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also left behind a number of children statement which the local community the Sejarah Melayu was written around continued to teach the people how to
from his first wife, who had also become accepted as the truth and that in the end, 1612. However, as many scholars stated, pronounce the shahadah, “There is no
Moors and one of her sons inherited Islam had developed because the people the writing of both texts may have taken god but Allah, and Muhammad is His
the kingdom and ruled under the name assumed the story was true. much longer and may even have started Messenger”. After some time, the ship
Modafarxa (Mudzaffar Shah) (Cortesão, The third sources that explain the in the early period of the existence of left Samudra, while the Indian holy man
1994: 242). Through Tomé Pirés we process of Islamization in the archipelago these kingdom. Thus, 1511 and 1612 stayed behind to establish Islam more
also learn that Islam had already been are traditional historiographic works in may be the years when the texts were firmly there. 7
present in Cirebon at least since 1470- completed. It is probably historically A similar story can be found in the
1475. After having visited Cirebon in the form of chronicles, serat, lontara, and justified to presume that both texts, as Sejarah Melayu. In the text it is told that
1513, he noted that Cirebon was a harbor many others. These works had found will also be discussed below, represent King Muhammad Shah— Malacca’s
their ways to almost all areas of the
where around 1,000 families lived, and the intellectual and religious discourse second ruler—had a dream that he met
where the rulers were also Muslims. 6 archipelago. The following will discuss in the early period of Islam in the Malay-
some of these traditional historiographic Indonesian archipelago. the Prophet Muhammad who taught
In addition to the accounts of foreign works that in the opinion of the present him to pronounce the shahadat, gave
visitors, there are also oral traditions. authors are important in relation to the The Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai tells that him the new name of Muhammad, and
Had they been examined in more Islamization of the archipelago. Malik al-Saleh whose former name was informed him that the next day a ship
detail, these sources would also have Merah Silu, was the first Muslim ruler would arrive from Arabia carrying a
earned an important place in the story Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai and who met the Prophet Muhammad in his scholar whom he must obey. When he
of the introduction of Islam. In many Sejarah Melayu dream in which he obtained the magical had awakened, the king found that he
parts of Indonesia, Islam grew rapidly We will start our discussion with two knowledge of Islam which the Prophet had been mysteriously circumcised,
immediately after someone had had a texts from the Malay world. They are had spat into his mouth. In his dream, the and when he repeatedly uttered the
dream in which he had met the prophet. the oldest literary works that relate the Prophet guided him in how to pronounce shahadah, the members of the royal
The person told his neighbors of his history of the kingdom of Samudra Pasai the confession of the creed (shahadah). palace (who certainly did not know
dream and the story spread from one th After having awakened, the new Sultan Arabic) were apparently very confused
person to the next and eventually in the 14 century and of that of Malacca found that he could to read the Qur’an because they thought the king had gone
th
everybody believed that the dream in the 15 century. They are the Hikayat although he had never been taught how mad. Then the boat indeed arrived and
Raja-Raja Pasai (The Pasai Chronicles)
had been true and that the prophet to do this. Also he had been mysteriously landed Sayid Abdul Aziz where he led a
apparently had halted where they lived. for Samudra Pasai and Sejarah Melayu circumcised. The next day, a ship arrived prayer on the beach. The people were
In this case, the question is not whether (Malay Annals) for the Malacca kingdom. from Mecca carrying Sheikh Ismail. astonished and started to ask about
the dream was true or false, but that the The two texts seem to have been written When he heard that Malik al-Saleh had 7. Russel Jones, “Ten Conversion Myths from
story had turned into an oral collective much later than the time when the pronounced the shahadah, the Sheikh Indonesia”, in Nehemia Levtzion (ed.) Conversion
kingdoms were still in power. The Hikayat
to Islam, (New York: Holmes & Meier.), pp. 133-
6. Projokusumo, Taufik Abdullah and Hasan M. installed him as Muslim ruler and initiated 135; M.C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia
Ambary, Sejarah Umat Islam Indonesia (Jakarta: Raja-Raja Pasai was written before 1511 him by clothing him in the royal mantle since c.1300, Second Edition (Stanford, California:
PP MUI, 1991), p. 78. when Malacca fell to the Portuguese and of the kingdom of Mecca. Ismail then Stanford University Press, 1993), pp. 8-9.

56 Indonesian Islamic Culture in Historical Perspectives Indonesian Islamic Culture in Historical Perspectives 57