"This book argues that Indonesian nationalism rested to a large degree on a pre-existing sense of an Islamic ecumenism. This ecumenism was heightened both under colonial rule and through the experience of life in the Hijaz, where Southeast Asians were simultaneously yco-believers in Islam and foreigners to Arabia. The author contrasts the latter with life in modern Cairo, where Southeast Asians were drawn to the ideas of Islamic reformism and nationalism."--BOOK JACKET