1. The Coming of Islam to Southeast Asia Chapter 7 (part 4 of 4)

3. Trade Merchants often traded in southeast Asia, but up until the 700s they did so with each other, not so much the people of southeast Asia By the 700s, southeast Asians begin to get involved in the trade (especially in places like Sumatra and Malaya) The southeast Asians export mostly luxury items (aromatic woods and spices like nutmeg) It was through this trade that Islam spreads to the people of Southeast Asia

4. Srivijaya From 600s to 1200s, Srivijaya was biggest trade empire in southeast Asia The people of Srivijaya were Buddhist When Srivijaya collapsed in the 1200s, it opened door for Islam to spread to southeast Asia

5. Islam Mostly Spreads Peacefully Islam was introduced and spread by merchants First Sumatra won over in the 1200s, then Malaya (Malaysia now)

6. Malacca Big trade city in S.E. Asia Converting Malacca to Islam was key to converting much of S.E. Asia

7. Demak (in Java) Demak was most powerful trading state in north Java Islam next spread to Demak, on island of Java

8. Srivijaya (Buddhist) falls, opens door to Islam spreading Sumatra is converted to Islam Malaya next converted to Islam (city of Malacca) Demak on Java is converted next

9. Benefits of Converting to Islam People in trading cities benefited from converting to Islam because most traders coming in were Muslims, so it improved relations with them Only the elites in southeast Asia had converted to Indian religions (mostly Buddhism), so Muslims were able to successfully convert the masses

10. Only Bali (which was Hindu) and Mainland southeast Asia (which was Buddhist) didn’t convert to Islam

12. Sufis Key to Spreading Islam Sufis (Muslim mystics) played big role in spreading Islam to India, and now played big role in spreading Islam to southeast Asia Ulama (orthodox Muslims) do not like the Sufis because they let people maintain pre-Islamic traditions, but that helped people choose to convert Example of pre-Islamic traditions that were allowed to be kept is the Javanese shadow puppet shows Click on the image above to view shadow puppet show

13. Women Women in southeast Asia had better status than other Muslim areas In many cases, family lineage traced through mother’s side Women were active traders and often dominated markets