Re: Majapahit and Islam

Dear Tadao, and friends,

Betty tells me she is leaving today on a trip to the Samarkhan area
with her husband and their group so will probably not be able to write
about the Majapahit for us for a while, though I will remind her about
it when she gets back…

From what she tells me during our last conversation is that it was
during the 16thC AD and the spice trades of the time that the Moslem
powers spread in the islands where the spice came from, since the
Moslem traders (or their religious advisers ) imposed their beliefs on
the islanders who wanted to trade with them!  An interesting aspect of
religious propagation, I think!

Does this agree with what you have read, Tadao?  I should really like
to find out more, could you tell us about it while Betty is touring
Uzbekistan?  (Samarkhan still evokes the capital of the world to me!)

Amara



--- In palistudy@..., "Amara" <joychay@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Tadao,
>
> Betty's not on this list, but I will forward your post to her,
> although she leads a very busy social plus a very warm family life,
> she will answer you as soon as she finds the time, I'm certain.  In
> fact I'll show her this today if she comes to the discussions, looks
> like some fine historical forays coming up for us!
>
> Amara
>
>
> --- In palistudy@..., ppp <miyamoto@...> wrote:
> > Hi, Betty:
> > Sometime ago you mentioned that the presence of the
> > Mon people was (one of) the main reason(s) why
> > the penunsula SEAsia wasn't overtaken by Islam
> > while the island SEAsia was overtaken by it.
> > As you know that histroically Indonesia had two
> > great powers; one being Srivijaya and the other
> > Majapahit. Both of these political powers cutivated
> > (Hinduism and) Mahayana Buddhism. By the 14th century,
> > however, Majapahit's power embedded due possibly
> > to the raising of many local rulers, who
> > established their own lucative trading networks,
> > (which was part of the international network)
> > undermining the economic ground of the kingdom.
> > These local rules all seem to have SO EASILY
> > adopted Islam as their religion. The question
> > I would like to ask you is why did these local rulers
> > adopt Islam? I know that it is very easy for one
> > to covert to Islam. All one has to do is to profess that
> > he is a Muslim. This fact does not, however, explain
> > why these local rules adopted Islam so easily. Do you
> > know whether at that time in Indonesia there were any
> > political, economical, social reasons/benefits due to
> > which these rules converted their religion to Islam?
> > tadao