Note 17 — Chapter XII · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.

Islam had undoubtedly by this time made great progress in Sumatra, and after having established itself along the coast, began to make its way inland. The mission of Shayk͟h Ismāʻīl and his party had borne fruit abundantly, for a Chinese traveller who visited the island in 1413, speaks of Lambri as having a population of 1000 families, all of whom were Muslims “and very good people,” while the king and people of the kingdom of Aru were all of the same faith.17 It was either about the close of the same century or in the fifteenth century, that the religion of the Prophet found adherents in the great kingdom of Menangkabau, whose territory at one time extended from one shore to another, and over a great part of the island, north and south of the equator.18 Though its power had by this time much declined, still as an ancient stronghold of Hinduism it presented great obstacles in the way of the progress of the new religion. Despite this fact, Islam eventually took firmer root among the subjects of this kingdom than among the majority of the inhabitants of the interior of the island.19 It is very remarkable that this, the most central people of the island, should have been more thoroughly converted than the inhabitants of so many other districts that were more accessible to foreign influences. To the present day the inhabitants of the Batak country are still, for the most part, heathen; but Islam has gained a footing among them, e.g. some living on the borders of Atjeh have been converted, by their Muhammadan neighbours,20 others dwelling in the mountains of the Rau country on the equator have likewise become Musalmans;21 on the east coast also conversions of Bataks, who come much in contact with Malays, are not uncommon.22