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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. http://iri.iiu.edu.pk/ 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 92 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 98 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. ; 100 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.