Divine Inspirations: Music and Islam in Indonesia

“Divine Inspirations illustrates and confounds the perennially contested line between religion and culture in Islam. This pioneering volume reanimates Islamic studies in Indonesia and beyond by revealing the many performative paths to the divine.” –Engseng Ho, author of The Graves of Tarim: Genealogy and Mobility across the Indian Ocean

“The influence of Islam on the arts has long been overlooked in Western studies of contemporary Indonesia. This timely and original book changes that entirely. It will become the standard for the study of the arts in Indonesia and a model for similar studies in the broader Muslim world.” –Robert Hefner, Director, Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs, Boston University

“[A] groundbreaking volume…Extremely successful in its aims and will be very well received within the circles of Southeast Asian studies and ethnomusicology.” —Indonesia

“Essential reading for anyone studying Islam or music in Indonesia, for individuals seeking to understand the diversity of Islamic practices throughout the world, and for those interested in how arts interact with and actively shape the expression of Islam…[with] increasing academic agendas, budgets, and numbers of faculty lines devoted to the study of Islam, Divine Inspirations offers a timely ethnomusicological contribution to this project. —Ethnomusicology