Epistemic Diversification within the Pondok Tremas Tradition: A Comparative Document Analysis of Maʿhad Aly At-Tarmasi and IAIT Pacitan

Muhammad Amruddin Latif; - Marhumah; - Sibawaihi

doi:10.24014/potensia.v12i1.39576

Epistemic Diversification within the Pondok Tremas Tradition: A Comparative Document Analysis of Maʿhad Aly At-Tarmasi and IAIT Pacitan

Muhammad Amruddin Latif, - Marhumah, - Sibawaihi

Abstract

This study examines how two Islamic higher education institutions within the Pondok Tremas Pacitan tradition develop different epistemic configurations while maintaining common genealogical legitimacy. The research uses qualitative comparative document analysis using al-Jabiri’s bayānī-burhānī-ʿirfānī framework, operationalized through Framework F.1. The framework contains 27 document-based indicators with a scoring scale of 0-3. The main corpus consists of 50 institutional documents: 21 Maʿhad Aly At-Tarmasi documents and 29 Institut Agama Islam Attarmasi Pacitan (IAIT) documents. Percentage scores are understood as the strength of comparative evidence in the document, not as inferential statistical measure. The findings show that Maʿhad Aly has a bayānī-integrative profile with a bayānī score of 88.9%, burhānī 59.3%, and ʿirfānī 38.9%. In contrast, IAIT shows a burhānī-integrative profile with a bayānī score of 46.3%, burhānī 72.2%, and ʿirfānī 37.0%. This distinction demonstrates an epistemic differentiation based on institutional mandates: Maʿhad Aly maintains textual-turāth authority through sanad-based meritocracy, while IAIT reinforces formal academic rationality within the framework of integration-transcendence. The stability of the ʿirfānī dimension in both institutions demonstrates its function as a shared framework of spiritual legitimacy. These findings are limited to institutional documents as representations of the epistemic architecture intended by the institutions. This study contributes to pesantren studies by showing that epistemic diversification can take place within one Pondok Tremas tradition without institutional fragmentation. These findings also affirm the adaptive capacity of pesantren-based Islamic higher education in negotiating the continuity of tradition, genealogical legitimacy, and institutional differentiation.

Keywords

Pesantren Studies; Epistemic Diversification; Islamic Higher Education; Comparative Document Analysis; Bayānī-Burhānī-ʿIrfānī; Al-Jabiri.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24014/potensia.v12i1.39576