ABSTRACT
As previously discussed, Hadrami Arabs in Indonesia in general have maintained a close identification with their host society during the last century (Mobini-Kesheh 1997, 1999). Their history on the island of Bali, however, provides a more complex picture. The anthropologist Fredrik Barth, in a short passage about the Hadramis in Bali in his book ‘Balinese worlds’ (1993: 187), portrays them as devoted and rather strict Muslims, their religious traditions being clearly opposed to the polytheism of their Balinese neighbours. Several of my own informants supported such a view, pointing to their own minority situation on Bali as making them paying more close attention to the Quran. The Hadramis on Bali are a very small population and may not consist of more than 1,500 individuals.1 In general, Muslims in general on Bali make up no more than 4 per cent of the population, where the great majority of the population are Hindus, subscribing to a particular form of Hinduism labelled Bali Hinduism (Barth 1993). When my Hadrami informants portray themselves as a tiny minority on Bali, they do not only speak about this in terms of being Hadrami Arabs, but also, and more frequently, in terms of being a small Muslim minority in a predominantly Hindu environment.
