4 abdurrahman wahid
household and one of the most impor-
tant patrons of architecture in Ottoman
Egypt. He was a son of asan Katkhud
(d. 1127/1715), a prominent member
of the bayt Qazdaghl, which dominated
Egyptian politics in the twelfth/eigh-
teenth century, and Amna, a freeborn
Muslim woman. Nothing is known about
his childhood and education except that
he was born in Cairo and that he spoke
excellent Arabic. In the 1140s/1730s, he
began to rise through the military ranks.
In 1153/1740, he became head of the bayt
Qazdaghl and commander of the local
janissary corps (ocak). A series of inheri-
tances made him one of the richest men
in the country. In 1160/1747, a revolt in
Cairo interrupted his career, and he was
exiled to the ijz. In 1164/1751 the new
strongman, the amr Ibrhm Katkhud,
allowed him to return to Cairo and
appointed him katkhud (kethda, steward)
of the janissary corps. After Ibrhms
death, in 1168/1754, and the elimina-
tion of Ri wn Katkhud, commander
of the local azab corps, Abd al-Ra mn
Katkhud became one of the most impor-
tant figures in Cairo but still did not build
a mamlk household of his own. Rather,
he helped to install the Georgian mamlk
Al Bey al-Kabr (c. 114087/172873)
as shaykh al-balad, in 1173/1760, who, five
years later, rose against Abd al-Ra mn
and exiled him to Mecca. Abd al-Ra mn
lived there quietly for a decade. He died in
his Cairo home within days of his return,
in 1191/1776.
Abd al-Ra mn Katkhud spent much
of his inherited wealthwhich, like many
of his class, he augmented through corrup-
tion, blackmail, and extortionon monu-
ments and pious foundations in Cairo,
notably a large structure in the al-Azhar
Mosque and the fine sabl-kuttb carrying
his name, in Bayn al-Qa rayn (todays
Shri al-Mu izz li-Dn Allh), with its
well-known representation of the aram in
Mecca. The Comit de Conservation de
lArt arabe (founded in 1881) later repro-
duced the elevation of the sabl-kuttb in a
number of similar buildings on Shri Port
Said, in Cairo. A replica of the sabl-kuttb
was shown at the Worlds Columbian
Exposition (that is, the Worlds Fair), held
in Chicago, in 1893.
Bibliography
Doris Behrens-Abouseif, The Abd al-Rahman
Katkhuda style in 18th century Cairo, AI 26
(1992), 11726 and plates 1825; Zeynep
elik, Displaying the Orient. Architecture of Islam
at nineteenth-century Worlds Fairs, Berkeley
1992; Jane Hathaway, The politics of households
in Ottoman Egypt. The rise of the Qazdalis, Cam-
bridge 1997; Andr Raymond, Les construc-
tions de lmir Abd ar-Rahmn Katkhud
au Caire, AI 11 (1972), 23552; Andr
Raymond, Le Caire des Janissaires. Lapoge de
la ville ottomane sous Abd al-Rahmn Katkhud
(Paris 1995), 3245; Philipp Speiser, Die
Geschichte der Erhaltung arabischer Baudenkmler
in gypten, mit Beitrgen von Andr Raymond,
Muhammad Afifi und Peter French (Heidelberg
2001), 11338 and plates 1124.
Philipp Speiser
Abdurrahman Wahid
Abdurrahman Wahid ( Abd
al-Ra mn al-Dkhil b. Abd al-W id b.
Hshim b. Ash ar, 19402009), popularly
known as Gus Dur, was arguably Indo-
nesias most influential Muslim religious
leader of the late twentieth century and its
most controversial. He led the traditional-
ist Muslim association Nahdlatul Ulama
(NU) from 1984 to 1999 and was Indo-
nesias fourth (and first democratically
elected) president (19992001).
abdurrahman wahid
1. Education and intellectual
development
Abdurrahman came from a family with
important religious and political connec-
tions. His two grandfathers, Hasyim Asyari
(18711947) and Bisri Syansuri (1887
1980), were among NUs main founders
and he was more distantly related to
another founder, Wahab Chasbullah
(18881971). All three led famous pesant-
ren, traditional Islamic boarding schools,
in Jombang (East Java). A dense network
of marriage and teacher-student relations
connected these pesantren with each other
and with most of the other major pesantren
in Java, whose leading teachers (kiai) con-
stitute a hereditary elite. Abdurrahmans
father, Wahid Hasyim (d. 1953), played a
leading role in Indonesias independence
movement, and in 1949, at the age of 36,
he became Minister of Religious Affairs,
the only cabinet position held by an NU
representative. (Abdurrahmans popular
nickname refers to this family background:
Gus is the title for the son of a kiai, usu-
ally followed by an abbreviated form of
the personal name, here Abdurrahman.)
Abdurrahman attended a state (that is,
non-religious) primary school in Jakarta
and continued to junior high school in
Yogyakarta, complementing this with
part-time study at several pesantren and
with his grandfather Bisri Syansuri in Jom-
bang. He often missed his classes, instead
watching movies or wayang (shadow play)
performances and reading books of all
kindsfrom Chinese-Indonesian pulp fic-
tion to Russian literary classics and from
Marxist tracts to Muslim Brotherhood
literature. He learned English, Arabic,
and some Dutch, and displayed a breadth
of knowledge and insights unusual for a
young man of his age and background.
Abdurrahman developed a lifelong fasci-
5
nation with kejawn ( Javanist spiritualism)
and Chinese culture that many Muslim
religious teachers (kiai) and most reform-
ist Muslims found objectionable.
In 1963 he was sent to Cairo to study
at al-Azhar, which disappointed him. But
he loved cosmopolitan Cairo with its cof-
fee houses bustling with political debate,
cinemas, and libraries. He was active in
Indonesian students discussion groups
and wrote on politics in a journal he and a
friend published. The failed coup attempt
of 1965 and General Suhartos subsequent
takeover were followed by mass killings
of suspected communists, in which NUs
youth organisation, Ansor, was involved.
Although Abdurrahman was overseas
at the time, these events appear to have
burdened him with a strong sense of guilt.
Later, one of his first acts as president was
to order an end to harassment of former
communists.
Abdurrahman failed his al-Azhar
exams, but was offered another scholar-
ship, this one to Baghdad University,
which proved more congenial. In 1970 he
graduated from the universitys College of
Arts. He failed, however, to get further
scholarships for study in the Netherlands
and Germany. In 1971 he returned to
Indonesia. He was among the most highly
educated NU figures but he saw himself
as an underachiever. Problems of bridging
the gap between the pesantren and modern
global culture were to preoccupy Abdur-
rahman for the rest of his life.
He settled in Jombang, in the pesant-
ren of his maternal grandfather, Bisri
Syansuri. His courtesy calls to numerous
pesantren strengthened personal relations
with ulama and active NU members. Fre-
quent trips to visit pesantren, NU branch
offices, and sacred sites would remain an
important element of his activities, giving
6 abdurrahman wahid
him unparalleled knowledge of local con-
ditions and a network of loyal supporters
at the grassroots level. He also regularly
visited Jakarta, where he moved in differ-
ent circles: intellectuals, artists, journal-
ists, and non-governmental organisation
(NGO) activists, Muslim as well as non-
Muslim. He contributed regularly to
print media (including the prestigious
Prisma and Tempo, and the daily Kompas)
and was well known for his opinions on
film, literature, soccer, and international
politics, as well as Muslim culture and
modern Islamic thought. To the horror of
more conservative kiai, he became chair-
man of the Jakarta Arts Council and was
seen in public with film stars. For numer-
ous young NU members, participation in
NGO activities opened doors to the wider
world. Abdurrahmans election as chair-
man of NU in 1984 gave a strong impe-
tus to those activities and provided young
innovative thinkers with protection.
2. Leadership of Nahdlatul
Ulama
Although more conservative kiai were
concerned about Abdurrahmans contro-
versial opinions, he rose steadily within
NU. In 1979 he was chosen as a member
of its national board and secretary of the
deliberative council (Syuriah). This brought
him in regular contact with senior kiai who
were increasingly disaffected with NUs
pragmatic political leadership. With a
handful of other young members and the
blessing of senior kiai, he prepared for the
withdrawal of NU from the sole remain-
ing Muslim party, PPP (United Develop-
ment Party), and its reorientation towards
social welfare and more socially relevant
religious discourse. The 1984 congress
formalised this reorientation, reaffirmed
loyalty to the Suharto regime by adopt-
ing the state ideology of Pancasila (Five
Principles) as its leading principle, and
rather unceremoniously dumped the old
political leadership. Abdurrahman Wahid
was elected to lead the executive council
(Tanfidziah), replacing the experienced
and wily politician Idham Chalid.
Abdurrahman had the genealogical
credentials for this position (heredity
being important in the pesantren world) but
an unlikely coalition of forces with widely
diverging interests also played a role. His
outspoken rejection of political Islam and
defence of Indonesian cultural traditions
and of religious minorities won him sup-
porters outside as well as within NU, but
also caused considerable opposition to him.
The continued goodwill of seniors such as
his former teacher Kiai Ali Maksum and
his fathers former secretary, Kiai Ahmad
Siddiq (d. 1991, the main architect of
the break with PPP and accommodation
with the regime, who became rais aam, or
president, of NU in 1984), protected him
against critics. He was to lose both protec-
tors early in his second term as chairman,
but by then he was capable of taking on
all opponents single-handedly.
Abdurrahman was an inspiring leader
but a poor administrator with no staff to
implement his ideas. Yet he stimulated
independent thought and social commit-
ment among young NU activists, many of
whom felt empowered by his protection.
Perhaps even more importantly, he broke
through the social isolation of NUs tra-
ditionalist constituency, inviting people of
diverse backgrounds to visit pesantren and
attend NU activities. His chairmanship of
NU coincided with the strengthening of
civil society initiatives and the flourishing
of intellectual debate in traditionalist Mus-
lim circles. His ambitions of having NU
play a greater role in the economic wel-
abdurrahman wahid
fare and education of its constituency were
less successful. Abdurrahman intended to
use his relations with Indonesian Chinese
businessmen (who looked upon him as
their most consistent protector) to link the
small-scale economy of the NU grassroots
with the modern capitalist sector, through
a network of peoples banks providing
microfinance and through partnerships
between small-scale businesses and large
Chinese-owned companies. The former
project had modest success; political prob-
lems and administrative incompetence
impeded grander plans. His plan to send
bright young NU members abroad for uni-
versity studies also largely failed because
few candidates had the needed skills. The
difference in educational achievement
between Indonesian traditionalist and
reformist Muslims remained striking
and frustrating for those NU leaders who,
like Abdurrahman, highly valued Western
education.
3. Political struggles
In the early 1990s, Abdurrahman
became engaged in opposition to the
regime. Approaching 1990, having suc-
cessfully depoliticised the former Muslim
opposition, President Suharto made a
seeming turnabout, attempting to co-opt
former Islamist critics through symbolic
policy decisions appearing to favour
scripturalist Islam. He endorsed the first
Islamic bank, a quality Islamic newspa-
per, and an association of Muslim intel-
lectuals (ICMI) under the patronage of his
protg, B. J. Habibie. ICMI appeared to
be intended as an umbrella organisation,
which all Muslim civil servants and prom-
inent Muslim personalities were expected
to join, a vehicle for broadening civilian
support for the president. It was domi-
nated by high-ranking bureaucrats and
7
Muslim activists of reformist or Islamist
backgrounds, including several prominent
NU personalities. Abdurrahman was the
only prominent Muslim personality who
refused to join and publicly opposed ICMI,
warning of the danger of sectarianism.
Instead, challenging the regime, he joined
a small group of (mostly non-Muslim)
intellectualsseveral of them long-time
regime criticsin establishing a Forum
Demokrasi. In spite of their small num-
bers, Forum Demokrasi gained publicity
for their statements, often making a greater
impact on public debate than ICMI. This
was largely due to Abdurrahman, whom
the media loved, and who had to be taken
into account because he led NU, Indone-
sias largest mass organisation.
Abdurrahman played no conspicu-
ous role in the popular mobilisation that
forced Suharto to step down in May 1998;
he was recovering from a stroke then and
left the leading roles to his rivals, Amien
Rais, of the reformist association Muham-
madiyah, and the nationalist opposition
leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri. In July
1998, however, he presided over the
establishment of a new political party,
the National Awakening Party (PKB), to
represent the interests of NU as well as,
apparently, promote his personal ambi-
tions. This seemed inconsistent with the
1984 decision to sever ties between NU
and party politics, a move he had always
defended. NUs bylaws moreover did not
allow board members to hold positions in a
political party, so he appointed trusted men
to the PKBs board, making himself chair-
man of the partys Advisory Council.
In the 1999 elections, PKB ended up
as the fourth-largest party, with 51 out
of 462 parliamentary seats. Megawatis
PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle) won three times that number,
8 abdurrahman wahid
making her the most likely candidate for
the presidency. In the complex negotia-
tions preceding the parliamentary session
to elect the president, Abdurrahman out-
manoeuvred his rivals and ended up as
the president, with Megawati as his vice
president. His presidency proved chaotic
and in many respects ineffectual. After less
than two years, in 2001 he was impeached
by a parliamentary coalition that included
many of the same people who had brought
him to power.
As President, he nonetheless took a
number of decisions that reflected a prin-
cipled moral stand on human rights and
minority issues. He ordered an end to the
harassment of former political prisoners
and their relatives and the restoration of
their full civil rights. He lifted the ban on
expressions of Chinese culture and had
Chinese religion (formally called Confu-
cianism in Indonesia) recognised as the
countrys sixth official religion. He made
the police independent from the armed
forces and reduced the latters ability to
interfere in civilian life. Unlike most other
politicians, he refused to accommodate
Islamic radicals and did his utmost to
stop their mobilisation and participation
in regional conflicts. He failed because he
had insufficient control of the police and
the armed forces, and even of the minis-
ters that he had appointed himself.
He retained, however, the affection of
religious minorities, human rights activists,
and liberal intellectuals, who continued
to see him as an ally. After his impeach-
ment, they welcomed his return from
the presidential palace to the palace of
the people, convinced that he might be
more effective as a moral authority than
as a political leader. He was not content
with such a role, however, and in spite of
his physical conditionby now he was
completely blind, wheelchair-bound, and
suffering ailments that caused him to be
frequently hospitalisedhe announced
his ambition to run for president again,
intervened heavy-handedly in the PKB,
and made an unsuccessful attempt to
become president of NU. But he did
offer the protection of his prestige and
remaining influence to those who needed
it, speaking out on behalf of young lib-
eral Muslim thinkers, the beleaguered
Ahmadiyah (A madiyya) community,
and other threatened minorities. His most
outspoken books, pleading for a tolerant,
liberal, cosmopolitan and yet Indonesian
Islam, were produced in those last years.
His weekly radio talk show, Hanging out
with Gus Dur (Kongkow bareng Gus Dur),
in which he discussed current events and
religious issues with much younger people
in a relaxed and humouristic way, con-
tinued until a few weeks before his death,
which occurred on 30 December 2009, as
he was undergoing surgery.
4. Major ideas
Abdurrahman was not a systematic
thinker but a broker of ideas, making
connections between existing universes of
thought. He took ideas from community
development, human rights, liberation
theology, and modern hermeneutics, but
explained them in terms derived from
fiqh and the discussion of maq id al-shar a
(finality of shar a). Holding that the idea
of the Islamic state is alien to traditional
Islam, he proposed instead a cultural
Islam. Indonesian cultural forms pro-
vided Islam with expressions that were,
in his view, just as valid as Middle East-
ern ones. Appealing to the memory of his
father as one of the architects of indepen-
dent and religiously plural Indonesia, he
was among the staunchest defenders of
ab yaz d al-nukk r
pluralism and the rights of non-Muslims
as well as of heterodox communities. In
the latter respect, he went considerably
further than had his father or any of his
contemporaries in NU; he frequently
mentioned Gandhi as his example.
He endorsed rational interpretation of
sacred texts, while at the same time accept-
ing and engaging in traditional devotional
practices and spirit beliefs that modernists
called superstitious. From the late 1980s
onwards, the spirit world became increas-
ingly important to him and he surrounded
himself with people whom he believed to
have access to it. His visits to sacred sites
became more frequent, including those
associated with the pre-Islamic spiritual
forces still venerated by the abangan, Javas
nominal Muslimsan attempt to bridge
the cultural and spiritual divide that had
once pitted orthodox Muslims against com-
munists, to restore harmony, and derive
personal spiritual strength from this union
(Bruinessen, Back to Situbondo, and Brui-
nessen, Saints, politicians). Many within
NU as well as outside believed Gus Dur
himself to be a wali, a living saint, blessed
with supernatural access to knowledge.
His increasingly eccentric behaviour only
confirmed this perception. Even as many
kiai and politicians became disaffected
with him, his popularity among the com-
mon people kept increasing. His grave, in
his grandfathers pesantren in Jombang, has
become a major place of pilgrimage, an
essential stop in tours of the sacred sites
of Java.
Bibliography
Abdurrahman Wahid, Islamku, Islam anda, Islam
kita. Agama masyarakat negara demokrasi [My
Islam, your Islam, our Islam. Religion,
society, state, democracy], Jakarta 2006;
Abdurrahman Wahid, Islam kosmopolitan.
Nilai-nilai Indonesia, transformasi kebudayaan
9
[Cosmopolitan Islam. Indonesian values
and cultural transformation], Jakarta 2007;
Greg Barton, Gus Dur. The authorized biog-
raphy of Abdurrahman Wahid, Jakarta 2002;
Martin van Bruinessen, Back to Situbondo?
Nahdlatul Ulama attitudes towards Abdur-
rahman Wahids presidency and his fall, in
Henk Schulte Nordholt and Irwan Abdullah
(eds.), Indonesia. In search of transition, Yogya-
karta 2002; Martin van Bruinessen, Saints,
politicians and Sufi bureaucrats, in Martin
van Bruinessen and Julia D. Howell (eds.),
Sufism and the modern in Islam, London 2007,
92112; Robin Bush, Nahdlatul Ulama and
the struggle for power within Islam and politics in
Indonesia, Singapore 2009; Mujiburrahman,
Islam and politics in Indonesia. The political
thought of Abdurrahman Wahid, Islam and
Christian-Muslim Relations 10 (1999), 33952.
Martin van Bruinessen
Ab Yazd al-Nukkr
Ab Yazd al-Nukkr Makhlad
b. Kaydd b. Sa d Allh b. Mughth b.
Kirmn b. Makhlad b. Uthmn b. Wurmt
b. Tabaqrsan b. Samdr (b. Wirghit b.
uwinfir b. Samrn) b. Yafran b. Jn
b. Yahy al-Zant (b. between 267/880
and 272/885, d. 336/947) was a Khrij
leader belonging to the al-Nukkr branch
of the Ib iyya. The Nukkr (deniers)
had refused to recognise the second Ib
Imm of Thart, Abd al-Wahhb b. Abd
al-Ra mn b. Rustam (d. 209/823).
Ab Yazd was born in Gao (Kawkaw),
on the Niger River, in present-day east-
ern Mali, in the Bild al-Sdn. Accord-
ing to some accounts, his mother was a
black slave, while according to others she
was a Berber Hawwra, named Sabka
(or Ska?). His father, Kaydd, a Berber
Zanta, was a merchant from Qas liya
(in southwestern Ifrqiya), who travelled
regularly to the Bild al-Sdn for com-
mercial purposes. Based on the assertion