CHAPTER XII.

THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.

The history of the Malay Archipelago during the last 600 years

furnishes us with one of the most interesting chapters in the story of

the spread of Islam by missionary efforts. During the whole of this

period we find evidences of a continuous activity on the part of the

Muhammadan missionaries, in one or other at least of the East India

islands. In every instance, in the beginning, their work had to be

carried on without any patronage or assistance from the rulers of the

country, but solely by the force of persuasion, and in many cases in

the face of severe opposition, especially on the part of the Spaniards.

But in spite of all difficulties, and with varying success, they have

prosecuted their efforts with untiring energy, perfecting their work

(more especially in the present day) wherever it has been partial or

insufficient.

It is impossible to fix the precise date of the first introduction of

Islam into the Malay Archipelago. It may have been carried thither by

the Arab traders in the early centuries of the Hijrah, long before we

have any historical notices of such influences being at work. This

supposition is rendered the more probable by the knowledge we have of

the extensive commerce with the East carried on by the Arabs from very

early times. In the second century B.C. the trade with Ceylon was

wholly in their hands. At the beginning of the seventh century of the

Christian era, the trade with China, through Ceylon, received a great

impulse, so that in the middle of the eighth century Arab traders were

to be found in great numbers in Canton; while from the tenth to the

fifteenth century, until the arrival of the Portuguese, they were

undisputed masters of the trade with the East. [1181] We may therefore

conjecture with tolerable certainty that they must have established

their commercial settlements on some of the islands of the Malay

Archipelago, as they did elsewhere, at a very early period: though no

mention is made of these islands in the works of the Arab geographers

earlier than the ninth century, [1182] yet in the Chinese annals, under

the date A.D. 674, an account is given of an Arab chief, who from later

notices is conjectured to have been the head of an Arab settlement on

the west coast of Sumatra. [1183]

Missionaries must also, however, have come to the Malay Archipelago

from the south of India, judging from certain peculiarities of

Muhammadan theology adopted by the islanders. Most of the Musalmans of

the Archipelago belong to the Shāfiʻiyyah sect, which is at the present

day predominant on the Coromandel and Malabar coasts, as was the case

also about the middle of the fourteenth century when Ibn Baṭūṭah

visited these parts. [1184] So when we consider that the Muhammadans of

the neighbouring countries belong to the Ḥanafiyyah sect, we can only

explain the prevalence of Shāfiʻiyyah teachings by assuming them to

have been brought thither from the Malabar coast, the ports of which

were frequented by merchants from Java, as well as from China, Yaman

and Persia. [1185] From India, too, or from Persia, must have come the

Shīʻism, of which traces are still found in Java and Sumatra. From Ibn

Baṭūṭah we learn that the Muhammadan Sultan of Samudra had entered into

friendly relations with the court of Dehli, and among the learned

doctors of the law whom this devout prince especially favoured, there

were two of Persian origin, the one coming from Shiraz and the other

from Ispahan. [1186] But long before this time merchants from the

Deccan, through whose hands passed the trade between the Musalman

states of India and the Malay Archipelago, had established themselves

in large numbers in the trading ports of these islands, where they

sowed the seed of the new religion. [1187]

It is to the proselytising efforts of these Arab and Indian merchants

that the native Muhammadan population, which we find already in the

earliest historical notices of Islam in these parts, owes its

existence. Settling in the centres of commerce, they intermarried with

the people of the land, and these heathen wives and the slaves of their

households thus formed the nucleus of a Muslim community which its

members made every effort in their power to increase. The following

description of the methods adopted by these merchant missionaries in

the Philippine Islands, gives a picture of what was no doubt the

practice of many preceding generations of Muhammadan traders:—“The

better to introduce their religion into the country, the Muhammadans

adopted the language and many of the customs of the natives, married

their women, purchased slaves in order to increase their personal

importance, and succeeded finally in incorporating themselves among the

chiefs who held the foremost rank in the state. Since they worked

together with greater ability and harmony than the natives, they

gradually increased their power more and more, as having numbers of

slaves in their possession, they formed a kind of confederacy among

themselves and established a sort of monarchy, which they made

hereditary in one family. Though such a confederacy gave them great

power, yet they felt the necessity of keeping on friendly terms with

the old aristocracy, and of ensuring their freedom to those classes

whose support they could not afford to dispense with.” [1188] It must

have been in some such way as this that the different Muhammadan

settlements in the Malay Archipelago laid a firm political and social

basis for their proselytising efforts. They did not come as conquerors,

like the Spanish in the sixteenth century, or use the sword as an

instrument of conversion; nor did they arrogate to themselves the

privileges of a superior and dominant race so as to degrade and oppress

the original inhabitants, but coming simply in the guise of traders

they employed all their superior intelligence and civilisation in the

service of their religion, rather than as a means towards their

personal aggrandisement and the amassing of wealth. [1189] With this

general statement of the subsidiary means adopted by them, let us

follow in detail their proselytising efforts through the various

islands in turn.

Tradition represents Islam as having been introduced into Sumatra from

Arabia. But there is no sound historical basis for such a belief, and

all the evidence seems to point to India as the source from which the

people of Sumatra derived their knowledge of the new faith. Active

commercial relations had existed for centuries between India and the

Malay Archipelago, and the first missionaries to Sumatra were probably

Indian traders. [1190] There is, however, no historical record of their

labours, and the Malay chronicles ascribe the honour of being the first

missionary to Atjeh, in the north-west of Sumatra, to an Arab named

ʻAbd Allāh ʻĀrif, who is said to have visited the island about the

middle of the twelfth century; one of his disciples, Burhān al-Dīn, is

said to have carried the knowledge of the faith down the west coast as

far as Priaman. [1191] Untrustworthy as this record is, it may yet

possibly indicate the existence of some proselytising activity about

this period; for the Malay chronicle of Atjeh gives 1205 as the date of

the accession of Jūhan Shāh, the traditionary founder of the Muhammadan

dynasty. He is said to have been a stranger from the West, [1192] and

to have come to these shores to preach the faith of the Prophet; he

made many proselytes, married a wife from among the people of the

country, and was hailed by them as their king, under the half-Sanskrit,

half-Arabic title of Srī Padūka Sulṭān. For some time the new faith

would in all probability have been confined to the ports at which

Muhammadan merchants touched, and its progress inland would be slower,

as here it would come up against the strong Hindu influences that had

their centre in the kingdom of Menangkabau.

Marco Polo, who spent five months on the north coast of Sumatra in

1292, speaks of all the inhabitants being idolaters, except in the

petty kingdom of Parlāk on the north-east corner of the island, where,

too, only the townspeople were Muhammadans, for “this kingdom, you must

know, is so much frequented by the Saracen merchants that they have

converted the natives to the Law of Mahommet,” but the hill-people were

all idolaters and cannibals. [1193] Further, one of the Malay

chronicles says that it was Sultan ʻAlī Mughāyat Shāh, who reigned over

Atjeh from 1507 to 1522, who first set the example of embracing Islam,

in which he was followed by his subjects. [1194] But it is not

improbable that the honour of being the first Muslim ruler of the state

has been here attributed as an added glory to the monarch who founded

the greatness of Atjeh and began to extend its sway over the

neighbouring country, and that he rather effected a revival of, or

imparted a fresh impulse to, the religious life of his subjects than

gave to them their first knowledge of the faith of the Prophet. For

Islam had certainly set firm foot in Sumatra long before his time.

According to the traditionary account of the city of Samudra, the

Sharīf of Mecca sent a mission to convert the people of Sumatra. The

leader of the party was a certain Shaykh Ismāʻīl: the first place on

the island at which they touched, after leaving Malabar, was Pasuri

(probably situated a little way down the west coast), the people of

which were persuaded by their preaching to embrace Islam. They then

proceeded northward to Lambri and then coasted round to the other side

of the island and sailed as far down the east coast as Aru, nearly

opposite Malacca, and in both of these places their efforts were

crowned with a like success. At Aru they made inquiries for Samudra, a

city on the north coast of the island, which seems to have been the

special object of their mission, and found that they had passed it.

Accordingly they retraced their course to Parlāk, where Marco Polo had

found a Muhammadan community a few years before, and having gained

fresh converts here also, they went on to Samudra. This city and the

kingdom of the same name had lately been founded by a certain Mara

Silu, who was persuaded by Shaykh Ismāʻīl to embrace Islam, and took

the name of al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ. He married the daughter of the king of

Parlāk, by whom he had two sons, and in order to have a principality to

leave to each, he founded the Muhammadan city and kingdom of Pasei,

also on the north coast. [1195]

The king, al-Malik al-Z̤āhir, whom Ibn Baṭūṭah found reigning in Samudra

when he visited the island in 1345, was probably the elder of these two

sons. This prince displayed all the state of Muhammadan royalty, and

his dominions extended for many days’ journey along the coast; he was a

zealous and orthodox Muslim, fond of holding discussions with

jurisconsults and theologians, and his court was frequented by poets

and men of learning. Ibn Baṭūṭah gives us the names of two

jurisconsults who had come thither from Persia and also of a noble who

had gone on an embassy to Dehli on behalf of the king—which shows that

Sumatra was already in touch with several parts of the Muhammadan

world. Al-Malik al-Z̤āhir was also a great general, and made war on the

heathen of the surrounding country until they submitted to his rule and

paid tribute. [1196]

Islam had undoubtedly by this time made great progress in Sumatra, and

after having established itself along the coast, began to make its way

inland. The mission of Shaykh Ismāʻīl and his party had borne fruit

abundantly, for a Chinese traveller who visited the island in 1413,

speaks of Lambri as having a population of 1000 families, all of whom

were Muslims “and very good people,” while the king and people of the

kingdom of Aru were all of the same faith. [1197] It was either about

the close of the same century or in the fifteenth century, that the

religion of the Prophet found adherents in the great kingdom of

Menangkabau, whose territory at one time extended from one shore to

another, and over a great part of the island, north and south of the

equator. [1198] Though its power had by this time much declined, still

as an ancient stronghold of Hinduism it presented great obstacles in

the way of the progress of the new religion. Despite this fact, Islam

eventually took firmer root among the subjects of this kingdom than

among the majority of the inhabitants of the interior of the island.

[1199] It is very remarkable that this, the most central people of the

island, should have been more thoroughly converted than the inhabitants

of so many other districts that were more accessible to foreign

influences. To the present day the inhabitants of the Batak country are

still, for the most part, heathen; but Islam has gained a footing among

them, e.g. some living on the borders of Atjeh have been converted, by

their Muhammadan neighbours, [1200] others dwelling in the mountains of

the Rau country on the equator have likewise become Musalmans; [1201]

on the east coast also conversions of Bataks, who come much in contact

with Malays, are not uncommon. [1202]

The fanatical Padris (p. 372) made strenuous efforts, in vain, to force

Islam upon the Bataks at the point of the sword, laying waste their

country and putting many to death; but these violent methods did not

win converts. When, however, the Dutch Government suppressed the Padri

rising and annexed the southern part of the Batak country, Islam began

to spread by peaceful means, chiefly through the zealous efforts of the

native subordinate officials of the new régime, who were all Muhammadan

Malays, [1203] but also through the influence of the traders who

wandered through the country, whose proselytising activity was followed

up by the ḥājīs and other recognised teachers of the faith. It is a

remarkable fact that the Bataks, who for centuries had offered a

pertinacious resistance to the entrance of Islam into their midst,

though they were hemmed in between two fanatical Muhammadan

populations, the Achinese on the north and the Malays on the south,

have in recent years responded with enthusiasm to the peaceful efforts

made for their conversion. An explanation would appear to be found in

the breaking down of their exclusive national characteristics through

the Dutch occupation and the conquest opening up their country to

foreign influences, which implied the commencement of a new era in

their cultural development, as well as in the skilful procedure of the

exponents of the new faith, who knew how to accommodate their teachings

to the existing beliefs of the Bataks and their deep-rooted

superstitions. [1204] A considerable impulse seems to have been given

to Muslim propaganda by the establishment of Christian missions among

the Bataks in 1897, and they appear even to have paved the way for its

success. Two Batak villages, the entire population of which had been

baptised, are said to have gone over in a body to Islam shortly

afterwards. [1205]

In Central Sumatra there is still a large heathen population, though

the majority of the inhabitants are Muslims; but these latter are very

ignorant of their religion, with the exception of a few ḥājīs and

religious teachers: even among the people of Korintji, who are for the

most part zealous adherents of the faith, there are certain sections of

the population who still worship the gods of their pagan ancestors.

[1206] Efforts are, however, being made towards a religious revival,

and the Muslim missionaries are making fresh conquests from among the

heathen, especially along the west coast. [1207] In the district of

Sipirok a religious teacher attached to the mosque in the town of the

same name, in a quarter of a century, converted the whole population of

this district to Islam, with the exception of the Christians who were

to be found there, mostly descendants of former slaves, [1208] and a

later missionary movement in the first decade of the twentieth century

succeeded in winning over to Islam many of the Christians of this

district, even some living in the centre of the sphere of influence of

the Christian mission. [1209]

Islam is traditionally represented to have been introduced into

Palembang about 1440 by Raden Raḥmat, of whose propagandist activity an

account will be given below (p. 381). But Hindu influences appear to

have been firmly rooted here, and the progress of the new faith was

slow. Even up to the nineteenth century the Muslims of Palembang were

said to know little of their religion except the external observances

of it, with the exception of the inhabitants of the capital who come

into daily contact with Arabs; [1210] but in the first decade of the

twentieth century there would appear to have been a revival of the

religious life and a growing propaganda, as the Colonial Reports of the

Dutch Government draw attention to the continual spread of Islam among

the heathen population of various districts of Palembang. [1211]

It was from Java that Islam was first brought into the Lampong

districts which form the southern extremity of Sumatra, by a chieftain

of these districts, named Minak Kamala Bumi. About the end of the

fifteenth century he crossed over the Strait of Sunda to the kingdom of

Bantam on the west coast of Java, which had accepted the teachings of

the Muslim missionaries a few years before the date of his visit; here

he, too, embraced Islam, and after making the pilgrimage to Mecca,

spread the knowledge of his newly adopted faith among his

fellow-countrymen. [1212] This religion has made considerable progress

among the Lampongs, and most of the villages have mosques in them, but

the old superstitions still linger on in parts of the interior. [1213]

In the early part of the nineteenth century a religious revival was set

on foot in Sumatra, which was not without its influence in promoting

the further propagation of Islam. In 1803 three Sumatran ḥājīs returned

from Mecca to their native country: during their stay in the holy city

they had been profoundly influenced by the Wahhābī movement for the

reformation of Islam, and were now eager to introduce the same reforms

among their fellow-countrymen and to stir up in them a purer and more

zealous religious life. Accordingly they began to preach the strict

monotheism of the Wahhābī sect, forbade prayers to saints, drinking and

gambling and all other practices contrary to the law of the Qurʼān.

They made a number of proselytes both from among their co-religionists

and the heathen population. They later declared a Jihād against the

Bataks, and in the hands of unscrupulous and ambitious men the movement

lost its original character and degenerated into a savage and bloody

war of conquest. In 1821 these so-called Padris came into conflict with

the Dutch Government and it was not until 1838 that their last

stronghold was taken and their power broken. [1214]

All the civilised Malays of the Malay Peninsula trace their origin to

migrations from Sumatra, especially from Menangkabau, the famous

kingdom mentioned above, which is said at one time to have been the

most powerful on the island; some of the chiefs of the interior states

of the southern part of the Malay Peninsula still receive their

investiture from this place. At what period these colonies from the

heart of Sumatra settled in the interior of the Peninsula, is matter of

conjecture, but Singapore and the southern extremity of the Peninsula

seem to have received a colony in the middle of the twelfth century, by

the descendants of which Malacca was founded about a century later.

[1215] From its advantageous situation, in the highway of eastern

commerce it soon became a large and flourishing city, and there is

little doubt but that Islam was introduced by the Muhammadan merchants

who settled here. [1216] The Malay chronicle of Malacca assigns the

conversion of this kingdom to the reign of a certain Sulṭān Muḥammad

Shāh who came to the throne in 1276. He is said to have been reigning

some years before a ship commanded by Sīdī ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz came to

Malacca from Jiddah, and the king was persuaded by the new-comers to

change his faith and to give up his Malay name for one containing the

name of the Prophet. [1217] But the general character of this document

makes its trustworthiness exceedingly doubtful, [1218] in spite of the

likelihood that the date of so important an event would have been

exactly noted (as was done in many parts of the Archipelago) by a

people who, proud of the event, would look upon it as opening a new

epoch in their history. A Portuguese historian gives a much later date,

namely 1384, in which year, he says, a Qāḍī came from Arabia and having

converted the king, gave him the name of Muḥammad after the Prophet,

adding Shāh to it. [1219]

In the annals of Queda, one of the northernmost of the states of the

Malay Peninsula, we have a curious account of the introduction of Islam

into this kingdom, about A.D. 1501, [1220] which (divested of certain

miraculous incidents) is as follows: A learned Arab, by name Shaykh

ʻAbd Allāh, having come to Queda, visited the Raja and inquired what

was the religion of the country. “My religion,” replied the Raja, “and

that of all my subjects is that which has been handed down to us by the

people of old. We all worship idols.” “Then has your highness never

heard of Islam, and of the Qurʼān which descended from God to Muḥammad,

and has superseded all other religions, leaving them in the possession

of the devil?” “I pray you then, if this be true,” said the Raja, “to

instruct and enlighten us in this new faith.” In a transport of holy

fervour at this request, Shaykh ʻAbd Allāh embraced the Raja and then

instructed him in the creed. Persuaded by his teaching, the Raja sent

for all his jars of spirits (to which he was much addicted), and with

his own hands emptied them on the ground. After this he had all the

idols of the palace brought out; the idols of gold, and silver, and

clay, and wood were all heaped up in his presence, and were all broken

and cut to pieces by Shaykh ʻAbd Allāh with his sword and with an axe,

and the fragments consumed in the fire. The Shaykh asked the Raja to

assemble all his women of the fort and palace. When they had all come

into the presence of the Raja and the Shaykh, they were initiated into

the doctrines of Islam. The Shaykh was mild and courteous in his

demeanour, persuasive and soft in his language, so that he gained the

hearts of the inmates of the palace. The Raja soon after sent for his

four aged ministers, who, on entering the hall, were surprised at

seeing a Shaykh seated near the Raja. The Raja explained to them the

object of the Shaykh’s coming; whereupon the four chiefs expressed

their readiness to follow the example of his highness, saying, “We hope

that Shaykh ʻAbd Allāh will instruct us also.” The latter hearing these

words, embraced the four ministers and said that he hoped that, to

prove their sincerity, they would send for all the people to come to

the audience hall, bringing with them all the idols that they were wont

to worship and the idols that had been handed down by the men of former

days. The request was complied with and all the idols kept by the

people were at that very time brought down and there destroyed and

burnt to dust; no one was sorry at this demolition of their false gods,

all were glad to enter the pale of Islam. Shaykh ʻAbd Allāh after this

said to the four ministers, “What is the name of your prince?” They

replied, “His name is Pra Ong Mahāwāngsā.” “Let us change it for one in

the language of Islam,” said the Shaykh. After some consultation, the

name of the Raja was changed at his request to Sultan Muzlaf al-Shāh,

because, the Shaykh averred, it is a celebrated name and is found in

the Qurʼān. [1221]

The Raja now built mosques wherever the population was considerable,

and directed that to each there should be attached forty-four of the

inhabitants at least as a settled congregation, for a smaller number

would have been few for the duties of religion. So mosques were erected

and great drums were attached to them to be beaten to call the people

to prayer on Fridays. Shaykh ʻAbd Allāh continued for some time to

instruct the people in the religion of Islam; they flocked to him from

all the coasts and districts of Queda and its vicinity, and were

initiated by him into its forms and ceremonies.

The news of the conversion of the inhabitants of Queda by Shaykh ʻAbd

Allāh reached Atjeh, and the Sultan of that country and a certain

Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn, an Arab missionary, who had come from Mecca, sent

some books and a letter, which ran as follows:—“This letter is from the

Sultan of Atjeh and Nūr al-Dīn to our brother the Sultan of Queda and

Shaykh ʻAbd Allāh of Yaman, now in Queda. We have sent two religious

books, in order that the faith of Islam may be firmly established and

the people fully instructed in their duties and in the rites of the

faith.” A letter was sent in reply by the Raja and Shaykh ʻAbd Allāh,

thanking the donors. So Shaykh ʻAbd Allāh redoubled his efforts, and

erected additional small mosques in all the different villages for

general convenience, and instructed the people in all the rules and

observances of the faith. The Raja and his wife were constantly with

the Shaykh, learning to read the Qurʼān. The royal pair searched also

for some maiden of the lineage of the Rajas of the country, to be the

Shaykh’s wife. But no one could be found who was willing to give his

daughter thus in marriage because the holy man was about to return to

Baghdād, and only waited until he had sufficiently instructed some

person to supply his place. Now at this time the Sultan had three sons,

Raja Muʻaz̤z̤am Shāh, Raja Muḥammad Shāh, and Raja Sulaymān Shāh. These

names had been borrowed from the Qurʼān by Shaykh ʻAbd Allāh and

bestowed upon the princes, whom he exhorted to be patient and slow to

anger in their intercourse with their slaves and the lower orders, and

to regard with pity all the servants of God, and the poor and needy.

[1222]

It must not be supposed that the labours of Shaykh ʻAbd Allāh were

crowned with complete success, for we learn from the annals of Atjeh

that a Sultan of this country who conquered Queda in 1649, set himself

to “more firmly establish the faith and destroy the houses of the Liar”

or temples of idols. [1223] Thus a century and a half elapsed before

idolatry was completely rooted out.

We possess no other details of the history of the conversion of the

Malays of the Peninsula, but in many places the graves of the Arab

missionaries who first preached the faith to them are honoured by these

people. [1224] Their long intercourse with the Arabs and the Muslims of

the east coast of India has made them very rigid observers of their

religious duties, and they have the reputation of being the most

exemplary Muhammadans of the Archipelago; at the same time their

constant contact with the Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and pagans of

their own country has made them liberal and tolerant. They are very

strict in the keeping of the fast of Ramaḍān and in performing the

pilgrimage to Mecca. The religious interests of the people are always

considered at the same time as their temporal welfare; and when a

village is found to contain more than forty houses and is considered to

be of a size that necessitates its organisation and the appointment of

the regular village officers, a public preacher is always included

among the number and a mosque is formally built and instituted. [1225]

In the north, where the Malay states border on Siam, Islam has

exercised considerable influence on the Siamese Buddhists; those who

have here been converted are called Samsams and speak a language that

is a mixed jargon of the languages of the two people. [1226] Converts

are also made from among the wild tribes of the Peninsula. [1227]

The history of the spread of Islam in Indo-China is obscure; Arab and

Persian merchants probably introduced their religion into the sea-port

towns from the tenth century onwards, but its most important expansion

was due to the immigrations of Malays which began at the close of the

fourteenth century. [1228]

We must now go back several centuries in order to follow out the

history of the conversion of Java. The preaching and promulgation of

the doctrines of Islam in this island were undoubtedly for a long time

entirely the result of the labours of individual merchants or of the

leaders of small colonies, for in Java there was no central Muhammadan

power to throw in its influence on the side of the new religion or

enforce the acceptance of it by warlike means. On the contrary, the

Muslim missionaries came in contact with a Hindu civilisation, that had

thrust its roots deep into the life of the country and had raised the

Javanese to a high level of culture and progress—expressing itself

moreover in institutions and laws radically different to those of

Arabia. Even up to the present day, the Muhammadan law has failed to

establish itself absolutely, even where the authority of Islam is

generally predominant, and there is still a constant struggle between

the adherents of the old Malayan usages and the Ḥājīs, who having made

the pilgrimage to Mecca, return enthusiastic for a strict observance of

Muslim Law. Consequently the work of conversion must have proceeded

very slowly, and we can say with tolerable certainty that while part of

the history of this proselytising movement may be disentangled from

legends and traditions, much of it must remain wholly unknown to us. In

the Malay Chronicle, which purports to give us an account of the first

preachers of the faith, what was undoubtedly the work of many

generations and must have been carried on through many centuries, is

compressed within the compass of a few years; and, as frequently

happens in popular histories, a few well-known names gain the fame and

credit that belongs of right to the patient labours of their unknown

predecessors. [1229] Further, the quiet, unobtrusive labours of many of

these missionaries would not be likely to attract the notice of the

chronicler, whose attention would naturally be fixed rather on the

doings of kings and princes, and of those who came in close

relationship to them. But failing such larger knowledge, we must fain

be content with the facts that have been handed down to us.

In the following pages, therefore, it is proposed to give a brief

sketch of the establishment of the Muhammadan religion in this island,

as presented in the native chronicle, which, though full of

contradictions and fables, has undoubtedly a historical foundation, as

is attested by the inscriptions on the tombs of the chief personages

mentioned and the remains of ancient cities, etc. The following account

therefore may, in the want of any other authorities, be accepted as

substantially correct, with the caution above mentioned against

ascribing too much efficacy to the proselytising efforts of

individuals.

The first attempt to introduce Islam into Java was made by a native of

the island about the close of the twelfth century. The first king of

Pajajaran, a state in the western part of the island, left two sons; of

these, the elder chose to follow the profession of a merchant and

undertook a trading expedition to India, leaving the kingdom to his

younger brother, who succeeded to the throne in the year 1190 with the

title of Prabu Munding Sari. In the course of his wanderings, the elder

brother fell in with some Arab merchants, and was by them converted to

Islam, taking the name of Ḥājī Purwa.

On his return to his native country, he tried with the help of an Arab

missionary to convert his brother and the royal family to his new

faith; but, his efforts proving unsuccessful, he fled into the jungle

for fear of the king and his unbelieving subjects, and we hear no more

of him. [1230]

In the latter half of the fourteenth century, a missionary movement,

which was attended with greater success, was instituted by a certain

Mawlānā Malik Ibrāhīm, who landed on the east coast of Java with some

of his co-religionists, and established himself near the town of

Gresik, opposite the island of Madura. He is said to have traced his

descent to Zayn al-ʻĀbidīn, a great-grandson of the Prophet, and to

have been cousin of the Raja of Chermen. [1231] Here he occupied

himself successfully in the work of conversion, and speedily gathered a

small band of believers around him. Later on, he was joined by his

cousin, the Raja of Chermen, who came in the hope of converting the

Raja of the Hindu Kingdom of Majapahit, and of forming an alliance with

him by offering his daughter in marriage. On his arrival he sent his

son, Ṣādiq Muḥammad, to Majapahit to arrange an interview, while he

busied himself in the building of a mosque and the conversion of the

inhabitants. A meeting of the two princes took place accordingly, but

before the favourable impression then produced could be followed up, a

sickness broke out among the people of the Raja of Chermen, which

carried off his daughter, three of his nephews who had accompanied him,

and a great part of his retinue; whereupon he himself returned to his

own kingdom. These misfortunes prejudiced the mind of the Raja of

Majapahit against the new faith, which he said should have better

protected its votaries: and the mission accordingly failed. Mawlānā

Ibrāhīm, however, remained behind, in charge of the tombs [1232] of his

kinsfolk and co-religionists, and himself died twenty-one years later,

in 1419, and was buried at Gresik, where his tomb is still venerated as

that of the first apostle of Islam to Java.

A Chinese Musalman, who accompanied the envoy of the Emperor of China

to Java in the capacity of interpreter, six years before the death of

Mawlānā Ibrāhīm, i.e. in 1413, mentions the presence of his

co-religionists in this island in his “General Account of the Shores of

the Ocean,” where he says, “In this country there are three kinds of

people. First the Muhammadans, who have come from the west, and have

established themselves here; their dress and food is clean and proper;

second, the Chinese who have run away and settled here; what they eat

and use is also very fine, and many of them have adopted the Muhammadan

religion and observe its precepts. The third kind are the natives, who

are very ugly and uncouth, they go about with uncombed heads and naked

feet, and believe devoutly in devils, theirs being one of the countries

called devil-countries in Buddhist books.” [1233]

We now approach the period in which the rule of the Muhammadans became

predominant in the island, after their religion had been introduced

into it for nearly a century; and here it will be necessary to enter a

little more closely into the details of the history in order to show

that this was not the result of any fanatical movement stirred up by

the Arabs, but rather of a revolution carried out by the natives of the

country themselves, [1234] who (though they naturally gained strength

from the bond of a common faith) were stirred up to unite in order to

wrest the supreme power from the hands of their heathen

fellow-countrymen, not by the preaching of a religious war, but through

the exhortations of an ambitious aspirant to the throne who had a wrong

to avenge. [1235]

The political condition of the island may be described as follows:—The

central and eastern provinces of the island, which were the most

wealthy and populous and the furthest advanced in civilisation, were

under the sway of the Hindu kingdom of Majapahit. Further west were

Cheribon and several other petty, independent princedoms; while the

rest of the island, including all the districts at its western

extremity, was subject to the King of Pajajaran.

The King of Majapahit had married a daughter of the prince of Champa, a

small state in Cambodia, east of the Gulf of Siam. [1236] She being

jealous of a favourite concubine of the King, he sent this concubine

away to his son Arya Damar, governor of Palembang in Sumatra, where she

gave birth to a son, Raden Patah, who was brought up as one of the

governor’s own children. This child (as we shall see) was destined in

after years to work a terrible vengeance for the cruel treatment of his

mother. Another daughter of the prince of Champa had married an Arab

who had come to Champa to preach the faith of Islam. [1237] From this

union was born Raden Raḥmat, who was carefully brought up by his father

in the Muhammadan religion and is still venerated by the Javanese as

the chief apostle of Islam to their country. [1238]

When he reached the age of twenty, his parents sent him with letters

and presents to his uncle, the King of Majapahit. On his way, he stayed

for two months at Palembang, as the guest of Arya Damar, whom he almost

persuaded to become a Musalman, only he dared not openly profess Islam

for fear of the people who were strongly attached to their ancient

superstitions. Continuing his journey Raden Raḥmat came to Gresik,

where an Arab missionary, Shaykh Mawlānā Jumāda ’l-Kubrạ̄, hailed him as

the promised Apostle of Islam to East Java, and foretold that the fall

of paganism was at hand, and that his labours would be crowned by the

conversion of many to the faith. At Majapahit he was very kindly

received by the King and the princess of Champa. Although the King was

unwilling himself to become a convert to Islam, yet he conceived such

an attachment and respect for Raden Raḥmat, that he made him governor

over 3000 families at Ampel, on the east coast, a little south of

Gresik, allowed him the free exercise of his religion and gave him

permission to make converts. Here after some time he gained over most

of those placed under him, to Islam.

Ampel was now the chief seat of Islam in Java, and the fame of the

ruler who was so zealously working for the propagation of his religion,

spread far and wide. Hereupon a certain Mawlānā Isḥāq came to Ampel to

assist him in the work of conversion, and was assigned the task of

spreading the faith in the kingdom of Balambangan, in the extreme

eastern extremity of the island. Here he cured the daughter of the

King, who was grievously sick, and the grateful father gave her to him

in marriage. She ardently embraced the faith of Islam and her father

allowed himself to receive instruction in the same, but when the

Mawlānā urged him to openly profess it, as he had promised to do, if

his daughter were cured, he drove him from his kingdom, and gave orders

that the child that was soon to be born of his daughter, should be

killed. But the mother secretly sent the infant away to Gresik to a

rich Muhammadan widow [1239] who brought him up with all a mother’s

care and educated him until he was twelve years old, when she entrusted

him to Raden Raḥmat. He, after learning the history of the child, gave

him the name of Raden Paku, and in course of time gave him also his

daughter in marriage. Raden Paku afterwards built a mosque at Giri, to

the south-west of Gresik, where he converted thousands to the faith;

his influence became so great, that after the death of Raden Raḥmat,

the King of Majapahit made him governor of Ampel and Gresik. [1240]

Meanwhile several missions were instituted from Gresik. Two sons of

Raden Raḥmat established themselves at different parts of the

north-east coast and made themselves famous by their religious zeal and

the conversion of many of the inhabitants of those parts. Raden Raḥmat

also sent a missionary, by name Shaykh Khalīfah Ḥusayn, across to the

neighbouring island of Madura, where he built a mosque and won over

many to the faith.

We must now return to Arya Damar, the governor of Palembang. (See p.

380.) He appears to have brought up his children in the religion which

he himself feared openly to profess, and he now sent Raden Patah, when

he had reached the age of twenty, together with his foster-brother,

Raden Ḥusayn, who was two years younger, to Java, where they landed at

Gresik. Raden Patah, aware of his extraction and enraged at the cruel

treatment his mother had received, refused to accompany his

foster-brother to Majapahit, but stayed with Raden Raḥmat at Ampel

while Raden Ḥusayn went on to the capital, where he was well received

and placed in charge of a district and afterwards made general of the

army.

Meanwhile Raden Patah married a granddaughter of Raden Raḥmat, and

formed an establishment in a place of great natural strength called

Bintara, in the centre of a marshy country, to the west of Gresik. As

soon as the King of Majapahit heard of this new settlement, he sent

Raden Ḥusayn to persuade his brother to come to the capital and pay

homage. This Raden Ḥusayn prevailed upon him to do, and he went to the

court, where his likeness to the king was at once recognised, and where

he was kindly received and formally appointed governor of Bintara.

Still burning for revenge and bent on the destruction of his father’s

kingdom, he returned to Ampel, where he revealed his plans to Raden

Raḥmat. The latter endeavoured to moderate his anger, reminding him

that he had never received anything but kindness at the hands of the

king of Majapahit, his father, and that while the prince was so just

and so beloved, his religion forbade him to make war upon or in any way

to injure him. However, unpersuaded by these exhortations (as the

sequel shows), Raden Patah returned to Bintara, which was now daily

increasing in importance and population, while great numbers of people

in the surrounding country were being converted to Islam. He had formed

a plan of building a great mosque, but shortly after the work had been

commenced, news arrived of the severe illness of Raden Raḥmat. He

hastened to Ampel, where he found the chief missionaries of Islam

gathered round the bed of him they looked upon as their leader. Among

them were the two sons of Raden Raḥmat mentioned above (p. 382), Raden

Paku of Giri, and five others. A few days afterwards Raden Raḥmat

breathed his last, and the only remaining obstacle to Raden Patah’s

revengeful schemes was thus removed. The eight chiefs accompanied him

back to Bintara, where they assisted in the completion of the mosque,

[1241] and bound themselves by a solemn oath to assist him in his

attempt against Majapahit. All the Muhammadan princes joined this

confederacy, with the exception of Raden Ḥusayn, who with all his

followers remained true to his master, and refused to throw in his lot

with his rebellious co-religionists.

A lengthy campaign followed, into the details of which we need not

enter, but in 1478, [1242] after a desperate battle which lasted seven

days, Majapahit fell and the Hindu supremacy in eastern Java was

replaced by a Muhammadan power. A short time after, Raden Ḥusayn was

besieged with his followers in a fortified place, compelled to

surrender and brought to Ampel, where he was kindly received by his

brother. A large number of those who remained faithful to the old Hindu

religion fled in 1481 to the island of Bali, where the worship of Siva

is still the prevailing religion. [1243] Others seem to have formed

small kingdoms, under the leadership of princes of the house of

Majapahit, which remained heathen for some time after the fall of the

great Hindu capital.

Even under Muslim chiefs the population of central Java long remained

heathen, and the progress of Islam southward from the early centres of

missionary effort on the north coast was the work of centuries; even to

the present day the influence of their old Hindu faith is strikingly

manifest in the religious notions of the Muslim population of central

Java. One remarkable evidence of the deep roots that Hinduism had

struck in this part of the island is the fact that it was not until

1768 that the authority of the Hindu law-books, particularly the code

of Manu, gave way before a code of laws more in accordance with the

spirit of Muslim legislation. [1244]

Islam was introduced into the eastern parts of the island some years

later, probably in the beginning of the following century, through the

missionary activity of Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn Ibrāhīm of Cheribon. He won

for himself a great reputation by curing a woman afflicted with

leprosy, with the result that thousands came to him to be instructed in

the tenets of the new faith. At first the neighbouring chiefs tried to

set themselves against the movement, but finding that their opposition

was of no avail, they suffered themselves to be carried along with the

tide and many of them became converts to Islam. [1245] Shaykh Nūr

al-Dīn Ibrāhīm of Cheribon sent his son, Mawlānā Ḥasan al-Dīn, to

preach the faith of Islam in Bantam, the most westerly province of the

island, and a dependency of the heathen kingdom of Pajajaran. Here his

efforts were attended with considerable success, among the converts

being a body of ascetics, 800 in number. It is especially mentioned in

the annals of this part of the country that the young prince won over

those whom he converted to Islam, solely by the gentle means of

persuasion, and not by the sword. [1246] He afterwards went with his

father on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and on his return extended his power

over the neighbouring coast of Sumatra, without ever having to draw the

sword, and winning converts to the faith by peaceful methods alone.

[1247]

But the progress of Islam in the west of Java seems to have been much

slower than in the east; a long struggle ensued between the worshippers

of Siva and the followers of the Prophet, and it was probably not until

the middle of the sixteenth century that the Hindu kingdom of

Pajajaran, which at one period of the history of Java seems to have

exercised suzerainty over the princedoms in the western part of the

island, came to an end, [1248] while other smaller heathen communities

survived to a much later period, [1249]—some even to the present day.

The history of one of these—the so-called Baduwis—is of especial

interest; they are the descendants of the adherents of the old

religion, who after the fall of Pajajaran fled into the woods and the

recesses of the mountains, where they might uninterruptedly carry out

the observances of their ancestral faith. In later times, when they

submitted to the rule of the Musalman Sultan of Bantam, they were

allowed to continue in the exercise of their religion, on condition

that no increase should be allowed in the numbers of those who

professed this idolatrous faith; [1250] and strange to say, they still

observe this custom, although the Dutch rule has been so long

established in Java and sets them free from the necessity of obedience

to this ancient agreement. They strictly limit their number to forty

households, and when the community increases beyond this limit, one

family or more has to leave this inner circle and settle among the

Muhammadan population in one of the surrounding villages. [1251]

But, though the work of conversion in the west of Java proceeded more

slowly than in the other parts of the island, yet, owing largely to the

fact that Hinduism had not taken such deep root among the people here

as in the centre of the island, the victory of Islam over the heathen

worship which it supplanted was more complete than in the districts

which came more immediately under the rule of the Rajas of Majapahit.

The Muhammadan law is here a living force and the civilisation brought

into the country from Arabia has interwoven itself with the government

and the life of the people; and it has been remarked that at the

present day the Muhammadans of the west of Java, who study their

religion at all or have performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, form as a

rule the most intelligent and prosperous part of the population. [1252]

We have already seen that large sections of the Javanese remained

heathen for centuries after the establishment of Muhammadan kingdoms in

the island; at the present day the whole population of Java, with some

trifling exceptions, is Muhammadan, and though many superstitions and

customs have survived among them from the days of their pagan

ancestors, still the tendency is continually in the direction of the

guidance of thought and conduct in accordance with the teaching of

Islam. This long work of conversion has proceeded peacefully and

gradually, and the growth of Muslim states in this island belongs

rather to its political than to its religious history, since the

progress of the religion has been achieved by the work rather of

missionaries than of princes.

While the Musalmans of Java were plotting against the Hindu Government

and taking the rule of the country into their own hands by force, a

revolution of a wholly peaceful character was being carried on in other

parts of the Archipelago through the preaching of the Muslim

missionaries who were slowly but surely achieving success in their

proselytising efforts. Let us first turn our attention to the history

of this propagandist movement in the Molucca islands.

The trade in cloves must have brought the Moluccas into contact with

the islanders of the western half of the Archipelago from very early

times, and the converted Javanese and other Malays who came into these

islands to trade, spread their faith among the inhabitants of the

coast. [1253] The companions of Magellan brought back a curious story

of the way in which these men introduced their religious doctrines

among the Muluccans. “The kings of these islands [1254] a few years

before the arrival of the Spaniards began to believe in the immortality

of the soul, induced by no other argument but that they had seen a very

beautiful little bird, that never settled on the earth nor on anything

that was of the earth, and the Mahometans, who traded as merchants in

those islands, told them that this little bird was born in paradise,

and that paradise is the place where rest the souls of those that are

dead. And for this reason these seignors joined the sect of Mahomet,

because it promises many marvellous things of this place of the souls.”

[1255]

Islam seems first to have begun to make progress here in the fifteenth

century. A heathen king of Tidor yielded to the persuasions of an Arab,

named Shaykh Manṣūr, and embraced Islam together with many of his

subjects. The heathen name of the king, Tjireli Lijatu, was changed to

that of Jamāl al-Dīn, while his eldest son was called Manṣūr after

their Arab teacher. [1256] It was the latter prince who entertained the

Spanish expedition that reached Tidor in 1521, shortly after the

ill-fated death of Magellan. Pigafetta, the historian of this

expedition, calls him Raia Sultan Mauzor, and says that he was more

than fifty-five years old, and that not fifty years had passed since

the Muhammadans came to live in these islands. [1257]

Islam seems to have gained a footing on the neighbouring island of

Ternate a little earlier. The Portuguese, who came to this island the

same year as the Spaniards reached Tidor, were informed by the

inhabitants that it had been introduced a little more than eighty

years. [1258]

According to the Portuguese account [1259] also the Sultan of Ternate

was the first of the Muluccan chieftains who became a Muslim. The

legend of the introduction of Islam into this island tells how a

merchant, named Datu Mullā Ḥusayn, excited the curiosity of the people

by reading the Qurʼān aloud in their presence; they tried to imitate

the characters written in the book, but could not read them, so they

asked the merchant how it was that he could read them, while they could

not; he replied that they must first believe in God and His Apostle;

whereupon they expressed their willingness to accept his teaching, and

became converted to the faith. [1260] The Sultan of Ternate, who

occupied the foremost place among the independent rulers in these

islands, is said to have made a journey to Gresik, in Java, in order to

embrace the Muhammadan faith there, in 1495. [1261] He was assisted in

his propagandist efforts by a certain Pati Putah, who had made the

journey from Hitu in Amboina to Java in order to learn the doctrines of

the new faith, and on his return spread the knowledge of Islam among

the people of Amboina. [1262] Islam, however, seems at first to have

made but slow progress, and to have met with considerable opposition

from those islanders who clung zealously to their old superstitions and

mythology, so that the old idolatry continued for some time crudely

mixed up with the teachings of the Qurʼān, and keeping the minds of the

people in a perpetual state of incertitude. [1263] The Portuguese

conquest also made the progress of Islam slower than it would otherwise

have been. They drove out the Qāḍī, whom they found instructing the

people in the doctrines of Muḥammad, and spread Christianity among the

heathen population with some considerable, though short-lived success.

[1264] For when the Muluccans took advantage of the attention of the

Portuguese being occupied with their own domestic troubles, in the

latter half of the sixteenth century, to try to shake off their power,

they instituted a fierce persecution against the Christians, many of

whom suffered martyrdom, and others recanted, so that Christianity lost

all the ground it had gained, [1265] and from this time onwards, the

opposition to the political domination of the Christians secured a

readier welcome for the Muslim teachers who came in increasing numbers

from the west. [1266] The Dutch completed the destruction of

Christianity in the Moluccas by driving out the Spanish and Portuguese

from these islands in the seventeenth century, whereupon the Jesuit

fathers carried off the few remaining Christians of Ternate with them

to the Philippines. [1267]

From these islands Islam spread into the rest of the Moluccas; though

for some time the conversions were confined to the inhabitants of the

coast. [1268] Most of the converts came from among the Malays, who

compose the whole population of the smaller islands, but inhabit the

coast-lands only of the larger ones, the interior being inhabited by

Alfurs. But converts in later times were drawn from among the latter

also. [1269] Even so early as 1521, there was a Muhammadan king of

Gilolo, a kingdom on the western side of the northern limb of the

island of Halemahera. [1270] In modern times the existence of certain

regulations, devised for the benefit of the state-religion, has

facilitated to some extent the progress of the Muhammadan religion

among the Alfurs of the mainland, e.g. if any one of them is discovered

to have had illicit intercourse with a Muhammadan girl, he must marry

her and become a Muslim; any of the Alfur women who marry Muhammadans

must embrace the faith of their husbands; offences against the law may

be atoned for by conversion to Islam; and in filling up any vacancy

that may happen to occur among the chiefs, less regard is paid to the

lawful claims of a candidate than to his readiness to become a

Musalman. [1271]

Similarly, Islam in Borneo is mostly confined to the coast, although it

had gained a footing in the island as early as the beginning of the

sixteenth century. About this time, it was adopted by the people of

Banjarmasin, a kingdom on the southern side, which had been tributary

to the Hindu kingdom of Majapahit, until its overthrow in 1478; [1272]

they owed their conversion to one of the Muhammadan states that rose on

the ruins of the latter. [1273] The story is that the people of

Banjarmasin asked for assistance towards the suppression of a revolt,

and that it was given on condition that they adopted the new religion;

whereupon a number of Muhammadans came over from Java, suppressed the

revolt and effected the work of conversion. [1274] On the north-west

coast, the Spaniards found a Muhammadan king at Brunai, when they

reached this place in 1521. [1275] A little later, 1550, it was

introduced into the kingdom of Sukadana, [1276] in the western part of

the island, by Arabs coming from Palembang in Sumatra. [1277] The

reigning king refused to abandon the faith of his fathers, but during

the forty years that elapsed before his death (in 1590), the new

religion appears to have made considerable progress. His successor

became a Musalman and married the daughter of a prince of a

neighbouring island, in which apparently Islam had been long

established; [1278] during his reign, a traveller, [1279] who visited

the island in 1600, speaks of Muhammadanism as being a common religion

along the coast. The inhabitants of the interior, however, he tells us,

were all idolaters—as indeed they remain for the most part to the

present day. The progress of Islam in the kingdom of Sukadana seems now

to have drawn the attention of the centre of the Muhammadan world to

this distant spot, and in the reign of the next prince, a certain

Shaykh Shams al-Dīn came from Mecca bringing with him a present of a

copy of the Qurʼān and a large hyacinth ring, together with a letter in

which this defender of the faith received the honourable title of

Sultan Muḥammad Ṣafī al-Dīn. [1280]

In the latter part of the eighteenth century one of the inland tribes,

called the Idaans, dwelling in the interior of north Borneo, is said to

have looked upon the Muhammadans of the coast with very great respect,

as having a religion which they themselves had not yet got. [1281]

Dalrymple, who obtained his information on the Idaans of Borneo during

his visit to Sulu from 1761 to 1764, tells us that they “entertain a

just regret of their own ignorance, and a mean idea of themselves on

that account; for, when they come into the houses, or vessels, of the

Mahometans, they pay them the utmost veneration, as superior

intelligences, who know their Creator; they will not sit down where the

Mahometans sleep, nor will they put their fingers into the same chunam,

or betel box, but receive a portion with the utmost humility, and in

every instance denote, with the most abject attitudes and gesture, the

veneration they entertain for a God unknown, in the respect they pay to

those who have a knowledge of Him.” [1282] These people appear since

that time to have embraced the Muhammadan faith, [1283] one of the

numerous instances of the powerful impression that Islam produces upon

tribes that are low down in the scale of civilisation. From time to

time other accessions have been gained in the persons of the numerous

colonists, Arabs, Bugis and Malays, as well as Chinese (who have had

settlements here since the seventh century), [1284] and of the slaves

introduced into the island from different countries; so that at the

present day the Muhammadans of Borneo are a very mixed race. [1285]

Many of these foreigners were still heathen when they first came to

Borneo, and of a higher civilisation than the Dyaks whom they conquered

or drove into the interior, where they mostly still remain heathen,

except in the western part of the island, in which from time to time

small tribes of Dyaks embrace Islam. [1286] When the pagan Dyaks change

their faith, it is more commonly the case that they yield to the

persuasions of the Muhammadan rather than to those of the Christian

missionary, or, having first embraced Christianity they then pass over

to Islam, and the Muhammadans are making zealous efforts to win

converts both from among the heathen and the Christian Dyaks. [1287]

In the island of Celebes we find a similar slow growth of the

Muhammadan religion, taking its rise among the people of the coast and

slowly making its way into the interior. Only the more civilised

portion of the inhabitants has, however, adopted Islam; this is mainly

divided into two tribes, the Macassars and the Bugis, who inhabit the

south-west peninsula, the latter, however, also forming a large

proportion of the coast population on the other peninsulas. The

interior of the island, except in the south-west peninsula where nearly

all the inhabitants are Muhammadan, is still heathen and is populated

chiefly by the Alfurs, a race low in the scale of civilisation, who

also form the majority of the inhabitants of the north, the east and

the south-east peninsulas; at the extremity of the first of these

peninsulas, in Minahassa, they have in large numbers been converted to

Christianity; the Muhammadans did not make their way hither until after

the Portuguese had gained a firm footing in this part of the island,

and the Alfurs whom they converted to Roman Catholicism were turned

into Protestants by the Dutch, whose missionaries have laboured in

Minahassa with very considerable success. But Islam is slowly making

its way among the heathen tribes of Alfurs in different parts of the

island, both in the districts directly administered by the Dutch

Government, and those under the rule of native chiefs. [1288]

When the Portuguese first visited the island about 1540, they found

only a few Muhammadan strangers in Gowa, the capital of the Macassar

kingdom, the natives being still unconverted, and it was not until the

beginning of the seventeenth century that Islam began to be generally

adopted among them. The history of the movement is especially

interesting, as we have here one of the few cases in which Christianity

and Islam have been competing for the allegiance of heathen people. One

of the incidents in this contest is thus admirably told by an old

compiler: “The discovery of so considerable a country was looked upon

by the Portuguese as a Matter of Great Consequence, and Measures were

taken to secure the Affections of those whom it was not found easy to

conquer; but, on the other hand, capable of being obliged, or rendered

useful, as their allies, by good usage. The People were much braver,

and withal had much better Sense than most of the Indians; and

therefore, after a little Conversation with the Europeans, they began,

in general, to discern that there was no Sense or Meaning in their own

Religion; and the few of them who had been made Christians by the care

of Don Antonio Galvano (Governor of the Moluccas), were not so

thoroughly instructed themselves as to be able to teach them a new

Faith. The whole People, in general, however, disclaimed their old

Superstitions, and became Deists at once; but, not satisfied with this,

they determined to send, at the same time, to Malacca and to Achin,

[1289] to desire from the one, Christian Priests; and from the other,

Doctors of the Mohammedan Law; resolving to embrace the Religion of

those Teachers who came first among them. The Portugeze have hitherto

been esteemed zealous enough for their Religion; but it seems that Don

Ruis Perera, who was then Governor of Malacca, was a little deficient

in his Concern for the Faith, since he made a great and very

unnecessary delay in sending the Priests that were desired. On the

other hand, the Queen of Achin being a furious Mohammedan no sooner

received an Account of this Disposition in the people of the Island of

Celebes than she immediately dispatched a vessel full of Doctors of the

Law, who in a short time, established their Religion effectually among

the Inhabitants. Some time after came the Christian Priests, and

inveighed bitterly against the Law of Mohammed but to no Purpose; the

People of Celebes had made their Choice, and there was no Possibility

of bringing them to alter it. One of the Kings of the Island, indeed,

who had before embraced Christianity, persisted in the Faith, and most

of his Subjects were converted to it; but still, the Bulk of the People

of Celebes continued Mohammedans, and are so to this Day, and the

greatest Zealots for their Religion of any in the Indies.” [1290]

This event is said to have occurred in the year 1603. [1291] The

frequent references to it in contemporary literature make it impossible

to doubt the genuineness of the story. [1292] In the little

principality of Tallo, to the north of Gowa, with which it has always

been confederated, is still to be seen the tomb of one of the most

famous missionaries to the Macassars, by name Khaṭīb Tungal. The prince

of this state, after his conversion proved himself a most zealous

champion of the new faith, and it was through his influence that it was

generally adopted by all the tribes speaking the Macassar language. The

sequel of the movement is not of so peaceful a character. The Macassars

were carried away by their zeal for their newly adopted faith, to make

an attempt to force it on their neighbours the Bugis. The king of Gowa

made an offer to the king of Boni to consider him in all respects as an

equal if he would worship the one true God. The latter consulted his

people on the matter, who said, “We have not yet fought, we have not

yet been conquered.” They tried the issue of a battle and were

defeated. The king accordingly became a Muhammadan and began on his own

account to attempt by force to impose his own belief on his subjects

and on the smaller states, his neighbours. Strange to say, the people

applied for help to the king of Macassar, who sent ambassadors to

demand from the king of Boni an answer to the following

questions,—Whether the king, in his persecution, was instigated by a

particular revelation from the Prophet?—or whether he paid obedience to

some ancient custom?—or followed his own personal pleasure? If for the

first reason, the king of Gowa requested information; if for the

second, he would lend his cordial co-operation; if for the third, the

king of Boni must desist, for those whom he presumed to oppress were

the friends of Gowa. The king of Boni made no reply and the Macassars

having marched a great army into the country defeated him in three

successive battles, forced him to fly the country, and reduced Boni

into a province. After thirty years of subjection, the people of Boni,

with the assistance of the Dutch, revolted against the Macassars, and

assumed the headship of the tribes of Celebes, in the place of their

former masters. [1293] The propagation of Islam certainly seems to have

been gradual and slow among the Bugis, [1294] but when they had once

adopted the new religion, it seems to have stirred them up to action,

as it did the Arabs (though this newly-awakened energy in either case

turned in rather different directions),—and to have made them what they

are now, at once the bravest men and the most enterprising merchants

and navigators of the Archipelago. [1295] In their trading vessels they

make their way to all parts of the Archipelago, from the coast of New

Guinea to Singapore, and their numerous settlements, in the

establishment of which the Bugis have particularly distinguished

themselves, have introduced Islam into many a heathen island: e.g. one

of their colonies is to be found in a state that extends over a

considerable part of the south coast of Flores, where, intermingling

with the native population, which formerly consisted partly of Roman

Catholics, they have succeeded in converting all the inhabitants of

this state to Islam. [1296]

In their native island of Celebes also the Bugis have combined

proselytising efforts with their commercial enterprises, and in the

little kingdom of Bolaäng-Mongondou in the northern peninsula [1297]

they have succeeded, in the course of the present century, in winning

over to Islam a Christian population whose conversion dates from the

end of the seventeenth century. The first Christian king of

Bolaäng-Mongondou was Jacobus Manopo (1689–1709), in whose reign

Christianity spread rapidly, through the influence of the Dutch East

India Company and the preaching of the Dutch clergy. [1298] His

successors were all Christian until 1844, when the reigning Raja,

Jacobus Manuel Manopo, embraced Islam. His conversion was the crown of

a series of proselytising efforts that had been in progress since the

beginning of the century, for it was about this time that the zealous

efforts of some Muhammadan traders—Bugis and others—won over some

converts to Islam in one of the coast towns of the southern kingdom,

Mongondou; from this same town two trader missionaries, Ḥakīm Bagus and

Imām Tuwéko by name, set out to spread their faith throughout the rest

of this kingdom. They made a beginning with the conversion of some

slaves and native women whom they married, and these little by little

persuaded their friends and relatives to embrace the new faith. From

Mongondou Islam spread into the northern kingdom Bolaäng; here, in

1830, the whole population was either Christian or heathen, with the

exception of two or three Muhammadan settlers; but the zealous

preachers of Islam, the Bugis, and the Arabs who assisted them in their

missionary labours, soon achieved a wide-spread success. The

Christians, whose knowledge of the doctrines of their religion was very

slight and whose faith was weak, were ill prepared with the weapons of

controversy to meet the attacks of the rival creed; despised by the

Dutch Government, neglected and well-nigh abandoned by the authorities

of the Church, they began to look on these foreigners, some of whom

married and settled among them, as their friends. As the work of

conversion progressed, the visits of these Bugis and Arabs,—at first

rare,—became more frequent, and their influence in the country very

greatly increased, so much so that about 1832 an Arab married a

daughter of the king, Cornelius Manopo, who was himself a Christian;

many of the chiefs, and some of the most powerful among them, about the

same time, abandoned Christianity and embraced Islam. In this way Islam

had gained a firm footing in his kingdom before Raja Jacobus Manuel

Manopo became a Muslim in 1844; this prince had made repeated

applications to the Dutch authorities at Manado to appoint a successor

to the Christian schoolmaster, Jacobus Bastiaan,—whose death had been a

great loss to the Christian community—but to no purpose, and learning

from the resident at Manado that the Dutch Government was quite

indifferent as to whether the people of his state were Christians or

Muhammadans, so long as they were loyal, openly declared himself a

Musalman and tried every means to bring his subjects over to the same

faith. An Arab missionary took advantage of the occurrence of a

terrible earthquake in the following year, to prophecy the destruction

of Bolaäng-Mongondou, unless the people speedily became converted to

Islam. Many in their terror hastened to follow this advice, and the

Raja and his nobles lent their support to the missionaries and Arab

merchants, whose methods of dealing with the dilatory were not always

of the gentlest. Nearly half the population, however, still remains

heathen, but the progress of Islam among them, though slow, is

continuous and sure. [1299]

The neighbouring island of Sambawa likewise probably received its

knowledge of this faith from Celebes, through the preaching of

missionaries from Macassar between 1540 and 1550. All the more

civilised inhabitants are true believers and are said to be stricter in

the performance of their religious duties than any of the neighbouring

Muhammadan peoples. This is largely due to a revivalist movement set on

foot by a certain Ḥājī ʻAli after the disastrous eruption of Mount

Tambora in 1815, the fearful suffering that ensued thereon being made

use of to stir up the people to a more strict observance of the

precepts of their religion and the leading of a more devout life.

[1300] At the present time Islam still continues to win over fresh

converts in this island. [1301]

The Sasaks of the neighbouring island of Lombok also owed their

conversion to the preaching of the Bugis, who form a large colony here,

having either crossed over the strait from Sambawa or come directly

from Celebes: at any rate the conversion appears to have taken place in

a peaceable manner. [1302] The population of Lombok falls into two

distinct divisions, the Sasaks and the Balinese; the first of these,

consisting of the Muhammadan Sasaks, the original inhabitants of the

island, far outnumbers the second, but about the middle of the

eighteenth century they came under the rule of the Balinese and soon

found their island overrun by swarms of the Hindu neighbours. [1303]

The rule of the Balinese was very oppressive, and they made

efforts—though with little success—to bring their Muslim subjects over

to Hinduism; the Sasaks tried in vain to shake off the yoke of their

oppressors, and more than once appealed to the Dutch Government, before

the expedition of 1894 brought peace to the island and established an

orderly administration under Dutch rule. The new government brought

with it a large number of native Muhammadan officials, who throw in

their influence on the side of their own faith, and it is thus expected

that one of the results of the Dutch conquest of Lombok will be to give

a great impetus to Islam in this island. [1304]

In the Philippine Islands we find a struggle between Christianity and

Islam for the allegiance of the inhabitants, somewhat similar in

character to that in Celebes, but more stern and enduring, entangling

the Spaniards and the Muslims in a fierce and bloody conflict, even up

to the nineteenth century. It is uncertain when Islam first reached

these islands. [1305] The traditionary annals of Mindanao represent

Islam as having been introduced from Johore, in the Malay Peninsula, by

a certain Sharīf Kabungsuwan, who settled with a number of followers in

the island and married there. He is said to have refused to land until

the men who came to meet him on his arrival promised to embrace Islam,

and these early records give the impression that the landing of

Kabungsuwan and the conversion of the people of Mindanao at first

proceeded quite peacefully; but after he had established his power, he

began to conquer the neighbouring chiefs and tribes, and they accepted

his religion in submitting to his authority. [1306] The Spaniards who

discovered them in 1521, found the population of the northern islands

to be rude and simple pagans, while Mindanao and the Sulu Islands were

occupied by more civilised Muhammadan tribes. [1307] The latter up to

the close of the nineteenth century successfully resisted for the most

part all the efforts of the Christians towards conquest and conversion,

so that the Spanish missionaries despaired of ever effecting their

conversion. [1308] The success of Islam as compared with Christianity

has been due in a great measure to the different form under which these

two faiths were presented to the natives. The adoption of the latter

implied the loss of all political freedom and national independence,

and hence came to be regarded as a badge of slavery. The methods

adopted by the Spaniards for the propagation of their religion were

calculated to make it unpopular from the beginning; their violence and

intolerance were in strong contrast to the conciliatory behaviour of

the Muhammadan missionaries, who learned the language of the people,

adopted their customs, intermarried with them, and melting into the

mass of the people, neither arrogated to themselves the exclusive

rights of a privileged race nor condemned the natives to the level of a

degraded caste. The Spaniards, on the other hand, were ignorant of the

language, habits and manners of the natives; their intemperance and

above all their avarice and rapacity brought their religion into odium;

while its propagation was intended to serve as an instrument of their

political advancement. [1309] It is not difficult therefore to

understand the opposition offered by the natives to the introduction of

Christianity, which indeed only became the religion of the people in

those parts in which the inhabitants were weak enough, or the island

small enough, to enable the Spaniards to effect a total subjugation;

the native Christians after their conversion had to be forced to

perform their religious duties through fear of punishment, and were

treated exactly like school-children. [1310] Up to the time of the

American occupation of the Philippine Islands the independent

Muhammadan kingdom of Mindanao was a refuge for those who wished to

escape from the hated Christian government; [1311] the island of Sulu,

also, though nominally a Spanish possession since 1878, formed another

centre of Muhammadan opposition to Christianity, Spanish-knowing

renegades even being found here. [1312]

We have no certain historical evidence as to how long the inhabitants

of the Sulu Islands had been Muhammadan, before the arrival of the

Spaniards. The annals of Sulu give the name of Sharīf Karīm al-Makhdūm

as the first missionary of Islam in these islands. He is said to have

been an Arab who went to Malacca about the middle of the fourteenth

century and converted Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh and the people of Malacca to

Islam. Continuing his journey eastward, he reached Sulu about the year

1380 and settled in Bwansa, [1313] the old capital of Sulu, where the

people built a mosque for him and many of the chiefs accepted his

teachings. He is said to have visited almost every island of the

Archipelago and to have made converts in many places; his grave is said

to be on the island of Sibutu. [1314] The next missionary is said to

have been Abū Bakr, who is also stated to have been an Arab, and to

have commenced his missionary labours in Malacca and to have made his

way to Palembang and Brunei, and reached Sulu about 1450; he built

mosques and carried on a successful propaganda. The Muslim king of

Bwansa, Raja Baginda, gave him his daughter in marriage, and appointed

him his heir, and Abū Bakr is credited with having organised the

government and legislation of Sulu on orthodox Muslim lines as far as

local custom would allow. [1315] Though so long converted, the people

of Sulu are far from being rigid Muhammadans, indeed, the influence of

the numerous Christian slaves that they carried off from the

Philippines in their predatory excursions used to be so great that it

was even asserted [1316] that “they would long ere this have become

professed Christians but from the prescience that such a change, by

investing a predominating influence in the priesthood, would inevitably

undermine their own authority, and pave the way to the transfer of

their dominions to the Spanish yoke, an occurrence which fatal

experience has too forcibly instructed all the surrounding nations that

unwarily embrace the Christian persuasion.” Further, the aggressive

behaviour of the Spanish priests who established a mission in Sulu

created in the mind of the people a violent antipathy to the foreign

religion. [1317]

Since the American occupation of the Philippines, the influence of

Islam has been considerably restricted, and is now confined to the

island of Palawan, the south coast of Mindanao and the archipelago of

Sulu. [1318] But it is said to be seeking to extend its propaganda

among the northern islands, and to have made a beginning of missionary

activity even in Manila. Certain conditions are said to favour its

success, especially the fact that the Filipinos are prejudiced against

Christianity on account of the abuses that led them to take up arms

against the Spanish friars. [1319]

As has been already mentioned, Islam has been most favourably received

by the more civilised races of the Malay Archipelago, and has taken but

little root among the lower races. Such are the Papuans of New Guinea,

and the islands to the north-west of it, viz. Waigyu, Misool, Waigama

and Salawatti. These islands, together with the peninsula of Onin, on

the north-west of New Guinea, were in the sixteenth century subject to

the Sultan of Batjan, [1320] one of the kings of the Moluccas. Through

the influence of the Muhammadan rulers of Batjan, the Papuan chiefs of

these islands adopted Islam, [1321] and though the mass of the people

in the interior have remained heathen up to the present day, the

inhabitants of the coast are Muhammadans largely no doubt owing to the

influence of settlers from the Moluccas. [1322] In New Guinea itself,

very few of the Papuans seem to have become Muhammadans. Islam was

introduced into the west coast (probably in the peninsula of Onin) by

Muhammadan merchants, who propagated their religion among the

inhabitants, as early as 1606. [1323] But it appears to have made very

little progress during the centuries that have elapsed since then,

[1324] and the Papuans have shown as much reluctance to become

Muhammadans as to accept the teachings of the Christian missionaries,

who have laboured among them without much success since 1855. The

Muhammadans of the neighbouring islands have been accused of holding

the Papuans in too great contempt to make efforts to spread Islam among

them. [1325] The name of one missionary, however, is found, a certain

Imām Dikir (? Dhikr), who came from one of the islands on the

south-east of Ceram about 1856 and introduced Islam into the little

island of Adi, south of the peninsula of Onin; after fulfilling his

mission he returned to his own home, resisting the importunities of the

inhabitants to settle among them. [1326] Muhammadan traders from Ceram

and Goram are reported to have made a number of converts from among the

heathen during the first decade of the twentieth century. [1327]

Similar efforts are being made to convert the Papuans of the

neighbouring Kei Islands. In the middle of the nineteenth century there

were said to be hardly any Muhammadans on these islands, with the

exception of the descendants of immigrants from the Banda Islands; some

time before, missionaries from Ceram had succeeded in making some

converts, but the precepts of the Qurʼān were very little observed,

both forbidden meats and intoxicating liquors being indulged in. The

women, however, were said to be stricter in their adherence to their

faith than the men, so that when their husbands wished to indulge in

swine’s flesh, they had to do so in secret, their wives not allowing it

to be brought into the house. [1328] But in 1887 it was noted that

there had been a revival of religious life among the Kei islanders, and

the number of Muhammadans was daily increasing. Arab merchants from

Madura, Java, and Bali proved themselves zealous propagandists of Islam

and left no means untried to win converts, sometimes enforcing their

arguments by threats and violence, and at other times by bribes: as a

rule new converts were said to get 200 florins’ worth of presents,

while chiefs received as much as a thousand florins. [1329] At the

close of the nineteenth century about 8000 of the Kei islanders were

said to be Muhammadan out of a total population of 23,000. [1330]

The above sketch of the spread of Islam from west to east through the

Malay Archipelago comprises but a small part of the history of the

missionary work of Islam in these islands. Many of the facts of this

history are wholly unrecorded, and what can be gleaned from native

chronicles and the works of European travellers, officials and

missionaries is necessarily fragmentary and incomplete. But there is

evidence enough to show the existence of peaceful missionary efforts to

spread the faith of Islam during the last six hundred years: sometimes

indeed the sword has been drawn in support of the cause of religion,

but preaching and persuasion rather than force and violence have been

the main characteristics of this missionary movement. The marvellous

success that has been achieved has been largely the work of traders,

who won their way to the hearts of the natives, by learning their

language, adopting their manners and customs, and began quietly and

gradually to spread the knowledge of their religion by first converting

the native women they married and the persons associated with them in

their business relations. Instead of holding themselves apart in proud

isolation, they gradually melted into the mass of the population,

employing all their superiority of intelligence and civilisation for

the work of conversion and making such skilful compromises in the

doctrines and practices of their faith as were needed to recommend it

to the people they wished to attract. [1331] In fact, as Buckle said of

them, “The Mahometan missionaries are very judicious.” [1332]

Beside the traders, there have been numbers of what may be called

professional missionaries—theologians, preachers, jurisconsults and

pilgrims. The latter have, in recent years, been especially active in

the work of proselytising, in stirring up a more vigorous and

consistent religious life among their fellow-countrymen, and in purging

away the lingering remains of heathen habits and beliefs. The number of

those who make the pilgrimage to Mecca from all parts of the

Archipelago is constantly on the increase, and there is in consequence

a proportionate growth of Muhammadan influence and Muhammadan thought.

Up to the middle of the nineteenth century the Dutch Government tried

to put obstacles in the way of the pilgrims and passed an order that no

one should be allowed to make the pilgrimage to the holy city without a

passport, for which he had to pay 110 florins; and any one who evaded

this order was on his return compelled to pay a fine of double that

amount. [1333] Accordingly it is not surprising to find that in 1852

the number of pilgrims was so low as seventy, but in the same year this

order was rescinded, and since then, there has been a steady increase.

The average number of pilgrims during the last decade of the nineteenth

century was 7000—during the first decade of the twentieth, 7300; [1334]

but the numbers vary considerably from year to year, the largest

recorded number from the Dutch Indies being 14,234 in 1910. [1335]

Such an increase is no doubt largely due to the increased facilities of

communication between Mecca and the Malay Archipelago, but, as a

Christian missionary has observed, this by no means “diminishes the

importance of the fact, especially as the Hadjis, whose numbers have

grown so rapidly, have by no means lost in quality what they gained in

quantity; on the contrary, there are now amongst them many more

thoroughly acquainted with the doctrines of Islam, and wholly imbued

with Moslem fanaticism and hatred against the unbelievers, than there

formerly were.” [1336] The reports of the Dutch Government and of

Christian missionaries bear unanimous testimony to the influence and

the proselytising zeal of these pilgrims who return to their homes as

at once reformers and missionaries. [1337] Beside the pilgrims who

content themselves with merely visiting the sacred places and

performing the due ceremonies, and those who make a longer stay in

order to complete their theological studies, there is a large colony of

Malays in Mecca at the present time, who have taken up their residence

permanently in the sacred city. These are in constant communication

with their fellow-countrymen in their native land, and their efforts

have been largely effectual in purging Muhammadanism in the Malay

Archipelago from the contamination of heathen customs and modes of

thought that have survived from an earlier period. A large number of

religious books is also printed in Mecca in the various languages

spoken by the Malay Muhammadans and carried to all parts of the

Archipelago. Indeed Mecca has been well said to have more influence on

the religious life of these islands than on Turkey, India or Bukhārā.

[1338]

As might be anticipated from a consideration of these facts, there has

been of recent years a very great awakening of missionary activity in

the Malay Archipelago, and the returned pilgrims, whether as merchants

or religious teachers, become preachers of Islam wherever they come in

contact with a heathen population. The religious orders moreover have

extended their organisation to the Malay Archipelago, [1339] even the

youngest of them—the Sanūsiyyah—finding adherents in the most distant

islands, [1340] one of the signs of its influence being the adoption of

the name Sanūsī by many Malays, when in Mecca they change their native

for Arabic names. [1341]

The Dutch Government has been accused by Christian missionaries of

favouring the spread of Islam; however this may have been, it is

certain that the work of the Muslim missionaries is facilitated by the

fact that Malay, which is spoken by hardly any but Muhammadans, has

been adopted as the official language of the Dutch Government, except

in Java; and as the Dutch civil servants are everywhere attended by a

crowd of Muhammadan subordinate officials, political agents, clerks,

interpreters and traders, they carry Islam with them into every place

they visit. All persons that have to do business with the Government

are obliged to learn the Malay language, and they seldom learn it

without at the same time becoming Musalmans. In this way the most

influential people embrace Islam, and the rest soon follow their

example. [1342] Thus Islam is at the present time rapidly driving out

heathenism from the Malay Archipelago.