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Djoko Suryo

in Java were fully supported by the Nine Saint (Wali Sanga). 16
These nine saints were certainly those who belong to the Mus-
lim scholars (Ulama) or Muslim thinkers and Muslim politician
in the period. They were Sunan Ampel Denta, Sunan Kudus,
Sunan Murya, Sunan Bonang, Sunan Giri, Sunan Kalijaga, Sunan
Gunungjati, Sunan Drajat, and Sunan Tembayat. According to
the Javanese Babad, the first Javanese conversion to Islam were
the work of these nine saints. 17
Seen from the perspective of Islamic politics, the nine Mus-
lim intellectuals belong to those who directly involved in the
formation of the Muslim state and Muslim communities in Java.
Different with the Sultanate Aceh, it seems that in the era of
Sultanate Demak, the Nine Muslims intellectuals had a supreme
position above the king and had a highest authority in appoint-
ment and displacement of the king. It was clearly ascribed by
Babad Demak that since the beginning the nine saints had di-
rectly involved in set up and appointed Raden Patah as the
Sultan of Demak, and preparing the land for the palace, build-
ing the Demak Mosque, as well as incorporated in the state
building. The Babad story tell us that Sunan Giri, as the chief of
the nine Wali crowned Raden Patah as the Sultanate of Demak
before the members of Wali in the ceremony of coronation at
his home town Gresik (the north coastal East Java). It is indi-
18
cated that in the early of the Javanese Muslim state the position
of Sultan or king were under supervision of the Ulama (Muslim
scholars), the religious power holder. It is not surprising that
Western scholars often compared Sunan Giri with the “Pope”
in the Medieval European period. 19

16 Olthof , W. L. (ed, & trans.), Babab Tanah Djawi in proza; Javaansche
geschiedenie, 2 vols (‘s-Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff, 1941).
17 Ibid., see also Ricklefs (2001), Ibid., pp. 12.
18 See Babad Demak, Manuscript in Kraton Yogyakarta.
19 See. B. Schrieke, Indonesian Sociological Studies, Part I (The Hague
and bandung: W, van Hoeve, 1955).

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