Tuanku Imam Bonjol

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File:Imam Bonjol 1961 Indonesia stamp.jpg

Tuanku Imam Bonjol was born in Bonjol, Pasaman, West Sumatra. His parents name were Bayanuddin (father) and Hamatun (mother). His father is a Minangkabau cleric who came from Sungai Rimbang, Suliki, Limapuluh Koto.Muhammad Syamsu As, Ulama pembawa Islam di Indonesia dan sekitarnya, Lentera, 1996 His mother is a Moroccan from central maghreb who migrated to Bonjol with her brother.{{Cite journal |last=Hadler |first=Jeffrey |date=2008 |title=A Historiography of Violence and the Secular State in Indonesia: Tuanku Imam Bondjol and the Uses of History |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20203431 |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=67 |issue=3 |pages=971–1010 |doi=10.1017/S0021911808001228 |jstor=20203431 |s2cid=162517704 |issn=0021-9118|url-access=subscription }}Sjafnir Aboe Nain, (1988), Tuanku Imam Bonjol: Sejarah Intelektual Islam di Minangkabau, 1784-1832, Universitas Michigan.

Syarif was immersed in Islamic studies as he grew up, studying first from his father and later under various other Muslim theologians. After founding the state of Bonjol, he became involved in the Adat-Padri controversy as a Padri leader. The Padri movement, which has been compared to the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah (Sunni) school of Islam in the now Saudi Arabia, was an effort to return the Islam of the area to the purity of its roots by removing local distortions like gambling, cockfighting, the use of opium and strong drink, tobacco, and so forth. It also opposed the powerful role of women in the matrilineal Minangkabau culture. The Adat, or traditionalist, position was that local custom that pre-dated the arrival of Islam should also be respected and followed.

Feeling their leadership position threatened, the traditionalists appealed to the Dutch for help in their struggle against the Padris. At first, the Dutch were not able to win militarily against the Padris because their resources were stretched thin by the Diponegoro resistance in Java. In 1824, the Dutch signed the Masang Agreement ending hostilities with the state of Bonjol.

Subsequently, however, once the Diponegoro resistance was suppressed, the Dutch attacked the state of Pandai Sikat in a renewed effort to gain control of West Sumatra. Despite valiant fighting by the Indonesians (by this time the traditionalists had realised they didn't want to be ruled by the Dutch either and had joined forces with the Padris in their resistance), the overwhelming power of the Dutch military eventually prevailed. Syarif was captured in 1832 but escaped after three months to continue the struggle from his tiny fortress in Bonjol.

After three years of siege, the Dutch finally managed to sack Bonjol on 16 August 1837. Through a negotiation ruse, the Dutch again captured Syarif and exiled him, first to Cianjur in West Java, then to Ambon, and later to Manado in Sulawesi. He died on 6 November 1864, at the age of 92 and is buried in Sulawesi. The site of his grave is marked by a Minangkabau (West Sumatran) house.

Imam Bonjol and the Padri Movement have been accused of Wahhabism and of conducting crimes against the Batak people according to some Batak historians, specifically Mangaradja Onggang Parlindungan, as well as international sources.{{cite web |title=Gugatan Terhadap Kepahlawanan Tuanku Imam Bonjol |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/324304007.pdf |website=core.ac.uk |access-date=30 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831185100/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/324304007.pdf |archive-date=2021-08-31 |language=id |date=2019 |url-status=live}}{{Cite web|date=2008-01-22|title=Kontroversi Kepahlawanan Paderi Kembali Mengemuka|url=https://www.nu.or.id/post/read/11098/kontroversi-kepahlawanan-paderi-kembali-mengemuka|access-date=2021-03-19|website=nu.or.id|language=id-id}}{{Cite web|title=Imajinasi Atas Makkah yang Memantik Perang Padri|url=https://tirto.id/imajinasi-atas-makkah-yang-memantik-perang-padri-cj4m|access-date=2021-03-19|website=tirto.id|date=6 November 2020 |language=id}} Some Batak historians argued that Imam Bonjol does not deserve the National Hero title because of his past actions and his ideological motives. Reports from Dutch colonial and Batak lore about the notoriety of Imam Bonjol's movement have been the source for almost a century of discussion among experts on the role of Imam Bonjol in the past.

• History of Indonesia
• Padri War

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{{Commons category|Imam Bonjol}}

• {{in lang|id}} [http://www.tokohindonesia.com/tokoh/article/294-pahlawan/1367-imam-bonjol Bio Imam Bonjol at Ensiklopedi Tokoh Indonesia]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20021204081533/http://www.minahasa.net/en/history-imambonjol.html https://web.archive.org/web/20021204081533/http://www.minahasa.net/en/history-imambonjol.html]

{{Islam in Indonesia}}

{{National Heroes of Indonesia}}

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Category:1772 births

Category:1864 deaths

Category:Minangkabau people

Category:National Heroes of Indonesia

Category:Indonesian Sunni Muslims

Category:Indonesian imams

Category:Padris