Indonesia: How did the largest Muslim country become Muslim?

" Islam was spread by sword all the way untill Hindukush,but Christianity under Pizzaro was same and what Christians did to Paghans in Europe was also as brutal." violentjack

Originally posted by Zagros It was through Persian and Moghul traders. the only country not to be under muslim imperial dominance that converted on its own accord.

In 1138 island of Maldives king converted to Islam,as some traders Persian and mainly Arabs told him about their faith

Such is the case with Brunei,
Malays were converted starting from Ibn Batura 1300''s all the way untill 1500''s by traders from Mellaca.

Now there are countries like Senegal,Mali,great kingdom of Mali which were converted peacefully.Only greater Jihad started in 18 centUry untill 19 to fight neocolonialism especially Livingstone,Stanley  penetration into Africa,and growing influence of Christianity in Zambezi region.Islam was spread by sword all the way untill Hindukush,but Christianity under Pizzaro was same and what Christians did to Paghans in Europe was also as brutal.Persians could remain Zoroastran and i dont mind if they were still Zoroastran.But as Islam has many qualities with older Persian religion,starting from Cyrus so people gradually accepted Islam.In Quran you have verse where (PBuh) is cursing some paghan beduins and why they didnt accept Islam then.In some 400 year period Vandals,Berberians or just Berbers in Maghreb contverted to Islam,mainly  peacefully.

Yes,Islam wasnt all peace in India,perhaps because of polytheistic teaching of HInduism  and some like Shah Jahan,Aurangazeb were quite brutal to indigenous population,mainly HIndus.But what about kingdom oF Aztecas,Pizzaro,what about those hundreds of thousands slaves of the new world and forced conversion.Islam converted mainly peacefully 80% ,20% WAS FORCE,as many country were never Islamic during Caliphate,and now are.So,yes and no

If you wanna know some more,just ask me
Good old Jack knows everything

Islamic world is died Cahaya... Turkey can do nothing in a dead world.

talking to yourself again hagulu?

Edited by Zagros

How to explain this....

�ok ge� quote:

"Very interesting information Cahaya. That actually explains the fast process of conversion better.

Tulah is black magic by the Sultan or a curse?"

Tulah is a curse... a belief in order to remain sultan's influence and power among the people.. well it works.. for hundreds of years...

It come based on concept of Daulat.... what is daulat? this one i have to seek the info...

Indonesia: How did the largest Muslim country become Muslim?

Can i Give my comment on this wael? or it's already too late for me? ahahahah... (still i dont get it)...

Basically.. how Islam spread and accepted by people in SE Asia.. due to some factors:
*Traders (hey guys... all Muslim traders who were trading in here previously were responsible for the Islam acceptance... either Arabs, Persians or Indian Muslims.. well thank you to you guys... )

*Marriage

*Sultans' Influence

*The Islam itself (can i put it as "itself"? it sounds awkward)

It was well accepted when the influence of Majapahit and Srivijaya around Malay origin was decay... and tht time was where the Malacca Empire was starting to spread and become the first powerful muslim empire in the region

snowybeagle quote: "Point in fact, historically, until the Dutch put the islands into an overall administration of Indonesian colony, there never was an Indonesia."

It is true.. only for colonized purpose... same as when the British started to join all malay states in Malaysia as Malayan Union.. but failed coz it will eleminate Sultan's power... 

Nevertheless.. on that time before neither the Dutch no the English came... Islam was already accepted in most of the malay origin and most of the Indonesian Islands..

Refer to this website:
http://www.sabrizain.demon.co.uk/malaya/islam.htm

The spread was Islam was greatly by social contact which was marriages..

Here i quote some of main point from the article:

"Diplomatic marriages between aristocracies
of different kingdoms spread the faith even further. A notable example was-

*the marriage of the first Muslim Sultan of Pasai on the North-Western coast of Sumatra who died in 1297AD t a ruler of Perlak.

*Sultanate of Malacca - Borneo, Pahang, Kedah and with SUmatran rivers (siak, Kampar, Inderagiri and Jambi), in java and until further eastward as far as Moluccas."

Meanwhile for the Sultans' roles... I put it in a simple way..previously whtever SULTAN do you must follow. Sultan converted to ISlam... everybody converted.. or else.. either you wil be punish or maybe u will have a very bad incident.. superstitious belief.. it calls 'Tulah'.

well... tht's all wht i have.. ok wael?

Originally posted by �ok ge� However, you meantioned the wide spread of Wahabbism, and tied it directly to the bombings of Bali. What are your evidance that those who commit the 2 bombings of bali consider themselves Wahabbis?

Apologies, I think it's a mistake on my part to automatically link together the Jemaah Islamiyah movement to the most well known Islamic missionary supporter funded from Saudi Arabia.

Allow me to retract and correct my earlier post.

Point in fact, historically, until the Dutch put the islands into an overall administration of Indonesian colony, there never was an Indonesia.

Composed of thousands of islands, Islam became widespread after interaction with Arabic maritime traders, but did not become the sole dominant religion today that played a great role in daily lives, politics and society today. Other religions continued to be practiced widely, including Buddhism and Hinduism as well as traditional animism etc. Nevertheless, Islam was the religion of the majority, at least nominally. Despite its widespread, the practice of Islam varied greatly from places to places.

In places like Aceh and many highly urbanised port-cities, the legacy of Arab missionary activities remained significant. But in the more rural areas, the practice of Islam oft intermixed with traditional beliefs.

The dominance of Islam in Indonesia was tied largely to the anti-colonial nationalist movement after WW2. It was by far the most convenient vehicle for the leaders of the nationalist movement to garner popular support.

Thanks to the Dutch who created the concept of Indonesia, the Javanese nationalist leaders adopted the foreign import to claim sovereignity over all the territories of the Dutch colony. Islam was an important tool in that claim, for there was no other way for Javanese leaders to claim legitimacy over the other islands - there was no historical precedent prior to the European colonisers. The Majapahit and Sri Vijaya did not cover all the territories of present Indonesia.

Indonesia's first president, Sukarno even went to the extent of claiming southern Philippines and present day Federation of Malaysia to be incorporated into Indonesia - these are the places where Islam is the religion of the majority of the populace.

As it turns out though, despite garnering the support from Muslim clerics, Indonesia did not become a theocracy. The Javanese leaders were not interested in being displaced by religious leaders as rulers of the country. Their intention was to maintain Javanese dominance under the guise of unity for all Indonesians. Promises made to religious factions were broken, hence the continuing problems with Aceh province today.

Hence, though the country was technically the largest Muslim country in the world, the influence of the clerics and religious leaders were limited for many decades throughout the Suharto presidency, even when some Islamic fundamentalist movements was actively spreading another wave of militancy.

Indonesia paid some lip service to the anti-Israel sentiments among the Islamic nations by stamping on its passports - forbidden to visit Israel. What was interesting here is that there was no such official restriction on the passports from visiting communist China, a country which it had broken off most formal relations since the failed communist coup which brought Suharto to power.

In the 1997 Asian economic crisis, Islam was again used as a tool in anti-Chinese riots, and the extremists such as the Jemaah Islamiyah were able gain significant influence. Once they were let in, the Indonesian leaders found too late they could not control it, and hence the two bombings in Bali.

Edited by snowybeagle

 from the article i copied from britannica earlier in this thread it says

Foreign Muslims had traded in Indonesia and China for many centuries; a Muslim tombstone in eastern Java bears a date corresponding to 1082. But substantial evidence of Isl�m in Indonesia begins only in northern Sumatra at the end of the 13th century. Two small Muslim trading kingdoms existed bythat time at Samudra-Pasai and Perlak. A royal tomb at Samudra, of 1297, is inscribed entirely in Arabic

so there was a topbstone dated to 1082 but it doesn't say which language was it written on it, the secound one was in 1297 which was inscribed entirely in Arabic.

iam not denying any persian trad to this part of the world, iam just saying it could be a contribution from more than one islamic region.

 

Originally posted by Zagros Pharoah, how about Abu Muslim who kicked out the Ummayads and installed the Abassids? And how was the trade minimum? why are there Persian place names in Sumatra?

Ok, so there are Persian tombs and places in Sumatra, so? Their date is what matters. Were they the first comers and so the first introducer of Islam. Sumatra has places and tombsnamed after Monguls, Arabs, Africans...etc..all were traders. Very normal.