Page 63 - INDONESIAN ISLAMIC CULTURE

The Process of Islamization

in Traditional

Historiographies

Muhamad Hisyam & Setyadi Sulaiman

In the Malay Archipelago, the the Indonesian-Malay world can also mentioned. In his Suma Oriental, Tomé part of Thailand. According to him, The Grand Mosque of
Islamization process has been recorded be found in Ibn Battuta look. In his Pirés provides us with information on relationships between Muslim traders Padangaran in the Bayat
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in three main sources: the writings Travels in Asia and Africa: 1325-1354, the way the Javanese rulers in the and the local communities had been region, Klaten, Central
of foreign visitors, oral tradition, and he draws our attention to the religious northern coastal regions of the island established gradually. It is through these Java.
traditional historiography. These sources and intellectual life in Samudra Pasai, had become Muslims. He writes that the relationships that Islamization took place. Source: Directorate of
offer a wealth of information on the way the oldest Islamic kingdom on the tip of coastal areas were inhabited by many Moreover, Muslim traders and local History and Cultural
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Islam was recognized before it was North Sumatra that, by the 14 century, merchants from Persia, Arabia, Gujarat, residents inter-married and in this way Values, Ministry of
adopted as the faith of earlier societies. had embraced Islam for only less than Bengal, Malaysia, and other countries. increased the number of Muslim families. Education and Culture
half a century. When he visited Samudra There were Moors living among them. In his notes, he writes: of the Republic of
The travel accounts of Marco Polo (1254- Pasai in 1345, Ibn Battuta recorded that They were rich traders who managed to
1324) tell us of the Muslim community the country’s ruling monarch bore Islamic build mosques and who invited mullahs “Every man has one or two wives Indonesia.
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that lived in the region of Samudra titles, viz. Malikut Tahbir bin Malik al- (‘ulama) to come over from many and also as many concubines as he
Pasai—especially the people of Perlak Saleh, and that most of Muslim society countries. They arrived in great numbers wants; they live together peacefully.
(Felech) — in 1292 together with Arab adhered to the Shafi’i School. 4 and their numbers continued to increase. The ruling kingdom observes the
traders. In his view, Perlak was an Net to these travel accounts, the Their children considered themselves following habits: a pagan marries a
Islamic city surrounded by areas of non- one by Tomé Pirés should also be Javanese, because they had been living Moor woman or a Moor man marries
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Muslim pagans. 2 in the area for about 70 years. In some a pagan woman according to their
3. Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battuta was a traveller ceremonies; in the excitement of their
In addition to Marco Polo’s travel who was born in Tangier, Morocco. Apart from places, Javanese pagan rulers turned parties they used to drink much wine.
accounts, the Islamization process of being an ‘alim he was also a famous Muslim to Islam, while the mullahs and Moor That is the way with men and women
intellectual. His adventures took him from West
1. Marco Polo was a tourist from Venice, Italy, Africa to Pakistan, India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, merchants took possession of their lands in Java.” (Cortesão, 1994: 268).
who made a journey to the archipelago and Southeast Asia and China. For a biography of (Cortesão, 1994: 182)
China. He visited Samudra Pasai in 1292. About Ibn Battuta, see Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures Elsewhere in his book, Tomé Pirés
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his experiences in various regions of the world of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14 In his work, Pirés gives the impression recorded the marriage between a
for about 24 years, see for example, Russell Century (Revised Edition), (Berkeley: University of that the spread of Islam did not only
Freedman’s Adventures of Marco Polo (Schlastic, California Press, 2005). take place in Samudra Pasai, Malacca, princess of Pasai origin and the second
2006), Jonathan Clements, Marco Polo, (H. Books, 4. Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa: 1325 – king of Malacca, Xaquem Darxa
2007), Demi’s Marco Polo (Marshall Cavendish, 1354 (translated by H.A.R. Gibbs, London: Asian Java, and the Moluccas but that it went (Muhammad Iskandar Shah) who was
2008), Stephen Feinstein, Marco Polo: Amazing Educational Service, 1929). further to Patani, the northern part of
Adventures in China, Great Adventures of the 5. Tomé Pirés was a pharmacist who worked for a about 72 years old and had become
World, (Enslow Publishers, Inc. 2009). prince in Lisbon, Portugal. He arrived in Malacca in present-day Malaysia and southern a Muslim. He said that at that time the
2. Manuel Komroff (ed.), The Travel of Marco Polo, 1512 to buy medicines. After his arrival in Malacca, of Tomé Pirés: An Account of the East from the king of Malacca had not only converted
(New York: W.W. Norton & Company), Chapter 9, he collected all the information he could get in the Red Sea to Japan: Written in Malacca and in India
‘Of the Island of Java Minor’ and Chapter 10 ‘Of busiest harbor of Southeast Asia. In Malacca he 1512-1515 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1994); Rui to become a Moor, he had also ensured
the Kingdoms Named Samara and Dragoian”. For started to write his book Suma Oriental, which he Manuel Loureiro, Manuscript de Lisboa da ‘Suma that the entire population embraced
his complete account, see Marco Polo, The Travels finished it in India on his return journey to Portugal Oriental’ de Tomé Pirés (Contribuicão para uma
(Ronald Latham), (London: Penguin Classics, in 1515. For a biography of Tomé Pirés, see, for edicão critica), (Lisbon: Instituto Portugues do Islam. He lived in matrimony for about
1958). example, Armando Cortesão, The Suma Oriental oriente, 1993), pp. 13-26. eight years, surrounded by mullahs. He

54 Indonesian Islamic Culture in Historical Perspectives Indonesian Islamic Culture in Historical Perspectives 55