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. [394]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,109 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.”110

This event is said to have occurred in the year 1603.111 [395]The frequent references to it in contemporary literature make it impossible to doubt the genuineness of the story.112 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 K͟haṭīb 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, [396]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.113 The propagation of Islam certainly seems to have been gradual and slow among the Bugis,114 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.115 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.116

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 peninsula117 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 [397]the Dutch East India Company and the preaching of the Dutch clergy.118 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 [398]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.119

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.120 At the present time Islam still continues to win over fresh converts in this island.121

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.122 The population of Lombok falls into two distinct divisions, the Sasaks and the Balinese; [399]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.123 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.124

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.125 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 [400]his power, he began to conquer the neighbouring chiefs and tribes, and they accepted his religion in submitting to his authority.126 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.127 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.128 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.129 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 [401]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.130 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;131 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.132

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-Mak͟hdūm 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,133 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.134 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 [402]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.135 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 asserted136 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.137

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.138 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.139

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 [403]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,140 one of the kings of the Moluccas. Through the influence of the Muhammadan rulers of Batjan, the Papuan chiefs of these islands adopted Islam,141 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.142 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 1606.143 But it appears to have made very little progress during the centuries that have elapsed since then,144 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.145 The name of one missionary, [404]however, is found, a certain Imām Dikir (? D͟hikr), 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.146 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.147 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.148 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.149 At the close of the nineteenth century about 8000 of the Kei islanders were said to be Muhammadan out of a total population of 23,000.150

The above sketch of the spread of Islam from west to east through the Malay Archipelago comprises but a small part [405]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.151 In fact, as Buckle said of them, “The Mahometan missionaries are very judicious.”152

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 [406]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.153 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;154 but the numbers vary considerably from year to year, the largest recorded number from the Dutch Indies being 14,234 in 1910.155

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.”156 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.157 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 [407]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 Buk͟hārā.158

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,159 even the youngest of them—the Sanūsiyyah—finding adherents in the most distant islands,160 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.161

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.162 Thus Islam is at the present time rapidly driving out heathenism from the Malay Archipelago. [408]