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1 - SOUTH-EAST ASIAN ISLAM TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURYo

from Part VI - SOUTH-EAST ASIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
H. J. de Graaf
Edited by
P. M. Holt ,
Ann K. S. Lambton  and
Bernard Lewis
H. J. de Graaf
Affiliation:
de Steeg
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Summary

The coming of Islam

On the whole, accounts of conversion to Islam in Malay and Indonesian literature and tradition are not very reliable, however numerous they may be. There is a kind of uniformity about them which does not ring true. Often the ruler, destined to be the first among his people to pronounce the ‘Two Words’ (the profession of faith), the mere utterance of which will make him a member of the Muslim community, has already received notification of this in a dream or vision, even before the apostle of Islam drops anchor off his shores. Generally his conversion is immediate, with his subjects following soon after. There is no lack of wonders and miracles: opponents are easily persuaded or overawed by magic.

Yet the historian cannot afford to ignore such accounts. They shed a great deal of light on the nature of these societies and their organization, as well as providing clues as to the way Islam was in fact introduced amongst them.

An analysis of these stories suggests that Islam was propagated in South-East Asia by three methods; that is by Muslim traders in the course of peaceful trade, by preachers and holy men who set out from India and Arabia specifically to convert unbelievers and increase the knowledge of the faithful, and lastly by force and the waging of war against heathen states.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Islam , pp. 121 - 154
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1977

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