Eating out: a history of halal and the Malay world: Its role in globalization

Abstract

In the wake of the Iranian Revolution, many have characterized the so-called Islamic Revival among the world's Muslims as a backward-looking, inward-turning, fundamentalist disengagement with modernity and globalization. My research on the history of the Islamic dietary code, or halal, in Southeast Asia threatens to undermine this notion of regression and seeks to situate the observance of halal with intense global commercial involvement where it belongs. This space for Islam, at the heart of world trade, is one that the religion has inhabited for most of its history. By examining pre-1800 historical documents from the Malay World, my paper will demonstrate how one part of this "revival," the observance of dietary codes, constitutes a full embrace of globalization. And by considering centuries old source material, I can confirm that this connection between halal and globalization stretches back some 600 years in Southeast Asia, much earlier and in quite the opposite direction as the Iranian Revolution. If Islamic devotion is indeed tied to commercial activity, this would require a dramatic revision of the narrative on Islamic Revivalism worldwide. If nothing else, scholars of Islam need to turn their attention toward the heart of Islam, Southeast Asia, the region of the world with most of the planet's Muslims. It would cause a reexamination of the way we interpret Islamic practice in everything from veiling to dining (or not dining) and dispel the popular notion that Islamic devotion translates into Islamic fundamentalism. Within the field of Southeast Asian studies, the singular diversity and syncretism of the region's Islamic populations is well known, but seldom successfully historicized. Furthermore, the use of food and "foodways" as a vector for historical work in Southeast Asia is completely without precedent.