Spread of Islam (12th century – 1602) There is evidence of Arab Muslim traders entering Indonesia as early as the 8th century. and later from the southern
Arabian Peninsula (i.e.
Hadhramaut, Yemen). The first evidence of a Muslim dynasty is the gravestone, dated AH 696 (1297 CE), of
Sultan Malik al Saleh, the first Muslim ruler of
Samudera Pasai Sultanate. By the end of the 13th century, Islam had been established in Northern Sumatra. In general, local traders and the royalty of major kingdoms were the first to adopt the new religion. The spread of Islam among the ruling class was precipitated as Muslim traders married the local women, with some of the wealthier traders marrying into the elite ruling families. After local rulers and the royals had adopted Islam, their subjects mirrored their conversion. Although the spread was slow and gradual, the limited evidence suggests that it accelerated in the 15th century, as the military power of
Malacca Sultanate in the
Malay Peninsula and other Islamic Sultanates that dominated the region were aided by episodes of Muslim coup such as in 1446, wars and superior control of maritime trading and ultimate markets. By the 14th century, Islam had been established in northeast Malaya, Brunei, the southwestern Philippines, and among some courts of coastal East and Central Java, and by the 15th century, in Malacca and other areas of the Malay Peninsula. The 15th century saw the decline of the Hindu Javanese
Majapahit Empire, as Muslim traders from Arabia, India, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, and also China began to dominate the regional trade that was once controlled by Javanese Majapahit traders. Chinese
Ming dynasty provided systematic support to Malacca. Ming Chinese
Zheng He's
voyages (1405 to 1433) is credited for creating
Chinese Muslim settlement in
Palembang and north coast of Java. Malacca actively encouraged the conversion to Islam in the region, while Ming fleet actively established Chinese-Malay Muslim community in northern coastal Java, thus creating a permanent opposition to the Hindus of Java. By 1430, the expeditions had established Muslim Chinese, Arab and Malay communities in northern ports of Java such as
Semarang,
Demak,
Tuban, and
Ampel; thus, Islam began to gain a foothold in the northern coast of Java. Malacca prospered under Chinese Ming protection, while the Majapahit were steadily pushed back. Dominant Muslim kingdoms during this time included
Samudera Pasai in northern Sumatra,
Malacca Sultanate in eastern Sumatra,
Demak Sultanate in central Java,
Gowa Sultanate in southern Sulawesi, and the
sultanates of
Ternate and
Tidore in the
Maluku Islands to the east. Indonesia's historical inhabitants were animists, Hindus, and Buddhists. Through
assimilation related to trade, royal conversion, and conquest, however, Islam had supplanted Hinduism and Buddhism as the dominant religion of
Java and
Sumatra by the end of the 16th century. During this process, "cultural influences from the Hindu-Buddhist era were mostly tolerated or incorporated into Islamic rituals." One of the most important Indonesian Sufis from this time is
Hamzah Fansuri, a poet and writer from the 16th century. By the late 15th century, the Majapahit Empire in Java had begun to decline. This last
Hindu kingdom in Java fell under the rising power of the Islamized
Sultanate of Demak in the 1520s; in 1527, the Muslim ruler renamed newly conquered
Sunda Kelapa as Jayakarta meaning "precious victory", which was eventually contracted to
Jakarta. Islam in Java then began to spread formally, building on the spiritual influences of the revered Sufi saints
Wali Songo (or Nine Saints). Despite Islam being one of the most significant developments in Indonesian history, historical evidence remains fragmentary and uninformative. The understanding of how Islam arrived in Indonesia is limited; there is considerable debate among scholars about what conclusions can be drawn about the conversion of Indonesian peoples. The primary evidence, at least of the earlier stages of the process, are gravestones and a few travelers' accounts, but these can only show that indigenous Muslims were in a certain place at a certain time. This evidence is insufficient to comprehensively explain more complicated matters, such as how lifestyles were affected by the new religion or how deeply it affected societies.
Early modern period (1700–1945) The Dutch entered the region in the 17th century, attracted by its wealth established through the region's natural resources and trade. The entering of the Dutch resulted in a monopoly of the central trading ports. However, this helped the spread of Islam, as local Muslim traders relocated to the smaller and remoter ports, establishing Islam into the rural provinces. in
Java during
Dutch colonial periods. Reformist movements had especially taken roots in the
Minangkabau area of
West Sumatra, where its
ulema played an important role in the early reform movement. Renowned Minangkabau
imam in Mecca
Ahmad Khatib al-Minangkabawi had contributed greatly to the reformist training. He was single-handedly responsible for educating many of the essential Muslim figures during this time. In 1906,
Tahir bin Jalaluddin, a disciple of al-Minangkabawi, published in
al-Iman, the Malay newspaper in
Singapore. Five years later followed publication of
Al-Munir magazine by
Abdullah Ahmad in
Padang. In the first 20th century, Muslim modernist school arose in West Sumatra, such as Adabiah (1909), Diniyah Putri (1911), and
Sumatera Thawalib (1915). The movement had also attained its supporter base in Java. In
Surakarta, leftist Muslim
Haji Misbach published in the monthly paper
Medan Moeslimin and the periodical
Islam Bergerak. and
Lombok-based
Nahdlatul Wathan (1953). A combination of reformist thoughts and the growing sense of sovereignty had led to the brief development of Islam as a vehicle for the political struggle against the Dutch colonialism. The earliest example is
Padri movement from Minangkabau. Padri movement was inspired by
Wahhabism during its inception, and aimed at the purification of Islam in Indonesia reciprocally. The movement eventually turned into a struggle against Dutch colonialism during the
Padri War (1803–1837), although at the same time the Padri movement also fought the Adat tribes who were a semi secular Minangkabau nobility and traditional chiefs. One of the leaders,
Tuanku Imam Bonjol, was declared a
National Hero of Indonesia. Indonesia became the world's second-largest Muslim-majority country after its independence in 1945. The separation of
Bangladesh from
Pakistan in 1971 made it the world's most populous Muslim-majority country. Post-independence had seen the most significant upheaval of the Muslim society on various aspects of society. This owes to the independence, increased literacy and educational attainment among Muslims, funding from the Middle East, and all the more accelerated exchange between other Muslim countries.
Nurcholish Madjid (Cak Nur) was a highly influential scholar who is credited for cultivating the modernist and reformist discourse, primarily influenced by
Pakistani Islamic philosopher Fazlur Rahman.
Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), later
president of Indonesia, went through the Islamic education at the
University of Baghdad, and later became the central figure of Indonesia's liberal Islamic trend.
Quraish Shihab compiled
Tafsir Al-Mishbah, which is considered a standard of Indonesian Islamic interpretation among mainstream Indonesian Islamic intellectuals. Post-independence had also seen an expansion in the activity of Islamic organizations, especially regarding missionary activities (
dawah) and
Islamization of lifestyles. The Ministry of Religion reported that as late as the 1960s, only a minority of Muslims were practicing
daily prayers and
almsgiving. This status had drastically changed through the course of endeavor by the organizations such as the
Indonesian Islamic Dawah Council (DDII) led by
Mohammad Natsir, not to mention aforementioned Muhammadiyah, NU, and PERSIS. More recently, organizations such as DDII and
LIPIA have been acting as instruments of the
propagation of Salafism or Wahhabism with funding from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies, that "has contributed to a more conservative, more
intolerant atmosphere" and eager to strip heritages of traditional Indonesian Islam of local customs influenced by Animism ritual and
Sufi teaching. On the political arena, the coalition of Muhammadiyah and NU have established the
Masyumi Party, which served as a mainstream Islamic political party until its dissolution in 1960. Meanwhile, militant Islamic organizations such as
Darul Islam,
Laskar Jihad, and
Jemaah Islamiyah had also seen its growth, aided mostly by foreign funding as well. Muslims adhering to the syncretic form of Islam known as
Abangan had also become the target of this mass killing. Communism was considered hostile by Muslims due to perceived atheistic nature and the tendency of landowners being local Islamic chiefs. Initially hoped as the ally of Islamic groups, the New Order quickly became the antagonist following its attempt to reform educational and marital legislation to more secular-oriented code. This met strong opposition, with marriage law left as Islamic code as a result. Suharto had also attempted at consolidating Pancasila as the only state ideology, which was also turned down by the fierce resistance of Islamic groups. With Suharto's resignation in 1998, "the structure that repressed religion and society collapsed." However, the political transition from authoritarianism to democracy went relatively smoothly due considerably to the commitment of tolerance by mass organizations such as NU and Muhammadiyah. This made Muslim civil society a key part of Indonesia's
democratic transition. Currently, Muslims are considered fully represented in the democratically elected parliament. NU-oriented
National Awakening Party (PKB), and Islamist
Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). and the rise of smaller-scale organizations and individual preachers such as
Abdullah Gymnastiar (Aa Gym) and
Yusuf Mansur. During the early 2000s, the return of
Abu Bakar Bashir, who was in exile during the Suharto era as a spiritual leader of
Jihadism in Indonesia, resulted in the series of bombing attacks, which have been largely contained recently. Contemporary Islam in Indonesia is analyzed in various ways, with certain analysis consider it as becoming more conservative. Conservative development has seen the emergence of vigilante group
Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), persecution against Ahmadiyya exemplified by MUI's fatwa, Liberal development has seen the emergence of groups such as
Liberal Islamic Network (JIL), formation of
Islam Nusantara as a collective identity of pluralist Islam, and claimed as the declining support for the
Islamist political parties. Islamic cleric was a
MUI chairman and 13th
Vice President of Indonesia. The seventh President
Joko Widodo (Jokowi), who served from 2014 to 2024, advocates a strict separation of religion and politics. His position is supported by major Muslim organizations such as the NU. However, it is interpreted and condemned by some members of the MUI as a form of
secularism. At the same time, former PKS chairman
Sohibul Iman criticized Jokowi's position as having the potential of increasing tension in Indonesian society. In 2017, a "Government Regulation in Lieu of Law" (
Peraturan Pemerintah Pengganti Undang-Undang or
Perppu) regulating mass organizations was passed by the People's Representative Council and ratified by the president, which led to the ban of the Indonesian branch of
Hizbut Tahrir for rejecting and undermining the state ideology
Pancasila. FPI was dissolved in 2020, with its members being involved in criminal cases and allegedly linked to terrorist groups. Since 2019, MUI chairman and former NU leader
Ma'ruf Amin has been the Vice President of Indonesia. == Culture ==