Page 15 - INDONESIAN ISLAMIC CULTURE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

is done, everybody suddenly faces the sociological and anthropological were discovered telling of the presence of Muslims in the Indonesian
reality of the way the same understanding of God’s oneness and the archipelago. Having researched the tombstone in Leran (East Java) from the
doctrine of Muhammad as the last Prophet can also lead to diversity. So, year 475 A.H. or 1082 A.D. , Guillot and Kalus concluded that it is an Islamic
when historical and sociological reviews are conducted, will they generate tomb. But, can the existence of this tomb be used as evidence that Islam
curiosity? How many are the true faces of singular Islam? had planted its influence in the region even before the Kingdom of Majapahit
was established in 1293? This Islamic tombstone is just a coincidence.
II Having studied it in depth, Ravaisse concluded that “the Leran inscription
In the history of Indonesian culture the first academic debates on Islam only proves one thing, namely there had already existed in that area a
concerned seemingly simple things. They revolved around the question significant number of Muslims consisting of descendants of the settlers, the
of when and how Islam started to penetrate public life in the archipelago. natives or mixed, more than 450 years before the time of Malik Ibrahim. It
The debates were increasingly “festive” if only because the process was turns out that Nusantara’s experts are now arguably agreed to determine
perceived as reflecting meanings that implied mixtures of events that the Islamization of East Java in between the riots following the death of King
happened in the past. That is, the historical narrative of Indonesia, in which Erlangga around the year 1045 and the heyday of the kingdom of Daha
an event or, more precisely, series of occurrences shaped the archipelago’s (Kediri) at the reign of the king Jayabaya, less than a century later.” 3
historical current of what is referred to as “the arrival of Islam”. When But isn’t this statement also just a historical hypothesis? It is ascertained that a
this was seen to have occurred, people said that the region entered a small community of Muslims existed and that they were buried in tombstones
“new period” of its history. Perhaps this needed no debates, but debates displaying their religion? Can this fact be used as evidence that Islam
happened anyway. For example, in historical discourse, what is meant by had begun to develop in Indonesia, especially in 11 century Java? In the
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“the arrival of Islam”? Does it mean that at some given time, adherents of Nagarakertagama, Mpu Prapanca, the poet of Majapahit, did not mention the
Islam arrived in this country, should it be understood in the sense that Islam presence of any followers of Islam in the palace of King Hayam Wuruk. But
started to expand its influence, or does it mean that the development of this the tombstones of Traloyo and Trawulan (1290 Saka or 1368-69 A.D.), which
universal religion had already happened? are located in the capital of Majapahit, gives the clear impression that Muslims

The problem is that historical reconstruction also requires certainty about had been dwelling in Majapahit’s palace. The tombs of the royal family are
the meaning of narrated events. A simple example is the tendency of those even located in the same cemetery. Moreover, when the development of Islam
interested in the historical development of Islam in Indonesia to say that in Java is reassessed again, it would clearly show that historical evidence
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Islam has “come” to Indonesia in the first century of the Hijrah, thus, in the from just two centuries later, at the beginning of the 16 century, shows that
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7 century A.D. But what does the word “come” mean in this context? If they the spread of Islam in almost all parts of Java had indeed begun.
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had used written sources rather than resorting to hypothetical conjectures, If this is true, the earliest spread of Islam occurred when it had already
they should have said that in the mid-9 century A.D. Ibn Kurdhadhbih entered its third phase. In this phase, the “era of Islamization” did not start
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and Marwazi had talked a lot about the region. From then on, all sorts of in a power center. It started in a village. If we listen to the story as told
information became known about the region, for example, the fact that in the Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai and, in a slightly different version, in the
Fansur (Barus), the region on the western coast of Sumatra produced Sejarah Melayu, it seems that this process began when a village champion
camphor had already been known for a long time, but they were just facts received spiritual insight from a cleric who purportedly came from the Holy
and did not say anything about the spread of Islam. In other words, the first Land. After having crossed the line of “infidelity” he also managed to set
information about the introduction of Islam in the archipelago was just in the up a supra-village power center, which later grew into an empire. While
form of news. It is therefore no use to claim that since the time of Prophet expanding his power, the ruler enthroned himself as sultan spread Islam. At
Muhammad Islam has successfully been established in this religion. 2 this time also the waters of the Indonesian archipelago were increasingly
In the second stage, evidence was discovered of the existence of Muslims crowded with international traders.
who lived in the archipelago. When this stage had been entered, it no longer 3. Ludvik Kalus and Claude Guillot, “Nisan Leran (Jawa) berangka tahun 475 H/1082 dan
only concerned knowledge of the Arab world, located between the Persian nisan-nisan terkait” in Claude Guillot & Ludvik Kalus, Inskripsi Islam tertua di Indonesia,
Gulf and China, an age-long trade route. At this stage inscribed tombstones Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia, École francaise d’Extrême-Orient, Forum Jakarta-
Paris, 2008: 30.
2. See G.R. Tibbets, A Study of the Arabic texts containing material on South-east Asia, 4. M.C. Ricklefs, Mystic synthesis in Java: A History of Islamization from the Fourteenth
Leiden & London: E.J. Brill, 1979. century to the Early Nineteenth Centuries, Norwalk: EastBridge, 2006, 13-15.

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