The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim FaithArnold, Thomas Walker, Sir
Islamic
The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith
Arnold, Thomas Walker, Sir
Islam -- History; Islam -- Missions -- History; Islam -- Relations
The first attempt to introduce Islam into Java was made by a native of
the island about the close of the twelfth century. The first king of
Pajajaran, a state in the western part of the island, left two sons; of
these, the elder chose to follow the profession of a merchant and
undertook a trading expedition to India, leaving the kingdom to his
younger brother, who succeeded to the throne in the year 1190 with the
title of Prabu Munding Sari. In the course of his wanderings, the elder
brother fell in with some Arab merchants, and was by them converted to
Islam, taking the name of Ḥājī Purwa.
On his return to his native country, he tried with the help of an Arab
missionary to convert his brother and the royal family to his new
faith; but, his efforts proving unsuccessful, he fled into the jungle
for fear of the king and his unbelieving subjects, and we hear no more
of him. [1230]
In the latter half of the fourteenth century, a missionary movement,
which was attended with greater success, was instituted by a certain
Mawlānā Malik Ibrāhīm, who landed on the east coast of Java with some
of his co-religionists, and established himself near the town of
Gresik, opposite the island of Madura. He is said to have traced his
descent to Zayn al-ʻĀbidīn, a great-grandson of the Prophet, and to
have been cousin of the Raja of Chermen. [1231] Here he occupied
himself successfully in the work of conversion, and speedily gathered a
small band of believers around him. Later on, he was joined by his
cousin, the Raja of Chermen, who came in the hope of converting the
Raja of the Hindu Kingdom of Majapahit, and of forming an alliance with
him by offering his daughter in marriage. On his arrival he sent his
son, Ṣādiq Muḥammad, to Majapahit to arrange an interview, while he
busied himself in the building of a mosque and the conversion of the
inhabitants. A meeting of the two princes took place accordingly, but
before the favourable impression then produced could be followed up, a
sickness broke out among the people of the Raja of Chermen, which
carried off his daughter, three of his nephews who had accompanied him,
and a great part of his retinue; whereupon he himself returned to his
own kingdom. These misfortunes prejudiced the mind of the Raja of
Majapahit against the new faith, which he said should have better
protected its votaries: and the mission accordingly failed. Mawlānā
Ibrāhīm, however, remained behind, in charge of the tombs [1232] of his
kinsfolk and co-religionists, and himself died twenty-one years later,
in 1419, and was buried at Gresik, where his tomb is still venerated as
that of the first apostle of Islam to Java.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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