That’s the call to prayer at the local mosque.
It’s a common thing to hear in the Islamic world, but I am not in the Middle East, I
am not in North Africa, I am in Southeast Asia, more specifically Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Malaysia’s official state religion is Islam, and it’s a somewhat widely known factoid
that the largest country by Muslim population is nearby Indonesia.
So, just how did Islam spread to this corner of the world?
Indonesia has about a quarter of a billion inhabitants, making it the fourth largest
overall country in the world.
Of those roughly 270 million people, about 87% of them said they were Muslim, according
to a 2010 census.
Nearby Malaysia doesn’t lag all that far behind either, though smaller and more religiously
diverse, Malaysia has Islam as the official state religion.
In fact, 42% of the population of Southeast Asia identifies as Islamic, comprising about
a quarter of all the Muslims in the world.
However, while there are sizeable Muslim communities in other Southeast Asian countries, most are
concentrated in Malaysia and Indonesia (also small shout-out to Brunei).
So, before I get carried away with repeating the intro over and over again, how did Malaysia
and Indonesia get so Islamic?
Islam started in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century, and from there quickly spread
throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa with the conquests of the early Caliphs, reaching
from Pakistan to Portugal to P…
Persia?
Nevertheless, Islam didn’t spread so quickly to the east, at least not in the same way
it spread westwards.
During this time, the Silk Road trade networks were in more effect than ever, with well-traveled
trade routes connecting Europe and Africa with eastern Asia by land and by sea.
It was through these trade networks that Islam would come to spread to the east.
The Silk Road is a very notable cause for the spread of Islam across the south of Asia,
as it also wasn’t the only religion to have made use of the Silk Road.
Buddhism, a religion that started in Northern India and Southern Nepal, took advantage of
the Silk Road, and now dominates virtually all of East Asia.
Islam did have a somewhat slow uprising in this area though.
This new religion, brought in by some sailors, preachers, and Sufi mystics from faraway lands,
obviously didn’t become the dominant religion overnight.
Islam initially started to spread around the coasts of Sumatra by the 9th century, but
these communities didn’t spread much at first.
Before Islam started to gain a foothold in this part of the world, the various kingdoms
around here were primarily either Buddhist or Hindu, or even a combination of the two,
like the Indonesian Mahapajit…
Mapajahit…
Majahapit… Roman…
Majapahit Empire.
Matter of fact, the world’s largest Buddhist temple, Borobudur, is located on the Indonesian
island of Java, built during the 9th century AD, under the Sailendra Dynasty.
In fact, one likely contributing factor to the spread of Islam in this area was the presence
of various mystic Sufi orders, as many Islamic teachings were even combined with various
previously established Hindu-Buddhist teachings, basically amalgomating Islam with some of
the more native beliefs of the area.
Around the 10th and 11th centuries, Muslim traders started setting up shop in Aceh, on
the northwesternmost tip of the island of Sumatra.
Malacca, the main choke point of the region for oceanic trade, also housed many Islamic
traders and scholars, and it’s likely from there that the religion spread throughout
the rest of the region.
There are multiple factors that went into Islam spreading to the Malay…
Indonesian…
Nusantara Archipelago though, one other likely factor being the mass translation of many
Islamic holy texts into Malay and Javanese… you know, the languages people actually speak
in Malaysia and Java.
One more factor was the ruling classes embracing Islam, especially the rulers of Malacca, who
started converting to Islam in the 15th century, which definitely wasn’t unconsequential.
That is definitely a bit late to be the one true source though, since Islam had already
been prevalent in the region for several hundred years, with Marco Polo even going to states
like Perlak and saying “yep, they’re Islamic alright”.
So, while Islam initially spread slowly amongst the local people, so too was this the case
with the rulers of the area.
In fact, the island of Java didn’t get its first true Sultan until 1641.
So, why is it important to talk about the spread of Islam into Southeast Asia, or at
least important enough for me to make a video about it?
Well, besides me wanting to make a video relating to having gone to Kuala Lumpur, I feel it‘s
important to recognize the fact that “the Islamic world” isn‘t just the Middle East
and Northern Africa, but many other places as well.
The country with the most Muslims is Indonesia, while the country with the second highest
is India.
Also, the northernmost Islamic-majority country is Kazakhstan.
In fact, just this map can tell us many things about the Balkans, or the Caucasus, or Western
China, and how these places impact the geopolitical situations in their areas.
Religion plays a big role in daily life around the world, and has especially played a big
role in world history, so just understanding what people believe and where they do so can
help one understand the world in new ways… or at least tell people why they shouldn’t
expect to get many pork dumplings in Jakarta.
Thank you as always for watching.
If you want to see more videos like this, do consider liking, subscribing, and supporting
KhAnubis on Patreon, to help everyone learn something new every Sunday.
Whether or not you can or want to support the channel though, I will see you next week
with a video from Singapore.