Introduction to Southeast Asia

History, Geography, and Livelihood

The Arrival of Islam in Southeast Asia

Islamic teachings began to spread in Southeast Asia from around the thirteenth century. Islam teaches the oneness of God (known to Muslims as Allah), who has revealed his message through a succession of prophets and finally through Muhammad (ca. 570-632 CE). The basic teachings of Islam are contained in the Qur’an (Koran), the revelation of Allah’s will to Muhammad, and in the hadith, reports of Muhammad’s statements or deeds. There are several specific requirements of a Muslim, which are known as the “Five Pillars”. These are: 1) the confession of faith. “I testify that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet”; 2) prayers five times a day, at daybreak, noon, afternoon, after sunset and early evening; 3) fasting between sunrise and sunset in the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar year; 4) pilgrimage to Mecca (in modern Saudi Arabia), or hajj, at least once in a lifetime if possible; and 5) payment of ¼º of income as alms, in addition to voluntary donations. There are no priests in Islam, but there are many learned teachers, known as ‘ulama, who interpret Islamic teachings according to the writings and commentaries of scholars in the past, and the teachings of the four schools of law practiced within the majority Sunni tradition. Sunni Muslims, who comprise about 85 percent of all Muslims, recognize the leadership of the first four Caliphs and do not attribute any special religious or political position to descendants of the Prophet’s son-in-law Ali.

After the Prophet’s death, Islam continued to expand. At the height of its power between the eighth and fifteenth centuries, a united Muslim Empire included all North Africa, Sicily, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, western Arabia, and southern Spain. From the tenth century CE Islam was subsequently brought to India by a similar moment of conquest and conversion, and its dominant political position was confirmed when the Mughal dynasty was established in the sixteenth century.

The chronology of Islam’s arrival in Southeast Asia is not known exactly. From at least the tenth century, Muslims were among the many foreigners trading in Southeast Asia, and a few individuals from Southeast Asia traveled to the Middle East for study. In the early stages of conversion, trade passing from Yemen and the Swahili coast across to the Malabar Coast and then the Bay of Bengal was also influential, as well as the growing connections with Muslims in China and India. Muslim traders from western China also settled in coastal towns on the Chinese coast, and Chinese Muslims developed important links with communities in central Vietnam, Borneo, the southern Philippines, and the Javanese coast. Muslim traders from various parts of India (e.g. Bengal, Gujarat, Malabar) came to Southeast Asia in large numbers and they, too, provided a vehicle for the spread of Islamic ideas.

As a result of its multiple origins, the Islam that reached Southeast Asia was very varied. The normal pattern was for a ruler or chief to adopt Islam—sometimes because of a desire to attract traders, or to be associated with powerful Muslim kingdoms like Mamluk Egypt, and then Ottoman Turkey and Mughal India, or because of the attraction of Muslim teaching. Mystical Islam (Sufism), which aimed at direct contact with Allah with the help of a teacher using techniques such as meditation and trance, was very appealing.

The first confirmed mention of a Muslim community came from Marco Polo, the well-known traveler, who stopped in north Sumatra in 1292. Inscriptions and graves with Muslim dates have been located in others coastal areas along the trade routes. A major development was the decision of the ruler of Melaka, on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, to adopt Islam around 1430. Melaka was a key trading center, and the Malay language, spoken in the Malay Peninsula and east Sumatra, was used as a lingua franca in trading ports throughout the Malay-Indonesian archipelago. Malay is not a difficult language to learn, and it was already understood by many people along the trade routes that linked the island world. Muslim teachers therefore had a common language through which they could communicate new concepts through oral presentations and written texts. A modified Arabic script displaced the previous Malay script. Arabic words were incorporated into Malay, particularly in regard to spiritual beliefs, social practices, and political life.