Thread by @uglyluhan

I sure can. I did a thread before on who brought Islam to Southeast Asia but it wasn't up to par so I'll try to be a bit more clear this time

https://twitter.com/w4lr6sAbdulRauf/status/1286387219448524801?s=19

If we were to ask who were the first Muslims in Southeast Asia, the answer would probably be simple enough. Most likely they were from the Middle East, a region which had trade links with Southeast Asia in medieval times

Arab and Persian Muslim traders had been making their way to Southeast Asia since the 9th century. However, contact with Muslims does not mean locals were converting. After all, trade with the Chinese wasn't making Malays Daoist

19th-century Europeans (especially the Dutch) and later Malay Arabophiles assumed that Islam was brought by Arabs. They took this as self-evident. Islam is an Arabian religion, and Arabs were all over the place, so why would it be anyone else?

The writings of Naquib al-Attas specifically have been particularly influential to popular BM writings on history. "Arabs brought Islam" has become the layman's narrative ever since

Later experts found the Arab theory unconvincing, and instead endorsed the theory of an Indian origin, before they proceeded to argue over which part of South Asia the early disseminators of Islam came from

cambridge.org/core/journals/…

Each took a compartmentalised view, trying to pinpoint that one specific place or group that brought Islam. So depending on whose work you read, you might hear that Islam came to Southeast Asia from Gujerat or Bengal

m.timesofindia.com/city/ahmedabad…

In a way, they were all correct. But each presented just a single piece of the puzzle. Islam was introduced gradually via multiple routes and by a diversity of peoples from several schools of Islam

To make things more confusing, Europeans used descriptives like "Arab" and "Moor" for Muslims who were neither. To this day, the term Moro (Spanish for Moor) is used for a number of Filipino Muslim ethnicities that have no relation to Moors at all

ethnipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Moro_peop…

When Europeans say Islam was brought to Kedah by "Arabs from Ceylon", what they're referring to are the so-called "Sri Lankan Moors", a Tamil-speaking community who don't consider themselves Tamil due to Arab ancestry. I've seen Sri Lankans argue about this so I won't get into it

Similarly the "overseas Arabs of China" are in fact the Hui people, descended from Han Chinese who intermarried with Middle Eastern and Central Asian Muslims. Many Malaysian Chinese have Hui ancestry without even knowing it

tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

With that out of the way, let's look at some background. Northern India came under Muslim rule following the Turkic Ghaznavid and Iranic Ghorid conquests, so Islam was very widespread in medieval South Asia

I hope we all know by now of the close relationship that ancient Southeast Asia had with India and China. The adoption of Hindu-Buddhist culture was part of the "Indianisation" process which spanned approximately from the 2nd century BC to the 16th century AD

From the Batu Bersurat, we know that there have been Malays who were Muslim even in the 13th century. So how could the period of Indianisation have continued til the 16th century if Islam already arrived before that?

Contrary to popular belief, not all Malays were Muslim during the time the Batu Bersurat was inscribed. And in fact, the spread of Islam by South Asian Muslims was simply a continuation of that Indian influence

We also know that the Persians and Yemeni Arabs of the Hadramut traded with Malay kingdoms. Take a look at a map, and you'll notice it would be rather inconvenient to sail from the Middle East to Southeast Asia without passing South Asia

So although there was direct contact, Sri Lanka and southern India often acted as a middleman between Southeast Asia and the Middle East, just as the Arabs themselves were the crucial link between Asia and Europe in the spice trade

It seems only logical that Islam in insular Southeast Asia first took root along the west coast, in Aceh and Kedah for instance, where it was brought by Malabaris, Gujeratis, Tamils, Bengalis, etc. Makes sense

...or so they thought

Many scholars were satisfied with this explanation. In fact, it was the dominant view. So much so that they neglected other routes by which Islam was propagated, particularly Champa and especially China

Now you may ask, why China? For many modern Malays, the Chinese are just about the most un-Islamic of all Malaysia's major ethnic groups. But being so close to Muslim Central Asia, Islam flourished in Yuan China before it has become dominant among Malays

Until the Song dynasty, China's policy of ethnic enclaves prevented Islam from gaining ground among the Han Chinese. Under Mongol rule, not only did Islam spread, but Muslims held high positions in the government and military

topchinatravel.com/china-muslim/i…

Zheng He was one such high-ranking Muslim in the Ming dynasty. By bringing Melaka under Chinese protection, he had a pivotal role in the spread of Islam through not just Malaysia but also Indonesia

thestar.com.my/news/nation/20…

The same Chinese and Indian Muslims also brought Islam to the Chams, an Austronesian-speaking ethnic minority of Vietnam who had their own kingdom of Champa

tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

Like Malays, the Chams originally blended native animism with Hindu-Buddhist beliefs before Islam became dominant in the 15th century. Champa also had an ethnic Malay enclave. Cham propagated Islam among Malays, and vice-versa

The close relationship between Champa and the archipelago is evident in the Sejarah Melayu, which credits the Chams with introducing Islam to Java. There are still Malay and Acehnese families of Cham descent

m.detik.com/news/berita-ja…

Now contrary to popular belief, Malays are not a special chosen people. The conversion to Islam was the natural result of historical processes originating elsewhere. For commoners, the egalitarian message of Islam might seem more appealing than native classism and casteism

For traders and sailors, Islam might have been more practical. Native animist and Hindu-Buddhist practices had close ties to the land and fixed locations like temples. In comparison, Islam was missionary by nature and therefore more "portable"

This is a generalisation of course. One of the main reasons for Islam's dominance in insular Southeast Asia was in fact politics. Think about this: if you were a Hindu god-king, why would you willingly accept a religion that says all people are equal?

The fact is, Southeast Asian kings knew which way the wind was blowing (yes that's a negeri di atas angin reference). Islam had become the religion of the foreign merchants, and conversion helped to capitalise on the Muslim trade network

While the importance of Arab and Persian traders was undeniable in the introduction of Islam, why do I maintain that it was spread mainly by Indians and Chinese? Again, we have to examine the setting in which Islam arrived in our part of the world

Islam first became widespread in Southeast Asia in the late medieval era. This was a period when the religion had a strong presence in India and China. The Arab lands and their dominant place in world trade was weakened following the Crusades and especially the Mongol conquests

With the disintegration of the Abbasid empire, any proselytisation by Arabs was done on an individual basis and not backed by a political power. India and China on the other hand were in very favourable positions to diffuse the faith

kyotoreview.org/issue-10/on-th…

As I said before, I could imagine a Malay Muslim minority through solely Arab influence. Yet how did Islam become dominant not just along the west coast, but as far as Sulawesi and the Philippines?

Melaka had a sizeable Indian population, both Muslim and non-Muslim, just as Malaysia does today. From local texts, we know there was also a Chinese Muslim community across Southeast Asia from Champa to Indonesia

We can actually trace the origin of many prominent foreign Muslims in Southeast Asia to either India or China, like Nyai Gede Pinateh and ar-Raniri. Muslim gravestones seem to have been exported from Gujerat to Sumatra and Java

researchgate.net/publication/24…

Chinese Islam was syncretised as the community intermarried with locals. Lian padukan and kuntao Jawa were originally Chinese martial arts that have become so localised that you might not recognise their origin

The Chinese influence is evident in the earliest local mosques

But it's Indian mosques from the colonial period that we've really ripped off ever since. The onion shapes are so common that we take it for granted today, but who do you think brought it here?

penang.ws/penang-attract…

Also Malay Islam until modern times was never homogeneous. Everywhere that Islam existed in Southeast Asia, there were different sects and mazhab. Shia was once common

mei.edu/publications/h…

Malays would have been especially receptive to Sufism because they could relate it to local mysticism. For example, the observance of keramat has its origin in Malay animism which blended with the Indian veneration of Sufi saints

https://twitter.com/uglyluhan/status/1087970051494420480?s=19

Worship of Malay Muslim figures is still practiced by the local Chinese community

https://twitter.com/uglyluhan/status/1087972147669143552?s=19

Malaysia today prioritises the Shafie school, as south Indians do. In the past, Hanafi was widespread in what are now Malaysia and Indonesia

persee.fr/doc/arch_0044-…

Much of what we consider Malay-Muslim culture today originated with the mamak community. From headdresses like the songkok, to food like nasi kandar

If anything, the story of how Islam was brought to Southeast Asia only further legitimises the place of non-Malays in Malaysian history. But that wouldn't be very convenient for Muslim supremacists

https://twitter.com/uglyluhan/status/1165588913567629317?s=19

But it's not just the racists. It seems to be a matter of pride for Muslims to believe that the religion came directly from Arabia in its present Sunni, Shafie form. Somehow that's more "pure". But as with all Malaysian history, truth is a lot less boring than what we're told

I wrote this pretty fast so there's a lot more to be said on this topic. Here's some authors to look up for those who are interested.

SQ Fatimi
RO Winstedt
Cheng Dasheng
Farish Noor