174 THE ADVENT OP MUHAMMADANISM. 



Unless the author of the Sejarah Melayu has been guilty of 

 anachronism Malay translations of the Muhammadan stories of 

 Hanafiah and Amir Hamza were classics by the year 1511 A.D. 

 and Malacca's warriors read them on the eve of the Portuguese 

 attack which was to break Malay power in Malacca. Anyhow they 

 were classics by 1616 A.D., the date of the Sejarah Melayu. 



The last Malay ruler of Malacca became the first ruler of 

 Johor. By him and his descendants Muhammadanism was intro- 

 duced into Johor, Eiau and Lingga. 



But after the fall of Malacca, Acheen became the centre of 

 native trade and of the Muhammadan religion. In 152-1 A.D. 

 Sultan Ibrahim of Acheen conquered Pidie and Pasir. From 1606 

 till 1636 A.D. Acheen was ruled by Sultan Iskandar Mucla, 

 called Mahkota Alain. By him were conquered Indrapura, Deli, 

 iSiak, Johor, Kedah and Perak. In his reign all sorts of books 

 were written in Malay or translated from the Arabic into Malay 

 at Acheen ; for instance, the Sejarah Melayu and the Bustanus- 

 salatin. The Bust ami s-salatin was written by Shaikh Xuru' d- 

 clin of Gujerat. This Shaikh Nuru'd-din Muhammad Jilani ibni 

 Ali ibni Hasanji ibni Muhammad Hamid a'r-Kaniri also did into 

 Malay the religious work, the Siratu'l-mustaJcim in the year 1634 

 A.D. Our Kedah Annals, the Hikayat Marong Maliaivangsa, relate 

 (./. R. A. 8., S, B., No. 72, p. 115), how the king of Acheen and 

 Shaikh Xuru'd-din sent letters and conies of the Babvfl-nikah 

 and Siratul-mustakim to the raja of Kedah on the occasion of his 

 country's conversion to Islam : — a story which, as Mr. Blagden has 

 pointed out, helps to fix the date of the Kedah Annals. The 

 Achinese account gives 1171 A.D. as the date of Redan's accep- 

 tance of Muhammadanism ; and the Sejarah Melayu relates that a 

 raja of Kedah went to Malacca to receive recognition as ruler from 

 the king of Malacca, a Muhammadan prince : so that it is probable 

 that Muhammadanism had been accepted at the Kedah court in the 

 XVth century, though the conquest of Kedah by Acheen may have 

 given it a fillip in the XVIIth century. Possibly conquest by 

 Acheen stimulated Muhammadan influence in Perak too. Anyhow 

 in the XVIIth and XVI 1 1th centuries Say ids of the great Had- 

 thramast house of Ahmad bin Isa al-Mohajir 1 (Paper on Malay 

 Subjects, Lair Pari II, pp. 1-7, R. J. Wilkinson) gained enormous 

 power at the Perak court. 



As for the spread of Islam in Sumatra. From Acheen it 

 spread to Ulakan ; from Ulakan into Minangkabau : — Ulakan 

 serambi Acheh, AclieJi serambi Mekkah. In the XVIIth century 

 the people along the coast of the Lampong district began to be con- 

 verted, and in the XYIIIth the people up-country too. 



Id Java, early centres of Muhammadan influence were Grisek 

 Surabaya and Madura. 



1 This family will form the subject of a later paper. 



Jour. Straits Branch 



