Note 51 — Chapter XII · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.

In the latter half of the fourteenth century, a missionary movement, which was attended with greater success, was instituted by a certain Mawlānā Malik Ibrāhīm, who landed on the east coast of Java with some of his co-religionists, and established himself near the town of Gresik, opposite the island of Madura. He is said to have traced his descent to Zayn al-ʻĀbidīn, a great-grandson of the Prophet, and to have been cousin of the Raja of Chermen.51 Here he occupied himself successfully in the work of conversion, and speedily gathered a small band of believers around him. Later on, he was joined by his cousin, the Raja of Chermen, who came in the hope of converting the Raja of the Hindu Kingdom of Majapahit, and of forming an alliance with him by offering his daughter in marriage. On his arrival he sent his son, Ṣādiq Muḥammad, to Majapahit to arrange an interview, while he busied himself in the building of a mosque and the conversion of the inhabitants. A meeting of the two princes took place accordingly, but before the favourable impression then produced could be followed up, a sickness broke out among the people of the Raja of Chermen, which carried off his daughter, three of his nephews who had accompanied him, and a great part of his retinue; whereupon he himself returned to his own kingdom. These misfortunes prejudiced the mind of the Raja of Majapahit against the new faith, which he said should have better protected its votaries: and the mission accordingly failed. Mawlānā Ibrāhīm, however, remained behind, in charge of the tombs52 of his kinsfolk and co-religionists, and himself died twenty-one years later, in 1419, and was buried at Gresik, where his tomb is still venerated as that of the first apostle of Islam to Java.