The Indonesian-Hadramis’ Cooperation with the Ottoman and the Sending of Indonesian Students to Istanbul, 1880s-1910s

Abstract

In the second half of the 19th century, especially since the 1880s, there was an intense relationship and cooperation between the Hadrami people in the Dutch East Indies (Colonial Indonesia) and the Ottoman government. This cooperation was driven especially by some wealthy Hadrami traders and the Ottoman consuls in Batavia. The Hadrami people in the Dutch East Indies who felt discriminated against by the colonial government then sought after emancipation. They complained about their problems to the Ottoman consuls in Batavia and looked for ways to improve their condition. Some of these wealthy Hadramis were able to send their children for schooling in Istanbul. This study intends to examine in depth about this cooperation, especially in the case of scholarship of some Hadrami students in Istanbul. For this purpose, a number of Ottoman and Dutch archival documents were used and this study will expectedly be able to complement the existing researches on this topic.