In this groundbreaking new study, Teren Sevea reveals the economic, environmental and religious signi!cance of Islamic miracle workers (pawangs) in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Malay world. Through close textual analysis of hitherto overlooked manuscripts and personal interaction with modern pawangs, readers are introduced to a universe of miracle workers, uncovering connections between miracles and material life. Sevea demonstrates how the production and extrac- tion of natural resources, as well as the uses of technology, were inter- twined with the knowledge of charismatic religious !gures in Malay society, and locates the role of the pawangs in the spiritual economy of the Indian Ocean world, across maritime connections and Su! net- works, and on the frontier of the British Empire.
teren sevea is a historian of religion in South and Southeast Asia at the Harvard Divinity School. He is the author of publications on Islamic connections of the Indian Ocean world, Su!sm and Su!s of the Malay world, Islamic reform movements and Islamic erotology.