Ahmad, Shahnon. The Third Notch and Other Stories. Transl. by Harry Aveling. Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Hong Kong: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd., 1980.
This engaging collection of short stories about life in Malaysia is unfortunately now out of print and available mainly in libraries.

Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.
This book provides a good historical overview of the subject, tracing developments bearing on women and gender in the Middle East from pre-Islamic times to the present.

Al-Qur’an: A Contemporary Translation by Ahmed Ali. Bilingual Edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988.

Andaya, Barbara Watson. “Oceans Unbounded: Transversing Asia across ‘Asian Studies,’” in The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 65: No. 4 (November 2006).
An excellent article on how to teach an Asia-wide course through the lens of the sea and sea travel. Andaya demonstrates how odern thought, with its focus on the modern nation-state, is focused on land and the borders of land-based states to the exclusion of other ways of looking at the world; and she explains the importance of water and maritime trade in inter-regional, intercultural relations, and exchanges.

Azra, A. The Origins of Islamic Reformism in Southeast Asia: Networks of Malay-Indonesian and Middle Eastern `Ulama’ in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004.
This text documents the rich and complex connections between Muslim scholars from Southeast Asia and their counterparts in the Middle East during the early modern period.

Blair, Sheila. Islamic Calligraphy. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, 2006.
The first chapter offers the most readable introduction to the subject, including the various Arabic scripts.

Bowen, John R. Muslims through Discourse. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.
This ethnography from the Gayo Highlands of Aceh provides an illuminating view into the complexities of negotiation involved between various forms of Islam within local contexts.

Brandon, James. On Thrones of Gold: Three Javanese Puppet Plays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970.
Brandon’s book is one of the few books that offer complete stories, with dialogue and stage directions, for three shadow puppet plays from the twentieth century. This is also a very good introduction to this theatrical form.

Denny, Frederick M. Islam and the Muslim Community. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1987.

The Encyclopedia of Malaysia. Singapore: Archipelago Press, 1998, 10 vols.
Volumes 4 and 9 are useful for the period of early Islamic activity in the region and Islamic literature. Illustrated encyclopedias are often a reliable and stimulating source of information.

Feener, R. Michael. Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives. City: ABC-CLIO Publishers, 2004.
Chapters One (pp. 1-40) and Seven (pp. 183-216, written with Anna Gade) provide a brief overview to the Islamic tradition as a whole and a general introduction to Indonesian Islam, respectively.

__________ and Anna M. Gade. Patterns of Islamization in Indonesia: A Curriculum Unit for Post-
Secondary Level Educators. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, 1998.
The essays, study questions, and three primary documents could also be useful for high school teachers.

Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn. Islamic Societies in Practice. 2nd ed. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2004.
A valuable introductory text building on the author’s six years of anthropological fieldwork in Egypt, Sudan, and Tunisia, as well as comparative research on Islam in Southeast Asia. It includes chapters on the Five Pillars of Islam; Arab-Islamic values; family and gender
relations; national, religious, and ethnic diversity in the Muslim world; Islamic law; and the future of the state in Muslim societies.

George, Kenneth M. “Designs on Indonesia’s Muslim Communities.” Journal of Asian Studies 57(3):693-713. (1998)

__________ and Mamannoor. A. D. Pirous: Vision, Faith, and a Journey in Indonesian Art, 1955-2002. Bandung: Serambi Pirous, 2002.

Hefner, Robert W. Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press. 2000.
This important book on religion and politics in the world’s largest Muslim nation traces the rise of religious reform and political violence as well as democratic movements inspired by Islam.

__________ and Patricia Horvatich, eds. Islam in an Era of Nation-States: Politics and Religious Renewal in Muslim Southeast Asia. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.
This broad ranging volume, with essays by leading scholars in the field, deals with reform movement and religious renewal, “ordinary Muslims,” state policies bearing on Islam, and many other topics. It includes four chapters on Indonesia, two on Malaysia, and two on the southern Philippines.

Herbert, Mimi. Voices of the Puppet Masters: The Wayang Golek Theater of Indonesia. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press and the Lontar Foundation, Jakarta, 2002.
This is an elegant book with beautiful photos on the wayang golek traditions of central and west Java. The book focuses on the puppeteers and their training. Several famous Indonesian puppeteers are included, as well as an American woman puppeteer from California who learned to perform west Javanese puppet theatre.

Jones, R. “Ten Conversion Myths from Indonesia,” in Conversion to Islam, Nehemia Levtzion, ed. New York: Holms & Meier Publishers, 1979. pp. 129-58.
This short article contains English translations of primary texts providing local Southeast Asian perspectives on historical processes of conversion to Islam.

Miksic, John, ed. Indonesian Heritage: Ancient History. Singapore: Archipelago Press, 1996.
This publication has a good section on early Islam written by leading authorities. Students should enjoy looking at the pictures.

Ong, Aihwa and Michael G. Peletz, eds. Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1966.
A frequently cited collection of essays that deals with women and gender—among Muslims and
non-Muslims alike—in Southeast Asia. Three of the nine essays focus on Muslim societies in Sumatra and Java (Indonesia); two concern Muslims in Malaysia; the others deal mostly with non-Muslim societies in Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines, as well as Filipino workers in the Muslim Middle East.

Ooi, Keat Gin, ed. Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia from Angkor Wat to East Timor. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC/CLIO, 2004, 3 vols.
This is a recent and available publication. It does not have pictures, but the index is very inclusive and the authors are all respected authorities. The section on early and contemporary Islam in Volume 2 is written by Michael Laffan, and is both accessible and thorough. The entries are wideranging and the third volume contains a comprehensive bibliography. Each volume has its own index, with a complete listing in Volume 3.

Peletz, Michael G. Gender, Sexuality and Body Politics in Modern Asia. Key Issues in Asia Series. Ann Arbor, MI: Association for Asian Studies, 2007.
This 110-page booklet is intended for undergraduate and advanced high school students and their teachers.

__________ . Islamic Modern: Religious Courts and Cultural Politics in Malaysia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.
This is a comprehensive study of Islamic courts in Malaysia, drawing on extensive first-hand observations of the workings of the courts, and women’s and men’s strategies and experiences as litigants. It illustrates the ways that Islamic courts in Malaysia and elsewhere are involved in building nations, shaping a modern citizenry, and encouraging various aspects of modernity and globalization.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer. The Four Novels of the “Buru Quartet”, a masterpiece of modern fiction that was written while the author was a political prisoner on Buru Island. It tells the story of Minke, a young Javanese who becomes an important journalist and social activist, set against the birth of the Indonesian nation. The first volume is This Earth of Mankind. Transl. and with an
Introduction by Max Lane. New York: Penguin, 1996.

__________. Child of All Nations. Transl. and with an Introduction by Max Lane. New York: Penguin, 1996. Volume two of the “Buru Quartet.”

__________. Footsteps. Transl. and with an Introduction by Max Lane.New York: Penguin, 1996.
Volume three of the “Buru Quartet.”

__________. House of Glass (1997). Transl. by Max Lane. New York City: Penguin Books, 1997. Volume four of the “Buru Quartet.”

Raymer, Steve. Living Faith: Inside the Muslim World of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Asia Images Editions, 2001.
A beautifully crafted and highly informative “coffee table” book with photographs and text produced by the author, a staff photographer for National Geographic Magazine and a professor of journalism at Indiana University with over three decades of experience in the field.

Religions of the World. DVD, 50 mins. Narrated by Ben Kingsley. Wynnewood, PA : Schlessinger Media, 2003.
This is an excellent introduction to Islam; it does not deal with Southeast Asia, but it gives a very sympathetic overview. Click here to access a teacher’s guide. (Website last accessed 10/18/07.)

Riddell, Peter. Islam and the Malay-Indonesian World: Transmission and Responses. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2001.
This volume contains helpful information on the religious thought of many prominent Southeast Asian Muslim scholars active from the sixteenth century to the present day.

Rodgers, Susan, ed. and transl. Telling Lives, Telling History: Autobiography and Historical Imagination in Modern Indonesia. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995.
The volume includes translations of recollections of childhood in Sumatra by two Indonesian writers, as well as an essay on the place of autobiography in modern Indonesian writing.

“Sejara Indonesia,” http://www.gimonca.com/sejarah/ sejarah01.shtml (website last accessed on 9/5/06) is a detailed English-language time line of modern Indonesian history. (For a general history of Indonesia as well as of events related to Islam in Southeast Asia, see the “Project Timeline of Interweaving Cultures: Islam in Southeast Asia.”)

Sells, Michael. Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations. Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, 1999.
The book includes CDs with Qur’anic recitation from around the world.

Smith-Hefner, Nancy J. “Javanese women and the Veil in Post-Soeharto Indonesia” in Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 66, No. 2 (May 2007): 389-420.
This is also an excellent source for illustrations.

__________. “The New Muslim Romance: Changing Patterns of Courtship and Marriage Among
Educated Javanese Youth” in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. Vol. 36, No. 3 (October 2005): 441-459.

Taylor, Jean. Indonesia: Peoples and Histories. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.
This is an excellent introduction to Indonesian histories. It is a social history rather than a diplomatic one. It has many stories and sidebars about habitual life, such as salt-making, book-production, lives of the wali, and famous characters from all over the Indonesian archipelago.

van Doorn-Harder, Nelly. Women Shaping Islam: Reading the Qur’an in Indonesia. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2005.
This book focuses on developments among women scholars from the pesantren tradition working to develop progressive Islamic religious responses to contemporary gender issues.

__________. “Teaching Islam in Southeast Asia,” in Education About Asia, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Spring 2005): 14-18.
The entire Special Section About Islam in Asia in this issue would be useful for educators, and the thrice yearly publication itself is an invaluable resource for teaching and learning about Asia. For more information visit the website at http://www.aasianst.org/eaa-toc.htm (website last accessed on 10/18/07).

van Hout, Itie, ed. Batik Drawn in Wax: 200 years of Batik Art from Indonesia in the Tropenmuseum Collection. Amsterdam: Royal Institute, 2001.
This is a useful and well-illustrated book for those who are interested in learning more about textiles from the region of Malaysia and Indonesia.

Weintraub, Andrew. Power Plays: Wayang Golek Puppet Theater of West Java. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2004.
This study is a detailed and lively account of the ways in which performers of this major Asian theatrical form have engaged with political discourses in Indonesia. Wayang golek has shaped, as well, the technological and commercial conditions of art and performance in a modernizing society. The author uses interviews with performers, musical transcriptions, translations of narrative and song texts, and archival materials to analyze the shifting and flexible nature of the art of the puppeteer. The accompanying CD-ROM includes video and sound
examples, photographs, and text.