History of Islam in Indonesia

18 November 2010
Musalman Times

In the year of 30 Hijriyah or 651 Christian, just around 20 years after Rasulullah SAW passed away, the khalifah Uthman ibn Affan RA sent the delegation to China introducing Islam’s Daulah.

On the way of 4 years, the messangers of Uthman apparently stopped in Indonesian archipelago. This was the first time Indonesian people introduced Islam. Since, the moslem seaman and merchants kept coming for centuries. They bought agricultural produce from this green country while religious proselytizing.

Gradually, the indigene started to embrace Islam even though not an a large scale. Aceh, the most west region in Indonesia archipelago was the first region receiving Islam. Moreover, in Aceh, the first Islam kingdom was standing, Pasai. Marcopolo said that on the time his stop in Pasai in 692 H/1292 C, many Arabic people had disseminated Islam. So Ibnu Battutha, moslem wanderer from Marocco which when he was stopping in Aceh in 746 H/1345 C, wrote that in Aceh had disseminated Syafi’i mazhab. Now the oldest inheritance from the moslem was found in Gresik, East Java, that was the Islam funeral complex. One of them was a muslimah grave, called Fathima binti Maimun. In her grave was written numeral of year 475 H/1082 C, meant long ago before Majapahit, greatest Hindu’s Empire in Indonesia.

Read glimpses of World history by Jawaharlal Nehru—for a listing of Brahman imperialism in Southeast Asia.

Sri Vijaya, based at Palembang in southern Sumatra, reached through Java to the east and to the area of Bangkok (before it existed) in Thailand to the north. It was a Buddhist empire born in 670 A.D. and lasting until 1365. During this period, Buddhist culture and thought spread throughout the archipelagic region, influencing social order, commerce, and art.

Irregardless of what they teach some temples–Indonesia was Buddhist–and marauding hordes of Brahmans invaded, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia and tried to exterminate Buddhism in the lands. the brutal Madjapahit Hindu empire with a capital in eastern Java originated about 1100 with help from the colonialists from South Bharat. It continued its brutalities ’till 1500. Hinduism was reversed in all the countries, and it kept its hold in Bali–the last island which is a reminder of Hindu imperialism in Southeast Asia.

Malacca was the first major Islamic state in the region–located in what is Malaysia today–originating in 1400 and remaining powerful until defeated by a major Portuguese naval force in 1511. In the period of Pasisir culture authors were very active in writing books on all subjects belonging to the sphere of Muslim Javanese civilization.

The three centres of Pasisir literature in Java were Surabaya (with Gresik), Demak (with Japara) and Cérbon (with Banten). East Javanese Pasisir texts came first, for in East Java Muslim religious influence first became an important element in civilization. Starting from Java, Islamic Pasisir culture spread to some other islands of which the coasts are washed by the Java sea. The most important outlying cultural provinces were Lombok and Palémbang. In the island of Lombok a remarkable Islamic Javano-Balinese literature came into existence. The texts contain reminiscences of indigenous Sasak culture. The native Sasak language developed into a medium of literary activity side by side with the Javano-Balinese idiom.

The important oversea expansions of Javanese Pasisir literature, both eastwards and westwards, started from East Java. Minor expansions, of Javanese Pasisir culture took their course from Banten and from Central Javanese maritime towns. The districts affected by them, Lampung in South Sumatra by Banten, and Bañjar Masin in Borneo by Central Java, did not produce Javanese literary texts of any importance, however.

In, Javanese Pasisir literature, the influence of Islamic culture was strong. Islam first reached Java by the intermediary of Malay literature, Malay being the medium of the interinsular commerce which brought Muslim traders from India to the Archipelago. Asa result, Pasisir literature contains borrowings, from Malay and from Arabic, the sacred language of Islam, but also, from other continental languages, in the first place Persian, which was the universal Islamic medium in India in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

A number of significant early mosques survive, particularly along the north coast of Java. These include the Mesjid Agung in Demak, built in 1474, and the Menara Kudus Mosque in Kudus (1549) whose minaret is thought to be the watch tower of an earlier Hindu temple. Javanese mosque styles in turn influenced the architectural styles of mosques among its neighbors, among other the mosques in Kalimantan, Sumatra, Maluku, and also neighboring Malaysia, Brunei and the southern Philippines. Sultan Suriansyah Mosque in Banjarmasin and Kampung Hulu Mosque in Malacca for example displaying Javanese influence.

In 19th century, the sultanates of Indonesian archipelago began to merge Islamic architecture with Javanese style already popular in the archipelago. The Indo-Islamic and Moorish style are particularly favoured by Aceh Sultanate and Deli Sultanate, as displayed in Banda Aceh Baiturrahman Grand Mosque built in 1881, and Medan Grand Mosque built in 1906. Particularly during the decades since Indonesian independence, mosques have tended to be built in styles more consistent with global Islamic styles, which mirrors the practice of Islam.