ISLAMIZATION OF

INDONESIA
 Arrival of Islam to Indonesia

 Islam arrived in Indonesia by way of the trade route to

China and the east. It first established itself in north
Sumatra.
 The first sources that inform us about indigenous
people adhering to Islam originate from the early 13th
century; gravestones indicate the existence of a Muslim
kingdom in North Sumatra around 1211.
 Perhaps indigenous kingdoms adopted the new faith
because it entailed certain advantages in trade as the
majority of traders were Muslim.
 Only from the 15th century onwards Islamic
kingdoms and sultanates became dominant
political powers in the archipelago, although
these powers were to be undermined by the
European newcomers (Portuguese and Dutch)
starting from the 16th and 17th century.
Varieties of Indonesian Islam
 The arrival of Islam to the archipelago had
different impacts on local communities
depending on the historical and social context of
the area where it arrived.
 In other parts Islam never became the majority-
religion, probably due to the distance from the
important trade routes.
 In parts where there was a strong presence of
animism or Hindu-Buddhist culture, Islam met
profound cultural barriers or it became blended
with the pre-existing belief-systems.
 2 Largest Muslim Groups
 Abangan - these are traditional Muslims in the
sense that they still apply traditional Javanese
dogmatic; blending Islam with Hinduism,
Buddhism and animist traditions. Members of
this group generally have rural backgrounds.
 Santri - these can be labeled as orthodox
Muslims. They are mainly from urban
backgrounds and are more oriented towards
the mosque and the Quran.
 The spread of Islam in Indonesia should not be
seen as a quick process stemming from one
origin or source but rather as multiple waves of
Islamization in coherence with international
developments in the Islamic world, a process
that is still continuing until today.
 Two important reform waves aiming for the
return to the pure Islam - as it was during the
days of prophet Mohammed - were the
Wahhabist and the Salafi movements.
Wahhabism originates from Arabia and arrived
in the archipelago early in the 19th century.
 Another important development for
Islamization in Indonesia was the opening of
the Suez-Canal in 1869 because it - as it made
traveling to Mecca easier - implied a larger
amount of pilgrims between Indonesia and
Mecca. This consequently intensified contacts
with the religious centers in the Middle East.
ISLAMIZATION OF
MALAYSIA
Arrival of Islam to Malaysia
 The arrival of Islam coincided with the rise of the
great port of Malacca (now Melaka), established
along the strait on Malaya’s southwest coast by
Sumatran exiles about 1400.
 The Indianized king—who successfully sought a
tributary relationship with powerful China—
converted to Islam, becoming a sultan and hence
attracting Muslim merchants.
 Malacca also served as the regional centre for
the propagation of Islam and as the eastern
terminus of the Indian Ocean trading network.
 Indonesian spices, Malayan gold, and Chinese
silks and tea all passed through Malacca on
their way to South Asia, the Middle East, and,
ultimately, Europe.
 At its height in the late 15th century, Malacca
hosted some 15,000 merchants of many
nationalities, including Chinese, Arabs,
Persians, and Indians; attracted by a stable
government and a policy of free trade, the
ships in the harbor purportedly outnumbered
those in any other port in the known world.
 Chinese admiral Zheng He called at the port
several times in the first decades of the 15th
century as part of the great naval expeditions
of the Ming dynasty to the western Indian
Ocean.
 Malacca’s political and religious influence
reached its height under Tun Perak, who
served as chief minister (1456–98) after
defeating the expanding Siamese (Thai) in a
fierce naval battle; during his tenure Islam
became well entrenched in such districts (and
subsidiary sultanates) as Johor (Johore),
Kedah, Perak, Pahang, and Terengganu.
 The mostly Islamized people of 15th-century
Malacca began calling themselves “Malays”
(“Melayu”), likely a reference to their Sumatran
origins.
 Thereafter the term Malay was applied to those
who practiced Islam and spoke a version of
the Malay language.
 Religious and linguistic behavior, rather than
descent, then, became the criteria for being
Malay; this enabled previously Hindu-Buddhist
peoples and former adherents of local religions
to identify themselves (and even merge) with the
Malays—regardless of their ancestry.
 Over time this loose
cultural designation became a coherent ethnic
group populating what is commonly called the
“Malay world,” a region encompassing Malaya,
northern and western Borneo, eastern Sumatra,
and the smaller islands in between.
 Islam, however, came to overlay the earlier
beliefs so that, before the rise of religious
reform movements in the 19th century, few
Malays were orthodox Muslims.
 Hindu-influenced ritual remained important
for those of noble heritage, and local spirits
were richly incorporated into Islamic practices.