| List of Illustrations | |
| Acknowledgments | |
| Note on Transcription | |
| Pt. 1 | A Genealogy of Divergent Understandings | |
| Ch. 1 | Introduction | 3 |
| Ch. 2 | Religious Disputes in Takengen | 18 |
| On Modernists and Traditionalists | 21 |
| Social and Moral Contexts | 30 |
| Ch. 3 | Islamic Knowledge in the Highlands, 1900-1990 | 39 |
| Languages of Past Piety and Learning | 40 |
| The Development of Traditionalist Scholarship | 47 |
| Muhammadiyah: Social and Religious Innovation in the Highlands | 55 |
| Radical Reform through Islamic Education | 61 |
| Pt. 2 | Powerful Speech and Spirit Transactions | |
| Ch. 4 | Spells, Prayer, and the Power of Words | 77 |
| Distinctions among Doa | 82 |
| The Efficacy of Spells | 87 |
| Quranic Knowledge and Power | 94 |
| Acquiring Power and Expecting Results | 101 |
| Ch. 5 | The Source of Human Powers in History | 106 |
| The Creation of the World | 106 |
| The Human Embodiment of Creation | 115 |
| The Coming of Islam to Aceh | 124 |
| Ch. 6 | The Healer's Struggle | 129 |
| Healers and Knowledge | 131 |
| Finding the Jin | 135 |
| Restoring the Balance | 139 |
| Asking a Spirit to Depart | 145 |
| Ch. 7 | Exorcism and Accountability | 151 |
| Casting Out the Spirits | 152 |
| The Social Framework of Exorcism | 162 |
| Ch. 8 | Farming, Ancestors, and the Sacred Landscape | 173 |
| Speaking with the Ancestor | 174 |
| Protecting the Crops and the Community | 185 |
| Ancestors and Other Sacred Beings | 194 |
| Ch. 9 | Adam and Eve's Children | 202 |
| The Origins of Rice | 202 |
| Cain, Abel, and the Marriage of Twins | 209 |
| Hunting, Healing, and Spiritual Siblingship | 216 |
| Pt. 3 | Negotiating Public Rituals | |
| Ch. 10 | Transacting through Food: The Kenduri and Its Critics | 229 |
| Prayers, Food, and Sacrifice | 230 |
| Celebrating the Prophet Muhammad's Birthday | 237 |
| The Child's Entry into the World | 240 |
| Ch. 11 | Speaking for the Dead | 251 |
| Speaking to the Dead at the Grave | 252 |
| Negotiating the Passage of the Dead | 259 |
| Chanting for the Deceased | 262 |
| Ch. 12 | Sacrifice, Merit, and Self-Interest | 273 |
| Generating Merit in Isak | 273 |
| "Selfless Sacrifice" in Takengen | 279 |
| Ch. 13 | Worship and Public Life | 289 |
| Form and Feeling in Worship | 290 |
| Worshiping Together | 296 |
| Disputations | 300 |
| Mosque Politics | 309 |
| Ch. 14 | The Social Forms of Religious Change | 315 |
| Creating Private and Public Spheres | 315 |
| Two Modes of Cultural Rationalization | 321 |
| Public Discourse and the State | 325 |
| Glossary of Gayo and Arabic Terms | 331 |
| Bibliography | 335 |
| Index | 353 |
