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 [364]the East.1 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,2 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.3

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.4 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.5 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.6 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 [365]ports of these islands, where they sowed the seed of the new religion.7

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.”8 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 [366]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.9 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.10 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.11 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,12 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 [367]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.13 Further, one of the Malay chronicles says that it was Sultan ʻAlī Mug͟hāyat 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.14 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 Shayk͟h 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 [368]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 Shayk͟h 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.15

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.16

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 Shayk͟h 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.17 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.18 Though its power had by this time much [369]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.19 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,20 others dwelling in the mountains of the Rau country on the equator have likewise become Musalmans;21 on the east coast also conversions of Bataks, who come much in contact with Malays, are not uncommon.22

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,23 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 [370]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.24 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.25

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.26 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.27 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,28 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 [371]some living in the centre of the sphere of influence of the Christian mission.29

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;30 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.31

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.32 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.33

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 [372]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.34

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.35 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.36 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 [373]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.37 But the general character of this document makes its trustworthiness exceedingly doubtful,38 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.39

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. 1501,40 which (divested of certain miraculous incidents) is as follows: A learned Arab, by name Shayk͟h 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, Shayk͟h 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 [374]wood were all heaped up in his presence, and were all broken and cut to pieces by Shayk͟h ʻAbd Allāh with his sword and with an axe, and the fragments consumed in the fire. The Shayk͟h 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 Shayk͟h, they were initiated into the doctrines of Islam. The Shayk͟h 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 Shayk͟h seated near the Raja. The Raja explained to them the object of the Shayk͟h’s coming; whereupon the four chiefs expressed their readiness to follow the example of his highness, saying, “We hope that Shayk͟h 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. Shayk͟h 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 Shayk͟h. After some consultation, the name of the Raja was changed at his request to Sultan Muzlaf al-Shāh, because, the Shayk͟h averred, it is a celebrated name and is found in the Qurʼān.41

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 [375]drums were attached to them to be beaten to call the people to prayer on Fridays. Shayk͟h 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 Shayk͟h ʻAbd Allāh reached Atjeh, and the Sultan of that country and a certain Shayk͟h 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 Shayk͟h 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 Shayk͟h ʻAbd Allāh, thanking the donors. So Shayk͟h 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 Shayk͟h, 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 Shayk͟h’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 Bag͟hdād, 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 Shayk͟h 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.42

It must not be supposed that the labours of Shayk͟h ʻAbd Allāh were crowned with complete success, for we learn [376]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.43 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.44 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.45

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.46 Converts are also made from among the wild tribes of the Peninsula.47

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.48 [377]

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.49 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. [378]

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.50

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.51 Here he occupied himself successfully in the work of conversion, and speedily gathered a small band of believers around him. [379]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 tombs52 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.”53 [380]

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,54 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.55

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.56 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.57 From this union was born Raden Raḥmat, who was carefully brought up by his father in the Muhammadan religion and is still [381]venerated by the Javanese as the chief apostle of Islam to their country.58

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, Shayk͟h 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 [382]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 widow59 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.60 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 Shayk͟h K͟halīfah 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 [383]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 [384]the completion of the mosque,61 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 1478,62 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.63 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 [385]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.64

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 Shayk͟h 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.65 Shayk͟h 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.66 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.67

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 [386]to have exercised suzerainty over the princedoms in the western part of the island, came to an end,68 while other smaller heathen communities survived to a much later period,69—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;70 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.71

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.72 [387]

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.73 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 islands74 a few years before the arrival of the Spaniards [388]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.”75

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 Shayk͟h 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.76 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.77

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.78

According to the Portuguese account79 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 [389]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.80 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 1495.81 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.82 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.83 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.84 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,85 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.86 The Dutch [390]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.87

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.88 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.89 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.90 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.91

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;92 they owed their conversion to one of the Muhammadan states that rose on the ruins of the latter.93 The story is that the [391]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.94 On the north-west coast, the Spaniards found a Muhammadan king at Brunai, when they reached this place in 1521.95 A little later, 1550, it was introduced into the kingdom of Sukadana,96 in the western part of the island, by Arabs coming from Palembang in Sumatra.97 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;98 during his reign, a traveller,99 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 Shayk͟h 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.100

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 [392]the coast with very great respect, as having a religion which they themselves had not yet got.101 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.”102 These people appear since that time to have embraced the Muhammadan faith,103 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),104 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.105 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.106 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.107

In the island of Celebes we find a similar slow growth of [393]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.108