In the one famous work of court literature, entitled Serat Cabolek, Rifa'i is described as an ignorant and arrogant Islamic leader, who had been admonished by the pangulu and priyayi for his acts of folly. The Priyayi, on the other hand, endeavored to refute Rifa'i's argument, also using Islamic terms. He urged the reformation of Javanese Islamic society. In his works he severely criticized local religious officials and the priyayi for serving “the infidel” (the Dutch).
He composed many Islamic poetic works in Javanese (with Arabic letters pegon) so that people could understand them easily. Ahmad Rifa'i, after returning from Mecca, opened an Islamic shool in the outlying village of Kalisalak and began teaching orthodox Islamic beliefs to the villagers in central Java.
For self-justification, they needed to involve religious officials known as pangulu.ĭiscourses between priyayi and Muslim leaders over the religious movement that occurred in the 1850's in the Residency of Pekalongan offers a very interesting example. They had to oversee the social order and local religious activities in order to implement the agrarian system. At the same time, they were charged with governing local society. In the middle of the 19 th century Javanese aristocrats ( priyayi) who had become bureaucrats in the colonial government managed to stay on good terms with the Dutch colonial government in order to preserve their social status.
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