The introduction of Islam into Champa
Pierre-Yves Manguin, a researcher at the École française d’Extrême-Orient, published this article in 1985 (originally in the B.E.F.E.O. in 1979, translated by Robert Nicholl) to trace the multi-century process by which Islam took root in Champa, the Austronesian kingdom on the central Vietnamese coast. His overarching thesis is that Champa’s conversion was neither a sudden event nor the product of a single vector, but the cumulative result of Middle Eastern merchant colonies, Javanese-Islamic cultural transmission, and ultimately Malay immigration within the broader maritime network of Nusantara—a world to which Champa properly belongs rather than to the Vietnamese or “Indochinese” sphere.
Summary
Manguin opens by establishing the earliest evidence for Muslim presence in Champa: two Arabic inscriptions deciphered by Ravaisse in 1922, one dated 21 November 1039 marking the tomb of Abu Kamil, “Guardian of Roads,” in pure Fatimid Kufic, and a second, undated public instruction for a colony of Arab, Persian, and Turkic merchants (p. 1). These, he argues, indicate only a small trading station—one link in the long chain connecting the Middle East to South China—and do not imply any significant conversion of the Champa population. Al-Dimashki’s cosmography (c. 1325) preserves a memory of an Alid colony that took refuge in Champa after being expelled by the Umayyads, and Song dynasty sources confirm that Champa ambassadors bore the patronymic pu (likely a transcription of Abu), while the famous Pu families of Guangzhou and Quanzhou had previously resided in Champa (pp. 2–3). A wave of Champa emigration to South China following the Vietnamese usurpation of 986 further links these communities, with oral traditions in Sanya (Hainan) claiming descent from Champa and linguistic affinities with the Champa language (p. 3).
The middle section turns to Javanese and Sundanese literary traditions in which Cempa—identified with Champa—figures prominently in the genealogies of the Wali Sanga, the nine saints credited with Islamizing Java. The Putri Cempa legend, found in the Serat Kanda, Babad Tanah Jawi, and Sejarah Banten, narrates how a Middle Eastern Muslim saint converted the Champa king, whose daughter married the Hindu sovereign of Majapahit, while his sister bore a son who became Sunan Ampel (p. 4). Manguin is careful to note that accepting these traditions does not mean Champa itself had become a Muslim state: epigraphy, archaeology, and the testimony of Marco Polo (1280s) and Friar Odoric (c. 1330s) all confirm that the state religion remained Hinduism, specifically Saivism and Vishnuism, well into the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (p. 5). Ma Huan’s Yingya shenglan (1433) explicitly records the Champa king as a Buddhist, and the Sejarah Melayu notes that a Champa prince had to embrace Islam upon taking refuge at Malacca after the fall of Vijaya in 1471 (p. 7).
The decisive evidence for actual conversion comes from the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Tome Pires (1512–1515) states categorically that “the King is a gentile” and “there are no Moors in the kingdom” (p. 7). By 1595, however, Iberian documents drafted at Manila by men who had been held prisoner in Champa report “many Mahometans” and “many mosques,” while the king remains a “gentile” (p. 8). A Dutch account of 1607 finds the king still pagan but his orang kaya Muslim, and the young king eager to convert but deterred by his brother (p. 9). French missionaries from 1640 onward record progressive conversion: by 1676, M. Mahot reports that “the King and one part of the Kingdom are Mahometans,” and by 1680 the Champa sovereign writes to the Dutch Governor-General bearing the Malay title Paduka Seri Sultan (pp. 9–10). Manguin concludes that the conversion of the Champa king occurred between 1607 and 1676, most likely after 1644, and that the process was driven by Malay immigration and Champa’s continued participation in the maritime commerce of Southeast Asia, rather than by any single missionary event (pp. 13–14).
Key Findings
- Two Arabic inscriptions from the Champa coast, one dated 1039 (tomb of Abu Kamil in Fatimid Kufic) and one undated (public instruction for a Muslim merchant colony), constitute the earliest tangible proof of a Middle Eastern Muslim community in Champa, though their precise findspot remains uncertain (p. 1, n. 4).
- Ma Huan’s Yingya shenglan (1433) records the Champa king as following “the doctrine of shi” (Sakyamuni/Buddhism), while Tome Pires (1512–1515) states flatly that “the King is a gentile” and “there are no Moors in the kingdom,” confirming the absence of Islam as a state religion into the early sixteenth century (pp. 7–8).
- Iberian documents of 1595–1597, drafted by men who had been prisoners in Champa, report “many Mahometans” and “many mosques” coexisting with Hindu temples, while the king remained a “gentile”—marking the first clear evidence of significant Muslim population growth (p. 8).
- The Dutch account of October 1607 records that the king was pagan but his orang kaya was Muslim, and that the young king “wished to embrace the religion of the Moors, but he dared not do so because of his brother,” identifying a generational shift in religious allegiance (p. 9).
- By 1676, M. Mahot M.E.P. reports that “the King and one part of the Kingdom are Mahometans,” and a 1680 letter from the Champa sovereign to Batavia bears the title Paduka Seri Sultan, confirming royal conversion to Islam (pp. 9–10).
- The 1686 Muslim revolt in Ayutthaya, organized by two Champa princes in alliance with Macassarese and Malay communities, demonstrates that Champa’s Muslim population maintained active trans-regional networks even after the kingdom’s political decline (p. 10).
Conclusion
Manguin’s definitive historical takeaway is that Champa’s conversion to Islam was a protracted, partial, and ultimately interrupted process. The king’s conversion, occurring between 1607 and 1676, followed the same pattern observed at Patani, Brunei, and Macassar: merchant communities converted first, then drew the sovereign into their fold. However, because the Vietnamese annexation of Champa as the province of Binh-thuan between 1691 and 1697 severed the kingdom’s maritime connections, the conversion could not achieve the depth and permanence seen elsewhere in Nusantara. The result was a superficial Islam, practiced by “more than half” the population around 1676 but only a third in twentieth-century Binh-thuan, with the remainder of the Champa diaspora in Cambodia bringing the total converted proportion to nearly eighty percent (p. 12).
Context
- The article was originally published in the Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient (Tome LXVI, 1979) and reproduced in the JMBRAS by permission of the EFEO Director; it draws heavily on the work of the Champa Research Group at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (IVe section), particularly Po Dharma’s 1978 thesis on the Champa royal chronicles (p. 15, n. 2).
- The two Arabic inscriptions central to the early evidence were received by Ravaisse through intermediaries approximately twenty years after their discovery, and the steles themselves have never been located, casting a shadow of doubt over all deductions based on them (p. 15, n. 4).