultimately
leading to the existence of God.(108) Some Muslim jurists, including Wahbah
al-Zuhayli, have argued that several Qurʾānic verses openly enjoining the
observance of adat (termed ʿurf, ‘that which is known’) reinforce this sense of
interdependence. Verse 7:199, for example, states: “Keep to forgiveness, enjoin
ʿurf, and turn away from the ignorant”. Al-Zuhayli perceives this and similar
verses as textual authority for incorporating adat into sharīʿa; adat that does
not contravene the principles of sharīʿa is considered valid and authoritative.(109)

Finally, as a complete system, adat perpatih can be seen as the embodiment of

two core principles: muafakat (from Arabic mūwāfaqa, ‘consensus’) and budi
(‘virtue’ or ‘good character’).(110) The importance of muafakat is illustrated by

(1966), 3.
107 This interdependence is also spelt out within an adat perpatih legal digest, codified in Sungai
Ujong in 1904. The fourth fasal (section) of this digest states: “Truth arises out of three things: out of
discussion, out of Allah’s Book, and out of ancestral law.” See Richard Olaf Winstedt and Patrick Ed-
ward de Josselin de Jong, “A Digest of Customary Law from Sungai Ujong,” Journal of the Malayan
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 27:3 (1954), 8.
108 Hooker, Adat Laws in Modern Malaysia, 218-19.
109 Wahbah al-Zuhayli, Usul al-Fiqh al-Islami (Damscus: Dar al-Fikr, 1998), 828.
110 Wan Kamal Mujani, Wan Hamdi Wan Sulaiman, and Ermy Azziaty Rozali, “Sistem Federalisme
Dalam Adat Perpatih di Negeri Sembilan,” Researchgate, https://www.researchgate.net/publica-

54
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
the tribal decision-making processes characteristic of adat perpatih, in which
consultation (similar to the Islamic concept of shūrā) is key. Elaborated on more
fully below, this idea of muafakat is manifested in the proverb, “bulat air dek
pembetung, bulat kata dek muafakat” (water is shaped by the bamboo pipe,
decisions by muafakat). The concept of budi, on the other hand, similar to the
Arabic iḥsān, establishes a foundation for positive values like righteousness,
generosity, and respect for elders, family members, and leaders. This concept
is mentioned in another proverb, “kok tua dimuliakan, kok muda dikasihi” (if
the elderly are respected, the youngsters are loved).(111)

Having discussed something of the nature and form of adat perpatih, let us
now consider the how and when of its development in Negeri Sembilan.

Negeri Sembilan’s adat perpatih tradition

As briefly mentioned, the origins of adat perpatih lie in the West Sumatran
highland region of Minangkabau. According to Minangkabau’s rich legacy
of tambo (origin tales), initially committed to writing during the nineteenth
century, the region was once governed by two semi-legendary maternal
half-brothers, Datuk Ketemenggungan and Datuk Perpatih Nan Sebatang.(112)
Although the tambo are vague about chronologies, other regional sources
place these two brothers in the mid-fourteenth century; they are mentioned,
for example, as Patih(113) Ketemenggungan and Patih Suatang in the late
fourteenth- to early fifteenth-century Hikayat Raja Pasai (court chronicle of
Samudera-Pasai, North Sumatra) as co-rulers of Periangan (an old name for
Minangkabau)(114) and contemporaries of Majapahit’s famed prime minister,
Gajah Mada (in office from 1329 to c.1364), with whom they came into

tion/329338031_SISTEM_FEDERALISME_DALAM_ADAT_PERPATIH, 5 (accessed October 16, 2020.)

111 Nordin Selat, “Leadership in Adat Perpatih,” Federation Museums Journal 17 (1972), 75-6.
112 Their mother, Puti Indera Jelita, was the daughter of a local penghulu (district chieftain). Her
first husband, and Datuk Ketemenggungan’s father, was a non-Muslim Raja from India called Ma-
rajo who established himself at Pagaruyung, the Minangkabau royal capital, with the Indic title Sri
Maharaja di-Raja (King of Kings). After his death, Puti Indera Jelita married Marajo’s former mystical
adviser, the South Indian (probably Hindu) holy man, Cateri Bilang Pandai. From this second union
came Datuk Perpatih Nan Sebatang. See Ibrahim Dt. Sanggoeno Diradjo, Tambo Alam Minangka-
bau: Tatanan Adat Warisan Nenek Moyang Orang Minang (Bukit Tinggi: Kristal Multimedia, 2015),
12-14.
113 Patih (Javanese, ‘governor’) is roughly equivalent to the Malay Datuk.
114 The tambo describe how Marajo found Minangkabau under the control of two penghulus
resident in the villages of Periangan and Padang Panjang. To honour these tribal leaders, Marajo
named his kingdom Periangan Padang Panjang once he became Sri Maharaja di-Raja. The desig-
nation ‘Minangkabau’ appeared later. See Diradjo, Tambo Alam Minangkabau, 14.

55
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
conflict.(115) In Minangkabau, the tambo describe how these brothers reigned
over an animistic population who revered “the womb of the mother” (bundo
kandung).(116) Under Datuk Perpatih Nan Sebatang, who acted as head of all
the local penghulu (district chieftains),(117) this matrilineal tradition crystalised
into adat alam Minangkabau. Henceforth associated with tribal agricultural
communities based in the hinterlands, adat alam Minangkabau sat in
contrast to adat temenggung, an alternative and patriarchal body of praxis
supposedly compiled by Datuk Ketemenggungan for use in the royal court.(118)
Both traditions were considered complementary parts of the same system,
however, representing the male and female united in a sacred marriage.(119)

At what point adat alam Minangkabau began to penetrate Negeri Sembilan

and evolve into adat perpatih is difficult to determine. Malay tradition divides
the history of Negeri Sembilan into three parts: first, the semi-legendary
Sakai period, when three indigenous tribes—the Sakai, Semang, and Jakun—
occupied four proto-states in Klang (in modern-day Selangor), Sungai
Ujong, Jelebu, and Johol; second, the Minangkabau period, when increased
settlement from Sumatra resulted in significant Minang intermarriage with
the indigenous population (notably the Sakai), creating the Beduanda suku
(clan) and nine Minangkabau luak (districts) in Rembau, Sungai Ujong, Jelebu,
Klang, Ulu Pahang, Johol, Segamat, Jelai, and Naning (in modern-day Melaka);
and third, the modern period, when four of the above nine Minangkabau lauk
(Rembau, Sungai Ujong, Jelebu, and Johol) formed a constitutional monarchy
under a Yamtuan (lord).(120) While precisely how adat perpatih links with these
periods is obscure, several preliminary conclusions are possible. According to
the Sejarah Melayu (the court chronicle of Melaka, written in 1612), two of the

115 See Russell Jones, Hikayat Raja Pasai (Kuala Lumpur: Yayasan Karyawan and Penerbit Fajar
Bakti, 1999). Whether Patih Suatang is indeed Datuk Perpatih Nan Sebatang is uncertain but, given
the context, plausible. The Old Javanese poem, Nagarakertagama (written 1365), lists Minangkabau
among the conquests of Gajah Mada, see Damaika Saktiani, Kakawin Nagarakertagama (Jakarta:
PT Buku Seru, 2016).
116 There are hints of an earlier matrilineal tradition; the tambo mention two pre-adat perpatih
forms of matrilineal law: the undang-undang Nai Tigo and adat tarik baleh. See Yatim, Adat, 214-15.
117 Diradjo, Tambo Alam Minangkabau, 14.
118 Rais Yatim, Adat: The Legacy of Minangkabau (Kuala Lumpur: Yayasan Warisanegara, 2015), 66.
119 Abdullah, “Adat and Islam,” 4.
120 Richard James Wilkinson, “Notes on the Negri Sembilan,” in Richard James Wilkinson (ed.)
Papers on Malay Subjects (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1971), 283; Martin Lister, “Malay
Law in Negri Sembilan,” Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 22 (1890): 302; Jan
Petrus de Josselin de Jong, Minangkabau and Negri Sembilan: Socio Political Structure in Indone-
sia (Leiden: Ijdo, 1951), 123, 151-2.

56
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
four Sakai proto-states— Sungai Ujong and Klang—were Melakan vassals.(121)
Although the text does not mention Minangkabau settlement or matrilineal
practices within either region, at modern-day Kampung Pengkalan Kempas,
in what was then Klang, a Melakan gravesite survives. Belonging to an
Melakan official called Ahmat Majanu and dated 1467, it is accompanied by a
contemporary assemblage of megaliths. Although rare on the Malay Peninsula,
comparable grave markers are common throughout Minangkabau, where
they are called batu tagak and associated with Minangkabau’s matrilineal
culture.(122) They therefore tentatively indicate the latter’s influence in Negeri
Sembilan contemporary to the Melaka period. Indeed, the Suma Oriental of
Tomé Pires (written in Melaka between 1512 and 1515) describes Minangkabau
as Melaka’s principal source of gold, and therefore as an important trading
partner. Under Melaka’s Sultan Muzaffar Shah (r.59-1445), Pires claims Melaka
even absorbed two Minangkabau provinces, Kampar and Indragiri, and
converted them to Islam.(123) The Portuguese conqueror of Melaka, Afonso
d’Albuquerque, also refers to Minangkabau migration to the city, although
without giving a sense of scale.(124)

All this notwithstanding, oral traditions collected by the British in Rembau

and Sungai Ujong over the late nineteenth century, while lacking a clear
chronology, trace Minangkabau migration to events surrounding the lifetime
of Bendahara Sekudai, an important ancestral figure within both the Rembau
and Sungai Ujong luaks. Also known as Tun Jinal, Bendahara Sekudai appears
in longer versions of the Sejarah Melayu as an early seventeenth-century Johor
official;(125) he may be the aged Bendahara Sekudai who led the Dutch-Johor
assault against Portuguese Melaka in 1641.(126) It is therefore significant that

121 Under Melaka’s Sultan Muzaffar Shah (r.1445-59), the prominent noble Tun Perak was penghu-
lu of Klang, while under Sultan Mansur Shah (r.1459-77) Sungai Ujong was governed by Tun Tukah,
a relation of the Melakan Bendahara (chief minister). See Boon Keng Cheah, Sejarah Melayu: MS
Raffles No. 18 Edisi Rumi Baru, MBRAS Reprint 17 (Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society, 2010), 136-7, 219.
122 Ivor H. N. Evans, “A Grave and Megaliths in Negri Sembilan with an Account of some Excava-
tions,” Journal of the Federated Malay States Museums 9:3 (1921), 155-73; Elizabeth Lambourn, “The
Formation of the Batu Aceh Tradition in Fifteenth-Century Samudera-Pasai,” Indonesia and the
Malay World 32:93 (2004), 241.
123 Tome Pires, Suma Oriental: An Account of the East, from the Red Sea to China, Written in
Malacca and India in 1512-1515, vol. 2, ed. Armando Cortesao (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services,
2005), 244-5.
124 Cited in Josselin de Jong, Minangkabau and Negri Sembilan, 123.
125 Jan Petrus de Josselin de Jong, “Who’s Who in the Malay Annals,” Journal of the Malayan
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 34:2 (1961), 76.
126 Wilkinson, “Notes on the Negri Sembilan,” 288.

57
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
the British encountered traditions tracing Minangkabau migration to a period
immediately before his arrival in Negeri Sembilan, as Johor’s governor of the
region, in the early seventeenth century. His lifetime, it seems, marked the
beginning of a transition from the earlier Sakai period to the later Minangkabau
period. Indeed, the first certain reference to Minangkabau settlement in Negeri
Sembilan does appear over this period; the 1613 account of Melaka written
by Portuguese-Bugis explorer, Godinho de Eredia, references Minangkabau
settlement at both Naning and Rembau, then vassals of Portugal and Johor
respectively.(127) This vassalage implies the existence of distinct political and
geographic entities that, coupled with their Minangkabau identity, would be
consistent with the formation of luak (although without necessitating them).
Nevertheless, official seals firmly establishing the existence of Minangkabau
luak in Negeri Sembilan, and therefore the Minangkabau period, do not
emerge until the 1700s. Issued by Johor as their suzerain, the first appears in
Naning (1705), followed by Rembau (1707), and then a succession of other luak
untilJelebu(1760).(128)

Although adat alam Minangkabau presumably accompanied early Minang

migrants to Negeri Sembilan, precisely when adat perpatih began to emerge
and take hold across the state’s luak is uncertain. Circumstances surrounding
the appointment of Negeri Sembilan’s first Yamtuan, however, suggests an
early eighteenth-century date. In 1699, the Bendahara of Johor, Tun Abdul Jalil,
supported by the Bugis of Riau, assassinated Johor’s Sultan Mahmud Shah II
and usurped the Johor throne. The resultant civil war extended over much
of the early 1700s and saw Negeri Sembilan’s Minangkabau luak side with
a Sumatran pretender to the throne, Raja Kecil, who claimed posthumous
descent from Sultan Mahmud. In consequence, Negeri Sembilan came into
conflict with Tun (now Sultan) Abdul Jalil, who placed the state under Bugis
occupation. In the ensuing chaos, the penghulus of Sungai Ujong, Jelebu,
Johol, and Rembau petitioned the Raja of Siak, in East Sumatra—a deputy of
the by then defunct Sultanate of Minangkabau—for a ruler capable of restoring
order and reuniting Negeri Sembilan, notably by enforcing adat perpatih. By
the early 1700s, then, at least a notional conception of adat perpatih existed.
Whether it was enforced, however, is uncertain: the initial three candidates
despatched by the Raja of Siak to rule Negeri Sembilan—Raja Kasah, Raja

127 Godinho de Eredia, Description of Malaca, Meridional India, and Cathay, trans. John Vivian
Mills, MBRAS Reprint 14 (Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1997), 21-3.
128 Wilkinson, “Notes on the Negri Sembilan,” 290. See also Annabel Teh Gallop and Venetia
Porter, Lasting Impressions: Seals from the Islamic World (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Arts Museum
Malaysia, 2012), 152.

58
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Adil, and Raja Khatib—all failed to enforce adat perpatih and, for that reason,
were rejected by the luaks. Only in 1773 did a fourth contender for the throne,
Raja Melewar, succeed. Appointed by the aforementioned penghulus as the
first Yamtuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan, Raja Melewar governed the state
according to the norms of adat perpatih until 1795, cementing the tradition’s
centrality within the state.(129)

With this brief outline of both the nature and history of adat perpatih in mind,
we now turn to three issues demonstrating its unique character: leadership,
marriage, and property ownership.

Leadership in adat perpatih

Adat perpatih leadership has its own uniqueness, being divisible into four
separate institutions that each govern a different section of society, as
described in the following perbilangan:

Alam beraja, The state has its Raja,

Luak berpenghulu, The luak has its penghulu,

Suku berlembaga, The suku has its lembaga,

Anak buah berbuapak, The people have their buapak,

Orang semenda bertempat semenda. The affine has affinal relatives.

vDi atas Raja, At the top is the Raja,

Di tengah penghulu, In the middle the penghulu,

Di bawah lembaga, Beneath [them] the lembaga.

Raja berdaulat dalam alamnya, The Raja governs his state,

Penghulu berdaulat dalam luaknya, The penghulu governs his

luak,

Lembaga bernobat dalam anak buahnya. The lembaga is appointed over his

people.

From the highest to the lowest, adat perpatih therefore incorporates the

129 Wilkinson, “Notes on the Negri Sembilan,” 295-6.

59
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
following authority figures: yamtuan besar (the Raja or lord), penghulu (or
undang, district chieftain), lembaga (clan chieftain), and buapak (sub-clan
chieftain).

Yamtuan
Besar (King)

Penghulu
(District Chieftain)

Lembaga
(Clan Chieftain)

Buapak
(Sub-clan Chieftain)

While the institution of yamtuan besar (henceforth Yamtuan) is patrilineal, as

we shall see the posts of penghulu, lembaga, and buapak are all transmitted
matrilineally—although, ultimately, all three are also held by men. The above
proverbs clearly describe how the Yamtuan holds the highest position within
the adat perpatih power hierarchy, being the supreme ruler of the state. This
individual’s official title is Yang di-Pertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan, and several
conditions determine eligibility for his office: candidates must be male, Muslim,
and of the lineage of Raja Lenggang (the third Yamtuan).(130) Traditionally,
the Yamtuan has been a symbol of unity in Negeri Sembilan, albeit with no
actual political authority beyond being the final arbiter in legal disputes.

130 Hooker, Adat Laws in Modern Malaysia, 116-7. Initially, the Yamtuan was elected from among
the descendants of the Minangkabau sultan. This tradition, however, was not long-lasting, being
soon challenged by local princes. The last so-called ‘prince of Pagaruyong’ was Raja Labu Leng-
gang, who died in 1824 and was succeeded by his son. See Khoo Kay Kim, “Adat dan Perkemban-
gan Politik: Pembangunan Masyarakat Negeri Sembilan,” in A. Samad Idris, Norhalim Hj. Ibrahim,
Muhammad Tainu and Dharmala N. S. (eds.) Negeri Sembilan: Gemuk Dipupuk, Segar Bersiram:
Adat Merentas Zaman, (Seremban: Jawatankuasa Penyelidikan Budaya Negeri Sembilan, 1994),
5. The following is a list of all the Yamtuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan since the state’s unification
in 1773. Pagaruyung dynasty: Raja Melewar (r.1773-95), Yamtuan Hitam (r.1795-1808), and Yamtuan
Labu Lenggang (r.1808-24). Local princes: Yamtuan Radin ibnu Langgang (r.1830-61), Yamtuan
Imam (r.1861-9), Yamtuan Puan Intan (or Pemangku Raja) (r.1869-72), Yamtuan Antah (r.1872-88),
Tengku Muhammad (r.1888-1933), Tengku Abdul Rahman (r.1957-60), Tuanku Munawir (r.1960-7),
Tungku Jaafar (r.1967-2008), and Tuanku Muhriz (r.2008-present).

60
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
The only luak, or district, he has any political power over is the royal town of
Seri Menanti, his place of residence. His role is therefore merely ceremonial;
real political power has customarily resided with the penghulus. Indeed, the
Yamtuan is an elective officer selected by unanimous vote from among the
four most prominent penghulus—those of Sungai Ujong, Jelebu, Johol, and
Rembau.(131) As a result, there have been several power struggles between the
penghulus and the Negeri Sembilan royal family.

Aside from this political power, each penghulu (or undang) is also considered
a leader of custom, often being referred to as its “mother”.(132) Their role in
society is outlined by the following proverbs:

Boleh menghitam dan memutihkan, With authority to pronounce black

and white,

Boleh memanjang dan memendekkan, With authority to lengthen and

shorten,

Boleh mengesah dan membatalkan. With authority to confirm and

annul.

Sah batal pada undang, Confirmation and annulment are

with the undang,

Keris penyalang pada undang. So too the execution kris.

In short, penghulu are responsible for interpreting perbilangan and,

therefore, for protecting and executing adat. The penghulus and adat are
complementary.(133) The title penghulu connotes nobility and attracts respect.
A position for life, it is usually conferred on someone of high status who will
have authority over his people. Penghulus are assisted in their activities by
a council of advisors, called the orang besar undang. All decisions are based
on consultation with this council, a process conducted through muafakat
(discussed above). Additionally, a penghulu must be surrounded by his anak
buah (kinship group), who should be loyal and submissive; anak buah should
always sit around the penghulu and serve him with particular politeness, as

131 Rosiswandy bin Mohd. Salleh, Sejarah Pengamalan Adat Perpatih di Negeri Sembilan (Jelebu:
Muzium Adat Jelebu, Negeri Sembilan, n.d), 7; Khoo, “Adat dan Perkembangan Politik,” 3.
132 Mohammad Fadzeli Jaafar, “Lexical Patterns in Customary Sayings,” Indonesian Journal of
Applied Linguistics 8:1 (2018), 231.
133 Selat, “Leadership in Adat Perpatih,” 80, 85.

61
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
a sign of respect.(134) The relationship between a penghulu and his anak buah
is one of mutual care involving obedience, respect, affection, and loyalty. As
described in the following perbilangan, the anak buah should:

Kok malu membangkitkan, Restore his [the penghulu’s] dignity

when he is humiliated,

Haus memberi air, Give him drink when he is thirsty,

Kok litak memberi nasi, Rice when he is hungry,

Hilang mencari, Find him when he is lost,

Sakit mengubat, Seek a cure when he is ill,

Mati menanam. Bury him when he dies.

When a penghulu dies, his successor must be appointed before his burial, as
the latter will conduct the funeral ceremony.

Penghulus can be removed from office if found guilty of going against adat.
Each penghulu is responsible for his own district or luak, of which there
are currently fourteen in Negeri Sembilan: Seri Menanti, Tampin, Sungai
Ujong, Jelebu, Johol, Rembau, Ulu Muar, Jempol, Terachi, Gudung Pasir,
Inas, Gemencheh, Ayer Kuning, and Linggi. Penghulus are also responsible
for dividing up ancestral land between female members of their luak in
accordance with the requirements of adat (discussed below). They protect all
land within their territory from outside aggression; a penghulu must always
be ready to help his people when they are in trouble. Moreover, no one may
leave the luak without his permission.(135)

Below the penghulu is the lembaga, or clan head. The clan, or suku, is the
largest descent group within adat perpatih society. There are currently twelve
suku in Negeri Sembilan: Biduanda, Paya Kumbuh, Tiga Nenek, Batu Belang,
Tiga Batu, Semelenggang, Selemak, Mungkal, Tanah Datar, Batu Hampar,
Anak Melaka, and Anak Aceh. The election of lembaga is by fixed rotation. It is
interesting to note that candidates must be married to a woman from the suku
they are to represent; only by virtue of this connection are they eligible for the
position, meaning it is dispensed matrilineally.(136) The responsibilities of each
lembaga are limited to his own people, both socially and legally. In practice, he

134 Selat, “Leadership in Adat Perpatih,” 79-80.

135 Selat, “Leadership in Adat Perpatih.”
136 Hooker, Adat Laws in Modern Malaysia, 22.

62
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
has limited authority; he can only settle trifling issues among suku members.
More serious issues have to be resolved according to adat as administered by
the penghulu.(137) Nevertheless, all lembaga within a luak have responsibility
for appointing their penghulu, which they do through mutual consultation.

The smallest unit in adat perpatih society is the perut, which forms a sub-
division of the suku. Perut have been described as “matri-unilocal” groups,
being a combination of keluarga (families) or rumpun (individual households)
descended from a common female ancestor who own, work, and reside on the
same ancestral land. These units are led by a buapak who must be the brother
or maternal uncle of a prominent female member of the perut. They are
elected by all the female adult members of the lineage. As with the lembaga,
therefore, the buapak inherits his position matrilineally. Their appointment,
however, must be approved by the local lembaga, with whom they work
closely for the good of their perut. The buapak’s responsibilities are limited
to their perut alone. Buapak primarily administer customary land and act as
mediators in inheritance disputes.(138) Although they have some responsibility
for implementing adat, this role is largely confined to being present at lineage
ceremonies.

Overall, the delegation of power within adat perpatih society moves from
the smallest unit (the perut) to the highest authority (the Yamtuan). In short,
those in power must be elected by the people they are to rule. The relationship
between the rulers and the ruled is therefore very dynamic and exhibits clear
democratic traits. For example, each buapak is elected unanimously by the
ordinary members of their tribe, the anak buah (affines). The lembaga above
him can only approve his appointment; he cannot suggest it or force it into
being. Typically, all adat perpatih post holders, regardless of rank, will remain
in office for life unless those beneath them deem them unfit for the position,
in which case they can be deposed.

It is striking how this socio-political structure mirrors many salient features

within early Islamic political culture, notably the emphasis on consultation and
accountability. Consultation (shūrā) was regularly used during the lifetime of
the Prophet Muhammad to elect officials and reach other important decisions.
The Prophet reportedly said:

If your leaders are the best among you, your wealthy the most generous

137 Norhalim Hj. Ibrahim, “Some Observations on Adat and Adat Leadership in Rembau, Negeri
Sembilan,” Southeast Asian Studies 26:2 (1988), 157.
138 Sueo Kuwahara, “A Study of a Matrilineal Village in Negeri Sembilan,” Senri Ethnological Stud-
ies 48 (1998), 35.

63
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
among you, and your affairs are conducted after consultation among you, the
Earth’s surface will be better for you than its interior.(139)

Certainly, the Prophet Muhammad often consulted his Companions when

making crucial decisions. For instance, during the Battle of Uhud, he followed
majority opinion by meeting the attacking army at Medina.(140) After his death,
a (varying) form of election based on shūrā was used to select his successors, a
process that eventually became enshrined in classical Islamic political thought
as the ideal means of choosing a khalīfa.(141) The distinguished Qurʾānic
commentator, Ibn ʿAtiyya (d. 1151/546), even commented concerning shūrā
that:

Shūrā is one of the basics of Islamic law (sharīʿa), and a mandatory rule; and
any [who are entrusted with public authority] who does not take the counsel
of those who have knowledge and are conscious of God, should be dismissed
from his [or her public] position, and there is no argument about that.(142)

Concerning accountability, each adat chief (penghulu, lembaga, and buapak)

is responsible for the people within their jurisdiction, whose welfare they must
protect—whether materially or morally. The various chieftains must never
transgress the limits of their authority, and only settle disputes within their
jurisdiction according to the principles of adat. There is no room for a tyrant in
adat perpatih, as demonstrated by these perbilangan:

Kalau keruh air di hulu, If the water is murky at the river source,

Sampai ke muara keruh juga. It will be murky right down to the mouth.

Tumbuhnya ditanam, He (the ruler) grows because he is

planted,

Tingginya dianjung, He is high because he is held aloft,

Besarnya diampu. He is great because he is made great.

Raja Adil Raja disembah, A just ruler is revered,

139 Abu Isa Muhammad ibn Isa ibn Surah al-Tirmidhi, Sunan al-Tirmidhi, ed. Abd al-Rahman
Muhammad Uthman (Madinah: Al-Maktabah al-Salafiyyah, 1974), 3:261.
140 Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad (Sirat Rasul Allah), trans. Alfred Guillaume (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2010), 370.
141 Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Mawardi, Al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyah: The Laws of Islamic Governance, trans.
Asadullah Yate (London: Ta-Ha Publishers, 1996), 13.
142 Ibn. Atiyya, Al-Muharrar al-Wajiz, vol. 3 (Fez: Ministry of Awqafand Islamic Affairs, 1997), 280-1.

64
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Raja zalim Raja disanggah. An unjust ruler is deposed.

Kok gadang jangan melanda, The great must not oppress,

Kok cerdik jangan menipu. The clever must not swindle.

Similar ideals emerge within early Islamic political thought. Guarding the
welfare of the general populace, for example, is a central theme within the
inaugural speech of Abū Bakr, the Prophet’s immediate successor:

The weak among you is deemed strong by me, until I return to them that
which is rightfully theirs, insha Allah. And the strong among you is deemed
weak by me, until I take from them what is rightfully (someone else’s), insha
Allah.(143)

This strong commitment to social justice, likewise enshrined in the Qurʾān,

notably in its call for Muslims to pay zakat (compulsory charity, see 2:177),
mirrors the underlying concerns structuring adat perpatih leadership—and,
arguably, its principles of landownership too (below). However, the ability of
anak buah to depose their leaders should the latter abuse their power, notably
by flouting adat, has no equivalent in Islam; no mechanism exists to allow
Muslims to overthrow a khalīfa or other authority figure. Nevertheless, there is
a similar intolerance in Islam towards the flouting of ethical norms. Returning
to Abū Bakr’s inaugural speech, he reputedly said:

Obey me so long as I obey Allah and His Messenger. And if I disobey Allah and
His Messenger, then I have no right to your obedience.(144)

At the very least, this allows Muslims to engage in civil disobedience should
their leaders disobey Islam. Although more restrictive than the course of
action available in adat perpatih, this quotation embodies the same principle
of accountability.

In summary, the political values underlying adat perpatih, rooted in the

concepts of accountability, checks and balances, and compromise, contribute
to the maintenance of its political system and find numerous parallels (if not
equivalencies) within the Islamic tradition. With this observation in mind, let
us progress to the next part of our discussion: marriage.

143 Ali Muhammad As-Sallabee, The Biography of Abu Bakr As-Siddiq (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2007),
246.
144 As-Sallabee, The Biography of Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, 253.

65
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Marriage in Adat Perpatih

At the core of adat perpatih marriage custom lies the principle of exogamy;
to marry within the same suku is strictly forbidden. All members of the same
clan are considered siblings, between whom marriage is unacceptable for the
sake of the suku’s long-term health and prosperity.(145) Marriages are instead
perceived as alliances between suku, formalised as oral contracts after due
discussion and consideration.(146) This exogamous approach to marriage
contrasts sharply with Islamic practice. While Muslim marriages are also
contractual (and usually oral), the Qurʾān only prohibits wedlock within
immediate family units:

Forbidden for you to marry are your mothers and daughters, sisters, aunts
on both sides, the daughters of your brothers and sisters, milk-mothers, milk-
sisters, mothers-in-law, stepdaughters who are in your care—that is, born of
wives with whom you have had sexual intercourse, but if you have not yet
consummated the marriage, then there is no harm—or women belonging
to your actual sons; it is also forbidden to have intercourse with two sisters
together… (23-4:22)

In Islam, therefore, broad familial associations are not a bar against marriage,
as in adat perpatih. While this clearly serves to differentiate the two traditions,
arguably such variance masks a shared objective: to prevent marriage between
close family members for the benefit of wider society. As demonstrated by the
above verse, Islam defines membership of a family unit in terms of the shared
possession of two life-giving substances, either blood or milk (where the latter
refers to individuals suckled by the same woman). Two people with such
ties cannot marry.(147) In adat perpatih, the same principle applies: although
suckling is not referred to, individuals who share close blood-ties also may
not marry, for the same reasons. The difference, however, lies in the perceived

145 Mat Noor Mat Zain, Che Maryam Ahmad, and Zuliza Mohd. Kusrin, “Perkahwinan Adat Rem-
bau, Negeri Sembilan, dalam Penulisan C.W.C. Parr dan W.H. Mackray,” Jurnal Melayu 9 (2012), 179.
The exception is Rembau, where marriage within the same suku is permitted, provided the individ-
uals concerned are from different perut. See Jonathan Cave, Naning in Melaka: History, the Culture,
Tribes and Clans, the War, Independence, MBRAS Monograph no. 16 (Petaling Jaya: MBRAS, 1989),
412.
146 In practice, this emphasis on tribal alliance means polygamy is rare (although not forbidden).
This is because the bride’s family dislikes both sharing a bridegroom and negotiating with multiple
suku (that of the bridegroom and any existing wives). See Cave, Naning in Melaka, 418-9.
147 Jacob Neusner, Tamara Sonn, and Jonathan E. Brockopp, Judaism and Islam in Practice: A
Sourcebook (London: Routledge, 2000), 65-6.

66
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
boundaries of that affinity; in adat perpatih, the limits are set much wider,
across an entire clan.

Concerning betrothal, in adat perpatih (as in Islam) potential bridegrooms

may decide whom they wish to marry, after which they inform their father
and buapak of their choice. These elders then visit the family of the proposed
bride, where they meet their counterparts and discuss the suitability of the
match, usually in terms of the relative reputation and prestige of the two suku.
As in broader Malay adat (based on Hindu practice), if the match is agreed
upon, the bridegroom confirms betrothal by presenting the bride with a
tanda suka (lit. ‘sign of liking’, usually a ring). Subsequently, on the wedding
day, he provides mas kahwin (lit. ‘marriage gold’) and wang hantaran (lit.
‘money sent’). The first, which may be deferred, is presented to the bride as
her inalienable right, the second to the bride’s family, often to help defray
wedding costs. The contract of marriage, however, is established by the tanda
suka; if the contract is subsequently breached before finalisation (that is,
before the nikah, or Islamic marriage ceremony), twice the wang hantaran
is payable. This is based on the proverb, “menerima satu tangan, tolak dua
tangan” (receive with one hand, push away with two).(148) The nikah itself is
conducted by a khatib (Muslim preacher) in accordance with Islamic norms:
the consent of the bride is required, in addition to the presence of a wali (male
guardian) and two witnesses.

A marriage solemnised without the above adat practices (that is, by nikah
alone) remains valid but is considered improper; traditionally associated
with elopement, such marriages only occur when opposition to them is so
intractable the couple must bypass adat altogether, usually because they are
from the same suku. As J. Cave notes, such bypassing “was extremely rare, and
occurred when the bride was lost to feelings of family respectability and social
display”.(149)

Overall, the centrality of betrothal within adat perpatih is noteworthy.

Sufficient to establish the marriage contract, its primacy differs significantly
from betrothal as envisioned in Islam. Although mentioned in the Qurʾān
(2:235), betrothal is not a legal obligation under sharīʿa and can be dispensed
with, if necessary. Even when pursued, far from establishing a contract of

148 Cave, Naning in Melaka, 412-4.

149 Cave, Naning in Melaka, 417. In the event of such unusual marriages, the mas kahwin be-
comes a fine payable by the lembaga of the bridegroom to the lembaga of the bride. This is contra-
ry to Islamic practice. See Mat Zain, Ahmad, and Kusrin, “Perkahwinan Adat Rembau,” 181.
67
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
marriage, betrothal has little legal effect beyond preventing other suitors from
approaching the fiancée.(150) Both adat perpatih and Islam agree, however,
that betrothal is accompanied by a suitable gift, which the fiancée retains,
even if the engagement is broken off.(151) They also agree on the need for a wali
during the nikah, but disagree concerning that individual’s identity. According
to adat perpatih, the wali must be either the father of the bride, the maternal
grandfather, or a maternal uncle. Paternal male relations, by contrast, are
excluded; necessarily members of different suku, they are ineligible to act on
their niece’s behalf.(152) Such a restriction, however, is foreign to Islam.(153) Of
the two further monetary payments mandated by adat perpatih, mas kahwin
corresponds to the Islamic mahr, which is likewise deferrable and payable only
to the bride (see Qurʾān 4:4). Wang hantaran, on the other hand, although
widely observed among Malay Muslims, has no Islamic equivalent, being
rooted in earlier Hindu practice.(154)

After marriage, the husband becomes orang semanda (from senda, ‘to
pledge’), signifying his new status as ‘pledged’ to his wife’s suku.(155) Losing
all active association with his mother’s clan, in Negeri Sembilan the orang
semanda enters the household of his wife in a process called tempat semenda
(situating the one who is pledged).(156) Traditionally, in Minangkabau, the orang
semanda would barely interact with his wife’s suku, merely sleeping in her
ancestral house at night before returning to his mother’s suku to work their
land during the day. This led to comparisons between the orang semanda and
a bull buffalo, borrowed for the sake of impregnation.(157) In Negeri Sembilan,
however, the orang semanda has always played a more active role in his
wife’s family. Most notably, the wife’s suku is expected to provide him with a

150 On the basis of the hadith, “Do not ask for a woman in marriage if another Muslim has already
done so” (Muwatta’ Imam Malik, Chapter 311, hadith #1062). Neusner, Sonn, and Brockopp, Judaism
and Islam in Practice, 63-7.
151 Neusner, Sonn, and Brockopp, Judaism and Islam in Practice, 64.
152 For example, if two brothers marry women from different suku, they cannot be wali to each
other’s daughters. This is because their responsibility is towards their wife’s suku; the connection
with their own (and so to each other) ends upon marriage (below). See Mat Zain, Ahmad, and Kus-
rin, “Perkahwinan Adat Rembau,” 177.
153 Neusner, Sonn, and Brockopp, Judaism and Islam in Practice, 86-7.
154 Ahmad Badri Abdullah, Mohammad Hashim Kamali, and Mohamed Azam Mohamed Adil,
Malay Traditional Customs: Towards a Shariah Compliant Practice, IAIS Malaysia Policy Issue Paper
12 (Kuala Lumpur: IAIS Malaysia, 2020).
155 Kato, “Minangkabau Matrilineal System,” 6.
156 Lister, “Malay Law in Negri Sembilan,” 316.
157 Kato, “Minangkabau Matrilineal System,” 7.

68
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
livelihood, when available.(158) For his part, the orang semanda should build (or
at least provide) a house for his wife, often on her ancestral land, and meet her
(and any children’s) living costs.

While the degree of dominance the above arrangement accords the wife’s
suku is perhaps at odds with Islamic norms, which generally assume the
husband’s centrality within a marriage,(159) adat perpatih as practiced in Negeri
Sembilan still upholds the expectation that husbands provide for their wives
and children, as demanded by Islamic teachings. As stated in the Qurʾān:
“Men are the protectors and maintainers of their wives, because God has given
the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from
their means” (4:34).

Concerning any offspring produced during a marriage, in Minangkabau

children (both male and female) traditionally maintain only minimal contact
with their paternal relations, including their father. Their mother and her
suku, to which they belong, dominate their lives.(160) In Negeri Sembilan,
however, although children likewise identify with their mother’s suku, even
adopting a matronym to express that connection, the realities of parenthood
and cohabitation entail a more shared experience, where both parents have
authority (perintah) over their children. The father’s Islamically-sanctioned
status as wali, taken more seriously in Negeri Sembilan than in Minangkabau,
also ensures that he maintains a central role in his children’s life-defining
moments, like marriage. In the event of divorce(161) or premature death,

158 In 1908, J. L. Humphreys witnessed the ritualised recital of an adat perpatih poem during a
wedding in Kelemak, Alor Gajah, Naning. Delivered by the penghulu of the Mungkar suku, who was
a relative of the bridegroom, it urged the bride’s suku to guard the welfare of the orang semanda:

Tiap-tiap menerima orang semenda itu, All who receive the orang semanda,
Ditentukan pula dengan benar dengan muafakat: Do so according to what has been agreed:
Kalua ada berkata ada, If (there is land), let it be stated,
Kalau tidak berkata benar. If there is not, say so truthfully.
Ke baruh sawah yang selepah lantak yang bertukul, To the lowly (give) a paddy field
with planted posts,
Ke darat kampung yang sesudut pinang yang sebatang, To the high an orchard with betel-palms
for a mark,
Tempat ke bukit mencari minum To the hills for drink,
Tempat ke lurah mencari makan. To the valleys for food.

Quoted in John Lisseter Humphreys, “A Naning Wedding Speech,” Journal of the Straits Branch of
the Royal Asiatic Society 72 (1916), 28.
159 Neusner, Sonn, and Brockopp, Judaism and Islam in Practice, 86.
160 Kato, “Minangkabau Matrilineal System,” 6-8.
161 Like the nikah, divorce in adat perpatih conforms to Islamic norms, being achieved by the

69
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
however, responsibility for any children falls exclusively to the mother’s suku;
that of the father has no claim over them. If a man is predeceased by his wife,
for example, his association with her suku ends; following a forty-four-day
mourning period, he must vacate the family home and cease all contact with
his children. In practice, however, such separation is considered too disruptive;
children effectively lose both parents in a short space of time, damaging
their welfare. More commonly, therefore, widowers marry a younger sister
of their deceased wife, allowing them to remain within their children’s suku.
Alternatively, if any of his daughters are old enough to inherit their mother’s
property upon her death, the widower is often permitted to remain within the
family home, although his formal association with the suku ceases.(162)

Arguably, little of the above resonates with Islamic praxis, in which children
typically identify with their father and his family (including any tribal group),
as demonstrated by the prevalence of nasab (Arabic patronyms). Nevertheless,
in the event of either the premature death of the father or divorce, Muslim
children are similarly entrusted to the care of their mother or her relatives,
especially when still young. In the context of divorce, the Qurʾān states:

The mothers shall suckle their [new-born] offspring for two whole years, if the
father desires to complete the term. But he shall bear the cost of their food
and clothing on equitable terms. (2:233)

Jurists have traditionally understood this Qurʾānic two-year custody period

as a minimum. In reality, mothers are typically accorded custody of their sons
until they reach puberty and of their daughters until they are old enough to
marry. In consequence, although not (as in adat perpatih) compulsory, young
Muslim children are likewise entrusted to the care of their mothers. Moreover,
in the event of the mother’s death, before paternal relations are considered
as potential custodians, the maternal grandmother or a maternal aunt will
be approached. Unlike in adat perpatih, however, financial responsibility for
children always resides with their father and his family.(163)

Now that the adat perpatih conceptions of leadership and marriage have
been considered, let us turn to the third issue defining that tradition: property
ownership and inheritance.

husband’s thrice repetition, whether at once or at intervals, of ṭalāq (Arabic for ‘divorce’) in front
of two witnesses. As in wider Islamic practice, women adhering to adat perpatih must observe an
ʿiddah (waiting) period of three months before remarrying (see Qurʾān 2:225-32).
162 Cave, Naning in Melaka, 421-2.
163 Neusner, Sonn, and Brockopp, Judaism and Islam in Practice, 124-5.

70
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Property Ownership and Inheritance in Adat Perpatih

Adat perpatih recognises two over-arching forms of property: harta pusaka

(hereditary/ancestral) and harta pencarian (acquired). Along with matrilineal
descent, harta pusaka constitutes a defining characteristic of adat perpatih. A
communally held, individually-managed resource, harta pusaka usually takes
the form of agricultural or occupational land (but can also consist of houses,
ponds, or adat titles) and is inalienable; it belongs to the suku in perpetuity,
for the benefit of all. Within an agricultural setting, therefore, it constitutes
a guarantee of future land ownership.(164) While men can benefit from harta
pusaka, typically by working agricultural land, they are only able to do so via
their association with female members of the suku; harta pusaka may only
be ‘owned’ by women, who inherit custody of it from their mothers, as their
mothers did before them, in an upbroken line down to the very beginnings of
the suku. Harta pusaka therefore carries a unique sense of sanctity linked to a
far distant matrilineal past.(165) In line with its communally-held nature, harta
pusaka can neither be sold nor subjected to rent and/or taxes. It is generally
only transferrable by inheritance from one woman to another, usually within
thesameperut.(166)

Harta pencarian, on the other hand, is earned personal property acquired

through individual effort. As outlined below, male and female members of
a suku are both entitled to possess harta pencarian. This type of property is
transformed into harta pusaka after two generations of continuous (female)
ownership within the same rumpun, initially becoming harta pusaka warisan
(ancestral property belonging to a particular family) and then, after the fourth
generation, harta pusaka proper.(167) While traditionally harta pusaka has
constituted the economic foundation of adat perpatih society, from the mid-

164 Azizah Kassim, “Women, Land and Gender Relations in Negeri Sembilan: Some Preliminary
Findings,” Southeast Asian Studies 26:2 (1988), 137.
165 Cave, Naning in Melaka, 408-9.
166 The transfer of land between perut within the same suku is, however, possible. Although
considered a gift (pemberian), such a transfer is often accompanied by a nominal cash payment
passed from the recipient to the donor. See Kassim, “Women, Land and Gender Relations in Negeri
Sembilan,” 137. It is exceptionally rare for harta pusaka to be acquired by someone from outside
a suku. Such may only occur under very specific circumstances and with universal agreement
from among the suku’s leadership. Valid circumstances include the need to: 1) repair or rebuild an
adat house; 2) finance the inauguration of a lembaga; 3) finance the marriage of a girl within the
lineage; or 4) provide the funeral expenses of a lineage member. See Kato, “Minangkabau Matrilin-
eal System,” 3n.4; J. M. Gullick, “D.O.’s and Dato’s: Dialogue on the ‘Adat Perpatih’,” Journal of the
Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 73 (2000), 41.
167 Cave, Naning in Melaka, 408.

71
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
nineteenth century harta pencarian has gained considerable significance
in the wake of rapid population growth and increased use of cash cropping.
These factors have combined to render harta pusaka inadequate as a means
of supporting all members of a suku within an increasingly monetised
economy.(168) The next section, however, on contemporary issues, elaborates
on this point more fully.

In the context of marriage, the rules of property ownership and inheritance run
as follows. Any property owned by a bridegroom prior to the nikah ceremony,
whether earned or obtained as a gift (he cannot ‘own’ or inherit harta pusaka),
is considered harta pembawaan (brought). A sub-division of harta pencarian,
it is considered to be his alone—although if he fails to declare it as harta
pembawaan from the outset, it will become the property of his wife. In the
event of divorce or death, harta pembawaan reverts back to the bridegroom
or his suku, respectively.(169) Property brought to the marriage by the bride, on
the other hand, is harta pendapatan (possessed). This category may include
both harta pusaka and harta pencarian. Likewise considered her property, it
remains so in the event of divorce.(170) If she dies, it is inherited by her nearest
female relatives (usually her sisters or daughters). By contrast, any property
acquired during marriage by either party is harta pencarian and co-owned
by both spouses. In the event of divorce, it is divided equally. If the husband
predeceases his wife, his share may be bequeathed to his children or suku
using the Islamic concept of hībah (gifting).(171) Otherwise, the entirety of it
automatically becomes the property of his wife’s suku. If she predeceases her
husband, he may inherit her share.(172) These principles of marital ownership
are rooted in the proverb:

Pembawa Kembali, What the bridegroom brings returns,

Dapatan Tinggal, What the bride brings stays,

Carian bahagi: What is earned is shared:

168 Kato, “Minangkabau Matrilineal System,” 9.

169 Lister, “Malay Law in Negri Sembilan,” 316.
170 Mat Zain, Ahmad, and Kusrin, “Perkahwinan Adat Rembau,” 184. Should harta pendapatan in-
clude agricultural land that is subsequently improved by the husband, the latter is entitled to com-
pensation upon divorce for any consequent increase in its value. A house built upon ancestral land
is harta pusaka. If built on normal land, it is harta pencarian. See Cave, Naning in Melaka, 422-3.
171 Kato, “Minangkabau Matrilineal System,” 10; Cave, Naning in Melaka, 419-20.
172 Abdullah, “Adat and Islam,” 21. Beginning in 1920s Naning, divorced husbands could issue as-
surances (tentukan) stating that, upon their death, some or all of their harta pencarian could pass
to the children of the defunct marriage. See Cave, Naning in Melaka, 426.

72
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Mati laki tinggal ke bini, If the husband dies, it goes to his wife,

Mati bini tinggal ke laki. If the wife dies, it goes to her husband.

In short, the above categories of property are alien to but not, it seems,
incompatible with Islam. In sharīʿa, property (termed al-māl) is defined very
broadly as any material item or usufruct a person may possess. The Shāfiʿī
school, predominant across Southeast Asia, expands on this definition by
arguing that property must be: 1) possessable; 2) of clear benefit to its owner; 3)
by virtue of that benefit, of definable value; and 4) exchangeable for that value.(173)
Within this context, while notions of harta pusaka, harta pencarian, harta
pembawaan, and harta pendapatan find no direct equivalent within Islam,
the latter’s definition of property is general enough to allow their absorption.
Thus, all forms of adat perpatih property are possessable, of benefit to their
owners, of inherent value, and transferable (albeit within limits). Arguably,
therefore, each category is compatible with the essentials of Islamic law in this
area. Rather, the only seemingly significant difference between adat perpatih
and Islam emerges with inheritance.

The Qurʾān apportions fixed inheritance shares to specific family members.

Giving women only one half of what men inherit (reflecting the latter’s greater
financial responsibilities, above), the Qurʾān states:

God directs you [the man] as regards your children: to the male the portion
of two females. If there are more than two women, they will have two-thirds
of what you leave. But if she is only one, then she will have one-half. Each one
of your parents will have one-sixth of what you leave, if you have children. If
you have no children, and your heirs are your parents, your mother will have
one-third; but if you have brothers, your mother will have one sixth, after any
bequest you bequeath, or any debt. As for your father and your sons, you do
not know which of them is more beneficial to you. Division of shares is from
God, and God is all knowing, wise.

You [the man] will have one-half of what your wives leave, if they have no
children; but if they have children then you will have one-fourth of what they
leave, after any bequest they bequeath, or any debt. They will have one-fourth
of what you leave, if you have no children; but if you have children, then they

173 Muhammad Wohidul Islam, “Al-Mal: The Concept of Property in Islamic Legal Thought,” Arab
Law Quarterly 14:4 (1999), 361, 364.

73
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
will have one-eighth of what you leave, after any bequest you bequeath, or any
debt. If a man, or a woman, has no heir, but he has a brother or a sister, each
of them will have one-sixth. If there is more than two, they share in one-third,
after any bequest he bequeaths, or any debt that takes precedent. (12-4:11)

While additional individual bequests are permitted, by which adat perpatih

norms could be accommodated, such are limited to one-third the value of an
estate. While the degree of dissimilarity between the above and adat perpatih
praxis is striking, as elsewhere it arguably masks a convergence of intention.
Thus, save on one occasion, when it mentions the father, the Qurʾān only
names mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters when allocating inheritance
shares. In practice, this means those said individuals take priority when an
estate is divided. Depending on the specific situation, women can therefore
inherit the lion share of a man’s property. For example, if a man dies and leaves
two daughters (one-third each), a wife (one-eighth), and his mother (one-
sixth), then more than nine-tenths of his estate is divided between his female
relatives before any male relation is considered. Like adat perpatih, therefore,
Islamic inheritance norms seem designed to protect female property rights,
even if that intention is not immediately apparent.(174)

Contemporary Issues

As stated at the outset, this chapter’s presentation of adat perpatih is

somewhat idealised, reflecting how that tradition would manifest were it
given full rein. To better understand adat perpatih as a lived tradition, however,
it behoves us to consider how its practice is currently being inhibited. This final
section therefore examines two leading factors underlying adat perpatih’s
contemporary decline, both borne of British colonialism: the gradual
undermining of harta pusaka by capitalist norms and the erosion of traditional
power structures.

Since the mid-nineteenth century, adat perpatih property ownership norms

have steadily declined across Negeri Sembilan. This process, which has only
accelerated over the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, was catalysed
by the arrival of the British in 1874. Quickly establishing themselves at Sungai
Ujong, the British rapidly extended their influence across Negri Sembilan until,
on 8 August 1895, they were able to sign an agreement with the penghulus
of six luak, drawing each into a centralised administrative arrangement

174 Neusner, Sonn, and Brockopp, Judaism and Islam in Practice, 106-7.

74
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
under the control of a British Resident at Seremban.(175) In the long run, this
colonialisation of Negeri Sembilan served to severely destabilise adat perpatih
society, both economically and politically.

Beginning with the economic ramifications of colonialism, soon after the British
took control of Negeri Sembilan, they introduced an aggressive form of colonial
capitalism, revolutionising the state’s traditional agrarian economy. From the
mid1870-s, both local and foreign (male) investors were urged to undertake
widespread land clearance across Negeri Sembilan in order to establish
largescale rubber plantations capable of meeting British demand. Expensive
to plant and slow to yield produce, these plantations represented significant
long-term cash investments for their owners. Problematically, therefore, many
local male investors sought to utilise the harta pusaka (ancestral land) of their
wives’ suku, a course of action that presented significant risk: to establish
a plantation, several lots of harta pusaka were often required, each with its
own custodian whose permission would be required. If a custodian should
subsequently change her mind or die, or if a male investor divorced his wife,
that investor risked losing control of part or all of his plantation.(176) For many,
this situation proved too prohibitive. The British, therefore, seeking to maintain
and encourage further investment, instituted numerous land law reforms
based on their own Common Law system. Beginning in the 1890s, it became
possible for male occupiers of land to obtain official legal titles recognising
their right of ownership while also giving them exclusive use of the land, the
right to dispose of it as they saw fit (whether by sale or gift), and the right to
mortgage it. These legal titles also imparted an obligation to pay an annual
land tax to the British. All of this, however, ran contrary to adat perpatih norms,
undermining its principles of communal, female-directed property ownership
(above). Although increasing local hostility to these changes eventually forced
the British to issue a Customary Tenure Enactment (1909) recognising the
existence of “customary land”, little effort was made to identify such land so
that it could be correctly registered. In consequence, permanent individual
(male) ownership continued to increase.(177) Under the British, therefore,
although large sections of harta pusaka would survive, significant amounts

175 Gullick, “D.O.’s and Dato’s,” 39. The six luak that became part of British Negeri Sembilan were:
Rembau, Sungai Ujong, Jelebu, Ulu Pahang, Johol, and Jelai. Of the remaining three, Klang was
incorporated into Selangor, Naning into Melaka, and Segamat into Johor. This apportionment of
luak persists today.
176 Azima Abdul Manaf, “Masalah dan Cabaran Tanah Adat Minang di Dunia Melayu Malaysia
dan Indonesia,” Geografia: Malaysian Journal of Society and Space 5:1 (2018), 81.
177 Gullick, “D.O.’s and Dato’s,” 48; Azizah Kassim, “Women, Development and Change in Negeri
Sembilan: A Micro-Level Perspective,” Southeast Asian Studies 34:4 (1997), 717-8.

75
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
were either re-apportioned or fell into disuse when it became apparent they
were unsuitable for largescale cultivation.

The legacy of these developments survives into the present: rubber and (more
recently) palm oil plantations continue to be established and maintained
throughout Negeri Sembilan, often on what was (or still is) harta pusaka.
Additionally, the post-independence growth of Malaysia’s wage economy
means most household incomes are now attained through fixed salaries, with
the small-scale agricultural activities associated with harta pusaka becoming
obsolete. All of this has further undermined this core element of adat perpatih
society. Some harta pusaka has also been re-purposed by the authorities for
building schools or for widening roads.(178)

The British intervention in Negeri Sembilan also disrupted the state’s traditional
power structures. Under the British, adat chiefs (the penghulu, lembaga, and
buapak) rapidly lost their administrative powers, becoming mere figureheads
with authority to preside over only religious and royal ceremonies. This decline
was further compounded in 1897, when the then British Resident, Ernest Birch,
created a new administrative position within each suku. Expressly designed
to rival the lembaga, these new officials were (somewhat confusingly) called
penghulu and served as British agents, collecting taxes and enforcing a
degree of order. Although not permitted to interfere in adat, these penghulu
hastened the decline of the lembaga and buapak by positioning themselves
as rival authority figures to whom the people could turn in times of need.(179)
This served to further diminish the utility of traditional adat chieftains,
damaging their relationship with the people. In the long-term, this proved of
considerable consequence; as the repositories of the perbilangan upon which
adat perpatih rested, the decline of the adat chieftains’ societal relevance
made it increasingly difficult to ensure the continuation of the tradition.(180)

Heading into the early twenty-first century, the severity of this situation has
become increasingly apparent. Malaysia’s post-independence governments
have largely replicated British policy towards the adat chiefs, further diminishing
their social stature. In consequence, younger generations born within
adat perpatih suku have found themselves without compelling traditional
authority figures, making it harder for them to maintain active ties with their

178 Kassim, “Women, Development and Change in Negeri Sembilan,” 699.

179 Gullick, “D.O.’s and Dato’s,” 38.
180 Kuwahara, “A Study of a Matrilineal Village in Negeri Sembilan,” 45.

76
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
cultural roots. Moreover, as ever greater numbers of Negeri Sembilan’s youth
migrate to Malaysia’s urban centres, whether to pursue tertiary education or
employment opportunities, greater barriers have emerged to the continuance
of adat perpatih. Living, working, and marrying outside Negeri Sembilan,
this new generation has ceased to follow adat perpatih norms, which have
become little more than an historical curiosity. In consequence, although
Negeri Sembilan’s older generation still preserves knowledge of perbilangan
and wider adat perpatih tradition, their responsibility to pass down that
information is being undermined by a failure to get younger people actively
involved in adat-related activities.(181) Ultimately, adat perpatih’s long-term
survival will depend on the capability of its people to adapt to these societal
changes in order to facilitate the continuance of their cultural heritage.

Conclusion

Although often discussed in legalistic terms, Malaysia’s adat perpatih tradition

constitutes a complex, matrilineally-focused social system incorporating
perceived natural laws, commonly held cultural norms, and generally
accepted ethical and moral standards. With its origins in fourteenth-century
Minangkabau (Indonesia), the tradition began its evolution in Negeri Sembilan
during the fifteenth century, finally prevailing there over the late eighteenth.
As well as elevating the status of women, this tradition embodies the principles
of consensus (muafakat) and virtue (budi). This paper examined three issues
of defining importance to this tradition—leadership, marriage, and property
and inheritance—including their relation to Islamic orthopraxis, before briefly
considering its decline over the post-colonial period.

Regarding leadership structures, adat perpatih recognises four authority

figures, each responsible for a different section of society: the yamtuan
besar (head of state), penghulu (or undang, district chieftain), lembaga (clan
chieftain), and buapak (sub-clan chieftain). Although all male, several of these
individuals inherit their positions matrilineally, via association with their
female relatives. Moreover, within adat perpatih society those in power must
be elected by the people they govern; without the consent of the people, they
must relinquish their office. This parallels the principles of consultation and

181 Bernama, “Is the Younger Generation Unaware of Adat Perpatih?” Borneo Post, October 16
2013, https://www.theborneopost.com/2013/10/16/is-the-younger-generation-unaware-of-adat-per-
patih/, (accessed October 16, 2020.)

77
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
accountability inherent within early Islamic political thought.

Concerning marriage, adat perpatih upholds only exogamous marriage and

demands that husbands move from their own suku (clan) to that of their
wives, upon which they become dependent. Although this contradicts Islamic
practice, many other details of adat perpatih marriage, including the nikah,
mas kahwin, and financial responsibility of the husband towards his wife
and children, are consistent therewith. Turning to property and inheritance
norms, adat perpatih promulgates a number of property types that have no
direct equivalents in Islam—most notably, ancestral property (harta pusaka)
and acquired property (harta pencarian). Nevertheless, the Islamic concept
of property (al-māl) is broad enough to absorb these categories, rendering
the two traditions compatible. Regarding inheritance, adat perpatih’s specific
rulings, favouring the passing of property from mothers to daughters, contrasts
sharply with Islamic practices as outlined in the Qurʾān. Nevertheless, both
traditions manifest the same desire to protect women’s rights to inheritance.
Any outward variations, therefore, arguably mask a shared intention.

Finally, the paper ended with a consideration of two contemporary issues

with the potential to impede adat perpatih’s survival in Negeri Sembilan.
Both rooted in the British colonial period, the first pertained to the gradual
undermining of harta pusaka by capitalist norms, while the second highlighted
the erosion of traditional power structures. Both these factors have weakened
key adat perpatih identity markers, making it difficult for the tradition to
perpetuate itself. Adat perpatih’s long-term survival will depend on the ability
of its adherents to adapt to these changing circumstances.

78
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
 Bibliography
Abdullah, Ahmad Badri, Mohammad Hashim Kamali, and Mohamed Azam
Mohamed Adil, Malay Traditional Customs: Towards a Sharīʿa Compliant
Practice, IAIS Malaysia Policy Issue Paper 12, Kuala Lumpur: IAIS Malaysia, 2020.

Abdullah, Taufik, «Adat and Islam: An Examination of Conflict in Minangkabau,»

Indonesia 24-1 ,)1966( 2.

Bernama, «Is the Younger Generation Unaware of Adat Perpatih?» Borneo

Post, 16 October 2013, https://www.theborneopost.com/16/10/2013/is-the-
younger-generation-unaware-of-adat-perpatih/ (accessed October 2020 ,16.)

Cave, Jonathan, Naning in Melaka: History, the Culture, Tribes and Clans, the
War, Independence, MBRAS Monograph no. 16, Petaling Jaya: MBRAS, 1989.

Cheah, Boon Keng, Sejarah Melayu: MS Raffles No. 18 Edisi Rumi Baru, MBRAS
Reprint 17, Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2010.

de Eredia, Godinho, Description of Malaca, Meridional India, and Cathay, trans.

J. V. Mills, MBRAS Reprint 14, Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society, 1997.

Evans, Ivor H. N., «A Grave and Megaliths in Negri Sembilan with an Account of
some Excavations,» Journal of the Federated Malay States Museums ,)1921( 9:3
73-155.

Gallop, Annabel Teh, and Venetia Porter, Lasting Impressions: Seals from the
Islamic World, Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, 2012.

Gullick, J. M., «D.O.›s and Dato›s: Dialogue on the ‹Adat Perpatih›,» Journal of
the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 52-31 ,)2000( 73.

Hooker, M. B., «A Note on the Malayan Legal Digests,» Journal of the Malaysian
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 70-157 ,)1968( 41:1.

Hooker, Michael Barr, Adat Laws in Modern Malaysia, Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1972.

Humphrey, J. L., «A Naning Wedding Speech,» Journal of the Straits Branch of

the Royal Asiatic Society 33-25 ,)1916( 72.

Hussain, Khalid M., Hikayat Iskandar Zulkarnain, 2nd edition, Kuala Lumpur:
Dewan Bahasa Pustaka, 1986.

79
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Ibn Atiyya, Al-Muharrar al-Wajiz, vol. 3, Fez: Ministry of Awqafand Islamic Affairs,
1997.

Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad (Sirat Rasul Allah), trans. A. Guillaume,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Ibrahim, Norhalim Hj, «Some Observations on Adat and Adat Leadership in

Rembau, Negeri Sembilan,» Southeast Asian Studies 65-150 ,)1988( 26:2.

Islam, Muhammad Wohidul, «Al-Mal: The Concept of Property in Islamic Legal

Thought,» Arab Law Quarterly 8-361 ,)1999( 14:4.

Jaafar, Mohammad Fadzeli, «Lexical Patterns in Customary Sayings,»

Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics 34-226 ,)2018( 8:1.

Jones, Russell, Hikayat Raja Pasai, Kuala Lumpur: Yayasan Karyawan and
Penerbit Fajar Bakti, 1999.

de Josselin de Jong, P. E., «Who›s Who in the Malay Annals,» Journal of the
Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 89-1 ,)1961( 34:2.

de Josselin de Jong, P.E., Minangkabau and Negri Sembilan: Socio Political

Structure in Indonesia, Leiden: Ijdo, 1951.

Kassim, Azizah, «Women, Development and Change in Negeri Sembilan: A

Micro-Level Perspective,» Southeast Asian Studies 721-696 ,)1997( 34:4.

Kassim, Azizah, «Women, Land and Gender Relations in Negeri Sembilan:

Some Preliminary Findings,» Southeast Asian Studies 49-132 ,)1988( 26:2.

Kato, Tsuyoshi, «Change and Continuity in the Minangkabau Matrilineal

System,» Indonesia 18-1 ,)1978( 25.

Kim, Khoo Kay, «Adat dan Perkembangan Politik: Pembangunan Masyarakat

Negeri Sembilan,» in A. Samad Idris, Norhalim Hj Ibrahim, Muhammad Tainu,
and N. S. Dharmala (eds.) Negeri Sembilan: Gemuk Dipupuk, Segar Bersiram:
Adat Merentas Zaman (Seremban: Jawatankuasa Penyelidikan Budaya Negeri
Sembilan, 8-3 ,)1994.

Kuwahara, Sueo, «A Study of a Matrilineal Village in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia,»

Senri Ethnological Studies 52-27 ,)1998( 48.

Lambourn, E., «The Formation of the Batu Aceh Tradition in Fifteenth-Century

Samudera-Pasai,» Indonesia and the Malay World 48-211 ,)2004( 32:93.

80
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Liaw, Yock Fang, Undang-Undang Melaka: The Laws of Melaka, Bibliotheca
Indonesica 13, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976.

Lister, Martin, «Malay Law in Negri Sembilan,» Journal of the Straits Branch of
the Royal Asiatic Society 319-299 ,)1890( 22.

Manaf, Azima Abdul, «Masalah dan Cabaran Tanah Adat Minang di Dunia
Melayu Malaysia dan Indonesia,» Geografia: Malaysian Journal of Society and
Space 78-69 ,)2018( 5:1.

al-Mawardi, Abu al-Hasan Ali, Al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyah: The Laws of Islamic

Governance, trans. Asadullah Yate, London: Ta-Ha Publishers, 1996.

Mat Zain, Mat Noor, Che Maryam Ahmad, and Zuliza Mohd. Kusrin,
«Perkahwinan Adat Rembau, Negeri Sembilan, dalam Penulisan C.W.C. Parr
dan W.H. Mackray,» Jurnal Melayu 89-171 ,)2012( 9.

Neusner, Jacob, Tamara Sonn, and Jonathan E. Brockopp, Judaism and Islam
in Practice: A Sourcebook, London: Routledge, 2000.

Parr, C.W.C., and W.H. Mackray, «Rembau, One of the Nine States: Its History,
Constitution and Customs,» Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society 57-1 ,)1910( 56.

Pires, Tome, Suma Oriental: An Account of the East, from the Red Sea to China,
written in Malacca and India in 1515-1512, ed. Armando Cortesao, New Delhi:
Asian Educational Services, 2005.

Saktiani, Damaika, Kakawin Nagarakertagama, Jakarta: PT Buku Seru, 2016.

As-Sallabee, Ali Muhammad, The Biography of Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, Riyadh:

Darussalam, 2007.

Salleh, Rosiswandy bin Mohd, Sejarah Pengamalan Adat Perpatih di Negeri

Sembilan, Jelebu: Muzium Adat Jelebu, Negeri Sembilan, n.d.

Sanggoeno Diradjo, Ibrahim Dt., Tambo Alam Minangkabau: Tatanan Adat

Warisan Nenek Moyang Orang Minang, Bukit Tinggi: Kristal Multimedia, 2015.

Selat, Nordin, «Leadership in Adat Perpatih,» Federation Museums Journal 17

98-73 ,)1972(.

al-Tirmidhi, Abu Isa Muhammad ibn Isa ibn Surah, Sunan al-Tirmidhi, ed. Abd
al-Rahman Muhammad Uthman, Medina: Al-Maktabah al-Salafiyyah, 1974.

81
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Wilkinson, R. J., «Notes on the Negri Sembilan,» in R.J. Wilkinson (ed.) Papers
on Malay Subjects (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 321-277 ,)1971.

Wilkinson, R. J., «Rembau: Its History, Customs and Constitution,» Journal of

the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 157-1 ,)1910( 56.

Winstedt, J. O., and P. E. de Josselin de Jong, «A Digest of Customary Law from

Sungai Ujong,» Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 27:3
71-5 ,)1954(.

Yatim, Rais, Adat: The Legacy of Minangkabau, Kuala Lumpur: Yayasan

Warisanegara, 2015.

al-Zuhayli, Wahbah, Usul al-Fiqh al-Islami, Damscus: Dar al-Fikr, 1998.

82
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
 Chapter 3
Cultural and Social Integrations in
Matrilineal, Matriarchal, Matrifocal Muslim
Communities of South India
Abbas Panakkal

Abstract

Matrilineal, matriarchal, and matrilocal practices prevalent among Muslim

communities of South India contributed greatly to the integration and
indigenisation of Islam into the local socio-cultural context. This article analyses
the stable and steady structural foundation of matrilineal identity instituted
by Shaykh ʿUbayd Allāh and the legal argot extended from the Lakshadweep
Islands to the mainland of Malabar when matrilineal Islam underwent serious
threats during the period of British rule. It is significant to study the colonial
actions taken to attempt to curtail matrilineal rights in Muslim families of the
Malabar region, analysing various responses from traditional ʿulamāʾ, Salafī
and Wahhābī scholars, and the attitudes of British administrators. The long-
enduring legal traditions that supported the matrilineal practices of Malabar
Muslims when colonial laws aimed to curb the Muslim matrilineal logic—
pigeonholed as “un-Islamic”—are also analysed here. The chapter challenges
the arguments of early researchers that the matrilineal identity of Malabar
Muslims was solely connected to the Nair communities, which negates the
existence of matrilineal traditions in tribal communities of the region.

Keywords: Malabar, matrilineal, matriarchal, matrilocal, ʿulamāʾ, Muslims,

Lakshadweep.

83
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
 Introduction

Evidence of early traces of matrilineal Islam in the Indian sub-continent can be

found in the manuscript copy of Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir (“Triumphs of the Islands”)
believed to have been penned by Qāḍī Abū Bakr, son of Shaykh ʿUbayd
Allāh bin Muḥammad bin Abū Bakr as-Ṣiddīq (d. c.645 C.E.), who, according
to the manuscript, reached Amini Island—one of the islands in modern
Lakshadweep—in 41 A.H. /662 C.E).(182) Shaykh ʿUbayd Allāh, also known as
ʿUbayd Allāh Thangal and Mumb Maulā,(183) had set out on his voyage in
response to guidance he received in a dream of the Prophet. His example of
integrating regional cultural practices with Islamic principles demonstrates
the long history of matrilineal traditions in Muslim communities of the Indian
subcontinent. This pious and learned scholar, who lived before the four schools
of Islamic law came into existence, created a firm foundation for a matrilineal
Islamic society, forming the necessary legal grounds for an integrated Islam.

The Lakshadweep Islands lie in the Indian Ocean, just off the Malabar coast
of South-West India. By the time of Shaykh ʿUbayd Allāh’s arrival, the islands
already had a long history of human habitation. Megalithic findings on Androth
Island confirm the presence of early human settlement by a maritime culture
whose boats were designed to withstand the rough seas; N. Muthukoya
compared the Lakshadweep style of boat-building and seafaring with those
of Polynesian peoples and their cultures.(184) Matriliny has a long history in the
region: its spread in Proto-Oceanic society was documented by Per Hage, who
showed that Oceanic-speaking double-descent societies are matrilineal while
cognatic societies also show high levels of matricentricity compared to other
world cultures; Polynesian society, for example, followed the same traditions.(185)

In Lakshadweep, indigenous traditions integrated with Islamic culture.

However, earlier studies on the matrilineal traditions of the islands have led

182 His journey took place four years after the death of his father, Muḥammad ibn Abū Bakr (631-
58), who was the adopted son of ʿAlī, the fourth Rāshidūn caliph. ʿAlī married Muḥammad ibn Abū
Bakr’s mother, Asmā, after the death of Abū Bakr, and appointed his adopted son as his general in
Egypt after the battle of Siffin.
183 ‘Thangal’ is a term of respect, literally meaning ‘noble personality’. This is normally used to
denote a descendant of the Prophet Muḥammad, an alternative vernacular term for Sayyid/Sharīf.
The name Mumb Maulā, which means “the first,” is found in the manuscripts of Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir,
Mawlid, and Māla.
184 N. Muthukoya, Lakshadweep Noottanudkaliloode (Kottayam: Vidyarthi Mithram Book De-
pot,1986), 32
185 Per Hage, “Was Proto-Oceanic Society Matrilineal?” Journal of the Polynesian Society 107:1
(1998), 365-79.

84
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
to serious misunderstandings. Leela Dube and A. R. Kutty both argued that,
although human settlement on the island dates back to the second century
B.C.E., Islam only arrived in the region in the fourteenth century, imported by
immigrants from the Malabar coast, while the indigenous inhabitants of the
islands are descendants of Hindu settlers from the coast of Kerala.(186) Dube
states the situation as follows:

There is no doubt that centuries ago a matrilineal kinship system with duolocal
residence was brought to these islands by migrants from the coastal regions of
Kerala. The circumstances in which the migrants came to settle, and whether
all of them originally followed the same pattern of kinship and marriage, are
not known. But it is clear that the islands provided a congenial setting for the
flowering of this system. Subsistence activities and trade with the mainland
made teamwork and coordination necessary and meant that some men were
periodically absent. The people lived on a narrow strip of land within easy
reach of one another. These factors seem to have facilitated the adoption of
matriliny and duolocal residence by the various groups of settlers who were
thrown together, as well as the continued existence of these patterns. The
migrants› political and economic organization and their system of graded
groups also seem to have been adapted from what prevailed in the region
from which they came. The migrants depended on rice as a staple, which gave
rise to regular trade with the mainland in which coconuts and their products
were exchanged for rice and other necessaries.(187)

Yet this understanding of history can be taken as part of a blatant continuation

of the colonial historiography that simplistically connected administrative
areas through vernacular networks, relying on stories of Malabar Muslims who
were linked to the islands. Persistent colonial efforts to draw parallels between
cultures, languages, and ethnicities in order to create shared administrative
zones were the underlying motivation for such narratives, visible in Whyte
Ellis’s dissertation on the various languages and Dravidian attributions to the
administrative zonal vernaculars—a thesis that used to bolster the policy of
the colonial Madras Presidency.(188) Writers from the islands themselves also

186 Leela Dube, Matriliny and Islam: Religion and society in the Laccadives (Delhi: National
Publishing House, 1969), 12; A.R. Kutty, Marriage and Kinship in an Island Society (Delhi: National
Publishing House, 1972), 9.
187 Dube, “Who Gains from Matriliny? Men, Women and Change on a Lakshadweep Island,”
Sociological Bulletin 42:1 (1993), 17.
188 Whyte Ellis, “Dissertation on the Second on the Malayalma Language,” 1815; Robert Caldwell,
A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages, London: Trubner

85
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
tried to connect their history with that of the mainland, where the history of
Islam was linked with the popular history of Cheraman Perumal.(189) Yet the
islands have their own distinct history; we now turn to the arrival of Shaykh
ʿUbayd Allāh, in the seventh century C.E.

The manuscript of Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir

According to the manuscript of Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir, one day young ʿUbayd Allāh
fell asleep in the Medina mosque and dreamed of the Prophet Muḥammad,
who encouraged him to travel to spread the religion in far-off lands. ʿUbayd
Allāh accepted the mission and started his voyage from Jeddah on the
eleventh of Shawwāl in the year 662/41. After a gruelling fifty-day journey the
ship was wrecked in a fierce rainstorm, and Shaykh ʿUbayd Allāh was saved
by clinging on to a piece of the deck that carried him to Amini Island.(190) The
manuscript tells that during Shaykh ʿUbayd Allāh’s hardships, the Prophet
appeared once again in a dream and reassured him, promising him ease in his
future life. The manuscript also provides evidence of Shaykh ʿUbayd Allāh’s
preference for adhering to an integrated family tradition of matrilineal kinship
in his own family:

ʿUbayd Allāh said, “I kept calling them to believe in Allah again and again, but
they did not heed my call, except a woman, who responded to my call and said
to me, stretch out your hand and I will testify that there is no God but Allah
alone and Muhammad is His Servant and Messenger. She became a Muslim
and I lived with her in her house, and I named her Hamidah, the purified one.
She was the only one who responded to my call from all the village. I married
her, and she gave birth to fifteen children; ten boys and five girls.(191)

At the time of the Shaykh’s arrival, it is believed that people on the islands
were following a traditional Polynesian lifestyle with matrilineal customs.
Shaykh ʿUbayd Allāh’s family also followed matrilineal kinship and matrilocal
practices, and in accordance his children were known by his wife’s family
name. His children’s names are specified in the manuscript, which details the
advent of Islam on various islands, the building of mosques, and how jurists

and Co., 1875.

189 P.I. Pookoya, Dweepolpathi – an up-to-date History of Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands
(Calicut: Falcon Press, 1960), 46. Cheraman Perumal was the first king who accepted Islam, men-
tioned in the manuscript of Qiṣṣat Shakarwatī Farmāḍ.
190 Qāḍī Abū Bakr bin ʿUbayd Allāh, Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir (Madin Manuscript Library, Malappuram),
1.
191 Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir, 3.

86
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
(qāḍīs) were assigned. Shaykh ʿUbayd Allāh was able to convince the people
of Amini, Kawaratti, and Agatti and spread the message of Islam throughout
the Lakshadweep islands, integrating it into their cultural traditions. During
the last part of his life, he went to Androth Island, where he spent the rest of
his days. The Shaykh died in Androth and was buried near the Juma mosque,
now one of the principal attractions in Lakshadweep.(192)

Matrilineal traditions of the islands thus began before the four schools of law
came into existence in the Islamic legal field. There is no doubt that Shaykh
ʿUbayd Allāh, who was born and grew up in Arabia, was aware of the Islamic
family traditions of Arab patriarchy, which gave prominence to male members
of the family, yet he did not impose these cultural practices. Instead, he
integrated the new religion with local customs, including matriliny, legalising
their traditions of matrilineal property through waqf and integrating the
prominent role of the female members of the family. The rank of qāḍī (judge)
was also passed down through the sister’s son throughout the islands, in
accordance with matrilineal traditions. The Pattakkal family in Androth
Island is a clear example: there is a popular story—narrated by Puradam
Kunjikoya Thangal in Safina Pattu— that Muhammed, son of Aboobacker,
claimed the position of qāḍī after his father’s death. The people of the area
chose Aboobacker’s sister’s son instead, however, abiding by the matrilineal
tradition, and eventually Muhammad left the island.(193). Another manuscript,
known as Mawlid, also mentions how Shaykh ʿUbayd Allāh established an
endowment for the matrilineal traditional home, understood as measuring
ninety-nine traditional yardsticks in one side. It was unambiguously signed
and documented, detailing that the boundaries of the residence measure nine
carpenter’s handsticks from the foundation of the house in another direction.(194)

The indigenised legal tradition continued to be followed in the islands, and

there were few questions or cultural clashes relating to this tradition even after
the implementation of colonial law, which tried to rein in Muslim matrilineal
traditions throughout British India. Local traditions have been maintained,
in many cases differing somewhat from those of the mainland. There is, for

192 During my research visit, I found that people often held ritualistic prayers at the shrine before
commencing important activities.
193 Muthukoya, Lakshadweep Noottanudkaliloode, 52. I was personally able to see a copy of the
Safina Pattu, a text composed by M. K. Muhammed Koya Thangal which recounts the advent of
Islam in the islands and the construction of mosques.
194 Anonymous, Mawlid of Mumb Maula (Manuscript not listed), 15. The copy of the manuscript I
refer to in this study is kept in the personal collections of Aboobacker Saqafi of Agathi Island.

87
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
example, a tradition of serving food in the evening while reciting the Mawlid,
which is believed to be adopted from the time of the death of Shaykh Ubayd
Allāh.(195)

The history of the advent of Islam in the Lakshadweep Islands was narrated
in various manuscripts and liturgical literatures on the life of Mumb Maulā
or ʿUbayd Allāh Thangal. These were codified in two collections, Mawlid
and Māla, written both in Arabic and the vernacular, and used to be proudly
recited in the islands as their own narratives, unlike the other traditional
songs of Muhiyudheen Māla,(196) Manqūs Mawlid(197), Muhiyudheen, and
Ahmad ibn ʿAlī Ar-Rifāʿī Ratheebs(198) imported from the Malabar mainland
and abroad. Confidence in the legal rectitude of matrilineal practices can be
seen in the narratives of Islamic scholars of the islands, who quoted Futūhāt
al-Jazāʾir, while the local people were reassured by the vernacular Māla,
which emphasises the validity of the regional cultural traditions integrated by
ʿUbayd Allāh.

The Mawlid narrates the history of Muslim ethnic groups on the islands,
and indicates that Shaykh ʿUbayd Allāh followed matrilocal tradition when
he married a wife from the islands, preferring matrilineal kinship for his
own descendants, and emphasises his courage and strong personality.(199)
Though the author of the Mawlid is unknown, its contents suggest that it
was composed with reference to the manuscript copy of Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir;
it is composed in the traditional mixed mode narrative, which comprises
prose as well as poetry, with rhythmic renditions to each stanza. The use
of Arabic script for writing in the vernacular became very popular among
Muslim communities, and there were traces of manuscript cultures moving
between the islands and the Malabar mainland. Popular works by Malabar
scholars, such as Muhiyudheen Māla and Manqūs Mawlid, were well accepted
and orally circulated in the islands. Early barriers created by differences in
language and culture were washed away by the popular integrated linguistic
tradition, which was identified by the regional vernacular. This integrated

195 Muthukoya, Lakshadweep Noottanudkaliloode, 123.

196 Muhiyudheen Māla is a popular vernacular poem on Sheikh Muhiyudheen Abdul Qādir Gīlānī,
composed by the prominent scholar and poet, Khazi Muhammad of Kozhikode.
197 Manqūs Mawlid is a famous eulogy popular from the sixteenth century, composed by Zayn
al-Din Sr.
198 Muhiyudheen Ratheeb and Rifaʽi Ratheeb are equally popular in the region. Rifaʿi Ratheeb is
a more ritualistic performance by the followers of Sheikh Ahmed al -Rifaʿi.
199 Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir, 10.

88
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
language tradition helped to create better connections between the islands
and the Malabar mainland, but have misled historians who understood these
literary connections to mean that the history of Islam and Muslim matrilineal
traditions of the islands and mainland were interlinked.

The Qiṣṣat Shakarwatī Farmāḍ manuscript and Matrilineal Port Towns

South Indian Muslims still enjoy two types of kinship organisation, both
matrilineal and patrilineal. The Muslims from the Malabar coastline follow
matrilineal kinship, which is deeply rooted in the port towns where integrated
Islamic cultures developed over centuries. It is clear from this scenario that
when people accepted Islam as their religion, they never insisted on changing
their social systems if its structures were not in conflict with the basic beliefs of
Islam. Matrilineal, matrilocal, and matriarchal systems were easily incorporated
into religion, supported by scholars.

When Islam arrived in Malabar it became indigenised, with the cooperation of

non-Muslim rulers. This story of integration and indigenisation was illustrated
in Qiṣṣat Shakarwatī Farmāḍ, a manuscript in the British Library that contains
detailed descriptions of how mosques were established across the coastal
region of Malabar and Ma’bar, alongside the appointment of judges (qāḍīs)
and the port masters (shāhbandars) who were pivotal figures in foreign trade.(200)
Traditional sources from Malabar also describe the conversion of the king,
Cheraman Perumal, to Islam, although the time frame is debated among early
historians.

I was able to find three additional manuscript copies of Qiṣṣat Shakarwatī

Farmāḍ, two from the personal libraries of Ahmed Koya Shāliyāti (1955–1885)
and Pangil Ahmed Kutty Musliyār (1946–1888) and one from the old mosque
library in Madayi. All four of these manuscripts provide details of the exact
locations and land endowments for the early mosques, including dates
and days of their construction and the names of the Muslim judges and
port masters delegated to different port towns of the region.(201) The Qiṣṣat
Shakarwatī Farmāḍ contains comprehensive sketches of the details of mosque
construction, including their exact land endowments, described in terms
of Islamic law as waqf.(202) The names of the judges, the foundation dates of
mosques, and the chronological order of endowments are identical in all four

200 Anonymous, Qiṣṣat Shakarwati Farmad, British Library MS, IO, Islamic 2807d.
201 Abbas Panakkal, lecture given at the International Islamic University Malaysia (2018), 1167–89.
202 Qiṣṣat, 99–102.

89
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
manuscripts. This text was written on the Malabar mainland in 21 A.H., twenty
years before Shaykh ʿUbayd Allāh’s arrival in the Lakshadweep islands. Even
though matrilocal cultures or matrilineal traditions are not directly mentioned
in the manuscripts, it is interesting to note that the Muslim communities of
these prominent port towns specifically uphold the matrilineal traditions.

Matrilineal Muslim communities are mainly found along the shorelines of the
early port towns of Malabar (Barkur to Kollam) and Ma’bar—the Coromandel
coast mentioned in Qiṣṣat. A similar description of the establishment of
mosques on various islands and allocations of waqf lands also features in
Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir. These manuscripts make it clear that the region was under
the influence of matrilineal kinship before the advent of Islam, and that early
Muslims incorporated the tradition and integrated it into their family life. The
distinctive nature of Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir makes it clear that this is not simply
another story of the conversion of local rulers, a generalisation put forward
by Yohanan Friedman, who cited the similarities between the Qiṣṣat and
shoreline stories from other regions of the Indian Ocean yet provided no
specific documented evidence.(203)

The names documented in the Qiṣṣat manuscript reveal that early qāḍīs and
shāhbandars originated from various countries: the name “al-Madanī” shows
that one came from Medina, for example, while “al-Miṣrī” came from Egypt.
These names demonstrate the multicultural and multi-ethnic roots of early
Islamic tradition and law in Malabar. This account of Islamic tradition was
also described in the early Brahmanical document Keralolpatti, which gives a
mythical history of the provinces and stories of various Hindu tribes based on
the Brahman settlements. The chronology of the mosques and the names of
appointed legal experts given in Qiṣṣat are identical to those in Keralolpatti.(204)

The matrilineal system of inheritance became a special feature of Muslim

communities living in Malabar and Ma’bar port towns, where women played
an active, visible role in society. Malabar, where traders and settlers from various
parts of the world lived together, was a paradigm of an integrated, multi-
national Muslim community. Peaceful co-existence as well as undisturbed
trade and commerce became part of the identity of these port towns, which
were prominent in the international markets.(205) South Indian ports were

203 Yohanan Friedmann, “Qiṣṣat Shakarwatī Farmāḍ: A Tradition concerning the Introduction of
Islam to Malabar,” Israel Oriental Studies 5 (1975), 233-58.
204 Hermann Gundert, Keralolpatti – Origin of Malabar (Mangalore: Basel Mission press, 1868), 147
205 Tara Chand, Influence of Islam on Indian Culture (Allahabad: The Indian Press Limited, 1936),

90
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
comfortable trading centres and a second home for traders and travellers, who
spent a certain period of time on the coast every year awaiting the seasonal
changes in the monsoon winds necessary for long-range voyages.(206) Arabs, in
particular, were based in various port towns, exploring commodities of value
to expand their commercial enterprises.(207) A mosque inscription mentioning
the year 5 A.H. in Madayi Juma Majid proves that Islam was already known
in the region before the time of Qiṣṣat Shakarwatī Farmāḍ and Futūhāt al-
Jazāʾir. The Malabar port towns became prominent in different centuries as
focal points of interaction between local rulers and foreign traders.(208) Traders
from the Arabian Peninsula depended particularly heavily on the monsoon
winds, which meant that they remained in the ports for some time every year
and thereby strengthened the integrated nature of matrilineal kinship in the
region.(209)

All prominent port towns mentioned in Qiṣṣat adopted matrilineal Islam, with
the support of Muslim jurists of diverse backgrounds. The Moroccan traveller
Ibn Battuta (77–1304), a follower of the Mālikī school, described the juristic
character of Muslims at various port towns of the region and mentioned
judges from various backgrounds: one from Mogadishu who was educated in
Mecca and Medina, and others from Baghdad, Oman, and Qazwin in Persia.(210)
He also met Faqeeh Husain, who wrote the Qaidul Jami-e (1342 C.E.), an early
legal text from Malabar.(211) Such networks of Muslim scholars demonstrated
the openness and legal integration that resulted in support of matrilineal
patterns in the early port towns of Malabar.

36
206 F. Fernandez Armesto, Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration (London: Oxford University
Press, 2006), 36
207 G. Haurani, Arab Seafaring in Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Mediaeval Times (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1951), 83.
208 Steven E. Sidebotham, Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route (Berkeley, CA: Univer-
sity of California Press, 2011), 191.
209 Omani sailors still routinely spend three months of the year in Calicut, waiting for the weath-
er to return. I interviewed some of these sailors and published this research in my article “Beypūri̧ -
num Sūrinum Idayil,” Gulf Focus 2:2 (2015), 28–34.
210 Ibn Battuta, The travels of Ibn Battuta in Asia and Africa, vol. 4, ed. H. A. R. Gibb (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1962), 66–103.
211 The manuscript copy of Qaidul Jami-e kept in the Ma’din Manuscript Library gives the au-
thor’s name as Hussain bin Ahmed al Mahfani, while the copy in the Juma al Majid Library of Dubai
gives it as Abu Abdullah Hussain bin Ahmed al Mahfani, along with the extended title of the text
Mukhthasar fi Ahkam al-Nikah. Prefixes such as Abu Abdullah confirm his Arab connections, and
the place name Mahfan shows his country of origin.

91
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
In the sixteenth century, scholars of the port town of Ponnani(212) also took
initiatives to integrate regional practices by broadening the local community’s
understanding of Islam. This intellectual atmosphere set the framework for
a systematised Shāfiʿī school of thought in Malabar, and provided liberal
support for matrilineal traditions in the religious milieu of Ponnani. After
establishing the prominent Ponnani Muslim College in the sixteenth century,
Zayn al-Din Sr. and his son Abd al-Aziz published texts on various subjects, in
particular addressing the legal arguments about contradictory practices, but
never condemning matrilineal traditions.(213) Zayn al-Dīn al-Malaybārī’s Fatḥ al-
Muʿīn shows how regional culture was widely reflected in the interpretation
of Islamic law. Legal reasoning based on the principles of the Qurʾān and
Sunna allowed him to make room for ʿurf (custom), and the text raised no
questions about the matrilineal traditions flourishing in the region since they
were considered compatible with religion. The highest customary position
in Ponnani’s Muslim community was also handed down through matrilineal
traditions, as noted in British gazette records:

In the South the makkathayam system is usually followed, but it is remarkable

that succession to religious sthanams [positions], such as that of the Valiya
Tangal of Ponnani, usually goes according to the marumakkattayam
[matrilineal]system.(214)

Muslim jurist clans of the Ponnani Makhdum family abided by matrilineal

kinship patterns to pass positions on to their descendants.

Adoption of Waqf al-Aulād in Malabar

The traditions of Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir and Qiṣṣat Shakarwatī Farmāḍ are different
in their characteristics, reflecting cultural differences between the Malabar
mainland and the Lakshadweep islands, especially the traditions of matrilineal
family property possession through waqf. Qiṣṣat Shakarwatī Farmāḍ gives
categorical statements on the provisions of waqf, which were retained on

212 Ponnani was called the ‘Mecca of Malabar’ because it was a prominent centre of Muslim cul-
tural and intellectual development. During the medieval period, Ponnani, under the ruler Zamorin,
emerged as one of the most important port towns of the region.
213 Abd al-Aziz’s prolific writings demonstrate his scholarship. He followed his father in promot-
ing enlightened integration and defending the integrity of Ponnani College. He also supported
opposition to Portuguese imperialism and encouraged Muslims to protect the power of the Hindu
king of Calicut. He died in 1585 and was buried in Ponnani.
214 C. A. Innes, Madras District Gazateers, Malabar and Anjengo. (Madras: Government Press,
1908), 198.

92
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
the mainland; legislation of matrilineal property rights through waqf al-
aulād was not seen in Malabar before the British passed legislation to pare
down matrilineal traditions, labelling them “un-Islamic”. In the Lakshadweep
Islands, colonial law and the propaganda surrounding it were not as powerful
as in the mainland Malabar region, despite being under the same jurisdiction.
When this colonial attack on local tradition engulfed Malabar’s matrilineal
Islam, the Arackal authorities therefore adopted the model of waqf followed
on the islands, which were under their rule. This illustrates how difficult it
was for the colonial government to uproot matrilineal culture—even with the
successive legislations of the Malabar Partition Bill of 1910, the Succession Act
of 1918, and the Mappila Marumakkathayam Act of 1939. The Arackal ruling
family was against the Partition Bill, which allowed the partition of joint family
houses that were passed down through the female line; in order to maintain
the exalted matrilineage of their own family, waqf-al-aulād was adopted as
the only way to retain these customs as part of Islamic law.(215) If matrilineal
properties were dealt with according to the waqf-al-aulād, the British could
hardly raise the concern that this practice was “un-Islamic”.

Most people were unconcerned about whether their matrilineal practices had
a place in the structure of Islam, while some ardent Sunnī scholars tried to
use the jargon of waqf-al-aulād to amend the traditions. This can be taken as
iconic evidence for the adaptation of legal jargon from Lakshadweep by the
Malabar mainland as part of an effort to legitimise matrilineal systems even
after the implementation of anti-matrilineal edicts. Two particular property
types in Lakshadweep also demonstrate the written legal orientation of the
island, which was little affected by the colonial attempt to Islamise matrilineal
customs. “Friday” property is matrilineal and communal, while “Monday”
property describes personal holdings; the distinction between these two
distinct types of property has helped keep the matrilineal system intact
for centuries. Monday property may be disposed of at its owner’s personal
discretion, whereas the divisions and transactions of Friday property were
regulated by custom and tradition. Earlier researchers considered Monday
property as structured and standardised by Islamic law, while Friday property
was not. Leela Dube also identified the nature of the waqf system followed
by Lakshadweep people to preserve matrilineal property: “Some held that

215 Manaf Kottakkunnummal, “Indigenous Customs and Colonial Law: Contestations in Religion,
Gender and Family among Matrilineal Mappila Muslims in Colonial Malabar, Kerala, c. 1910–1928,”
Sage Open, January 2014.

93
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Taravad property was a kind of wakf property created for the benefit of the
women and children of the matrilineage.”(216) This practice was adopted by
Malabar matrilineal families to preserve the matrilineal tharavads of Malabar.(217)
Under the British influence, however, the historiography of the matrilineal
system in the islands was overlooked, considered as being an imitation of the
mainland, thus neglecting these solid historic models.

Contrary to Dube and Kutty’s argument that Malabar was the origin of the
matrilineal kinship of Lakshadweep, it is therefore clear that often socio-
cultural influence sometimes went in the other direction: Malabar, in fact,
adopted centuries-old waqf formulas from the islands. Dube’s argument on
early migration from Kerala as the origin of the matrilineal system needs to be
reoriented.(218)

Expressions of matrilineal culture (marumakkathayam)

The word marumakkathayam literally means “inheritance by sisters› children”,

derived from marumakkal, meaning nephews and nieces. Different types
of matrilineal customs in the region have been gathered into the concept
of marumakkathayam, an umbrella term that includes a number of
different matrilineal, matrilocal, and matriarchal practices. In this system the
inheritance of the family is transferred through the female line, and family
power— the karanavar position—is bestowed on the eldest female member
of the household; families respect female elders as karanavathi. In some
families, three customs prevail: matrilineal, matrilocal, and matriarchal. Some
other families follow a collaborative version of either matrilineal or matrilocal
systems.

Etymologically, matriarchy means rule by mothers, and a deeper definition

signifies domination by female members of society. Matriarchy was specifically
visible in the queendom of Arackal, which maintained authoritarian matrilineal
kinship with the explicit political dominance and ruling authority of the

216 Dube, “Who Gains from matriliny?” 26.

217 A tharavad is the ancestral home consisting of the extended family.
218 Similar misinformation was also put forward by André Wink, who stated that before convert-
ing to Islam, the Lakshadweep Islands had been Hinduised by settlers from the Malabar coast, and
after becoming Muslims they maintained a caste hierarchy and the Malabari matrilineal kinship
system. Wink also wrongly stated that the Minicoy islands retained a patrilineal system (Wink,
André, Al-Hind: The making of the Indo-Islamic world, vol. I. Early medieval India and the expansion
of Islam, 7th-11th centuries, Leiden: Brill, 1990.)

94
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Beebi, the female head. In the Arackal royal house the eldest member in the
maternal line, whether male or female, succeeded to the throne, and many
women took the royal throne with the title of Beebi.(219) This Arackal Swarupam(220)
is one example of Muslim matriarchy, and it is believed that it derived from an
earlier tradition.(221) The Arackal royal house maintained friendly relations with
the Ottoman empire, which accepted this Muslim matrilineal inheritance and
the matriarchal leadership of the kingdom.(222) The Arackal Swarupam was the
only Muslim ruling family that exclusively followed three forms of matricentric
Islam together, using matrilineal, matrilocal, and matriarchal traditions as part
of the system of the sovereign state. The Arackal effectively exercised power
in the Lakshadweep and Kannur regions, where people followed matrilineal
kinship. Notably, this was the only Swarupam—in which the eldest person in
the family was selected as ruler—where women were fully eligible to become
the head of their country and never excluded from the muppumura,(223) making
them free to attain the highest position in the chain of command. The Arackal
Beebis enjoyed their position as queen and head of the family; they were also
in charge of the mosques and held the power to declare the date of auspicious
Islamic days such as Ramadan, Eid, and other celebrations.(224)

Some families follow matrilineage and matrilocal systems, but are not
matriarchies. The Kozhikode qāḍī family, for example, follows matrilineal family
inheritance, but patriarchal inheritance for succession to the position of qāḍī.
Faqrudheen Usman, who was qāḍī of Calicut from 70–1343, was succeeded
by his son, and this pattern was generally followed, although in some cases
the former qāḍī’s brothers inherited his position. The family names of Muslim
jurists from the same lineage always varied, however, as they followed
matrilineal kinship traditions.

Some Muslim families descended from the Prophet’s family have been settled
in Calicut for centuries. They customarily follow matrilocal traditions at home
and keep their matrilineal heritage in their designated places of burial, but not

219 Ronald E. Miller, Mappila Muslims of Kerala: A Study in Islamic Trends (Bombay: Orient Long-
man, 1976), 57-58.
220 The official name of political houses in pre-colonial Malabar.
221 Binu John Mailaparambil, Lords of the Sea: The Ali Rajas of Cannanore and the Political
Economy of Malabar (1663-1723), (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 46, K.K.N. Kurup, The Ali Rajas of Cannanore
(Trivandrum: College Book House, 1975), 2.
222 William Logan, A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and other Papers of Importance Relat-
ing to British Affairs in Malabar, (Calicut: Minarva Press, 1879) 22-23.
223 The official order of seniority in a swarupam or tharavad.
224 Interview with the head of the Arackal Kingdom.

95
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
in their kinship. The Jifri house of Kozhikode models this practice, reserving
the nearest burial space for a daughter and son-in-law in the holy shrine
of Shaykh Jifri. The younger generation of the Thangal family, on the other
hand, preferred matrilocal customs, but not matrilineal affinity.(225) I was able
to examine their family trees, which are separately prepared so as to link the
sides of both the father and the mother. The general public addresses them
using the matrilineal family name, because they were all born and brought up
adhering to matrilocal customs in their personal lives. There are also Thangal
families that follow matrilineal kinship, for example Fazal Koyamma Thangal
Koora, son of Sayyid ʿAbdurahmān al-Bukhāri, Ullal Thangal, and they are
proud to be associated with their mother’s family name.

Legacy of Matrilineal Kinship

The matrilineal nature of southern India was noted by early travellers. Ibn
Battuta (69–1304) explained the succession of political sovereignty in Malabar
through mother-lines, observing that the rulers of that country left their royal
position to their sister›s son to the exclusion of their own children.(226) The
rulers of Cochin, Travancore, and Calicut were matrilineal, the ruler’s heir being
the eldest son of his sisters. Abd-al-Razzāq Samarqandī (82–1413), the Persian
chronicler who was ambassador from Shah Rukh—the Timurid ruler of Persia—
to Calicut in the early 1440s, discussed the matrilineal inheritance practised
by the kingdom of Calicut as well as non-Muslim matrilineal traditions in the
following words:

The sovereign of this city bears the title of Sameri.(227) When he dies it is his
sister’s son who succeeds him, and his inheritance does not belong to his
son, or his brother, or any other of his relations. No one reaches the throne
by means of the strong hand. The Infidels are divided into a great number of
classes, such as the Brahmins, and others. Although they all agreed upon the
fundamental principles of polytheism and idolatry, each sect has its peculiar
customs. Amongst them there is a class of men, with whom it is the practice for
one woman to have a great number of husbands, each of whom undertakes
a special duty and fulfils it. The hours of the day and of the nights are divided
between them and each of them for a certain period takes up his abode in the
house, and while he remains there no other is allowed to enter. The Sameri

225 Interview with Sayyid Salih Jifri of Calicut

226 Ibn Battuta, The Travels of Ibn Battuta, 76.
227 Vernacular variant of the official title of Zamorin, the ruler of Calicut.

96
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
belongstothissect.(228)

The Namboothiri followed the Brahmin tradition that restricted marriages

of brothers of the same family to women from the Brahmin community. The
older brother of the family kept nuptial ties with girls from his own clan, and
the other young men had no right to connubial life, practising hypergamy
with Nair women.(229) Nair families also considered it a point of pride for their
women to have Brahmin partners as a means of preserving their high status,
and the younger sons of Brahmins were accepted as sexual mates in Kshatriya
and Nair households. Niccolò de’ Conti (c. 1469–1395), the Italian merchant and
explorer, illustrated the customs that existed in Malabar:

In this district alone, the women are allowed to take several husbands, so that
some have ten and more. The husbands contribute amongst themselves to
the maintenance of the wife, who lives apart from her husbands. When one
visits, he leaves a mark at the door of the house, which being seen by another
coming afterwards, he goes away without entering. The children are allotted
to the husbands at the will of the wife. The inheritance of the father does not
descendtothechildren.(230)

The children born out of these relations were not Brahmins, and neither the
woman nor her child was conferred with the privileges of kinship, although
the children were accepted into the mother’s caste by virtue of matrilineage.(231)
Among these polyandrous communities paternity was uncertain, and as a
result the mother’s line was used to guarantee the lineage; succession therefore
passed through the mother. The children born out of these relationships were
thus always considered Nairs, and this affiliation formed the foundations of
the Nairs’ matrilineal and matrilocal systems.(232)

There is a false perception that the Nairs were the sole progenitors of the
matrilineal ethnicities of southern India, and that all Muslims adopted the
marumakkathayam law of inheritance and the rule of non-division from them.
This concept arose from colonial historiography, which created a distorted
image of the history of integrated Muslim cultures and even depicted these

228 Richard Henry Major, India in the Fifteenth Century (London: Hakluyt Society, 1857), 17
229 Nair, sometimes spelt Nayer, is a Hindu caste comprising a number of subdivisions.
230 Major, India in the Fifteenth Century, 20
231 Kathleen Gough, “Mappila North Kerala”, in David M. Schneider and Kathleen Gough (eds.),
Matrilineal Kinship (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961), 320.
232 K.M. Panikkar, “Some Aspects of Nayar Life,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 48
(1918), 265.

97
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Muslims as fanatics:

The origin of this extraordinary custom which once established among the
Nairs became fashionable and adopted by castes even by the fanatic Mappilas
who are followers of the Prophet.(233)

In Kinship Organization and Marriage Customs among Moplahs on the

South West Coast of India, Victor S. D’Souza wrote that matrilineal Muslim
traditions were originally formed through intermarriage between maritime
Arab traders and local women, and that contemporary Muslim communities
are heterogeneous and characterised by ethnic, regional, and social diversity.(234)
Ronald E. Miller opined that among the native Hindu community, Nair women
were sexually available outside of wedlock and as a result marriage was of
little importance along the coastline; it was no great matter to find a partner
from the region.(235) Kathleen Gough and C. F. Fuller linked the formation of
Malabar matriliny to the medieval Nair militia, relying on the theory that the
Nair forces of Malabar recruited a large number of local militia men who were
often away from home, so these tharavads— ancestral homes consisting of
extended families—by necessity became matrilineal.(236) André Wink, quoting
D’Souza, wrote that: “Mappillas, assimilating converted Hindus from early on,
became ethnically quite diverse. They spoke Malayalam and dressed like the
Nairs, from whom they often took over the matrilineal kinship organization
as well.”(237) S.M. Mohamed Koya recounted the theory that Muslims living
in Kolathunad were obliged to conform to the general practices—including
matrilineal ones—prevailing in the region, and also affirmed that this system
was adopted from the Nair communities as a result of intermarriages and
conversions. The kinship units closely resembled the matrilineal units of the
Nairs of Malabar, with reforms and revisions.(238)

Matrilineal systems, as popularly believed, were adopted not just from the

233 Walter Kelly Firminger, Fifth Report from the Select committee on the Affairs of the Indian
Company Vol. VIII (Calcutta: R. Cambray, 1917), 300.
234 Victor. S. D’ Souza, “Kinship Organization and Marriage Customs among Moplahs on the
South West Coast of India,” in Imtiaz Ahmad (ed.), Family, Kinship and Marriage among Muslims in
India (New Delhi: Manohar Books, 1976), 141.
235 Miller, Mappila Muslims of Kerala, 49.
236 Kathleen Gough, “Changing Kinship Usages in the Setting Up of Political and Economic
Change among Nayars of Malabar,” Journal of Royal institute of Great Britain and Ireland 82, No 1 (
1952), 76; C.J. Fuller, The Nayars Today (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976) 123-4.
237 André Wink, Al Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, vol. I. Early Medieval India, and
the Expansion of Islam, 7th–11th Centuries (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 75
238 S.M. Mohammed Koya, Mappilas of Malabar (Calicut: University of Calicut, 1983), 64.

98
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Nairs but from all ethnic matrilineal groups who accepted Islam. When Nair
families embraced Islam, they integrated Muslim practices by restricting
unlawful sexual bonds with many men, while their descendants preserved
permissible matrilineal family customs. Earlier studies tried to establish
the erroneous concept that the whole system was associated with the Nair
practice of polyandry to ensure the family descendants came from the same
bloodline. The general perception of the emergence and development of
Muslim matrilineal structures needs to be redefined, given that a number
of tribal groups abide by matrilineal traditions in south India. Adivasi groups,
the aboriginal peoples of the region, and other lower castes also follow the
matrilineal kinship system. The Kurichiyar, for example, are a matrilineal
scheduled tribe living mainly in the Wayanad and Kannur districts of Kerala
State. This tribal group also observes a joint family system. The Adiyans are
a bilingual community who also follow a system of succession through the
mother’s lineage. This tribal group is divided into clans called “Mantu” or
“Chemmam,” and the clan head is known as “Chemmakkaran.” A. Sreedhara
Menon’s Kozhikode District Gazetteer noted matrilineal customs and
traditions practiced by Kshatriyas, Nairs, the Ambalavasis, the Pulayars, the
Vellalans, and aboriginal people such as the Waynadan Chettis, the Kurichiyas,
Karimpalans, the Kadar, the Tachanad Muppans, and the Kunduvatiyand.(239)
In north Malabar, the marumakkathayam system is also closely associated
with the Tiyyans.(240) During my field work in Appapara, Thirunelli Wayanad
district, I personally found that a number of Adivasi families had changed their
matrilineal traditions to patriarchy. Tribal culture and tradition had also been
replaced by Hindu tradition, and their marriage rituals were solemnised by
Pujari of the Hindu temple, replacing the Moopan of the tribe. In earlier times,
marriages followed local customs with traditional bands, dances, and special
performances, but today these celebrations have been fully transformed into
tali kettu kalyanam, the tradition of ‘tying the marriage knot.’ I also found that
these tribes consider matrilineal and matrilocal systems to be shameful to
their community, and they stated that this was an old system which they now
seldom follow. This change also reflected legal concerns, since tribal peoples
fall under the jurisdiction of Hindu Law.

239 Menon A. Sreedhara (ed.), Kozhikode District Gazetteer (Trivandrum: Superintendent of Gov-
ernment Press,1962), 228
240 Andreas Haberbeck, «Muslims Customs and The Courts (Application of Customary Laws to
Mappillas of North Malabar, Khojas and Cutchi Memons),» Journal of the Indian Law Institute 24:1
(1982), 132–58.

99
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
India’s 1891 census of Travencore in 1891 counted 530,000 families, of which %56
were classed as matrilineal and %44 were patrilineal.(241) This would be similar
in Malabar and Cochin.(242) In the nineteenth century, half the population of
different castes and communities adhered to matrilineal practices.(243) Tiyyas
or Ezahvas(244) comprised %40-30 of the population. Yet some historians argue
that the discrepancies based on higher and lower caste denominations result
from the fact that low-caste groups practised matriliny that was not genuine,
like that of the Nairs, but in imitation of them.(245)

Robin Jeffrey, without considering the matrilineal nature of tribal groups,

reached the conclusion that matriliny in Kerala did not date from prehistoric
times. According to him, it developed around the eleventh century C.E.,
possibly as a result of a prolonged war between the Chera and Chola dynasties
and their subordinates; but whatever the origins, matrilineal practices were
firmly established—particularly among the Nair caste—by the time Europeans
began arriving regularly on the Kerala coast in the 1500s.(246) Jeffrey mentions
that Pattam A Thanu Pillai (1970–1885), twice Chief Minister of Kerala, and
Mannath Padmanabhan (1970–1878), founder of the NSS (Nair Service Society),
had Brahmin fathers. Daughters grew up to receive their men in their own
family home, while their brothers visited women of appropriate status in their
houses. The system linked the Nairs to Brahmin religious authorities, who
were sometimes great landlords, and Kshatriyas, who visited women of Nair
houses. It is therefore evident that the Nair community were, in many cases,
polyandrous, and the absence of identifiable fathers became a burning issue
for their families. G. Arunima referred to this as a clarion call for the end of
matriliny.(247)

241 Census of India 1891, Travancore vol 1 (London: Her Majesty’s Stationary office, 1893), 252.
242 Robin Jeffrey, “Legacies of Matriliny: The Place of Women and the «Kerala Model»”, Pacific
Affairs 77:4 (2004), 649.
243 G. Arunima, There Comes Papa: Colonialism and the transformation of matriliny in Kerala,
Malabar, c.1850–1940, New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2003; Joseph and Elzy Tharamngalam, “Capital-
ism and Patriarchy: The Transformation of Matrilineal System in Kerala”, International congress on
Kerala studies, Thiruvananthapuram, 1994.
244 The Ezhava, the largest Hindu community—also known as Chovas or Chokons—are based in
Central Travancore, and the Thiyyar or Tiyyas in the Malabar region. They used to work as agricultur-
al labourers, small-scale cultivators, and toddy tappers.
245 A. Aiyappan, “Fraternal Polyandry in Malabar”, Man in India 15 (1935), 111-2; Filippo and Caroline
Osella, Social Mobility in Kerala (London: Pluto, 2000), 85.
246 Robin Jeffrey, Politics, Women, and Well-being: How Kerala became ‘a Model’ (London: Pal-
grave McMillan, 1992), 24-5.
247 Arunima, There Comes Papa, 2.

100
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
European missionaries and British government servants in India derided the
“quaint and immoral” practice of matriliny.(248) Robin Jeffrey cites a letter from
Oomen Mamen to the Secretary of the CMS, dated 21 September 1867: “The
high caste females are grossly immoral as they don’t know the sanctity of
marriage”.(249) In the ‘ideal type’, women of the house were visited by males
from other Nair families, or by Brahmins or Kshatriyas. In an example much
relished by audiences today, a man who was no longer wanted would find his
sleeping mat and personal effects left outside the door of the house where he
was accustomed to visiting, signalling the relationship was over.(250) In 1896, in
the course of attempts to modify the law of matriliny, P. Thanu Pillai had no
qualms of conscience in levelling the reproach: “Your wives are concubines,
and your sons are bastards.”(251)

André Wink also reconfirmed this matricentric culture as taboo in these words:

They have ensured themselves of a spouse in the harbours which they

frequented, and this was of extra importance in Malabar on account of the
strong taboos on commensality which developed here among the Hindus.
The women with whom such marriages were contracted were often, if not
always, of low fishermen and mariner castes. Their offspring multiplied in the
harbour towns and belonged to the mother, in conformity to the matriarchal
custom of Malabar, but was raised in Sunni Islam.(252)

Issues of polyandry and unidentified fathers were seldom discussed in Muslim

matrilineal families. Focusing on these issues was therefore a misguided
interpretation from scholars who had a monochromic view of the system, one
that focused only on Nair societies and tried to view all others through the
same lens. Concerns about caste-based concubines were taken as typical of
the larger case of Hindu women generally. Meanwhile, even Hindu women
from other societies and castes enjoyed the benefits of matriliny without the
drawbacks of keeping many men and difficulties in identifying their own
children’s father. The matrilineal system was considered to be an acceptable
custom among traditional Muslims and Hindu groups in which women were

248 T K Gopal Panikkar, Malabar and Its Folk, Madras, 1900; Augusta M. Blandford, The Land of
the Conch Shell (London: CEZMS, 1901), 39.
249 Jeffrey, Politics, Women and Well-Being, 654
250 Jeffrey, «Legacies of Matriliny”, 469.
251 P. Thanu Pillai, “Travencore Council, 20 June 1896,” Travancore Government Gazette vol 34, no.
25, June 1896.
252 Wink, Al Hind, 72

101
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
respected and kept legally identified single husbands in their homes. Kathleen
Gough also mentioned that Muslim traders put an end to endogamy in the
region.(253)

Integrated Family Customs and Cultures

The matrilineal system emerged and developed among South Indian Muslim
communities as a result of the incorporation of the local ethos into Islamic
culture. This flourished and was supported by later generations as part of
their family traditions, and came to be seen as an active model for living in
diversity. Women held positions of prominence in these matrilineal Muslim
families; the highest female authority was the karanavatthi—the eldest and
most powerful woman in the family—who wielded power in economic and
social decisions, and even in ritual actions related to the tharavad. In coastal
towns of Malabar, Muslims and other communities lived in the same locality,
even in adjacent houses, mingling and dining freely with each other. Women
attended educational centres such as the othu palli, traditional schools where
pupils learned the basics of religion as well as ritual practices, run by female
teachers known as mullachis. The public had great respect for women scholars
as well as female heads of families, and admired their leadership, scholarship,
and contributions to society.

Cultural integration was also reflected in matrilineal houses, which adapted

traditional architecture to suit the climate, using available building materials
and the craftsmanship of traditional builders to create a comfortable living
space for the matrilineal family group. There were three patterns of matrilineal
houses among the Muslim as well as the Hindu communities of Malabar,
depending on their financial status as lower class, middle class, or aristocracy.
Muslims and non-Muslims built the same type of houses, choosing from one
of these three designs according to their fiscal situation. Aristocratic houses
followed unique old patterns, sticking strictly to the conventional vastu
architecture. Built in the style of nalukettu and ettukettu, the traditional
ancestral houses of Malabar consisted of a padippura, a gate house, and a long
varanda, the legacies of traditional regional architecture. The long-established
Muslim tharavads were replicas of conventional Hindu houses, and were all
built strictly following traditional vastu style, suiting the environment of the
region, and with rooms called by the same names. Muslim houses reserved
specific places for ritual purposes with built-in platforms on either side of the

253 Gough, “Mappila North Kerala”, 418-9.

102
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
entrance in the open area between the kolaya and naduvakam—the central
hall of the house—for performing traditional ritual arts such as rateeb, mawlid,
and so on.

These large houses, normally with two storeys and a wooden staircase to the
second floor, were designed to accommodate matrilocal customs and include
an arras—a luxurious private bedroom or leisure area for visiting husbands.
Residents of the house normally paid much respect to the puthiyapla
(bridegroom) who remained and was considered as the respected guest of
the family forever. The central courtyard area of the house normally had a
square opening on the roof that allowed some natural wind inside the house,
keeping it cool, which was naturally adapted to the special climatic seasons
of Malabar; the architectural style thus represents the integration of the
traditional Malabar house with the Muslim way of life.

In a matrilocal system, the husband is given a special room in the wife’s house,
with all facilities. He enjoys breakfast in this special room, his wife serving him
or the mother-in-law taking care to make him happy. In the middle-class
house, all these are arranged on a single floor, and they live according to the
space, family status, and regional social situation. Middle-class houses are
rectangular in shape, but a miniature of the same architectural structure with
single-floor facilities. They also contain an arras, or bedroom, with available
facilities. Lower classes of the community also followed prevailing local
matrilineal practices. In the matrilineal system, the ceremony of arayilakkal(254)
is an important event in the bride’s house. On the wedding night, the bride
is led to the bridal chamber, accompanied by oppana singers, while the
bridegroom, with his close relatives and friends, are served a delicious dinner
known as thakkaram. Some families find this an important and prestigious
event, and the tradition lives on as a result of the desire to maintain a link
down the generations through such ceremonies and feasts. During my field
study in the South Pacific on the “cultural moorings of Malabar,” I was able
to meet people who were proudly hosting a thakkaram in their house for
their daughter’s new husband. Zulaikha Khthoon, for example, a mother from
the Fijian Malabar community who now lives with her family in Melbourne,
Australia, feels a strong pride in the Malabar tradition. She told me that she
would hold a thakkaram for her eldest daughter in the same elegant fashion
that her parents had for her.

254 During this ceremony, the bridegroom is officially taken to maniyara (bridal chamber) ac-
companied by significant people, with traditional arts performed by friends and relatives.

103
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
There were numerous puthiyaplas (bridegrooms) in the various villages of the
Kannur district. Muhammed Abdulrahman Nalu Purappadil Puthiyapurayil
from Madayi, one of the oldest port towns, talked about the last buses
carrying matrilocal husbands to various villages; they were known locally
as the “Puthiyapla bus.” In the modern context, it is sometimes argued that
the matrilineal system in Malabar originates with the phenomenon of male
migration for work; this is a groundless argument, however, as a great number
of men from patrilineal societies also migrate for the same reason.(255)

There was a drastic change in the authoritarian structure of Nair families after
the declining prominence of the tharavad in the early twentieth century. The
administration of the tharavad was reduced in importance to the role of sexual
procreation, and away from an active role in various ways of social reproduction.(256)
There was also an attempt to curb the matrilineal nature of Muslim family
structure as a result of the so-called Salafī “reforms”, which curtailed women’s
rights and limited them to household activities and childcare.(257)

Salafī Reformation to Curb Matrilineal Islam

The Wahhābī-Salafī “reformers” condemned traditional Malabar Muslims for

integrating traditional customs into their religious practice, labelling them
“folk worshippers” and considering them provincial and parochial. With the
backing of the British, the Wahhābī-Salafī movement was highly critical of
the integration and indigenisation of Islam in the region, calling traditional
Islam “un-Islamic” and denouncing local Muslim customs as “aberrant” and
“unethical.” From the last quarter of the nineteenth century onwards, these
“reformists” campaigned against local practices and admonished Malabar
Muslims to revert to the “real Islam,” becoming increasingly prominent by the
early twentieth century.

Sanulla Makti Thangal (1912–1847) was considered to be the “forerunner of

reformists” by followers of Salafī-Wahhābī movements.(258) Unlike other later
“reformists,” he was proud of his family’s lineage, which could be traced back
to the Prophet, although as a “reformist” he was more inclined to texts than to

255 Collected from interviews of various matrilineal networks.

256 Arunima, G. (2003). There Comes Papa: Colonialism and the transformation of matriliny in
Kerala, Malabar c. 1850–1940. Hyderabad: Orient Longman, pp. 53, 56.
257 The Salafī movement was described as iṣlāḥī, meaning reformist, even though it had an extremely negative impact
on the freedom of women.
258 K.K. Muhamad Abdul Kareem, Makti Thangalude Sampoorna Krithikal, (Tirur: Kerala Islamic
Mission, 1981), 9-16.

104
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
traditions.(259) Inspired by the desire to “decontaminate” Islam in the region, he
published a journal, Nabinanayam, from Cochin,(260) and established a printing
press—the Muḥammadiya Press, based in Aleppey. He used this printing
press to issue numerous pamphlets condemning the marumakkathayam
matrilineal traditions of the Malabar Muslims, which he considered to be
relics of Hindu culture. As he saw it, Muslims were continuing to follow these
traditions when even the Hindus had realised the discrimination inherent in
the matrilineal system, and considered it an injustice that a man could be
required to leave the family home by his wife or father-in-law. In his own
words, based on a strongly patriarchal worldview: “Be ashamed of permitting
wives to act as husbands. A man cannot allow this system, which goes against
human nature itself.”(261) Makti Thangal’s biography even records him saying,
in a sermon at Shaduli mosque in Koothumparamba, that “animals would not
follow a matrilineal system, and the admirers of this practice would never be
entitled to the benevolence of God and the Prophet.”(262)

Makti Thangal opposed women’s education, recommending that they should

only be instructed in obligatory Islamic knowledge—ʿilm al-farḍ, or farḍ al-
ʿayn—in an article written to counter the arguments of Moosakutty (d. 1930),
who supported women’s empowerment through both secular and religious
education.(263) Later, he revised his views somewhat, accepting that women
had the right to an education provided it did not go beyond the limits of
sharīʿa, and even agreeing that boys and girls could study together at mixed
schools.(264) This argument was a result of his alliance with the colonial powers,
who also considered matrilineal traditions “un-Islamic”, and he went on to
admonish his supporters to accept colonial rule, claiming that “separatist
demands were pointless, rebellious, and disloyal to the colonial Government.”(265)

Salafī influence also reached Lakshadweep and started negating traditional

259 K.K.vMuhamad Abdul Kareem, Sayid Sanaulla Makti Tangal , (Tirur: Kerala Islamic Mission,
1981), 19, Maktih Thangal, Nabi Nanayam, 2-3.
260 Nabinanayam means “the Prophet’s coin.”
261 K.K. Muhamad Abdul Kareem, Maktih Thangal, Parkaleetha Porkalam, Makthi Thangalude
Sampoorna Krithikal, (Calicut : Vachamam Books,2015 ), 224-5.
262 Abdul Kareem, Sayid Sanaulla Makti Tangal, 48.
263 In Makti Thangal’s article, Nareenarabhichari, he argued that women were created solely
for the pleasure of men; Moosakutty responded with counter-arguments in Swadeshabhimani, to
which Makti Thangal replied with two further articles (Muhamed, Maktih Thangal, 924-5.)
264 This article was titled Rajyabhakhthiyum Desabhimanavum (“Loyalty and Patriotism”).
265 Muhamed, Maktih Thangal, 726.

105
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
practices of the islands. Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen, a Salafī organization
founded in 1952, opened branches in Lakshadweep and brought out
publications questioning the tradition of Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir and litanies such
as the Māla and Mawlids. The Saudi-trained Fathahudheen SM Koya argued
effusively against the traditional practices and litanies and branded them as
“un-Islamic.”(266) Koya made the these contentions—roughly based on general
descriptions available in English and Malayalam, without seeing a copy of the
Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir manuscript(267)—in his first book, prepared using extremely
shaky evidence, in which he commented on the prominent Muslim rulers of
Arackal who controlled the islands.(268)

Colonial Laws against “un-Islamic” matrilineal practices

British documents from the colonial period show an unequivocal attempt to

realign of the matrilineal, matriarchal, and matrilocal Muslim communities
in the region. Gazette records show that the British aimed to destroy the
matrilineal and matriarchal Muslim way of life, labelling it “un-Islamic” and
curtailing female-centric family practices as well as property possession. There
was no desire for change within the community itself: the unique nature of
Muslim family life in the region demonstrated the merits of woman-centric
structures, and the traditions were supported by male as well as female
members. Women, as owners of the family land and property, enjoyed more
prestigious positions, but men found satisfaction in their own roles and in the
safety the system accorded their female relatives. Nevertheless, the colonial
rulers sought to uproot the integrated woman-centric Muslim family on the
basis of unintegrated Arab-centric Islamic texts and culture, resulting in the
fragmentation of societal cohesion.

The British considered the matrilineal organisation of property rights and

inheritance to be ‘corrupt’ from the religious perspective. As Charles Alexander
Innes (1959–1874), a settlement officer in Malabar and deputy secretary to the
British Government, wrote in one report: “In North Malabar Mappilas as a rule
follow the marumakathayam system of inheritance, though it is opposed to the
precepts of the Koran.”(269) They therefore took steps to change the traditional

266 Fathahudheen SM Koya, Lakshadweepum and Ubayd Allāhyum, (Kavarathi: Kerala Nadvathul
Mujahideen, Kavaratti Branch, 2000).
267 Fathahudheen SM Koya, Mahanmaraya Awliyakkalum Anthroth Dweepum, (Ernakulam:
Thaha Book Centre, 1996), 10.
268 Koya, Mahanmaraya Awliyakkalum Anthroth Dweepum, 50
269 Innes, Madras District Gazeteers, 198.

106
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
system by implementing Anglo-Muhammadan law, curtailing the freedom
of Muslim women to own property. This legal framework was based on the
misguided and patriarchal assumption that Arab culture was the essence
of Islam, and ignored the fact that Islamic law allows customary rights and
freedom to women. It was also a pretext for the extension of colonial powers,
clear from the fact that similar legislation was applied to non-Muslim woman-
centric cultures: restrictions on matrilineal traditions were also imposed on
other communities, such as the Ezhava, who saw their traditional practices
reorganised by the colonial powers. (270)

Some of the first legislative steps taken by the British government were to codify
customary laws through the Malabar Marriage Act of 1896 and the Malabar Will
Act of 1898, both imposing legislation to shore up existing matrilineal practices.(271)
The Malabar Marriage Act permitted the registration of sambandham(272) as
a legal marriage in response to the recommendations of Malabar Marriage
Commission of 1891, but this did not affect Muslim communities, who practised
marumakkathayam and never observed sambandham, which was outside
their religious framework. The Malabar Will Act declared the testamentary
power of persons governed by the marumakkathayam law of inheritance, and
provided rules for the execution, corroboration, revocation, and revival of their
wills, enabling those who followed matrilineal traditions to bequeath their
property as they wished. These Acts, unlike later legislation, did not attempt
to curb the power of the region’s remarkable woman-centric social customs.

Based on Anglo-Muhammadan legislation, the Mappila Succession Act came

into existence in 1918.(273) The first phase emerged as part of public litigation
regarding intermarriage between matrilineal and patriarchal families,
addressing regulations concerning their various customs in the division of
ancestral properties.(274) The Tellicherry court expressed its discontent about
the existing system as early as 1861: in some instances, when women from a
matrilineal family background married a man from a patrilineal family, clashes

270 Meera Velayudhan, “Reform, law and gendered identity: Marriage among Ezhavas of Kerala,”
Economic and Political Weekly 33:38, 1998; J. Devika, “The Aesthetic Woman: Re-forming Female
Bodies and Minds in Early Twentieth-Century Keralam,” Modern Asian Studies 39:2 (2005), 461–87.
271 Jeffrey, “Matriliny, Women, Development — and a Typographic Error,” 15–25.
272 Sambandham was defined in Act IV of Malabar Marriage Act, 1896, as an alliance or cohabit
or intend to cohabit as husband and wife between a man and a woman in accordance with the
custom of their communities.
273 Indian Law Reports 16 (Madras, 1892), 201.
274 L. R. S. Lakshmi, The Malabar Muslims: A different Perspective (New Delhi: India Foundation
Books, 2012), 50.

107
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
arose between the two family systems.(275) As a result, the administration
attempted to codify the laws by means of an ‘Islamification’ that curtailed
the rights that women enjoyed according to local custom. (276)
In response,
local Muslims petitioned the courts to protest the erosion of their way of
life; a number of similar petitions written in the vernacular are found in the
Tellicherry litigation records collected by Herman Gundert (93–1814).

The Mappila Succession Act was the first of three pieces of legislation
established between 1918 and 1939 to impose a more ‘Islamic’ legal framework
on Muslim families, and was followed by the Mappila Wills Act of 1928 and the
Mappila Marumakkathayam Act of 1939. These laws accelerated the process of
the Arabisation of Islam in the subcontinent, to the detriment of the integrated
nature of Islam that had enriched coexistence in Malabar society for centuries.
The Mappila Marumakkathayam Act of 1939 abolished women’s customary
rights over their property and family life, and legalised the partition of joint
property of the family on formal request by a majority of family members.
This was followed by the implementation of laws to regulate matrilineal
kinship property rights in the non-Muslim communities of Malabar, who were
considered to be the originators of the system.

Anglo-Muhammadan law affected various aspects of the lives of matrilineal

Muslims of the region. The Muslim Personal Law Act of 1937 became the
definitive legislative framework for all Muslims throughout India,(277) with
Section Two stating that: “Notwithstanding any custom or usage to the
contrary in matters involving inheritance, marriage, dissolution, financial
maintenance, dower, gifts and other matters of personal status and finance,
the deciding rule in cases where the parties are Muslim shall be the Muslim
Personal Law Act, 1937”.(278) Centuries-old matrilineal traditions were thus set
aside as a result of the combined power of the colonial ideology and the Arab-
centric Salafī religious “reform” movement. These self-declared ‘reformists’
were not prepared to accept the existing local Muslim matrilineal system;
religious clergy influenced by Salafī thought claimed that matrilineal customs
were “un-Islamic”, and manipulated the Legislative Assembly to pass a bill—
The Mappilla Marumakkathayam (Amendment) Act of 1963—specifying that

275 H. M. A. Wigram, A Commentary on Malabar Law and Custom (Madras: Granes, Cookson and
Co., 1882), 153; Lewis Moore, Malabar Law and Custom (Madras: Higginotham & Co., 1905), 324.
276 Joseph Skariya, Thalasseri Rekhakal, Kottayam: D. C. Books, 1998.
277 Anver M. Emon, “Conceiving Islamic law in a Pluralist Society: History, Politics and Multicultur-
al Jurisprudence” Singapore Journal of Legal Studies (2006),342.
278 The Muslim Personal Law Application Act,1937, Act No. XXVI of 1937.

108
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
property inheritance must pass through the male lineage. The Salafī-based
reform movements were supported by further legislation, eroding the cultural
benefits of woman-centric Islam and its integrated practices in the region. Far
from constituting real ‘reform’, these legislations legitimised a backward form
of patriarchy that deprived women of their basic rights, and brought drastic
upheaval to the entire community, particularly in cases when properties had
been owned exclusively by women.

The matrilineal system persisted despite the influence of this law, however,
although under the Salafī influence some families restructured themselves to
fit the new ethos of male supremacy. Other Malabar Muslim families, however,
maintained their matrilineal practices without being swayed by the imported
Arab-centric unilateral Islam. Though the law reined in matriarchal benefits,
fiscal dominance, and property possession, matrifocal culture was maintained
through keeping the ancestral home as the bedrock of family life, and using
the provision of waqf to ensure that it continued to be passed down the female
line. Time has proved that it is not easy to discard centuries-old matrilineal
traditions from the lives of Malabar Muslims through the imposition of new
legislation; it is a way of being innate to the people of the region.

In my own research I collected the family trees of matrilineal joint families

and reviewed documents related to property ownership, and found examples
of those who prefer to maintain their ancestral prestige by bestowing
ownership of the tharavad on female members of the family. The elder male
family members ensure that their family properties are transferred to women,
sacrificing their own legal ownership rights. One of the family trees from the
Madayi area had been prepared by Abdu Rahiman Nalu Purappadil Puthiya
Purayil, whose family name has been passed down through the female line:
his mother Aleema, grandmother Nafeesa, and great-grandmother Mariyam
all carry the name Nalu Purappadil Puthiya Purayil. This family tree reveals
the matrilineage of Abdu Rahiman, who is proud of maintaining the woman-
centric traditions of his culture, ensuring that his own son is also part of
a matrilineage through taking his mother’s name. He built a house for his
wife on land that she owned in her name; it is this male pride in matrilineal
tradition that preserves the family bond as durable and resilient. Family
men like Abdu Rahiman believe that it is a duty and obligation to build
their wives a house that will become part of property owned by her lineage.
Another example came from the Saidammadakath family, who claim to be
descendants of the Kunjalimarakkar. Their family name is derived from the
term Shaheedanmarakath, which means “martyr’s house”. Examining the

109
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
documents related to their family land, registered in 1976 and 1991, I found that
they were all in the name of Biyythutty Umma, the female head of the family.
Even though this did not come under the waqf system, male family members
had made the decision that the house should belong to the eldest women
of the family. Such documents show that women’s ownership of property
has continued, thanks to the generous support of male family members in
keeping the female-centric family traditions alive.

It is clear that the British administrators made deliberate attempts to conceal

their endeavours to curtail women’s right through implementing law against
the matrilineal system of inheritance and kinship. William Logan, an officer
of the British government, exemplified the attitudes of the colonial rulers. In
his history of the Malabar Coast, he works on the assumption that indigenous
people were following marumakkathayam long before they embraced
Islam, and that early Muslim settlers in north Malabar changed their existing
inheritance laws in order to fit into the local community. He therefore argued
that marumakkathayam traditions were a later adoption for the Muslims in
the region, and the Anglo-Muhammadan Law represented a return to true
Islamic tradition and practice. To prove his case, Logan cited the example of
the Nambuthiris from Payyannur in North Malabar, where marumakkathayam
prevailed. Hindu Brahmin immigrants from the north had been permitted
to settle there on the condition that they adopted the marumakkathayam
law.(279) This example was flawed, however, since Muslim settlers in Malabar
and elsewhere along the coast had never been obliged to follow the traditions
of marumakkathayam, but had naturally integrated it into their way of life.
The matrilineal practices of Malabar Muslims were not incorporated at a later
date, as Logan argued, but formed an intrinsic part of the culture. Logan’s
argument is now understood to have been a misguided attempt to conceal
the British rulers’ misogynistic attack on women’s rights, which had previously
been upheld under the marumakkathayam system.

Later researchers such as Kathleen Gough were also influenced by the

prevailing colonial discourse. In her discussion of the Nair and Tiyyars, she
suggested that the disintegration of matrilineal groups was a social trend
among Muslim families in the region—yet the very fact that matrilineal,
matrilocal, and matrifocal culture continues to thrive decades after legislation
was passed to suppress it is evidence that this analysis was flawed.(280) Some
Muslim historians, too, have described the marumakkathayam as un-Islamic

279 William Logan, A collection of Treaties, Engagements and other papers of importance relat-
ing to British Affairs in Malabar (Calicut: Minerva Press, 1879), 272.
280 Gough, “Mappila North Kerala”, 432.

110
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
and argue that the matrilineal Arackal system is against sharīʿa, in many
cases unaware that they were adopting a colonial perspective. S. M. Mohamed
Koya also argued that the region was seeing a gradual shift from matriliny
to patriliny, continuing over decades, although the reality of life in the region
today makes it clear that matrilineal Muslim culture has in no way been
eradicated, despite almost a century of legislation against it.(281)

Conclusion

Matrilineal Islamic practices were accepted and adopted by early Muslim

scholars and the leaders of Malabar. In more recent times, however, Salafī,
Wahhābī, and other political Islamist movements attacked the distinctive
nature matrilineal Islam and labelled its practices “un-Islamic”. Rather than
supporting woman-centric Islam in matrilineal Muslim communities, they
excluded incorporated practices, classifying them as heretical. This attitude
was mirrored by the British colonial powers, who sought to legislate against
matrilineal culture.

The Muslims of Malabar succeeded in countering the assault on their

traditions through adopting the practice of waqf in relation to Friday property
custom that was in use on the Lakshadweep Islands. There was a strong call
to force a change in lifestyles, food habits, dress codes, and even architecture
to reflect Arab models, rather than accepting the integrated and centuries-old
vernacular Islam. In this context it is important to note that even before the
advent of Islam in the region there had been considerable interaction with Arab
traders, who used to spend months there as part of the monsoon navigation.
Cultural integration was promoted rather than an inflexible single tradition; this
prevented any feeling of alienation and helped matrilineal culture to flourish
in diversity. It is also important to emphasise that the matrilineal structures
of Lakshadweep are deep-rooted, extending, for example, to customs around
the succession of Muslim jurists.

This study has provided a review of the legal and social integration of matrilineal
culture in the Lakshadweep and the Malabar region, and differs from early
studies which suggested that the matrilineal traditions of Lakshadweep were
an adaptation of those from the mainland. In both these Muslim communities,
the centrality of women was unambiguously visible in their amalgamation
of matrilineal, matrifocal, and matriarchal traditions. Every aspect of life—

281 S.M. Mohamed Koya, “Matriliny and Malabar Muslims,” Proceedings of the Indian History
Congress 40 (1979), 419-31.

111
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
including inheritance rights, property ownership, marriage, the raising of
children, control over production, and policy-making—involved women at
some level. Men seldom made decisions without consulting them, and legal
terminology developed to shore up the traditional family structure. These
matrilineal Indian Muslim societies made every effort to preserve their cultural
heritage in the face of opposition from patriarchal and colonial legislation, and
men from the communities were glad to sacrifice the privileges granted them
by law in order to uphold their integrated family traditions.

112
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Bibliography

Abdul Kareem, K.K. Muhamad, Sayid Sanaulla Makti Tangal, Tirur: Kerala
Islamic Mission, 1981.

Abdul Kareem, K.K. Muhamad, Makti Thangalude Sampoorna Krithikal, Tirur:

Kerala Islamic Mission, 1981.

Abdul Kareem, K.K. Muhamad, Maktih Thangal, Parkaleetha Porkalam, Makthi

Thangalude Sampoorna Krithikal, Calicut: Vachamam Books, 2015.

Aiyappan, A, “Fraternal Polyandry in Malabar,” Man in India 18-108 ,)1935( 14.

Arunima, G., There comes papa: Colonialism and the transformation of

matriliny in Kerala, Malabar, c.1940–1850, New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2003.

Blandford, Augusta M., The Land of the Conch Shell, London: CEZMS, 1901.

Caldwell, Robert, A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian

Family of Languages, London: Trubner and co., 1875.

Census of India 1891, Travancore vol 1, London: Her Majesty’s Stationary office,
1893.

Chand, Tara, Influence of Islam on Indian Culture, Allahabad: The Indian Press
Limited, 1936.

Devika, J., “The Aesthetic Woman: Re-forming Female Bodies and Minds in
Early Twentieth-Century Keralam,” Modern Asian Studies 87–461 ,)2005( 39:2.

D’Souza, Victor S., “Status groups among the Moplahs on the West Coast of
India,” in Imtiaz Ahmad (ed.), Caste and social stratification among Muslims in
India, Delhi: Manohar, 1978.

D’Souza, Victor S., “Kinship Organization and Marriage Customs among

Moplahs on the South West Coast of India,” in Imtiaz Ahmad (ed.), Family,
Kinship and Marriage among Muslims in India, New Delhi: Manohar Books,
1976.

Dube, Leela, Matriliny and Islam: Religion and society in the Laccadives, Delhi:
National Publishing House, 1969.

Dube, Leela, “Who Gains from matriliny? Men, Women and Change on a
Lakshadweep Island,” Sociological Bulletin 36-15 ,)1993( 42:1.

Ellis, Francis Whyte, Dissertation the Second on the Malayalma Language, 1815.

113
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Emon, Anver M., «Conceiving Islamic law in a pluralist society: History, politics
and multicultural jurisprudence,» Singapore Journal of Legal Studies (,)2006
55-331.

Fernandez, Armesto F., Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration, London:

Oxford University Press, 2006.

Firminger, Walter Kelly, Fifth Report from the Select committee on the Affairs
of the Indian Company, Vol. 8, Calcutta: R. Cambray, 1917.

Friedmann, Yohanan, “Qiṣṣat Shakarwatī Farmāḍ: A Tradition concerning the

Introduction of Islam to Malabar,” Israel Oriental Studies 58-233 ,)1975( 5.

Fuller, C.J., The Nayars Today, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976

Ganesh, K. N. (ed.), Culture and modernity: Historical explorations, Calicut:

Calicut University Press, 2004.

Gough, Kathleen, “Changing Kinship Usages in the Setting Up of Political and

Economic Change among Nayars of Malabar,” Journal of Royal institute of
Great Britain and Ireland 88-71 ,)1952( 82:1.

Gough, Kathleen, “Mappila North Kerala,” in David M. Schneider and Kathleen

Gough (eds.), Matrilineal Kinship (Berkley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 41-415 ,)1962.

Gundert, Hermann, Keralolpatti – Origin of Malabar, Mangalore: Basel Mission

press, 1868.

Haberbeck, Andreas, «Muslims Customs and The Courts (Application of

Customary Laws to Mappillas of North Malabar, Khojas and Cutchi Memons),»
Journal of the Indian Law Institute 58-132 ,)1982( 24:1.

Hage, Per, “Was Proto-Oceanic society matrilineal?” Journal of the Polynesian

Society 79-365 ,)1998( 107:1.

Haurani, G., Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Mediaeval
Times, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951.

Ibn Battuta, The travels of Ibn Battuta in Asia and Africa, vol. 4, ed. H. A. R. Gibb,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962.

Innes, C. A., Madras District Gazetteers, Malabar and Anjengo, Madras:

Government Press, 1908.

Jeffrey, Robin, ‘Matriliny, women, development — and a typographic error’,

Pacific Affairs 375 ,)1990( 63:3.

114
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Jeffrey, Robin, Politics, Women and Well-Being: How Kerala Became «a Model»,
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Jeffrey, Robin, «Legacies of Matriliny: The Place of Women and the ‘Kerala
Model’», Pacific Affairs 469 ,)2004( 77:4.

Kottakkunnummal, Manaf, “Indigenous customs and colonial law:

contestations in religion, gender and family among matrilineal Mappila
Muslims in colonial Malabar, Kerala, c. 1928-1910,” Sage Open, January 2014.

Koya, S.M. Mohammed, “Matriliny and Malabar Muslims,” Proceedings of the

Indian History Congress 31-419 ,)1979( 40.

Koya, S.M. Mohammed, Mappilas of Malabar, Calicut: University of Calicut, 1983.

Koya, S.M. Mohammed, “Survival of a social institution: Matriliny among the

Mappilas”, in K. N. Ganesh (ed.), Culture and modernity: Historical explorations
(Calicut: Calicut University Press, 2004).

Koya, S.M. Fathahudheen, Mahanmaraya Awliyakkalum Anthroth Dweepum,

Ernakulam: Thaha Book Centre, 1996.

Koya, S.M. Fathahudheen, Lakshadweepum and Ubayd Allāhyum, Kavarathi:

Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen, 2000.

Kurup, K.K.N., The Ali Rajas of Cannanore, Trivandrum: College Book House,
1975.

Kutty, A.R., Marriage and kinship in an island society, Delhi: National Publishing
House, 1972.

Lakshmi, L. R. S., The Malabar Muslims: A different Perspective, New Delhi:

India Foundation Books, 2012.

Logan, William, A collection of Treaties, Engagements and other papers of

importance relating to British Affairs in Malabar, Calicut: Minerva Press, 1879.

Mailaparambil, Binu John, Lords of the Sea: The Ali Rajas of Cannanore and the
Political Economy of Malabar (1723-1663), Leiden: Brill, 2012.

Moore, Lewis, Malabar law and custom, Madras: Higginbotham and Co., 1905.

Major, Richard Henry, India in the fifteenth century: being a collection of

narratives of voyages to India, in the century preceding the Portuguese
discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, London: Hakluyt Society, 1857.

115
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Miller, Ronald E., Mappila Muslims of Kerala: A Study in Islamic Trends, Bombay:
Orient Longman, 1976.

Muthukoya, N., Lakshadweep Noottanudkaliloode, Kottayam: Vidyarthi

Mithram Book Depot, 1986.

Osella, Filippo and Caroline, Social Mobility in Kerala, London: Pluto, 2000.

Panakkal, Abbas, “Beypūŗinum Sūrinum Idayil,” Gulf Focus 34–28 ,)2015( 2:2.

Panikkar, T. K. Gopal, Malabar and Its Folk, Madras: 1900.

Panikkar, K.M., “Some Aspects of Nayar Life,” Journal of the Royal

Anthropological Institute 93-254 ,)1918( 48.

Pillai, P. Thanu, “Travencore Council, 20 June 1896,” Travancore Government

Gazette vol 34, no. 25, June 1896.

Pookoya, P.I., Dweepolpathi: an up-to-date history of Laccadive, Minicoy and

Amindivi Islands, Calicut: Falcon Press, 1960.

Seethi, Saheb K.M, The Muslims of Kerala and the Marumakkathayam Law,
Cochin: Kerala Muslim Directory, 1960.

Sidebotham, Steven E., Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route,
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2011.

Skariya, Joseph, Thalasseri Rekhakal, Kottayam: D. C. Books, 1998.

Sreedhara, Menon A. (ed.), Kozhikode District Gazetteer, Trivandrum:

Superintendent of Government Press, 1962.

Tharamngalam, Joseph and Elzy, “Capitalism and Patriarchy: The

Transformation of Matrilineal Systems in Kerala”, International congress on
Kerala studies, Thiruvananthapuram, 1994.

Velayudhan, Meera, “Reform, law and gendered identity: Marriage among

Ezhavas of Kerala,” Economic and Political Weekly 1998 ,33:38.

Wigram, H. M. A., A commentary on Malabar law and custom, Madras: Granes,

Cookson and Co., 1882.

Wink, André, Al-Hind: The making of the Indo-Islamic world, vol. I. Early
medieval India and the expansion of Islam, 7th11-th centuries, Leiden: Brill,
1990.

116
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Manuscripts

Anonymous, Qiṣṣat Shakarwati Farmad, British Library MS, IO, Islamic 2807d.

Anonymous, Mawlid of Mumb Maula (Manuscript not listed).

Qāḍī Abū Bakr bin ʿUbayd Allāh, Futūhāt al-Jazāʾir, Madin Manuscript Library,
Malappuram.

Makhdum II, Tuhfat al Mujahidin, British Library, MS. IO Islamic 2807e.

117
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World
Dr. Lyn Parker
The University of Western Australia
Professor Lyn Parker is a sociocultural anthropologist and researcher
specialising in contemporary Indonesian culture and society.
environmental problems and gender issues at the UWA School of Social
Sciences. Her main research interests are the anthropology of Indonesia,
women and gender relations, education and the environment.

Dr. Alexander Wain

University of St Andrews, UK
Alexander (Amin) Wain is a member of the School of Divinity at the
University of St Andrews, UK.A specialist in the eastern Islamic world, his
primary interests lie in the theological, historical, and literary traditions
of the Malay Muslim world (modern-day Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei,
southern Thailand, southern Philippines, and Singapore), with an ancillary
focus on China’s hui-hui Muslim ethnic community. After obtaining his
DPhil in Theology from the University of Oxford in 2015, with a thesis
focused on the role Sino-Muslims played in the conversion of Maritime
Southeast Asia to Islam between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries,
also the subject of his first monograph, Alexander joined the International
Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) in Kuala Lumpur, where he
stayed as a Research Fellow for six years. In addition to his work on the
St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology. he is currently engaged in a major
research project exploring and re- evaluating the early history and Muslim
culture of Melaka, Southeast Asia’s first great sultanate.

Dr. Abbas Panakkal

World Muslim Communities Council, Abu Dhabi,
UAE
Dr. Abbas Panakkal is currently a researcher in the World Muslim
Communities Council, Abu Dhabi, UAE. and editor of Armonia journal. Dr.
Panakkal has been working on Islam, Malabar, Law, Religion, Interreligious
Integrations, and Intercultural Co-operations.’Islam in Malabar (1460-
1600): A Socio-Cultural Study’ is his book published by International
Islamic University Press, Malaysia. Dr. Panakkal was awarded fellowship
by Griffith University Australia.
 Matrilineal Islam- Mother Kinship in
Indo Malay World

This book examines matrilineal and matriarchal

Islamic communities, where inheritance is traced
through the maternal line and women play
significant roles. In the various communities in
the Indo-Malay world, the practices are similar
of those in patriarchal Muslim communities. The
book studies Minangkabau in Indonesia and
their matrilineal social patterns, adaptation, and
resilience against other influences. It also delves
into the matrilineal system in Malaysia, covering
its evolution and its impact on community, then
its deterioration due to societal changes brought
by colonialism. It also highlights the presence of
matrilineal Islam in the Indian subcontinent and
explores how such communities resisted colonial
attempts to curb matrilineal views and persisted in
their practices.

120
Matrilineal Islam: Mother-kinship in Indo-Malay World