Tapanuli Tengah, Indonesia – Sultanate Institute mengumumkan penyelenggaraan 3rd Spiced Islam International Conference yang akan berlangsung pada 20–23 Agustus 2025 di Museum Fansuri, museum situs yang terletak di Situs Arkeologi Bongal, Kabupaten Tapanuli Tengah, Sumatera Utara.
Konferensi bertema “Material Culture and Commodities in the Indian Ocean World, 7th–13th Centuries” ini diselenggarakan oleh Sultanate Institute, bekerja sama dengan Magister Sejarah dan Kebudayaan Islam UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, University of Edinburgh, serta Organisasi Riset Arkeologi, Bahasa, dan Sastra (OR ARBASTRA) Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional (BRIN).
Tahun ini, konferensi akan menghadirkan para akademisi dari 10 negara — Indonesia, Jepang, Italia, Australia, Prancis, Malaysia, Singapura, Belanda, Inggris, dan Amerika Serikat — untuk berdialog lintas disiplin antara arkeolog, sejarawan, filolog, epigraf, numismatis, dan peneliti kebudayaan material.
“Situs Bongal adalah salah satu simpul penting dalam jaringan perdagangan maritim awal yang menghubungkan dunia Islam, Tiongkok, Asia Selatan, dan Nusantara. Penyelenggaraan konferensi di sini adalah bentuk komitmen kami untuk menjadikan riset dan pelestarian situs ini sebagai bagian dari wacana akademik internasional,” ujar Tori Nuariza Sutanto, Ketua Pelaksana dari Sultanate Institute.
Selain sesi diskusi akademik, konferensi ini juga akan menghadirkan kunjungan lapangan, presentasi temuan terbaru, dan dialog lintas disiplin yang diharapkan memperkaya pemahaman publik dan komunitas akademik terhadap dinamika jaringan maritim pada abad pertengahan awal.
Susunan Panitia
• Ketua Dewan Pengarah: Prof. Jajat Burhanuddin (UIN Jakarta)
• Conveners:
1. Prof. Mahmood Kooria (University of Edinburgh)
2. Abu Bakar Said (Sultanate Institute)
3. Sonny C. Wibisono (PR APS BRIN)
4. Ery Soedewo (PR ALMBB BRIN)
5. Shinatriya Adhytatama (Griffith University, Australia)
• Ketua Pelaksana: Tori Nuariza Sutanto (Sultanate Institute)
3rd Spiced Islam International Conference 2025
Panel Presentation Day 1
21 Agustus 2025
Museum Fansuri Situs Bongal and Hybrid
Panel 1 | 10.00-12.00 (UTC+7)
Sumatra Situated: Early Islamic and Maritime Connections
Presentations and QnA
Presenters
– “North Sumatra Connections (late 9th-early 14th c. CE)” (Daniel Perret) – École française d’Extrême-Orient, FRA Visiting Professor, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
– “Material Culture in the Mapping of a Maritime Muslim World: A Case Study in Field Documentation and Open-Access Archiving” (R. Michael Feener) – Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University
– “Textile Archives: Gender, Memory, and Islamic Materiality in the Indian Ocean World” (Myra Mentari Abu Bakar) – Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
Panel 2 | 13.30-16.00 (UTC+1)
Maritime Crossroads: From Military Posts to Mercantile Ports
Presentations and QnA
Presenters
– “Tax Administration, Army Pay, and Military Organisation in the First Islamic Centuries” (Mehdy Shaddel) – Leverhume Fellow, University of Cambridge, UK
– “Islamic Frontiers and Trading Post Sites: Some Hypothetical Considerations” (Alexander Eger) – (Department of History, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
– “Women on Tombstones: Early Expansions of Islam in the Indian Ocean” (Mahmood Kooria) – University of Edinburgh, UK
– “The Leaf that Bound: Consuming Betel as a Shared Cultural Practice in the Indian Ocean” (Kathleen Burke) – Asia Research Institute, NUS, Singapore)
Panel 3 | 16.15-18.15 (UTC+7)
Zooming into Bongal: From Power to Glass
Presentations and QnA
Presenters
– “The Impact of the Rise of Islamic Political Authority on the Emergence of the Indian Ocean Maritime Network (7th–10th Centuries): A Case Study of the Bongal Site” (Abu Bakar) – Sultanate Institute, Indonesia
– “Glass circulation in North Sumatra, a view from Bongal and Bulu Cina” (Laure Dussubieux) – Field Museum, Chicago, USA
– “Variety of Glass Artifacts from the Bongal Site: Traces of Interaction Between the Nusantara Archipelago and the Middle East in the 8th–10th Centuries CE” (Ery Soedewo, Mochammad Fauzi Hendrawan) – National Research and Innovation Agency, BRIN), Indonesia
Panel Presentation Day 2
22 Agustus 2025
Museum Fansuri Situs Bongal and Hybrid
Panel 4 | 08.30-10.30 (UTC+7)
Boats to Ships: Technologies of Navigation
Presentations and QnA
Presenters
– “The Indonesian Boatbuilding Endangered Heritage Project” (Chiara Zazzaro & Agni Mochtar) – Università diNapoli “L’Orientale”, Italy
– “Reclaiming Southeast Asia’s Forgotten Shipbuilding Power in the Indian Ocean World” (Shinatria Adhityatama) – Griffith University, Australia
– “Indigenous Boatbuilding Traditions at the Edge of the Indian Ocean and Australia” (Lucas Wattimena) – National Research and Innovation Agency, BRIN), Indonesia
Panel 5 | 10.30-12.30 (UTC+7)
Coins of Power: Numismatics and Titulature
Presentations and QnA
Presenters
– “Comparative-Quantitatie Paleographic Methodology for Numismatic Analysis: A Case Study of Ancient Script Coins from the Bongal Site” (Sinta Ridwan) – Universitas Indonesia
– “Traces of Power in Coins: The Political Implications of Bongal Numismatic Discoveries of the 7th to 10th Centuries” (Roni Tabroni & Nurman Kholis) – National Research and Innovation Agency, BRIN
– “Islamic Titulature on Material Cultures of the Indian Ocean World: Circulation and Adaptation into the Malay World” (Amru Sazali) – Pahang State Museum, Malaysia
Panel 6 | 13.30-15.30 (UTC+7)
Memories Buried: Worlds of Swahili, Indian and Malay Connections
Presentations and QnA
Presenters
– “Asian ceramics in dialog with Swahili architecture Wangwana trading networks and Indian Ocean kinships” (Stephane Pradines) – Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations Aga Khan University, London, UK
– “For Those Who Came First and Last: Memory and Belonging in the Funerary Architecture of Medieval Malabar” (Mohammed Salih Cholakkalakath) – The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, USA
– “Reconstructing Muktabar Khan: Texts, Tombs, and the Malay World in the Indian Ocean” (Sher Banu Khan) – Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore
Panel 7 | 15.45-18.15 (UTC+7)
Art to Archaeology: Beyond Islam
Presentations and QnA
Presenters
– “Embroidering the economic pattern of the port city on the West Coast of Sumatra from the 7th – 10th Centuries” (Sonny Ch Wibisono) – National Research and Innovation Agency,BRIN), Indonesia
– “De-Islamising Archaeology of Bongal Site” (Jajat Burhanudin) – State Islamic University, UIN Jakarta
– “The Habitus of Foreign Traders in the Ancient Ports of the West Coast of Sumatra in the 7th–11th Century” (Asyhadi Mufsi Sadzali, Agus Aris Munandar, Ali Akbar) – Universitas Indonesia
