Prof. Dr. Yunan Yusuf and family in Utrecht

Yunan Yusuf was among the first group of students at the Islamic Academy IAIN Syarif Hidayatullah (now UIN, Islamic State University) in Jakarta, 1982-3. He studied the Dutch language with my wife and followed the course I gave that year in the sources for the history of Indonesian Islam, especially 19th century (I have now plans to rewrite the book in English. It was my first book written in Indonesian: the original title I gave was Paderi, Penghulu dan Penjual Jimat: Muslims in 19th century Indonesia, but the publisher did not like the amulet sellers and the book received the rather dull title Beberapa Aspek Islam di Indonesia, abad ke-19. It was mostly advisor Prof Rasjidi of Bulan Bintang Publishers who rejected the inclusion of the popular religion in Islam).
Notwithstanding his study of Dutch, Yunan Yusuf did not make it to Leiden and the Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. in Jakarta on a dissertation about the Qur'an interpretation by Hamka.
Three children of Yunan Yusuf study abroad. One in Australia, two in Germany. Therefore he managed to be accepted as a researcher in Berlin for three months, on the impact of Indonesian Muslim in Germany on the dakwa in Germany. But he came also to Utrecht.

So the Keluarga Besar Yunan Yusuf (now at the age of 69) is here standing in our garden after dinner and in between talks about the development of Islamic Studies in the last 40 years. Yunan's youngest daughter studies in Mainz, MA in international economic affairs (most right). his son, left, studies in technology in Berlin, for a PhD degree. It was already predicted by Ben Boland and Mukti Ali in the late 1960s and early 1970s: pesantren leaders send their children to the IAIN, the State Academies of Islamic Studies. The professors of IAIN send their children to secular universities abroad.