Laila AhmedH101: Assignment 2

Southeast Asian rulers were the main propagators of Islam in their region. Discuss.

Although rajas may have been most important in welcoming and consequently institutionalising Islam in the regions which occupy Southeast Asia, it is unlikely that they alone were the main propagators of Islam within their respective regions. For example, other factors that contributed to the Islamisation of Southeast Asia included trade, conquest, diasporic migration to Southeast Asia, and Sufi influence. Again, as individual factors they would not have been the sole reason for initiating conversion, although I believe each factor worked in combination with each other to different degrees, during different time periods and in different regions to propagate Islam. However, the sources of evidence for conversion in many cases are very vague and limited, and this essay will also address this issue.

The spread of Islam in Southeast Asia occurred between the late 13C CE to mid-17C CE. However, contemporary written documents, i.e. conversion stories, which included many elements of supernatural and legendary detail, dating from the late 18C CE or early 19C CE[footnoteRef:1] (although they may have been composed as far back as the 15th century), generally depict rajas as the first Islamic converts in SEA, who propagated the conversion of their subjects. The limitations here of the evidence are obvious, where using evidence containing mythical qualities as opposed to factual evidence, with gaps in between the time when they were produced to when conversion actually occurred automatically gathers room for criticism. Therefore, based on judging conversion stories alone, it can be argued that rajas were not the initial propagators of Islam. Despite this, conversion stories should not be dismissed, as they serve as valid source of folk memory of the conversion to Islam, which although may not have been entirely accurate and precise, is however, useful to the understanding how contemporaries viewed the conversion process. [1: (Andaya 1999, 205-208)]

Of course, Islam arrived to Southeast Asia from abroad, where archaeological evidence suggests that it may have arrived from various origins such as the Middle East, China and from around South Asia. Examples of this type of evidence include gravestones, coins and inscriptions, which existed from before 15C CE, and were often difficult to decipher and were very few in number. Travellers tales also depicted possible origins of Islam in Southeast Asia, for example, those written by Ibn Battuta in 1345 suggest that Islam arrived to Southeast Asia from Persia. This can also be confirmed by the fact that early Malay literature contained elements of Persian terms, which in turn supports the idea that Persian influence may have been great enough to have introduced a whole new religion to a foreign region[footnoteRef:2]. There is a greater collection of evidence from after 15C CE, which includes a series of local conversion stories, collected by Russel Jones, and sources written by European Christian such as Tom Pires in the 1510s, which offer different viewpoints of how Islam may have arrived to Southeast Asia, but as in the case of the latter source, may be subject to biases. Altogether, these sources are extremely useful to understanding where Islam in Southeast Asia may have rooted from, but they do not provide a clear explanation of how and why Islam spread throughout the region. Therefore, it would be incorrect to argue that external bodies propagated Islam in Southeast Asia, especially with so much conflicting evidence. [2: (Wade 2010, 366-408)]

Johns argues strongly that Sufis were the central propagators of Islam in Southeast Asia, which for a period, displaced the trader theory. Sufi beliefs incorporated elements of mysticism, which Southeast Asian people were already familiar with and could identify with. Also, they did not impose the sharia law on their arrival, and generally followed peaceful methods of conversion, and only required for people to believe in the existence of one God. For example, practising Sufis did not alter concepts such as the Perfect Man, microcosmos and macrocosmos, which the Javanese believed it, but did however, emphasise that the relationship between God and man was not unambiguous[footnoteRef:3]. Sufi mystics may have arrived to Southeast Asia in the 19C and 20C CE, or perhaps as far back as the 13C CE during the Sufi diaspora, which may have initiated the vast Islamisation of Southeast Asia. However, there is no written evidence, e.g. conversion stories that confirm this hypothesis, which suggests that it is very unlikely that Sufis were involved in the early Islamisation of Southeast Asia. [3: (Johns 1966, 10-12)]

The Spice routes may have acted as a pathway for the passage of Islam into Southeast Asia. Conversions to Islam through traders happened mostly in maritime regions in Southeast Asia, which were the hotspots for trading, particularly after the Pax Mongolica fell[footnoteRef:4]. Traders were often Sufi mystics or even descendents of the prophet, which makes the trader hypothesis probable since they may have appealed to rulers and their people. It is also possible, according to Pires that religious figures such as Arab mullahs arrived with traders, which could have led to conversions occurring in Southeast Asia. The number of Muslim traders arriving to Sumatra was the direct result of an increase in demand for spices by Europeans and the Middle East. [4: (Hall 2001, 224-226)]

However, it is highly unlikely that trade alone acted as an agent of Islamisation in Southeast Asia since it was during the 8C CE that communities of Persian and Arab Muslim traders gathered in India and China, whereas it was only towards the end of the late 13C CE that Islamisation of entire kingdoms occurred, starting in north east Sumatra. Also, in many cases, even if traders had succeeded in converting, e.g. taking local wives and converting them and their children, reverting back to former religions was often the case once traders had left. And finally, it was in the best interests of traders to not convert locals, since cheating customers is prohibited in Islamic laws.[footnoteRef:5] [5: (Reid 2010, 427-469)]

Within Southeast Asia, Islam may also have acted as a medium for Southeast Asian rulers to gain ultimate political sovereignty over their people, at least symbolically, where they would be shadows of God on earth. Of course, this itself is not a strong enough argument to suggest that rajas were the main propagators of Islam in Southeast Asia, as it only tells of one possible motivation for them to convert, as opposed to how they achieved this. As well as this, it is unlikely that the conquest of power alone was a major motivational factor for the conversion to Islam, as other religions offered the same, such as Theravada Buddhism, and in the case of Hinduism, being assimilated to the gods offered even greater power. Conversions stories often denote rajas as adopting the jihads of the sword to acquire power and subsequently conquer others (slaves in particular, who were possibly most likely to submit). This occurred in Java, Malaya and South Sulawesi, although this process played no role in the initial conversions.[footnoteRef:6] Therefore, I believe that rajas alone were definitely not responsibly for the propagation of Islam in Southeast Asia. [6: (Andaya 1984, 22-42)]

Conclusively, I believe that while rajas were certainly influential in the initial conversion process, other factors allowed for Islam to spread throughout Southeast Asia, and subsequently remain intact within the region. However, traders and Sufi mystics were able appeal to Southeast Asian people with their beliefs and systems, although in the case of the trader hypothesis, many people chose to revert to their previous religion, which suggests that traders were not effective propagators of Islam. Again, I believe that altogether, all of these factors worked as part of a system, in which each factor worked to different degrees to sustain the conversion of Islam in Southeast Asia.

Word count: 1474

Bibliography:1. Andaya, Barbara Watson and Ishii, Yoneo. (1999). Religious developments in Southeast Asia, c. 1500-1800 in The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia Vol. 1, Part 2, edited by Nicholas Tarling. 198-229. Cambridge: CUP

2. Andaya, Leonard Y. (1984), Kingship-adat rivalry and the role of Islam in South Sulawesi, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 15, 1, pp. 22-42 \3. Hall, Kenneth R. (2001). Upstream and Downstream Unification in Southeast Asias First Islamic Polity: The Changing Sense of Community in the Fifteenth Century Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai Court Chronicle. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 44, No. 2. 198-229

4. Johns, Anthony H. (1995) Sufism in Southeast Asia: reflections and reconsiderations, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 26, 1, pp. 169-83

5. Johns, A. H. (1966). From Buddhism to Islam: An Interpretation of the Javanese Literature of the Transition. Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 9, No. 1. 40-50.

6. New Cambridge History of Islam (2010), Volume 3, chapter by Anthony Reid, pp. 427-69

7. New Cambridge History of Islam (2010), Volume 3, chapter by Geoff Wade, pp. 366-408

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