Islam in Brunei

Old Brunei was a nation of Malay Hindu-Buddhists, according to a Chinese account of Puli, believed to be an early Chinese reference to Brute Old Brunei was said to have similar Malay-Hindu Buddhist traditions and customs as Funan or Kumlum in Malay state of Indochina.

Islam is believed to have existed ever since the fourteenth century with the Islamization of Awang Alak Betatar, with the adapted Muslim name Sultan Muhammad Shah, as the first sultan to rule Brunei.(1363-1402).

Hence, Islamic law is assumed to have been practiced by Bruneian society. With Islam, Brunei asserted and expanded its role as an independent and dominant trading power in the region. Its trade and territories grew with the spread of Islam to encompass existing Malay kingdoms in Borneo and the Philippines.

Brunei participated in the intellectual network of Islamic South-East Asia and beyond through different channels Tariqahs, educational centers, political ties, trading network, religious figures and personal ties formed important nodes of networks.

Today, Islam, primarily of the Shafiite School of Jurisprudence, is alive and thriving in Brunei. Birth, marriage, divorce, burial and other social ceremonies in Brunei are generally done according to the Islamic law.
Islam in Brunei

History of Sarawak

Prior to 1841, the term ‘Sarawak’ referred to the Sarawak River area and the territory accessible from it.

Archaeologists have found traces of human existence dating back to the Middle Paleolithic phase of 40,000 to 50,000 BC.

Many of today’s indigenous tribes migrated from Kalimantan, including the Iban, who came here around the end of the 15thth century and now make up around 30% of the state’s population.

It is unknown when first the Malays came to Borneo. According to Malay tradition the original home of the race was the kingdom of Minangkabau in Sumatra.

By thirteenth century Arab traders and missionaries began to preach the doctrines of Islam throughout the Malay World. There the most important Malay state to emerge was Brunei, on the north-west coast, which was to give its name to the whole island. From the 15th until the early 19th century Sarawak was under the loose control of the sultanate of Brunei.

A Spanish report from 1520 describes Cerava (or Sarawak) as one of four chief ports of Borneo, inhabited by ‘many and rich merchants’ whose trade consisted of diamonds, camphor, aloes-wood, provisions and wine.

In 1839, the English adventurer James Brooke formed a fast friendship with the Governor of Sarawak, Rajah Muda Hassim. Brooke, invalidated from the British East India Company after being wounded in Burma, eschewed an easy retirement and set off on a voyage of a discovery aided by a sizable inheritance and a well armed ship.

He helped Hassim to repress a revolt of Bidayuh dayaks and local Malay elites against Brunei rule.

As a reward Hassim offered to install James Brooke as Rajah of Sarawak in 1841. In 1946, following three years of Japanese occupation of Sarawak, the third Rajah Vyner Brooke, ceded the country to the British Government.
History of Sarawak 

Origin of Brunei

Barunai of Sanskrit origin comes from the word Varuna. In its Malay context, it referred to a nation of seafarers and traders.

The hypothesis of Brunei by Nicholl in 1980 related to Empire of Funan collapsed due to Khmer advance, the Sailendra family fled to Borneo some time in 680s. They settled on the shores of Brunei Bay at the mouth of the Lawas River. Later they built new capital of Srivijaya known as Burni and P’o-ni or Fo-ni in Chinese.

P’o-ni continues to be mentioned in Chinese sources and it appears to have occupied part of the First Division of Sarawak and to have extended into West Kalimantan.

Old Brunei was a nation of Malay-Hindu-Buddhists, according to a Chinese account, believed to be an early China reference to Brute Oki Brunei was aid to have similar Malay-Hindu-Buddhist traditions and customs as Funan or Kumlum.

Alak Betatar is known as the first Muslim Ruler as well as the founder of the original Brunei state. After accepted Islam he changed his name to Sultan Muhammad Shah (1363-1402) in honor of Prophet.

The second sultan, Sultan Ahmad, was the first to name ‘Brunei’ from the word ‘Barunah’.

Following conversion to Islam, Brunei became a powerful trading center from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, claiming suzerainty over the whole island of Borneo and parts of the southern and central Philippines.

By the mid-nineteenth century, Brunei was in serious decline, and its influence and control were restricted to northern Borneo, to what today are Sarawak, Brunei, Labuan and Sabah.

In 1888, when North Borneo became a British Protectorate, Brunei became a British Protected State.
Origin of Brunei