Java and the nine saints (15th-16th centuries)

Part oneMajapahit and the coast

In the fourteenth century Java was the heart of Majapahit, a powerful Hindu-Buddhist empire whose influence reached across much of the archipelago. Its court was in the island's interior, but its wealth came from the busy ports of the north coast, where rice, spices and goods from overseas were traded.

Muslim merchants had settled in these ports for generations, and some members of Majapahit's ruling families had become Muslim by the fourteenth century. Muslim graves dated in the 1300s have been found near the old Majapahit capital itself.

Part twoThe nine saints

Javanese tradition remembers nine teachers who brought Islam to the island, the Walisongo, the "nine saints". Many of the stories told about them are legends, but several were real men whose graves are visited today.

One of the earliest was Maulana Malik Ibrahim, a teacher and trader who settled at Gresik on the north coast and died there in 1419, according to his gravestone. Tradition says he cared for the sick and taught farmers better ways to work the land. Another, Sunan Ampel, founded a school at Ampel, now part of Surabaya, where many later teachers trained. Each saint founded a pesantren, a boarding school where students lived with their teacher, learned the Quran and the basics of law, and went home to teach others. The pesantren is still the backbone of Islamic education in Indonesia.

The saints taught with great patience. They used the local language and local forms. The best-known story is told of Sunan Kalijaga, who is said to have used the wayang, the Javanese shadow-puppet theatre, telling the old stories with new meanings to teach the faith. Others wrote songs and poems in Javanese. Islam came into Java slowly, keeping much of the island's culture while changing its belief.

Part threeDemak and the new kingdoms

As Majapahit weakened in the fifteenth century, the Muslim port towns grew stronger. Around 1475 Raden Patah, said to be of Majapahit royal blood, founded the sultanate of Demak on the north coast, the first Muslim kingdom on Java. Its great mosque, built with the help of the saints according to tradition, still stands. In the early sixteenth century Demak defeated what was left of Majapahit, and the Hindu-Buddhist court moved east, to the island of Bali, which remains mostly Hindu today.

Other Muslim kingdoms followed: Cirebon and Banten in the west, and later Mataram in the interior, which became the strongest state on Java. The faith also spread across the seas. In Brunei, on the island of Borneo, a descendant of the Prophet ﷺ named Sharif Ali married into the royal family, became sultan and led the Friday prayer himself. After Melaka fell in 1511, Brunei became a leading Muslim power of the region, ruling parts of Borneo and the southern Philippines. The Sulu islands and Mindanao, in what is now the Philippines, also had Muslim sultans. In the north, at Manila, a Muslim ruler held the city until the Spanish conquered it in 1571.

From the hadith

Narrated Anas bin Malik:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Facilitate things to people (concerning religious matters), and do not make it hard for them and give them good tidings and do not make them run away (from Islam).

The saints of Java taught in the people's own language, and even through their own stories.

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The mapWhere it happened

• Gresik
• Surabaya
• Tuban
• Demak
• Kudus
• Cirebon
• Banten
• Bali
• Brunei
• Sulu
• Manila

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

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