<![CDATA[This review argues that Adam Bobbette’s The Pulse of the Earth: Political Geology in Java, published by Duke University Press in 2023, makes an important contribution not only to the history of science but also to the study of Islam in Southeast Asia. Rather than treating Islam merely as the cultural background of Javanese society, Bobbette demonstrates that Islamic cosmology, Muslim saints (wali), and religious understandings of volcanic landscapes actively participated in the production of modern geological knowledge during the colonial period. Through the concept of political geology, the book challenges diffusionist narratives that portray modern earth sciences as products of Europe alone and instead reveals the co-production of geological knowledge through encounters among Dutch colonial scientists, Javanese Muslim traditions, Hindu-Buddhist cosmologies, and local intellectual practices. This review argues that the book deserves attention from scholars of Southeast Asian Islam because it expands how we understand the relationship between Islam, science, colonialism, and environmental knowledge.]]>
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