Mosque, Tarekat, and Militia: KH Usman Dhomiri and the Local Infrastructure of Revolution in Cimahi, 1930-1950

Abstract

This article examines how KH Usman Dhomiri converted religious authority into a local infrastructure of mobilization in Cimahi between 1930 and 1950. Rather than treating his Islamic preaching, leadership of the Tijaniyya Sufi order, establishment of the Baiturrohmah Mosque, and participation in armed struggle as separate activities, it examines their historical connections. The study employs the four stages of historical research: heuristics, external and internal source criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The sources include a January 1946 certificate issued by the West Java Sabilillah headquarters, a later transcription of a letter dated 16 February 1946 from the Priangan Resident’s Office, retrospective testimony compiled in Prahara Cimahi, family interviews, material remains, newspapers, and relevant scholarship. The sources suggest that Dhomiri’s role in armed resistance drew on earlier institution building: adapting preaching to Cimahi’s martial-arts culture, organizing study circles, establishing a mosque, and producing disciplined relations between teacher and followers. Retrospective accounts describe their use after 1945 for recruitment, arms storage, training, care of the wounded, and combat. Source criticism, however, requires caution. The certificate identifies Sabilillah, and the transcribed letter reports an attack on Dhomiri’s residence on 16 February 1946, whereas later narratives variously use Hizbullah and Sabilillah and place a major engagement on 20 February. The article therefore argues for Dhomiri’s importance as a religious broker and local organizer without collapsing institutional labels or converting retrospective memory into uncontested fact.