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6. In Southeast Asia. The Muslim peoples of Southeast Asia are found in the modern nation-states of Indonesia, Malaysia (and in these two states they comprise the majority), Thailand (in the five southern provinces, culturally very close to the neighbouring region of the northern Malay Peninsula) and in the Philippines (Mindanao). Islamisation of these populations has been ongoing since the 15th century and continues in the 21st century (total population conservatively estimated at 220 million). Tra…

(Dutch, Riouw), the name of the former Malay kingdom of Johore Riau-Lingga, which was regarded as the successor state to Melaka (Malacca [ q.v.]) after it fell to the Portuguese in 1511. The rulers of the Melakan line re-established their authority on the island of Bintan (also known as Riau), south of Singapore, in the late 17th century, and after a period of instability, during which Bugis adventurers entered the scene, a new more prosperous era began. By the mid-18th century, an extensive trading network had develo…

(Thai: Pattani), a region of Southeast Asia, formerly a Malay Sultanate but now included in Thailand (as a result of the Treaty of Bangkok, 1909, between Great Britain and Siam), and at present comprised of the four southern provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala (Jala) and Satun. The population of these four provinces is approximately 1,500,000, 80% of whom are Malay Muslims. From the 14th to 18th centuries, Patani was a leading entrepôt for trade between China and Southeast Asia. The conversion of the royal court to Islam, reportedly in the mid-15th cen…

, a town and river in the Province of Kalimantan Barat (West Kalimantan) in the Republic of Indonesia, lying just south of Sarawak at lat. 1° 20′ N. and long. 109° 15′ E. It is one of a number of Malay/Muslim-dominated estuarine settlements on the Borneo coast whose existence was based on trading relationships with non-Muslim native peoples in the interior and Chinese traders and miners. Local versions of the Islamisation of Borneo’s West coast attribute the coming of Islam to Arabs from Palembang who were trading in the area from the mid-16th century. At this time, Sambas was a tributar…

, a state consisting of over 29,000 square miles of territory on the northern coast of the island of Borneo and a constituent part of Malaysia since 1963. Formerly it was known as North Borneo (1877-8 to 1946) and was governed by the British North Borneo Company (incorporated by Royal Charter in 1881) by virtue of agreements between the Company and the Sultans of Brunei [ q.v. in Suppl.] and Sulu [ q.v.]. In July 1946 the Company transferred all its rights to Britain and the territory became a Crown Colony which lasted until 1963 when Sabah joined the Federation of Malaysia. The Muslim populatio…

, a state on the west coast of the island of Borneo and a constituent part of the Federation of Malaysia since 1963. Originally the name referred to a dependency of the sultanate of Brunei consisting of the Sarawak, Samarahan and ¶ Lundu river basins. Through a series of treaties (the first in 1841) with the Sultan of Brunei [ q.v. in Suppl.], these territories passed to the “White Rajahs”, the Brooke dynasty who administered Sarawak between 1841 and 1946. In 1946 the Brookes ceded their territory to the British Crown, and Sarawak, together with Sabah [ q.v.], became British colonies. The w…

Hikayat Hang Tuah (“The tale of Hang Tuah”) is a lengthy Malay text compiled during the seventeenth (and possibly early eighteenth) century recording the glory of the Sultanate of Melaka and the exemplary life of its greatest warrior, Hang Tuah. The first half of the narrative follows the template of classical Malay accounts of royal courts, wars, diplomacy, and court intrigues. The second half, while still concerned with the kingdom of Melaka, also includes episodes that describe particular event…

(a.), poet. ¶ 1. In the Arab world. A. Pre-Islamic and Umayyad periods. Among those endowed with knowledge and with power in ancient Arabia stands the figure of the s̲h̲āʿir , whose role is often confused with that of the ʿarrāf ( s̲h̲aʿara and ʿarafa having the same semantic value: cf. I. Goldziher, Abhandlungen , i, 3 ff.) and of the kāhin [ q.v.]. They were credited with the same source of inspiration, the d̲j̲inns (Goldziher, Die Ǧinnen der Dichter , in ZDMG, xlv [1891], 685 ff.). However, the s̲h̲āʿir was, originally, the repository of magical rather than divinatory knowledge; …