Questioning Gapura: How has Islamic Cosmopolitanism Worked?

Abstract

This preface explores the historical, philosophical, and civilizational significance behind the naming of gapura. The term gapura, derived from the Sanskrit to the Arabic term ghafura, meaning divine forgiveness and mercy. This adaptation reflects the creative integration of pre-Islamic cultural forms into Islamic ethical and spiritual frameworks within Nusantara Muslim societies. This is show that the gapura represents a material and symbolic manifestation of Islamic cosmopolitanism in Southeast Asia, emerging through centuries of cultural exchange, trade, migration, scholarship, and maritime interaction connecting the Malay-Indonesian world with Arabia, Persia, India, China, and Africa. Rather than developing through cultural rupture, Islam in the archipelago evolved through negotiation, translation, adaptation, and synthesis. In the contemporary context of globalization, polarization, ecological crises, and identity-based exclusion, Islamic cosmopolitanism offers an ethical framework grounded in coexistence, justice, intercultural dialogue, and shared humanity. As a metaphorical gateway rather than a barrier, the gapura symbolizes the balance between rootedness and openness, locality and universality, tradition and transformation, while positioning the journal as an intellectual space for interdisciplinary and global engagement