Islam in Southeast Asia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Islam is the most widely practiced religion in Southeast Asia, numbering approximately 240 million adherents which translate to about 40% of the entire population, with majorities in Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia. Significant minorities are located in the other Southeast Asian states. Most Muslims in Southeast Asia belong to the Sunni sect and within it, the Shafi`i school of fiqh, or religious law. It is the official religion in Malaysia and Brunei while it is one of the five official faiths in Indonesia.
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[edit] Islamization of Southeast Asia
Muslim traders first came to the region soon after the founding of the religion in the seventh century, however, the religion did not spread to significant parts of the population until the 13th century when the early Islamic kingdoms with the first being Pasai in Sumatra, were established.
There were several theories to the Islamization process in Southeast Asia. The first theory is trade. The expansion of trade among West Asia, India and Southeast Asia helped the spread of the religion as Muslim traders brought Islam to the region. The second theory is the role of missionaries or Sufis. The Sufis missionaries played a significant role in spreading the faith by syncretising Islamic ideas with exisitng local beliefs and religious notions. Finally, the ruling classes embraced Islam and that further aided the permeation of the religion throughout the region. The ruler of the region’s most important port - Malacca embraced Islam in the 15th century, heralding a period of acclerated conversion of Islam throughout the region as the religion provided a unifying force among the ruling and trading classes.
This process of conversion was a peaceful and was contrary of popular notion of the religion “spread being spread by the sword”.
[edit] History of Muslim in Southeast Asia
The period of Islamic influence in Southeast Asia was in actual fact, a period of Arabic influence modified by Indian ideas. This was so because Islam came to Malay Archipelago through India and the same type of people who introduced Hinduism to Malay at the beginning of the Christian era also introduced Islam to this part of the world.
Like its predecessor, Hindu religion and culture, Islam was also synonymous with the Indian trade. Like its predecessor too, the spread of Islam was not the result of any organised missionary movement, rather, it was a gradual and perhaps unconscious assimilation of an Asian religion by Asian peoples who were impressed by the introduction of the first monotheistic religion.
The preceding religions, primitive paganism and Hinduism, had been polytheistic. Hindu culture and religion had come from the Coromandel coast of India, notably from the port of Amaravathi, at the mouth of the river Kistna. With the spread of Islam from about the 13th century, the centre of radiation moved to the Malabar coast, especially to Gujarat and Bengali merchants drew large numbers of converts in the ports in which they traded. As in the case of the Hindu religion, the first converts were from the aristocratic class. Once Islam had set a foot-hold among the rulers and chiefs of the coastal commercial areas and these rulers had set their seal of authority of the new faith, immediately it became acceptable to the common people.
The spread of Islam was greatly enhanced partly by social contact as a consequence of trade, but more important still, by marriages. In a few decades, the Javanese, Sumatran, Malay and other aristocracies of the coastal districts had gone over to the new faith. The common people followed in gradual stages down the social scale. Diplomatic marriages between aristocaracies of different kingdoms spread the faith even further. A notable example was the marriage of the first Muslim sultan of Pasai on the North-Western coast of Sumatra who died in 1297, to a daughter of the ruler of Perlak, also on the northern coast of Sumatra. The powerfull Sultanate of Malacca too, arranged many such diplomatic marriages with Borneo, Pahang, and Kedah and with the Sumatran river ports of Siak, Kampar, Indragiri, and Jambi.
As early as 1281, Chinese chronicles record an embassy led by two Muslims from Jambi in Sumatra to the Mongol court. This indicates that Islam must have reached the northern coast of Sumatra well before that date. Another source of information about the beginning of the spread of Islam in the Malay Archipelago is provided by Marcopolo. He visited the port of Perlak on the Northern coast of Sumatra in 1292 on his return voyage to Europe through the straits of Malacca, Marcopolo remarked in his later writings that many of the inhabitants of Perlak had at that time been converted to Islam by the foreign merchants who frequently called there.
In Malay Peninsula, the first physical evidence of the arrival of Islam was found at a spot twenty miles up the Trengganu river. There, a stone inscribed with Arabic letters has been found, dating as far back as 1386 or probably 1326. This evidence of the existence of Islam in Malaysia's east coast perhaps initiated the theory that Islam came to Malaysia through China.
At the close of the 14th century when Islam was spreading in conjunction with the prospering Indian trade, the nucleus of a new and powerful Malay kingdom and empire was taking shape. This was to replace the decaying might of the Hindu-Javanese empire of Majapahit and become the first powerful Muslim empire in the region - Malacca. With its rapid rise as a commercial port of call during the first quarter of the 15th century, Malacca became the spearhead of the further adavance of Islam - an advance achieved by growing commercial power and consolidated by judicious royal marriages - spreading the faith to the ports of Java and Borneo from whence it was spread yet further eastwards as far as the Moluccas.
[edit] Contemporary Islam in Southeast Asia
Islam in Southeast Asia is multi-faceted and multi layered.Different interpretations of the faith resulted in a varieties of groups. In Indonesia, there is the Nahdlatul Ulama which preaches closely to the Shafi`I school of legal accretion and the Muhammadiyah whose outlook is more modernist blending with Islamic thoughts. Along with this two major groups, other Islamic groups also played a big role in Indonesian society, politics and economy, with their followers forming Islamic civil groups and political parties.
Since the late 1970s, an Islamic resurgence took place in the region. Dakwah movements mushroomed throughout Southeast Asia. These movements in general, aim to create a strong Islamic identity among the Muslims. As a result, Islam began to assume a larger role in public life, underlined by the increased donning of headscarves among Muslim women. Economic growth resulted in modest affluence which translated in more religious investments like the Haj and Islamic literature. The Malaysian government too promotes Islam through its Islamization policies covering society, economics and education and most recently, Islam Hadhari.
Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country today.
[edit] References
- Heidhues, Mary, Somers. Southeast Asia: A Concise History. (London: Thames and Hudson. 2000)
- Mohd Taib Osman. "Islamisation of the Malays: A Transformation of Culture." In Bunga Rampai: Some Aspects of Malay Culture. KL: DBP, 1988 pp. 261-272.
