Note 23 — Chapter XII · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.

The fanatical Padris (p. 372) made strenuous efforts, in vain, to force Islam upon the Bataks at the point of the sword, laying waste their country and putting many to death; but these violent methods did not win converts. When, however, the Dutch Government suppressed the Padri rising and annexed the southern part of the Batak country, Islam began to spread by peaceful means, chiefly through the zealous efforts of the native subordinate officials of the new régime, who were all Muhammadan Malays,23 but also through the influence of the traders who wandered through the country, whose proselytising activity was followed up by the ḥājīs and other recognised teachers of the faith. It is a remarkable fact that the Bataks, who for centuries had offered a pertinacious resistance to the entrance of Islam into their midst, though they were hemmed in between two fanatical Muhammadan populations, the Achinese on the north and the Malays on the south, have in recent years responded with enthusiasm to the peaceful efforts made for their conversion. An explanation would appear to be found in the breaking down of their exclusive national characteristics through the Dutch occupation and the conquest opening up their country to foreign influences, which implied the commencement of a new era in their cultural development, as well as in the skilful procedure of the exponents of the new faith, who knew how to accommodate their teachings to the existing beliefs of the Bataks and their deep-rooted superstitions.24 A considerable impulse seems to have been given to Muslim propaganda by the establishment of Christian missions among the Bataks in 1897, and they appear even to have paved the way for its success. Two Batak villages, the entire population of which had been baptised, are said to have gone over in a body to Islam shortly afterwards.25