Kitab Kuning Santri Indonesia

The yellow book, translated into Indonesian, is a reference to the scientific traditions of Islamic boarding schools

The Yellow Book and Islamic Boarding School Scientific Traditions

Kitab kuning is a very distinctive term for pesantren in Indonesia. In Law no. 18 of 2019 concerning Islamic Boarding Schools, it has been defined that the yellow book is an Arabic Islamic book or other language Islamic book which is a reference for the Islamic scientific tradition in Islamic boarding schools.

As a knowledge system in Islamic boarding schools, the existence of the yellow book has existed since the 1-2 Hijriyah centuries which then developed until now. This tradition of Islamic literacy is able to survive because it has a very wide body of knowledge.

So far, the yellow book is closely related to pesantren education because pesantren is an Islamic education in which there must be authoritative sources and references, namely the Al-Qur'an and Hadith. This authoritative source is then further elaborated in a deeper, broader and specific manner, resulting in a work called the yellow book. In other words, the yellow book can also be called the work of the scholars' ijtihad in various scientific fields.

Like the Yellow Book

The yellow book has many different scientific fields, such as interpretation, hadith, jurisprudence, history, and so on. In the field of jurisprudence, there are very wide varieties, for example, there are general jurisprudence, religious jurisprudence, marriage jurisprudence, commercial jurisprudence (mu'amalah), comparative Islamic jurisprudence, contemporary jurisprudence, environmental jurisprudence, women's jurisprudence, political jurisprudence, and others. In addition, there is also a type of yellow book that uses the syarakh (explanation) model as its writing technique.

Furthermore, to understand the various fields of science, of course, requires a 'tool', so the pesantren teaches the yellow book which contains the grammar and syntax of Arabic which is called Nahwu and Sharaf science. That alone is not enough, so it must be supported by the knowledge of Arabic literature (balaghah) and logic (mantiq). The science of logic here is important to understand how a sentence has meaning, then how to draw conclusions from a problem.

As stated in the Islamic Boarding School Law, the yellow books are generally in Arabic. As for the yellow book other than Arabic, for example, in Islamic boarding schools it is known as "pegon", namely Arabic script whose contents contain Javanese, Sundanese, Malay and other local languages.

Why the "Yellow" Book?

The name "yellow" book originally was because in ancient times many of these books were printed on yellow paper, and the shape was khurasan. In 1 khurasan there are usually 4 pages that are as wide as folio paper. In today's development, the mention of yellow books can also refer to books that use white paper.

So, even though the Kitab kuning has been printed using modern printing techniques, the meaning has not been lost because we understand the substance, not the packaging. So, the name of the yellow book refers more to the wrapper, but even though the wrapper has changed its name it is still there because the substance has not changed.

List of Indonesian Translated Yellow Books

1. Bulughul Maram

2. Bidayatul Hidayah

3. Safinatun Najah

4. Ta'lim Muta'alim

5. Aqidatul Layman

6. Nashoihul Ibad

7. Qurrotul Uyun

8. Fatul Izar

9. Fathul Qorib

10. Tafsir Jalalain

11. Saheeh Muslim

12. Sahih Bukhari

13. Arbain Nawawi

14. Riyadus Shalihin

15. Al-Muwatta Imam Malik

16. Al-Hikam Ibn Athaillah

17. Futuhul Ghaib

18. Alfiyah Ibn Malik

19. Nadhom Imriti

20. Jumiyah

21. Uqudulujain

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