Teren Sevea
Biographic Data
| ID | 729132 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Teren Sevea |
| GIVEN NAMES | Teren |
| FAMILY NAME | Sevea |
| SIGNATURE | SEVEA T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Episcopal Divinity School |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9471-8141 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Islamic Siva
This article stems from two questions: How have Muslim communities reconciled the veneration of Hindu divinities with belief in God’s Oneness? Why have the Islamic elements of “Malay magic” been interpreted as syncretic rather than normative? Revisiting the works of scholars in British Malaya, for whom Islam was assimilated into pre-Islamic religion, the article turns to a manuscript compendium of Islamic esoteric science. This text hierarchicall…
Decolonizing Nature-as-Subject and Restoring Nonhuman Voices
Keramat
Despite demographic realities, Muslim Southeast Asia remains one of the most marginalized regions in Islamic studies and in popular culture. This article grapples with one of the thorniest of allegations against the Islam of the “peripheries,” that the prevalence of saints and miracle workers, known as keramat in Southeast Asia, is nominally Islamic or syncretic and, thus, it is evidence of regional communities being “less-than-pure” Islamic. In …
Sufism, Miracles and Oceanic Fatwas
This article examines stories, hagiographies, fatwas, and treatises related to the grave of a sayyid miracle worker ( keramat ) buried in North Jakarta. It is a product of research that began in 2008 when I first visited the Sufi shrine of the eminent keramat, Habib Hussein al-ʿAydarus (d. 1169/1756), in the village of Luar Batang. Herefrom, I enjoyed access to a series of documents, oral traditions and miracle stories, along with invaluable info…
Reading Alatas’ Thomas Stamford Raffles in 2021
Indian Ocean studies and saintly materials from the Islamic East
Exilic journeys and lives
This article studies the exilic journeys and lives of a series of Mughals and Muslims in Burma between the 1850s and 1920s. It presents a microhistory of exiles and sojourners from north India and Europe, including that of the last Mughal king, Bahadur Shah Zafar. The stories of the men and women introduced here are microcosms of the porous borders they crossed. And Rangoon, the hub of Mughal prisoners, convicted saints, merchants, labourers and …
Miracles and Madness
This article analyzes the hagiographies, poems, oral traditions and miracle stories of an Islamic miracle worker (keramat) buried in Singapore named Sayyid Nuh ibn Muhd al-Habshi (ca.1788–1866). In his physical lifetime and beyond, he was described as a wandering ecstatic who adored children and burgled businesses, yet attained a reputation as “prophet” and keramat by performing miracles, healing the incurable and flying in and out of prisons and…
Miracles and Material Life
In this ground-breaking new study, Teren Sevea reveals the economic, environmental and religious significance of Islamic miracle workers (pawangs) in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Malay world. Through close textual analysis of hitherto overlooked manuscripts and personal interaction with modern pawangs readers are introduced to a universe of miracle workers that existed both in the past and in the present, uncovering connections between m…
Pawangs on the Frontier
This article unearths two Jawi manuscripts pertaining to Muslim miracle-workers, orpawangs, who were key intermediaries of agrarian change in the interior of modern Malaya. These compendia of frontier patois are analysed to recount a history of rice worlds and environments wherein forest clearing and rice cultivation were directly associated with the Islamic esoteric science (ilmu) ofpawangs. As professional miracle-workers,pawangswere employed t…
Forging Islamic Power and Place. The Legacy of Shaykh Daʾud bin ʿAbd Allah al-Fatani in Mecca and Southeast Asia, written by Francis R. Bradley
Indian Ocean studies and saintly materials from the Islamic East
Pawangs on the Frontier
This article unearths two Jawi manuscripts pertaining to Muslim miracle-workers, orpawangs, who were key intermediaries of agrarian change in the interior of modern Malaya. These compendia of frontier patois are analysed to recount a history of rice worlds and environments wherein forest clearing and rice cultivation were directly associated with the Islamic esoteric science (ilmu) ofpawangs. As professional miracle-workers,pawangswere employed t…
Forging Islamic Power and Place. The Legacy of Shaykh Daʾud bin ʿAbd Allah al-Fatani in Mecca and Southeast Asia, written by Francis R. Bradley
Pawangs on the Frontier
This article unearths two Jawi manuscripts pertaining to Muslim miracle-workers, orpawangs, who were key intermediaries of agrarian change in the interior of modern Malaya. These compendia of frontier patois are analysed to recount a history of rice worlds and environments wherein forest clearing and rice cultivation were directly associated with the Islamic esoteric science (ilmu) ofpawangs. As professional miracle-workers,pawangswere employed t…
Miracles and Material Life
In this ground-breaking new study, Teren Sevea reveals the economic, environmental and religious significance of Islamic miracle workers (pawangs) in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Malay world. Through close textual analysis of hitherto overlooked manuscripts and personal interaction with modern pawangs readers are introduced to a universe of miracle workers that existed both in the past and in the present, uncovering connections between m…
Miracles and Madness
This article analyzes the hagiographies, poems, oral traditions and miracle stories of an Islamic miracle worker (keramat) buried in Singapore named Sayyid Nuh ibn Muhd al-Habshi (ca.1788–1866). In his physical lifetime and beyond, he was described as a wandering ecstatic who adored children and burgled businesses, yet attained a reputation as “prophet” and keramat by performing miracles, healing the incurable and flying in and out of prisons and…
Sufism, Miracles and Oceanic Fatwas
This article examines stories, hagiographies, fatwas, and treatises related to the grave of a sayyid miracle worker ( keramat ) buried in North Jakarta. It is a product of research that began in 2008 when I first visited the Sufi shrine of the eminent keramat, Habib Hussein al-ʿAydarus (d. 1169/1756), in the village of Luar Batang. Herefrom, I enjoyed access to a series of documents, oral traditions and miracle stories, along with invaluable info…
Reading Alatas’ Thomas Stamford Raffles in 2021
Indian Ocean studies and saintly materials from the Islamic East
Exilic journeys and lives
This article studies the exilic journeys and lives of a series of Mughals and Muslims in Burma between the 1850s and 1920s. It presents a microhistory of exiles and sojourners from north India and Europe, including that of the last Mughal king, Bahadur Shah Zafar. The stories of the men and women introduced here are microcosms of the porous borders they crossed. And Rangoon, the hub of Mughal prisoners, convicted saints, merchants, labourers and …
Keramat
Despite demographic realities, Muslim Southeast Asia remains one of the most marginalized regions in Islamic studies and in popular culture. This article grapples with one of the thorniest of allegations against the Islam of the “peripheries,” that the prevalence of saints and miracle workers, known as keramat in Southeast Asia, is nominally Islamic or syncretic and, thus, it is evidence of regional communities being “less-than-pure” Islamic. In …
Decolonizing Nature-as-Subject and Restoring Nonhuman Voices
The Islamic Siva
This article stems from two questions: How have Muslim communities reconciled the veneration of Hindu divinities with belief in God’s Oneness? Why have the Islamic elements of “Malay magic” been interpreted as syncretic rather than normative? Revisiting the works of scholars in British Malaya, for whom Islam was assimilated into pre-Islamic religion, the article turns to a manuscript compendium of Islamic esoteric science. This text hierarchicall…
Asian Studies and History (9 works) · Islam (9 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · History (8 works) · Ancient history (7 works) · Archaeology (6 works) · Education and Islamic Studies (4 works) · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories (4 works) · Malay (4 works) · Miracle (4 works)