Page 104 - INDONESIAN ISLAMIC CULTURE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

The Great Mosque of a leading empire in Maluku after the The integration of Islam and the political was getting stronger footholds within all the royal officials and general people
Sang Cipta Rasa at the arrival of Malay and Javanese traders dynamics of the kingdom may be further society’s socio-cultural life. This turned to embrace Islam after he himself had
Kasepuhan Palace, who were looking for spices. In fact, in its explained by the pattern of the initial the kingdoms into political bases of converted to Islam.
Cirebon. later development, precisely after the fall Islamization process. Islamization took more intensive Islamization and the
Source: Directorate of of Malacca, the kingdom was also visited place in tandem with the establishment institutionalization of Islamic values. The Establishment of Kingdoms:
History and Cultural by international traders, especially Arabs of kingdoms, based on the intensive The religious institutions that were Political Bases for the Spread of
Values, Ministry of and Persians, who tried to find the main involvement of various Nusantara established in the kingdoms functioned Islam
Education and Culture spices producing regions. Through this regions in the long distance trade in effectively as means to disseminate Ever since the early days of their
of the Republic of development, Ternate saw such rapid the Indian Ocean after the beginning of Islamic teachings. development in the 13 and 14
th
th
th
Indonesia. growth in the economy and in politics the 13 century. The establishment of In addition, another important factor centuries, the Samudera Pasai and
that it surpassed the other kingdoms in Samudera Pasai on the northern coast that brought about the emergence of Malacca had shown that they played
Maluku: Tidore, Jailolo, and Bacan. At of Sumatra and Malacca at the Malay kingdoms in the Islamization process important roles in the Islamization
the same time, the ruler of the kingdom, Straits—to mention only two cases— of the archipelago was the political process. The rulers of both kingdoms
Raja Zainal Abidin, converted to Islam. It clearly shows this pattern of Islamic culture that stressed the dominant are recorded to have paved the way for
is said that during his rule in Ternate he development. Local sources about both role of the kingdom in societal life. In the development of Islam in the Malay
had enough time to study Islam in Sunan Islamic empires, the Hikayat Raja- the Malay world, political culture was world, a development that hardly met
Giri’s Pesantren in Gresik. Raja Pasai and the Sejarah Melayu, institutionalized within the “royal” political any significant obstacles. The most
illustrate that the initial establishment system, which, as translated by A.C. significant thing was that the Malay kings,
Kingdoms and the Islamization of the kingdoms of Samudera Pasai Milner, was “the condition of having in line with their political and economic
of the Archipelago and Malacca took place in line with a king”. In this political system, the interests, invited international Muslim
the acceptance of Islam by the Malay king had a decisive role that exceeded
The development of Islam in the community. In fact, the Hikayat Raja- political life in the kingdom and included traders to conduct their business in their
archipelago seems to have been a very Raja Pasai emphasized that the the existence of his subjects. Thus kingdoms. According to Tomé Pirés, it
prominent phenomenon. M.B. Hooker, acceptance of Islam was an existential in Islamization, this political culture was said that the kings of Malacca had
an expert on the history of Islamic law in foundation of the Samudera Pasai appears to have been the cultural basis established socio-religious facilities
Southeast Asia, came to the conclusion kingdom it described. In this situation, for Malay society easily acceptance of such as mansions and mosques for
that Islamization in the archipelago the Islamization of the archipelago Islam as its new religion. The conversion international Muslim traders so that they
appears to have been “a political not only involved important roles for of the Malay kings’ to Islam became could come and sojourn in the kingdom.
phenomenon”. According to him, it was in kingdoms, but, later, the development an invaluable political force for the This kind of policy, although highly
the kingdom that progress in economic of the political structures in these Islamization of the community inside the political and economic, had important
development occurred, and also where kingdoms which also took place kingdoms. In the Sejarah Melayu, for implications in the process of
the local people became acquainted with in line with the contemporaneous example, it is told that Sultan Mahmud Islamization. The Muslim traders in
Islam as brought by international traders. intensification of Islamization which Shah of Malacca immediately ordered Malacca formed a social force and

94 Indonesian Islamic Culture in Historical Perspectives Indonesian Islamic Culture in Historical Perspectives 95