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Islamic Studies (Islamabad) 21:3 (1982)
A SURVEY OF THEORIES ON THE INTRODUCTION
OF ISLAM IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO
Isma'il Hamid
Most Orientalists who have studied the spread of Islam
to Southeast Asia have arrived at the conclusion that the religion
of Islam was brought to the Malay Archipelago from the
Indian subcontinent, instead of Arabia or Persia. According
to G.W.J. Drewes, the first to postulate the Indian origin of the
Islam of the Malay Archipelago was a Dutch scholar Pijnappel,
the first professor of Malay studies at the University of Leiden.
Pijnappel has attributed the permeation of Islam throughout the
Archipelago to the Shafi'i Arabs of Gujrat and Malabar, since
very frequent mentions of these regions are found in the early
history of the Malay Archipelago. Therefore, to conclude,
we see that Pijnappel was the first to propose that Islam was
brought to the Archipelago not from Arabia ;however, Pijnappel
maintained that the earliest proselytizers were Arabs from Gujrat and Malabar instead of Indians. 1
Following Pijnappel, according to Drewes, was another
Dutch scholar Snouck Hurgronje, who has also opined that
Islam was brought to the Archipelago from India, and not
directly from Arabia. In 1883, Hurgronje gave an address at
a colonial exhibition in Amsterdam in which he first announced
and developed his theory that South India was the origin of the
© Dr Muhammad Hamidullah Library, IIU, Islamabad.
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Islam of the Archipelago. He suggested that once Islam had
gained a firm hold in the port cities of South India, the numerous
Muslims of Decca who lived there served as " middlemen "
in the trade between the Near-Eastern Muslim states and the
Malay Archipelago. These Muslim traders were the first to
Islimize the inhabitants of the Archipelago. Later, certain
Arabs, especially descendents of the Prophet Muhammad,
(may peace be upon him) using the title Sayyid or Sharif,
completed the preaching of Islam either as " priests," " priest
princes," or Sultan. Hurgronje has proposed 1200as the earliest
possible date for the Islamization of the peoples of the Malay
Archipelago. The very early Islamization was the work of
Indians, who had been in contact with the Malay Archipelago
for centuries.2
In 1912, J.P. Moquette made the important discovery
that the style of the gravestones at Pasai, especially of that
dated 1424, was identical to the style of the gravestones found
at the grave of Maulana Malik Ibrahim (d. 1419) at Gresik.
Following this was the discovery that the gravestones at both
Pasai and Gresik were similar to those found at Cambay, Gujrat.
It was deduced from these discoveries that the Gujrati stone
masons produced not only for the home market, but also for
exporting to oversea markets, especially those of Sumatra and
Java. From this same evidence, it was also deduced that
Islam was brought to the Malay Archipelago from Gujrat,
India. 3
The above evidence was taken by the Dutch scholars
R.A. Kern, Schrieke, and others as the basis for their own
theory of the Indian origin of Islam in the Archipelago, which
ISLAM IN MALAYA
91
was later adopted by other scholars, such as G.H. Bousquet,
B.H.M. Vlekke and J. Gonda, who, in turn, were followed
by later Western scholars.4 T.W. Arnold has also claimed that
Islam was brought to the Archipelago from Coromandel and
Malabar in India, basing his claim upon the similarities found
between the schools of Islamic law in these three places. Today,
most of the Muslims in the Archipelago belong to the Shafi'i
school of Islamic law, which is also predominant in the
Coromandel and Malabar regions of India. This predominance
has prevailed since the time of Ibn Battiitah's visit to these
places. 5
Other scholars have held the same theory on the origin
of Islam in the Archipelago. Among them is D.G.E. Hall,
who supports the theory of the Gujrati origin of Islam here,
utilizing the evidence discovered by Moquette, viz. the similarity
between the gravestones in Gujrat and those in Sumatra and
Java and concluding from this that Islam was brought to
Sumatra and Java from Gujrat.6
R.O. Winstedt has adopted the same theory, adding
a reference to Moquette's discovery of other similar gravestones
at Bruas, the site of an Old Malay Kingdom in Perak. From
this he argues that since all the gravestones at Bruas, Pasai and
Gresik had been imported from Gujrat, Islam must also have
been brought from there. Winstedt also mentions that
Sejarah Melayu (Chapter VII) provides confirmatory evidence
of the past custom in the Malay states of importing tombstones
from India.7
Briam Harrison is yet another scholar who holds the
above theory. He maintains that, in the past, India was looked
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ISMAIL HAMEED
upon by Southeast Asia as the source of cultural inspiration.
To begin with, India converted the people of this region to the
Indian religions, Hinduism and Buddhism. Once Islam had
been introduced into India, it too was transported to the Malay
Archipelago by the Indian Muslims.8
A more recent work about the Islamization of the
Archipelago is that of H.E. Wilson, who reviews the various
theories on the spread of Islam in this region. In this analysis, Wilson favors the theory that Islam came to the Malay
Archipelago from India.9
G.E. Marrison also supports this theory, but he questions
the validity of the proposition that Islam came to the Archipelago
from Gujrat. He argues that even though the tombstones of the
first Muslim ruler came from Gujrat, it does not necessarily
follow that Islam too was brought to this region from Gujrat.
Marrison refutes the theory that Islam came from Gujrat by
showing that during the time of the Islamization of SamudraPasai, whose first Muslim ruler died in 1297, Gujrat was still
a Hindu kingdom. He also states that it was not until 1298
that Cambay fell into Muslim hands. If Gujrat was the center
of Islam from which the Muslim missionaries travelled to the
Malay Archipelago, Islam must have been established and must
have flourished in Gujrat before the death of Malik a1 Salih,
i.e. before 1297.1 0 Marrison tells us that, although there
were several Muslim invasions in Gujrat in 1024, 1178 and 1197
A.C., the Hindu kings continued to rule there until 1297. He
also says that of the coastal regions of the Indian continent only
Bengal had been conquered by Muslims at the very beginning
of the thirteenth century and had emerged as the center of
ISLAM IN MALAYA
93
Islamic proselytization from which Islam was brought to the
Archipelago. Marrison thus proposes that Islam was introduced to Samudra-Pasai by Muslim missionaries from Coromandel, at the end of the thirteenth century.11 This view has
been supported by de Jong, W.F. Wertheim, 1 2 and S.Q.
Fatimi, who supports it by arguing that since the ruler of Pasai,
Merah Silu, according to a contemporary Chinese source, used
the Bengali title Thakur, he must have been of Bengali stock.
This argument is also based upon the report of Tom Pires. 1 3
G.W.J. Drewes also appears to support Fatimi's view.
In discussing the many theories on the introduction of Islam
in the Archipelago, Drewes has reviewed the theories of the
earliest European scholars. Here mention may be made of
Keyzers, one of the earliest scholars of Muslim Law in Hollan
who maintains that there has been a relationship betwee
Egypt and the Malay Archipelago in the past, evidenced by the
observation that the Shifi'i school of law occupied an important
position in both these places. Egypt, therefore, according to
Keyzer, was the origin of Islam in the Archipelago. Niemann
(d. 1861) and De Hollander (d. 1861) also mentioned the Arab
role in the Islamization of the Archipelago. 1 4 John Crawfurd
is another scholar making the same claim and suggesting that
Islam may have been brought to the Archipelago by Arab
missionaries from Arabia, since their maritime power was then
predominant.15 Marsden has noted the same role of the
Arab missionaries in converting the Malays to Islam, quoting
as evidence an account by a Portuguese historian, Diego de
Couto, who researched in India and who reports that an Arab
missionary had converted the ruler of Malacca to Islam. 1 6
Y'-
S.M.N. a1 'Attas has maintained that Moquette's
discovery that the tombstones in Pasai and Gresik came from
Gujrat cannot be taken as direct evidence that Islam was
transported to these places by Indian Muslims. The tombstones
and this kind of material requirement of the peoples of the
region were indeed brought from India because of its proximity
to the Archipelago when compared with Arabia, a1 ' Attas
contends, however, that the most important evidence that can
be studied when considering the coming of Islam to the Malay
Archipelago is that based poun the " internal " characteristics
of Islam.17 He says :
From the seventeenth century backwards all the major
relevant (religious) literary evidence studied did not record a
single Indian author or work of Indian origin. Any author
described as "Indian" or work of "Indian origin" by western
scholars turned out to be actually an Arab or Persian, and
most of what has been described as Persian has in fact been
Arabian, whether considered ethnically or culturally. The
early missionaries too, from what is known of their names and
titles, have been Arab or Arab-Persian. It is true that some
came via India, but some also came direct from Arabia or via
Persia, and from there via China. It is true that some works
were written in India, but their origin is Arabian and Persian;
or they could even be, in a comparatively small measure, Turkish
or Maghribi and, what is more important, ,their religious
content is Middle Eastern, not Indian. 1 8
In my opinion, when considering the brocess of Islamization
of the Malay Archipelago, we should not ignore the existence of
various reports made by the natives of the region, either in the
ISLAM IN MALAYA
c
3
95
form of written records or oral traditions. These native traditions speak about past legacies, and although mixed with fictive
elements, even so they record the past history of this region. 1 9
Many of these native traditions speak about the process of
Islamization taking place in their own districts. Most of the
writers of these traditions mention that the early Muslim
missionaries who converted their forefathers to Islam were
Arab, or of Arab origin, that they came directly from Arabia,
and that some of them resided permanently in certain parts of
the East. Most of them married native women after converting
them to Islam. Their descendents continued the role of preaching
the new religion. Some of them converted native rulers and married their princesses and later on inherited and became sultgns or
rulers of certain districts ; still others held religious offices as
Qadi, Mufti and religious teachers.20
Sejarah Melayu reports that the early Muslim missionary
who converted the ruler of Malacca, Sultan Muhammad Shah,
to Islam was Sayyid 'Abdul ' Aziz, an Arab from Arabia.2 1
Hiknyat Raja-raja Pasaizz and Sejarah Melayu23 both relate
that the Sharif of Makkah sent one Shaykh Isma'il at the head of
an Islamic mission to preach Islam in Sumatra.24 Kedah Annals
or Hiknyat Merong Mahawangsa tell of how one Shaykh
'Abdullah a1 Yamani came directly from Arabia and converted
the ruler of Kedah to Islam. This ruler was later called Sultan
Muzaffar Shah.2 5 An Achehnese chronicle reports that Islam
was introduced into the northern tip of Sumatra by an Arab
missionary, whose name is given as Shaykh ' Abdullah ' Arif.
One of his disciples, Shaykh Burhan a1 Din, later continued
Shaykh 'Arif's Islamic missionary work as far as Priaman.2 6
The Sulu Genealogy contains reports that the earliest
missionaries who came to Sulu and Mindanao, for example
Sharif Awliya, Sharif Hasan and Sharif Maraja, were of Arab
origin. Winstedt mentions that the first Muslim missionary to
Java was an Arab. This missionary, Mawkina Malik Ibrahim,
came to Gresik and lived there until he died in 1419. At the time
of the fall of Majapahit, another Arab missionary, Shaykh
Nar a1 Din Ibrahim bin Mawliina Isra'il, or Sunan Jati, was
living at Jati, near Cheribon. He and his family gained great
political power, and soon he began to govern Cheribon. The
district of Jakarta was governed by one of his sons and Bantem
by Hasan a1 Din , another of his sons.27 Radin Rahmat, who
played an important role in the Islamization of Java, was the son
of an Arab Missionary from Champa. Another Arab
descendent, who became a missionary in Java, w-as Mawlana
Ishaq of Pasai, who Islamized Balambangan in the eastern most
region of Java.28
New discoveries about the relationship between South
India and the Malay Archipelago have proven that Muslim
missionaries from India also played a role in the Islamization of
the Malay Archipelago. It is indeed their contribution, as well
as that of their Arab and Persian brethren and that of the
indigenous people themselves, that helped the spread of Islam
through the whole area of the Archipelago. However, it is not
to be denied that the early Arab missionaries played an important role in paving the way for the spread of Islam in the various
regions of the Malay Archipelago mentioned above. Cesar
Adib Majul has rightly pointed out :
For an over-all picture of India's influence in Malaysian
Islam, it might become necessary to consider inclusively
ISLAM I N MALAYA
97
the important role by both Gujrat and Southern India.
However, one must note some danger of overemphasizing
the role played by Indian Muslims in conversions, for this
will negate the possible role played by the Arab Sharifs,
Sayyids and adventurers from Arabia as well as that played
by the Malay converts themselves.2 9
Several theories of how I s l ~ mwas introduced into the
Archipelago and spread through it have been advanced. The
commonest explanation and oldest theory is that this was a
accomplished through trade, as suggested by Tome Pire, who
wrote at approximately 1515. This theory suggests that
Islimization of the Archipelago was carried out peacefully by
traders, who settled in the various regions and intermarried with
the native populations. N. Krom holds the same view, and
he draws attention to similarities between the Islimization and
the Hinduization of the Archipelago, which he says was also
carried out by traders.3 0 H. Kern also holds the same theory
and has added that since wealthy traders married from the
families of various rulers they were able to acquire some political power. 3 1
A.H. John, however, has developed a different theory,
maintaining that it is unlikely that Islim was brought to this
region by traders, since it is not usual in general to consider
merchants as the bearers of religion. It is, however, possible
that certain merchants, who belonged to Safi trade guilds, were
accompanied by their shaykhs, who may have carried out
missionary work in the Archipelago.32 S.Q. Fitimi supports
this view in maintaining that the Islimization of this region was
the work of ~afis.33
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ISMAIL HAMEED
Van Leur has advanced the theory that the process of
Islamization in the Archipelago was determined by political
situations and political motives, basing this on the proposition
that Malacca had been converted to I s l ~ mbecause it desired the
political support of the Muslim traders. Similarly, he says,
the Indonesian coastal kingdoms had accepted Islam as a way
of resisting the Majapahit's influence. These new Muslim
dynasties claimed Islamic legitimacy, thus obtaining Muslim
support. For those rulers desiring the growth of trading
activities in their kingdoms, turning to Islam could ensure for
them the support of Muslim merchants. Van Leur thus has
illustrated how politico-economic reasons have produced the
acceptance of Islam in many petty kingdoms in the Malay
Archipelago. 3
Schrieke maintains that the marriage of wealthy Muslim
traders to members of royal families in the Archipelago was
a factor that contributed to the gradual spread of Islam, but
could hardly account for the mass conversion of the inhabitants
of a particular region. Such intermarriages produced conversion
only for a small number. Schrieke seeks to correlate the spread
of Islam in the Archipelago with the effort to check the
expansion of Christianity in this part of the world. The confrontation between Islam and Christianity in the Middle East
and the Iberian Peninsula in Europe was continuing in the
Malay Archipelago. A struggle was in progress between the
portuguese, on the one hand, and the Muslim traders and
princes in Arabia, Persia and India, on the other. Thus the
zeal of Islamic expansion in Southeast Asia may be considered
as having been a counter-check to the influence of Christianity.3 5
ISLAM I N MALAYA
99
Finally, the best explanation for the mass conversion of
the inhabitants of this region is the ideological appeal of Islam.
A radical change or mass conversion seldom occurs in any society
unless there is tension and dissatisfaction with the existing system
which provides incentive to search for new values or beliefs.
Wertheim points out how the ideas of equality and individual
worth for man in the Muslim community are much more
attractive to the people of the Malay Archipelago than the
rigid Hindu caste system. 3 6 This Islamic concept of human
equality gained the support of the masses, both in the trading
areas where the Muslim traders called as well as in the Hindu
kingdoms.
FOOT NOTE
G.W.J. Drewes. " New Light On the Coming of Isllm to Indonesia." BKI (1968).
pp. 440-441.
Ibid., pp. 441-43.
S.Q. Fltimi, Islcfm Comes to Malaysia (Singapore : Malaysian Sociological Research
Institute, 1963). pp. 31-32.
Ibid..pp. 5-6.
T.W. Arnold, The Preaching of Islim (Lahore :Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1975), p. 3 68.
D.G. E. Hall, A HistoryofSouth-Em Asia (London :Macmillan, 1964),pp. 190-191.
R. 0. Winstedt. " The Advent of Mubarnmadanism in the Malay Peninsula and Archipilago," JMBRAS, 77 (1917), p. 173.
Brian Harrison, South-East Asia, A Short History (London, 1957). p. 43.
H.E. Wilson, " The Islamization of South-East Asia :A Reassessment," JHR 15, No. 1
(August, 1972). p. 5.
G.E. Marrison, " The Corning of Islam to the East Indies," JMBRAS 24, pt. 1 (1951),
pp. 31-36.
Ibid.. pp. 31-36.
S.Q. Fltimi, op.,cit.. p. 6.
Ibid.. p. 35.
G.W.J. Drewes, op. cit-. p. 439.
John Crawfurd, History of Indian Archipelago (Edinburg, 1820). 2, pp. 259-260
also cited by G.W.J. Drewes, op. cit., p. 439.
;
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ISMAIL HAMEED
Wiiam Marsden, The History of Sumatra (K. Lumpur : Oxford University Press,
1966). p. 344.
S.M. Naguib a1 'Atas, IslEm Dalan Sejarah Dan Kebudayaan Melayu (Kuala Lumpur :
UKM, 1972). pp. 33-34.
, Preliminary Statement on n General Theory of
the IslEmization of the Malay-lndonesian Archipelago (K. Lumpur :Dewan Bahasa dan
Pustaka, 1969), p. 25.
Jan Vansina has discussed the importance of historical tales as sources of information
on the history of a particular region. He is of the opinion that all historical tales are
official traditions, aimed at recording history. They are recited by specialists on
ceremonial occasions and are transmitted within a particular social group. H e
considersthat each type of tale has its own value. Historical tales are useful as sources
of information on military, political, social, institutional and legal history. Didactic
tales provide information of cultural values, while myths, in Vansina's opinion, are very
valuable sources for the history of religion. See Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition, A Study
in Historical Methodology (Chicago : Aldine Publishing Co., 1965), pp. 154-157.
There are many historical tales in the classical Malay tradition which report the history
of differentregions in the Malay Archipelago and relate the events of the conversion of
their rulers to Islam . Among them are Hiktiyat Raja-raja Pasai, HikEyat Patani.
flikfiyat Merong Mahawangsa, Sulalah a1 Salitin. Silsilah Kutai, Hikciyat Hang Tuah.
etc.
C.C. Brown (trans.), Sejarah Melayu (K. Lumpur : Oxford University Press, 19701,
pp. 43-44.
A. H. Hill (ed.), " Bikiiyat Raja-raja Pasai," JMBRAS, 33 (June, 19601, pp. 58-60.
C. C. Brown (trans.), op. cit., p. 31.
See Liaw Yock Fang, Sejarah Kesusastraan Melayn Klassik (Singapore : Pustaka
Nasional, 1975), pp. 228-229.
S.M.N. a1 'AttBs, Preliminary Statement. p. 11.
Cesar Adib Majul, Mmlims in the Philippines (Quezon : University of Philippines,
1973), pp. 54-60.
R.O. Winstedt. " The Advent of Muhammadanism," p. 175.
S.M.N. a1 ' Attiis, Preliminary Statement, p. 13.
Cesar Adib Majul, "Theories on thc Introduction and Expansion of Islam in Malaysia,"
SJ 11, No. 4 (1964), p. 344.
Ibid.. p. 347.
Ibid.
A.H. John, " $iifism As a Category in Indonesian Literature and History," JSAH 2.
No. 2 (July 1961). p. 3 ;cited by S.Q. Fatimi, op. cit.. pp., 71-72 ;alsocited by C.A.
Majul. "Theories on the Introduction," pp. 366-367.
S.Q. Fatimi, op. cit.. p. 100.
C.A. Majul, " Theories on the Introduction," pp. 373-376.
Ibid., pp. 373-377.
Ibid., pp. 382-383.