Tag: Islamic cosmology

Burung Roc

~ The Koboi Project

In Islamic cosmography, heaven is often represented directly above the earth, the centre of which is marked by the Ka’ba. Represented below the earth, but in fact surrounding it, is Mount Qaf, a boundary world of jins and spirits, and further down lie the seven levels of hell. As represented in the Ottoman image on the left (above), the  Sacred trees of Islam – the Shajarat al-Tûba, and the Zaqqum tree, form a direct vertical line from the uppermost realm of Heaven, down to the gate of the Seven Hells, just as the  Pokok Pauh Janggi does in the Malay cosmology, connecting Kayangan to Dasar Laut. This lining-up of various sacred trees of Islamic cosmography might represent the intended indexing of an underlying cosmology, or it may simly be due to the limitations of 2-dimensional graphical ontology, but in any event, it an artifact of Islamic cosmographic representation. Other trees not represented in this Ottoman diagram, but that could also, hypothetically, be placed in line include the Sidrat al-Muntahā  or Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary (which marks the boundary between the astronomical and the theological Heavens), the šajaratu l-ḫuld or Tree of Immortality (which is the Tree at the centre of the Garden of Eden which Allah forbade to Adam and Eve) and the Olive Tree, whose centre is located everywhere (tawhid). In Middle Eastern mythology,  the Mountains of Qaf are also the abode of the giant bird, the Roc. In Nusantara folklore the Burong Roc nests on the top of the pokok Pauh Janggi, co-locating the ring of the Mountains of Qaf to the base of the Pokok Pauh Janggi one will find the enterance to the cavern that leads down to the Dasar Laut.


In my Pokok Pauh Janggi performance at Kappalorek Artspace the embroidered Eagle motif on a Western Bib shirt becomes a signifier for the Giant Burong Roc.

Image: https://magictransistor.tumblr.com/post/121976939786/ottoman-diagram-of-heaven-and-hell-caucasus

https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-great-birds-of-middle-eastern-legend-myths-or-reality–25445

The Koboi Returns 2023 – 10

~ The Koboi Project

In the Malay cosmology, 5. Kayangan is located above the Pokok Pauh Janggi which rises through the 2. Pusat Tasik Pauh Janggi, which is directly above the 6 Dasar Laut or ‘underworld’. In the Islamic cosmology, in the uppermost realm of Heaven, there is the Toba tree, “whose shade a rider could travel for a hundred years without crossing it.” Down below, in the realm of the seven hells, the Zaqqum tree rises out of the Hellfire with fruit-stalks like the heads of devils. Then there is the Sidrat al-Muntahā, which marks the boundary between the seven realms of paradise and the three realms of the domain of God. There is also the Tree of Immortality in the Garden of Eden which plays a significant role in Man’s descent into the world to experience the difficulties of life and death, by whose difference, the nature of paradise can be understiood. There is also the the Olive Tree that stands in no place, or every place. According to the Holy Koran, it stands “neither of the East nor West.” It’s oil is the source and being of earthly light.

I would like to suggest that the Pokok Pauh Janggi can be seen as a single tree that serves similar functions to the various Holy Trees of Islam. Anker Rentse offers an insight into the syncretic assimilation of the local Malay Cosmology with the Islamic one. “Shurga, Heaven, is on the top of Pauh Janggi, and Nuraka, Hell, is down below its roots. A gigantic hole between the roots causes the ocean water to disappear into hell’s big boiling-pot, kawah nufaka, whence the whirl-pool. Underneath the pot burns everlasting fire. A dragon guards the hole, the gate to hell (pintu nuraka) with its body in order to prevent the ocean from running dry.

Image: Eighteenth century Ottoman diagram from the Causus/ The Malay Cosmos diagram is adapted after Md. Salleh Yaspar in Malaysian World View edited by Mohd Taib Osman.

https://books.google.com.my/books?id=-AR-V3ymAzoC&pg=PA274&lpg=PA274&dq=mohd+taib+osman+pusat+tasik&source=bl&ots=Ck_2ts5cvN&sig=ACfU3U189ige7-t0nqKA3yKcLDIurDnuoQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi688zh_sDmAhVT8XMBHaXlC1QQ6AEwAXoECAwQAQ#v=onepage&q=mohd%20taib%20osman%20pusat%20tasik&f=false

https://magictransistor.tumblr.com/post/121976939786/ottoman-diagram-of-heaven-and-hell-caucasus

https://www.islamcan.com/common-questions-about-islam/story-of-the-fall-of-man-in-quran.shtml

http://www.studiesincomparativereligion.com/public/articles/The_Tree_Symbol_in_Islam-by_Noble_Ross_Reat.aspx#_ftnref71

Rentse, Anker. “NOTES ON MALAY BELIEFS.” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 11, no. 2 (117) (1933): 245–51. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41559822.

Image: https://magictransistor.tumblr.com/post/121976939786/ottoman-diagram-of-heaven-and-hell-caucasus

https://islamqa.info/en/answers/1920/trees-mentioned-in-the-quraan-and-sunnah

The Koboi Returns 2023 – 7

~ The Koboi Project

 

The Sidrat al-Muntahā or the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary, is mentioned in the Qur’an and Hadith in the context of the Holy Prophet’s ascent (Mi’raj) to receive the Islamic revelation. According to Edith Jachimowicz this tree marks the boundary between the outermost of the seven realms of paradise (astronomical Heaven) with the first of the three realms of God (theological Heaven). It is a boundary that no angel and no man other than the Holy Prophet has crossed.

Two rivers flow from the roots of this tree, watering Paradise (batinîya); and two more flow down through the seven realms of Paradise, to the earthly domain (zahiriya) to become the Euphrates and the Nile. The earth itself is divided horizontally into seven strata which are also known as the Mansions of Hell. The image shown is a detail from an illustration on page 31 of Mi’rajnameh, a fifteenth-century manuscript from Herat, now held in the National Library of France.“

While there is no direct connection or association between the Sidrat al-Muntahā of the Islamic revelation and the Pokok Pauh Janggi of the Alam Melayu, there is a clear coincidence of placement within their respective cosmologies. If the Sidrat al-Muntahā is directly below the highest heavens, the Pokok Pauh Janggi is rooted at the threshold of underworld, directly above the Dasar Laut ’. Both trees seem to stand on a cosmic axis, perhaps with differing emphasis on cosmogonic (literal structure of the universe) and escathalogical (allegory of the soul’s final journey at the end of time) aspects of existance.

Jachimowicz, Edith (1975). Islamic Cosmology. In Carmen Blacker, Michael Loewe & J. Martin Plumley (eds.), Ancient Cosmologies. Allen & Unwin.

http://www.studiesincomparativereligion.com/public/articles/The_Tree_Symbol_in_Islam-by_Noble_Ross_Reat.aspx#_ftn2

https://id.wikishia.net/view/Berkas:%D8%B3%D8%AF%D8%B1%D9%87_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%86%D8%AA%D9%87%DB%8C.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miraj_Nameh