The Role of Coastal Communities in the Rise of Islamic Civilization in Insular Southeast Asia

Islamic civilization in Insular Southeast Asia is believed to be brought and spread by Islamic Traders through the acculturation of Islamic culture in the coastal communities in the Southeast Asian Region. This paper is aiming to explain how coastal community have a role in the process of the Islamic civilization rise and how they become the dominant civilization in Insular Southeast Asia. The open- minded and egalitarian culture of the coastal communities gave the opportunity to the traders to have good process of acculturation that led to the development of Islamic Civilization in the region. Port cities on the coast became centers of cultural development as well as socio-political aspects of Muslims which then continued to suppress the center of power Hindu-Buddhist civilization which tends to be centralized and isolated in the interior. The development of Islamic culture in the coastal area also provides an opportunity for the development of new political figures and institutions who are then ready to take over the domination of culture after the collapse of the domination of the Hindu-Buddhist empire in Insular Southeast Asia.
Peradaban Islam di Asia Tenggara Kepulauan diyakini telah dibawa dan disebarkan oleh para Pedagang Islam melalui akulturasi budaya Islam yang dimulai pada masyarakat pesisir di Kawasan Asia Tenggara. Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk menjelaskan bagaimana masyarakat pesisir memiliki peran dalam proses kebangkitan peradaban Islam dan bagaimana mereka menjadi peradaban dominan di Asia Tenggara Kepulauan. Budaya masyarakat pesisir yang berpikiran terbuka dan egaliter memberikan peluang kepada para pedagang untuk memiliki proses akulturasi yang baik yang berujung pada berkembangnya Peradaban Islam di wilayah tersebut. Kota-kota pelabuhan di pesisir pantai menjadi pusat pengembangan budaya serta aspek sosial politik umat Islam yang kemudian terus menekan pusat kekuasaan peradaban Hindu-Budha yang cenderung terpusat dan terisolasi di pedalaman. Perkembangan budaya Islam di wilayah pesisir juga memberikan peluang bagi berkembangnya tokoh dan institusi politik baru yang kemudian siap untuk mengambil alih dominasi budaya pasca runtuhnya dominasi kerajaan Hindu-Budha di Asia Tenggara Kepulauan.


Introduction
The presence of Islam gradually replaced the hegemony of Hindu-Buddha civilization in the insular part of Southeast Asia, and it has since become a civilization that dominates the Insular Southeast Asia region (which includes Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore) in the modern era, particularly in terms of population. Islam, which began to arrive in the early 10th century AD, was brought by traders from Gujarat and the Middle East who travelled via the maritime route. The spread of Islamic civilization began with the emergence of the Samudera Pasai Kingdom, which was located on the coast of northern Sumatera Island, and rapidly developed until its heyday after the collapse of the Majapahit Empire, which at the time was the largest empire that successfully dominated most of Insular Southeast Asia. Since the early 16th century, Islam has surpassed Hinduism and Buddhism as the dominant civilization in Insular Southeast Asia, with Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei being mostly Muslim states, and a sizable Muslim population in Malaysia and Singapore (Hall, 2011).
Islam began to expand over the world after its arrival in the Middle East in the 7th century AD. Since before the advent of Islam, the Arabs have been renowned as the merchants who connect the commercial activity between the western and eastern worlds. The Arabian Peninsula's physical structure, such as erratic temperature, paucity of food and natural resources, desert harshness, and the bedouine character of the Arabs, which developed their tenacity and endurance, aided them in becoming daring voyagers and traders (Spuler, 1970).
Prior to the Age of Discovery, Arab traders controlled the Indian Ocean commerce route, searching for spices directly from the source in Southeast Asia and selling them to the western world (Europe) at a considerably higher price. According to Bertold Spuler, a western researcher, "only Muslim geographers have a pretty solid understanding of all civilizations of the globe since Muslims were neighbours of all of them" (Spuler, 1970). With proof that the Arabs and early Muslim cultures were a superior nation in business and trade at the time, it was not unexpected that Islam reached Insular Southeast Asia quickly in its early days. Coupled with the fact that transactions at the time were not as easy as they are today, traders were obliged to settle in port cities at their trade destination to wait for the monsoon breeze to transport them home. Traders used this waiting period to impart their cultural ideals to local people, particularly coastal villages, and to facilitate cultural acculturation.
The culture of coastal societies that are generally open, straightforward, egalitarian, and have an high adaptability and culture that tends to acculturate make this society more receptive to the new culture brought by these Islamic traders. Historically, coastal communities have often interacted with traders from foreign countries to make coastal communities more open when compared to the hinterland communities. This was also reinforced by the geographical conditions of coastal areas that laid away from the centre of the kingdom which at that time located in the hinterland of the island. The characteristic of coastal communities provides opportunities for traders who stop at the coast to do cultural acculturation with the local communities and provide the opportunities for the Islamic Culture and Civilization to develop themselves (Purwadi, 2006).
The main purpose of this research is to substantially highlight the role of the community in the coastal area which is the main gateway for the entry of Islamic civilization into the Southeast Asian archipelago. This paper also has significance for contributing to expanding the reach of Islamic civilization studies, especially in the Southeast Asian archipelago. The author observes that there is still a scarcity of studies of Islamic civilization that discuss the process of Islam's arrival in the Insular Southeast Asia region that are discussed in English literature, so that the discussion is dominated by certain groups of researchers. This paper is expected to spark debate and broaden the scope of Islamic civilization studies in Southeast Asia, not only among Indonesian researchers but also among those from Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines, and Singapore as part of Insular Southeast Asia, as well as other researchers from other regions interested in the history of Islamic civilization.

Methodology
The writers used a deductive analytical approach to obtain data through the examination of literature. The authors will concentrate on a survey of the literature in the form of books and articles relating to the Islamic Arrival in Southeast Asia and the development of Islamic culture in Southeast Asia, particularly in the insular area, since its early days. The objective of this research is to explain how coastal community have a role in process of the Islam Civilization to replaced mighty Hindu-Buddha Civilization that been dominated Southeast Asia and how they maintain their domination until present day.
This study relied on two primary sources to demonstrate the importance of coastal settlements in the insular Southeast Asia region. The Babad Tanah Jawi is the first primary source. The author of this paper perceives a movement in civilisation from Hinduism to Islam following the development of dominance in the northern coastal area of the island of Java (Olthof, 2017).
The second primary source is the literature of Sulalatus Salatin or better known as Sejarah Melayu. In this literature it is told that the significance of the Islamic maritime power of the Melaka kingdom can reduce the glory of the influence of the Hindu-Buddhist powers that once triumphed in the vicinity, namely the Ayuthaya kingdom in the interior of Thailand, and the Majapahit Kingdom in the interior of Java. The Islamic community in the coastal area is responsible for the shift in power that has occurred in the Southeast Asian region (Ahmad, 1979).
This primary source was then supported by other secondary sources such as Ricklefs's (1994) History of Modern Indonesia, Leong, S. (1990) with his book Collecting centres, feeder points and entrepots in the Malay Peninsula, and Hill, A. (1961 the Tale of the Kings of Pasai

a. Data Collection
The data collection method used in this study used two methods, namely the literature review method, which involved reviewing the literature related to the arrival of Islam in Southeast Asia, and direct observation, which involved ensuring empirical evidence as a narrative source to explain how Islam can develop in Southeast Asia. in December 2021 in Kudus, Central Java, an important city on the main coast of the island of Java that became the center of Islamic Culture acculturation with local culture at the beginning of its arrival in the archipelago.
The main literature that forms the theoretical basis of this paper is the concept of coastal society in the early period of the development of Islamic Civilization in Java expressed by Purwadi (2006) in his book entitled Jejak Para Wali dan Ziarah Spiritual who expressed that the coastal societies are generally open, straightforward, egalitarian, and have a culture that tends to acculturate with the outsiders.

b. Data Analysis
The author tries to explain the significance of the coastal communities towards the development of Islamic Civilization through three approaches. The first approach is historical geography, which explains the causal relationship between geographical conditions and historical and life events in the geographical area (Jakle, 1980). Through this approach, the author finds the argument that the geographical position of Insular Southeast Asia, which is located in the maritime trade route through which Islamic traders passed, became a crucial factor in the spread of Islam in the Southeast Asian archipelago.
The second approach is to employ historical sociology approach, which explains the social circumstances of society at the moment by analysing historical patterns of continuity and change in both evolutionary and nonevolutionary models (Calhoun,1998). Using this method, the author examines the pattern of recurrent occurrences that result in causation in the form of cultural acculturation.
Following the collection of various related literatures, the author attempts to compile empirical evidence using the historiographical approach, which promotes serialization with chronology, causality, and imagination approaches. A chronological approach determines the regularity with which the history of events is written. Historiography is measured after historians produce various written works from time to time as a result of research or scientific history. The writing of scientific history is a laborious intellectual, critical, and constructive process (Sudrajat, 2017).
Chronologically, the discussion of the significance of coastal communities in the development of Islamic civilization in Southeast Asia can be explained in the following table:

Historical Order
Data Resources Analytical Method Geographical Importance of Insular Southeast Asia for Muslim Traders Flecker, 2001Kayadibi, S., 2011Lambourn, 2008Leong, 1990Yeoman and Blake, 1996 Historical Geography Approach The Acculturation Process: The Driving Factors Djoko Pramono, 2005Hall, K, 2011Purwadi, 2006 Sociological Approach The Implementation of the Acculturation between Islamic and Local Civilization in Insular Southeast Asia Indrahti, 2012Liu, 2017Miksic, 1998Pigeaut, 1962 Direct observation to Kudus Mosque Complex, December 2021 Historiographical Approach

Results and Discussion
In the discussion section, the author will look at key points that demonstrate the importance of coastal communities in the spread of Islam in Southeast Asia. The author argues in this article that three points are critical to understanding the importance of Southeast Asian coastal communities. The first point is the Insular Southeast Asia region's location, which was in the middle of an important world trade route at the time. This allows coastal communities to interact intensely with previously Muslim traders from Arabia, India, and China. In the second point, the author contends that the sociological characteristics of coastal communities themselves were driving factors in the formation of acculturation between local residents and Muslim traders and preachers with the intent of spreading Islam. Coastal communities were thought to be more cosmopolitan and egalitarian, making it easier to accept new cultures. In the third point, the author will explain the results of the combination of the first and second factors so as to form a coastal community that contributes to the development of Islam in the Insular Southeast Asia region. This integration is realized through cultural acculturation and political movements from Muslims so that in the end Islamic Civilization can become the main civilization to replace Hindu-Buddhist civilization in the Insular Southeast Asia Region.

a. The Geographical condition of Insular Southeast Asia and the trading corridor of Islamic Trader
Insular Southeast Asia was one of the most significant trading routes sought by Arab traders, particularly to get spices, which were highly valuable commodities at the time. Prior to the arrival of European explorers, Arab traders controlled the spice trade, with the majority of spice material coming

Muhammad Indrawan Jatmika
The Role of Coastal Communities in the Rise of Islamic Civilization in Insular Southeast Asia 5 from the Moluccas in Insular Southeast Asia. The spice trade brought by these Arab traders was well recognized across the world. They transported spices from Southeast Asia and sold them to Europeans at very high rates in major commercial centres in the Middle East, such as Baghdad. The success stories of the Arab traders and adventurers of the time were so well-known that they generated legends such as "Sinbad the Sailor," which are still prominent in popular culture today. (Yeoman and Blake, 1996). However, Southeast Asia's repute as an international trading route existed well before the Islamic period. As previously described in the last chapter of this article, Southeast Asia has been referred to as "The Land of Gold" or Suvarnabhumi by locals since the ancient Egypt and the ancient Greeks era. Geographically fractured, the Insular Southeast Asia region encompassed a vast territory comprised of the Malay peninsula and other islands. From the early first millennium A.D., many communities arose as ports and service centres at advantageous coastal and riverine locations. (Leong, 1990).
The Insular Southeast Asia region had a tight economic interaction not just with the Western and Arab worlds, but also with the eastern culture represented by Chinese Civilization. One strong indication that Southeast Asia was an important trade route between the western world (Arab and India) and the eastern world (China) was the discovery of the Arabian Dhow Shipwreck (Arabian Traditional Ship) carrying goods from the Tang Dynasty of China, which was discovered in Belitung, not far from Palembang, which was the centre of Srivijaya's power at the time. More than 60,000 handmade Tang Dynasty gold, silver, and pottery were loaded onto the Arab dhow. Around 830 CE, the ship travelled from Africa to China. (Flecker, 2001).
Southeast Asia's geographical location on the path of international trade connecting western civilization and eastern civilization provided opportunities for port cities in the Insular Southeast Asia region to develop into rich trading centres, as well as opportunities for coastal communities living in port cities to interact with the international community and, in this case, the Islamic culture.
Geographically, Islam first entered Southeast Asia through the coastal region of Insular Southeast Asia. The first Muslim colony discovered in Insular Southeast Asia was in Barus, a port city on the west coast of Sumatra Island that had international trading links prior to the Islamic era (Daulay, 2005). The kingdom of Samudera Pasai, considered the first indication of Islamic civilisation in Southeast Asia, was located on the north-east coast of Sumatra Island, immediately opposite the Malacca Strait, which served as the main route for Arab-Indian trade to China. In Java Island, the first evidence of Muslim Community existence was found in Gresik, an important coastal city that was also regarded at the time as the entryway to the hinterland of Java Island, where the kingdom's capital was located (Lambourn, 2008). On the Malay Peninsula, the Kedah Sultanate as the entry point of Islam in the Malay Peninsula situated on the west coast of the peninsula, and Malacca was considered as the first Islamic cultural centre to be an important port city in the Malacca Strait. The geographical evidence suggested that the coastal communities that geographically located on the strategic international trade route made them often interact with traders bringing Islam into Insular Southeast Asia (Husain, Akhtar, and Usmani, 2011).

b. The Characteristic of Coastal Communities which supported the spread of Islam.
The geographical placement of insular Southeast Asia on the sea corridor of international trade provided possibilities for coastal towns to grow fast in growing power and civilization, as well as encounter with many different cultures brought by traders who stopped in port cities. At the period, trading activities in Southeast Asia's insular region were likewise heavily reliant on the existence of Monsoon Wind. In Insular Southeast Asia, there are two monsoon seasons: the wind that blows westward from October to April, and the wind that blows eastward from May to September. Transport technology that only had sail ships as a major means of transportation made traders had to wait for months for the wind season that would take them back to their home countries (Djoko Pramono, 2005).
The traders used to interact with local coastal communities living in port cities while they waited for the wind to take them back home. This interaction was crucial and beneficial to both parties. Local people are needed by traders as good trading partners who can provide the most profit. For the locals, the opportunity to interact with these merchants was used to transfer technology, study geography and trade, and learn about their culture. Traders frequently establish settlements, marry locals, and even become a part of the coastal communities themselves. It was no wonder, then, that the interactions formed the characteristics of the coastal communities into an open, straightforward, egalitarian, and have a culture that tends to acculturate with the outsiders (Purwadi, 2006).
The development of coastal communities' ways of thinking tends to be faster when compared to hinterland society, which at the time was deeply bound by the Hindu-Buddhist tradition, which was already deeply rooted in their daily values. Furthermore, the presence of a Hindu-Buddhist centre of power in the hinterland allowed them to exert greater control over the social behaviours and phenomena that emerge in hinterland society, as opposed to the change in social behaviours in coastal communities. The Kingdom's centre of power is located far from the coast, allowing Islamic culture to develop in coastal communities that are not overly tied to the cultural capital in the hinterland.

c. The Way of Islamic Preachers Spread Islam to the Coastal Communities and Beyond
The geographical position of Insular Southeast Asia located on international trade routes leads to interaction between local people and migrants that shaped the characteristics of the coastal community itself. From this there were cultural acculturations between the local population and the migrants. This acculturation formed a new culture that arises where Islamic cultural values were mixed with local culture and then spread throughout Insular Southeast Asia.
The port cities were where the preachers do various ways of cultural acculturation such as marrying local residents (especially the daughter of the local rulers to gain legitimacy), established settlements and gave influence to the life of the surrounding community. In addition, the preachers established cultural learning centres in the form of mosques, pesantrens, and madrasah to teach Islamic culture values that support the acculturation process. It was also often the acculturation process produced the preachers who were responsible for the spread of Islam in the archipelago. The preachers might be the result of marriage between the immigrant and the local people or the students of the immigrants who spread the religion of Islam by establishing Islamic learning centre in the coastal communities.
The historical evidences that show how Islamic preachers did acculturation with the local communities can be seen in the various media to spread in the period of Islamization. The evidences widely spread in the coastal area of Insular Southeast Asia especially on the north coast of Java Island. The historical evidence consists of various kinds of media such as architecture of the building that became the centre of Islamic teaching and art as a medium for the spread of Islam to the Java coastal communities. Various media were shaped in such way by combining the culture of Islam and local Hindu-Buddhist culture. One of the examples can be seen in the architecture of Kudus Mosque on the North coast of Central Java. Mosque in general as a centre of Islamic teachings and worship usually has a typical Middle Eastern architecture that symbolizes Islam. But Sunan Kudus, a member of Walisanga and founder of the Kudus Mosque, combined Hindu-Buddhist and Islamic architecture in its development. This was simply to make local people at that time not to feel strange to the new culture that came to the region and can attract the community to came to the mosque to study Islam. The mosque preserves pre-Islamic architecture such as old Javanese split doorways, Majapahit style red brickwork that influenced by Hindu-Buddhist Culture, and a three-tiered pyramindal roof. Kudus Mosque also had a tower like Balinese Hindu temple kul-kul or signal drum used to warn of impending attack, fire, or communal event (Miksic, 1998). Even to this day the cultural acculturation can still be found in the contemporary Kudus City Islamic Community who still hold the tradition of not eating the cow as a form of respect and tolerance to the Hindu people (Indrahti, 2012).
The other example is the art of Wayang or the puppet show that originally rooted from the Indianization culture but intelligently modified by the Walis to be the medium of Islamic preaching. Wayang is believed to be the medium for the Walis to convert the people of Java to Islam especially the coastal community. Wayang were considered to be able to tell the whole side of Javanese society life at that time then selected to be a medium of da'wah and broadcasting of Islamic religion by the Walis. Raden Mas Said or later known as Sunan Kalijaga was one of the members of Wali Songo that believed to be the pioneer of the usage of local art as the medium of da'wah. He performed the arts that were appreciated, familiar, and close to the hearts of the people as they are rooted in the Javanese culture of the time such as Wayang, tembang (local songs), and gamelan (Javanese orchestra). Sunan Kalijaga at that time acted as a dalang or the puppet master, performed Wayang in places considered to be the center of Islamic learning as in the Mosque. To watch the Wayang as an entertainment, the community 'paid' by reciting the Shahadat, avowing Allah as the God and Muhammad as The Prophet (Liu, 2017). It was also expected, the people who watch the puppet show will be preoccupied and encouraged personally to do good things as has been done by the figures shown in the puppet show.
The popularity of Wayang in Javanese society at that time spread very quickly to all levels of society. Wayang that was originally only played by the coastal community where the center of Islamic religious learning centered, then gradually spread to all levels of society. Surely the story presented by Wayang that was considered really succeeded in describing the cultural values adopted by Javanese society had been the main factor. But after that there were still other factors that are very strong to support the spread of Wayang in Java which is the decline of Hindu Buddha influence in general and the collapse of Majapahit Empire in particular which then signifies the start of islamic civilization on the Island of Java.
In this case, the argument that can be conveyed was a symbiotic mutualism between the spread of Wayang and the rise of islamic civilization itself. First Wayang was a very effective means of propaganda to Islamize people especially in coastal areas. The Walis played Wayang in Islamic learning centers in the coastal areas as well as build their political bases through increasing followers. At that time, Wayang itself was a symbol of egalitarian society, from the people by the people to the people, played for the entertainment for the peasants, an antithesis of the establishment of feudal society symbolized by royalty which at that time symbolize by the power of Majapahit Empire. The Wayang performance was one of the means used by Walisanga to develop a rural coastal community that was considered as an abandoned civilization of Majapahit into a new civilization whose rooted form the Majapahit but with Islamic characteristics. Pigeaut (1962, p. 419) defines that the people of the Majapahit Kingdom at that time were divided into two parts: the fringe society he called the paradapur and the people who were close to the royal capital called adapur. The term itself comes from the salt makers at that time divided into two: communities geographically located within the basin of Brantas river, and the rural communities living in rural areas or outside the area including the Demak, Pajang, and others. In his work, Pigeaut also defined that the so-called center of the kingdom or capital of the Majapahit Empire was called Majapahit Province that geographically located in the Brantas river basin, since the provinces located outside the basin area are usually called by their own names.
The coastal Islamic community then also developed into a new major civilization characterized by the establishment of an Islamic kingdom in the northern coast of Java Island. The Walis had a big contribution in the establishment of the Demak Kingdom as the first Islamic kingdom on the Island of Java (Olthof, 2017). This was evidenced by the history that writes that the Walis were the founder the Demak Mosque, the power center of Demak Kingdom in the early 15th century AD. In the mid-fifteenth century when the population in Java had not many populations who embraced Islam and most of them were still the followers of Hindu-Buddhism, Islamic Walis were in mind to hold a fixed place to be the center of the Islamic education and broadcasting activity. One day the Walis gathered to discuss issues around Islamic broadcasting and, in the discussion, it was decided to establish a mosque in Gelagah Wangi (Demak), Central Java. The Walis contributed greatly to the construction of the mosque, especially the construction of four main pillars established by each of the most influential Walis on the Island of Java at that time namely Sunan Kalijaga, Sunan Bonang, Sunan Giri, and Sunan Gunung Jati. (Aboebakar, 1955, p.163). After the mosque was established, the Wali filled it with various activities related to the teachings of Islam, one of which was the performance of Wayang in the court of the mosque as a spectacle of the people and means of propaganda. With the establishment of this mosque, Islam had a center for activities to develop socially and politically. The Kingdom of Demak will later invade Majapahit and mark the end of Hindu-Buddha Civilization of Java and Indonesia in general.

Conclusion
The author concludes in this research that the cosmopolitanism and egalitarian ethos of coastal populations facilitates Islam's entry into the Insular Southeast Asia region. The Islamic population that ruled the coastal area thus developed a new political power that weakened the Hindu-Buddhist civilisation in the inland. This paper reveals that the Insular Southeast Asia region, which is dominated by coastal communities, is easier to enter by Islamic culture, which is mostly brought by traders who use maritime routes, rather than the Southeast Asia hinterland region, which is still dominated by Hindu-Buddhist culture.
The coastal region of Southeast Asia has long had experience of interaction with merchants and adventurers from the early days of civilization. This is because the geographical conditions of Southeast Asia that laid on the important trade path between the western civilization which was then represented by India and then Arabia, and the eastern civilization represented by China. That's what then trigger the process of cultural acculturation between local communities and immigrants.
Over the time, the increasing demands from the society on the merchandise of trade, especially with the increasing demand for spices, made the trade routes more crowded and made the coastal port cities getting bigger. This allows more interaction between local communities and migrant-dominated entrants. The emergence of Islam in the Middle East became an additional obligation of the merchants to not only to make the trading activity for trade, but after the emergence of Islam, they have an obligation to spread Islam according to the mandate of their holy book of Al-Quran. In addition, good interaction between traders and local communities was very important for both parties to be able to get the maximum profit. For traders and migrants alike, interaction was needed so that they can be well received by local people and can create good trade relations that can give them maximum benefit. For local people these interactions were used for technology transfer, learning many things, and in some cases are used to increase their legitimacy in the eyes of the community. This interaction then builds coastal community characteristics that were more open and acceptable to the influences brought by the migrants. Acculturation was inevitable due to the intense interaction between migrants and local communities at that time. At the same time, the Hindu-Buddhist civilization was then pressured by several factors that led them to rally and concentrate power from the hinterland region to make their control of the coastal region decline.
This situation was utilized neatly by the Islamic preachers who come from coastal communities to spread Islam which then developed rapidly in coastal areas and build a new civilization. The preachers and the way they do da'wah was a product of cultural acculturation that occurred in the coastal area for so long. The development of the Islamic community in the coastal area then provides an opportunity for them to develop a political force, that after Islamic development in coastal area, became ready to replace the dominance of Hindu Buddhist civilization in Insular Southeast Asia. This was because Islam in the coastal region offers something new that was a more egalitarian and democratic society than what was offered by power centers residing in hinterland. Coupled with the political upheaval that took place at the center of power residing in the hinterland, the dominance of Islam in the coastal region gradually diminished the power of the Hindu-Buddhist rulers in the hinterland region and then eventually attacked the center of the kingdom and ended the dominant Hindu-Buddhist dominance year in insular Southeast Asia.