Verse Numbering System and Arabic References in Bagus Ngarpah’s Early 20th-Century Javanese Qurʾan

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the exegetical activity in the composition of Kuran Jawi, a Qurʾanic translation from the turn of the 20th-century. Its focus is on the examination of the three-volume manuscript that contains the Qurʾanic translation in Javanese script and language that is now held in the library collection of the Radyapustaka Museum in Surakarta, Central Java. This Javanese Qurʾanic translation, Kuran Jawi, was carried out by Bagus Ngarpah, a royal servant (abdi dalem) and Islamic scholar in the early 20th-century Javanese keraton of Surakarta. The authors examine aspects of the verse numbering system and Arabic references that Ngarpah used for the arrangement of his work. An examination of the applied verse counts reveals that Kuran Jawi is accommodative to multiple numbering systems, and also contains idiosyncrasies. This study also reveals a complexity in the use of Arabic references that include non-Arabic commentary works. In the broader context, the study of Ngarpah’s Kuran Jawi confirms the emergence of awareness among the Javanese priyayi of Islamic modernism through their attempts at having a direct approach to the study of the Qurʾan.