Redrawing Ethno‐Religious Figures in the Trajectory of Islamic Education of the Sasak Muslim Ethnic Group in Lombok

ABSTRACT

Lombok, an island called ‘a thousand mosques’, stores unique exotica where ethnic and integrated religions are in the same concoction. Profiling Tuan Guru as an ethnic religion is the representation of the island. This study is redrawing the dual role by highlighting the aspects of the construction of ethnic authority, the polarisation of double authority, and its role in transforming Islamic education on the island of Lombok. Using a qualitative‐phenomenological approach and adopting the REDCo method, we explore these issues and find that: (1) Ethnicity Authority is constructed by the prerequisites of degrees in social status, indigenous people's acceptance and ḥaramayn study background. (2) Dual authority of Tuan Guru as an educator, ethnic guard and politician. (3) Tuan Guru is a pioneer of transforming Islamic education to produce institutional transformation by changing the paradigm of traditional schools from tarekat to madrasa , and eventually becoming pesantren with the same culture in Java and Mecca. This research argues that Tuan Guru is a key figure in describing ‘Sasak Islam’ where his involvement adjusts to the contours of the local ethnic and geopolitical society. This study also found that the dimensions of locality succeeded in forming Islamic education institutions with the beauty of the locality that we as ‘ethnic pesantren’.