When he reached the age of twenty, his parents sent him with letters and presents to his uncle, the King of Majapahit. On his way, he stayed for two months at Palembang, as the guest of Arya Damar, whom he almost persuaded to become a Musalman, only he dared not openly profess Islam for fear of the people who were strongly attached to their ancient superstitions. Continuing his journey Raden Raḥmat came to Gresik, where an Arab missionary, Shayk͟h Mawlānā Jumāda ’l-Kubrạ̄, hailed him as the promised Apostle of Islam to East Java, and foretold that the fall of paganism was at hand, and that his labours would be crowned by the conversion of many to the faith. At Majapahit he was very kindly received by the King and the princess of Champa. Although the King was unwilling himself to become a convert to Islam, yet he conceived such an attachment and respect for Raden Raḥmat, that he made him governor over 3000 families at Ampel, on the east coast, a little south of Gresik, allowed him the free exercise of his religion and gave him permission to make converts. Here after some time he gained over most of those placed under him, to Islam.
Ampel was now the chief seat of Islam in Java, and the fame of the ruler who was so zealously working for the propagation of his religion, spread far and wide. Hereupon [[382]]a certain Mawlānā Isḥāq came to Ampel to assist him in the work of conversion, and was assigned the task of spreading the faith in the kingdom of Balambangan, in the extreme eastern extremity of the island. Here he cured the daughter of the King, who was grievously sick, and the grateful father gave her to him in marriage. She ardently embraced the faith of Islam and her father allowed himself to receive instruction in the same, but when the Mawlānā urged him to openly profess it, as he had promised to do, if his daughter were cured, he drove him from his kingdom, and gave orders that the child that was soon to be born of his daughter, should be killed. But the mother secretly sent the infant away to Gresik to a rich Muhammadan widow[59] who brought him up with all a mother’s care and educated him until he was twelve years old, when she entrusted him to Raden Raḥmat. He, after learning the history of the child, gave him the name of Raden Paku, and in course of time gave him also his daughter in marriage. Raden Paku afterwards built a mosque at Giri, to the south-west of Gresik, where he converted thousands to the faith; his influence became so great, that after the death of Raden Raḥmat, the King of Majapahit made him governor of Ampel and Gresik.[60] Meanwhile several missions were instituted from Gresik. Two sons of Raden Raḥmat established themselves at different parts of the north-east coast and made themselves famous by their religious zeal and the conversion of many of the inhabitants of those parts. Raden Raḥmat also sent a missionary, by name Shayk͟h K͟halīfah Ḥusayn, across to the neighbouring island of Madura, where he built a mosque and won over many to the faith.
We must now return to Arya Damar, the governor of Palembang. (See p. 380.) He appears to have brought up his children in the religion which he himself feared openly to profess, and he now sent Raden Patah, when he had reached the age of twenty, together with his foster-brother, Raden Ḥusayn, who was two years younger, to Java, where [[383]]they landed at Gresik. Raden Patah, aware of his extraction and enraged at the cruel treatment his mother had received, refused to accompany his foster-brother to Majapahit, but stayed with Raden Raḥmat at Ampel while Raden Ḥusayn went on to the capital, where he was well received and placed in charge of a district and afterwards made general of the army.
Meanwhile Raden Patah married a granddaughter of Raden Raḥmat, and formed an establishment in a place of great natural strength called Bintara, in the centre of a marshy country, to the west of Gresik. As soon as the King of Majapahit heard of this new settlement, he sent Raden Ḥusayn to persuade his brother to come to the capital and pay homage. This Raden Ḥusayn prevailed upon him to do, and he went to the court, where his likeness to the king was at once recognised, and where he was kindly received and formally appointed governor of Bintara. Still burning for revenge and bent on the destruction of his father’s kingdom, he returned to Ampel, where he revealed his plans to Raden Raḥmat. The latter endeavoured to moderate his anger, reminding him that he had never received anything but kindness at the hands of the king of Majapahit, his father, and that while the prince was so just and so beloved, his religion forbade him to make war upon or in any way to injure him. However, unpersuaded by these exhortations (as the sequel shows), Raden Patah returned to Bintara, which was now daily increasing in importance and population, while great numbers of people in the surrounding country were being converted to Islam. He had formed a plan of building a great mosque, but shortly after the work had been commenced, news arrived of the severe illness of Raden Raḥmat. He hastened to Ampel, where he found the chief missionaries of Islam gathered round the bed of him they looked upon as their leader. Among them were the two sons of Raden Raḥmat mentioned above (p. 382), Raden Paku of Giri, and five others. A few days afterwards Raden Raḥmat breathed his last, and the only remaining obstacle to Raden Patah’s revengeful schemes was thus removed. The eight chiefs accompanied him back to Bintara, where they assisted in [[384]]the completion of the mosque,[61] and bound themselves by a solemn oath to assist him in his attempt against Majapahit. All the Muhammadan princes joined this confederacy, with the exception of Raden Ḥusayn, who with all his followers remained true to his master, and refused to throw in his lot with his rebellious co-religionists.
A lengthy campaign followed, into the details of which we need not enter, but in 1478,[62] after a desperate battle which lasted seven days, Majapahit fell and the Hindu supremacy in eastern Java was replaced by a Muhammadan power. A short time after, Raden Ḥusayn was besieged with his followers in a fortified place, compelled to surrender and brought to Ampel, where he was kindly received by his brother. A large number of those who remained faithful to the old Hindu religion fled in 1481 to the island of Bali, where the worship of Siva is still the prevailing religion.[63] Others seem to have formed small kingdoms, under the leadership of princes of the house of Majapahit, which remained heathen for some time after the fall of the great Hindu capital.
Even under Muslim chiefs the population of central Java long remained heathen, and the progress of Islam southward from the early centres of missionary effort on the north coast was the work of centuries; even to the present day the influence of their old Hindu faith is strikingly [[385]]manifest in the religious notions of the Muslim population of central Java. One remarkable evidence of the deep roots that Hinduism had struck in this part of the island is the fact that it was not until 1768 that the authority of the Hindu law-books, particularly the code of Manu, gave way before a code of laws more in accordance with the spirit of Muslim legislation.[64]
Islam was introduced into the eastern parts of the island some years later, probably in the beginning of the following century, through the missionary activity of Shayk͟h Nūr al-Dīn Ibrāhīm of Cheribon. He won for himself a great reputation by curing a woman afflicted with leprosy, with the result that thousands came to him to be instructed in the tenets of the new faith. At first the neighbouring chiefs tried to set themselves against the movement, but finding that their opposition was of no avail, they suffered themselves to be carried along with the tide and many of them became converts to Islam.[65] Shayk͟h Nūr al-Dīn Ibrāhīm of Cheribon sent his son, Mawlānā Ḥasan al-Dīn, to preach the faith of Islam in Bantam, the most westerly province of the island, and a dependency of the heathen kingdom of Pajajaran. Here his efforts were attended with considerable success, among the converts being a body of ascetics, 800 in number. It is especially mentioned in the annals of this part of the country that the young prince won over those whom he converted to Islam, solely by the gentle means of persuasion, and not by the sword.[66] He afterwards went with his father on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and on his return extended his power over the neighbouring coast of Sumatra, without ever having to draw the sword, and winning converts to the faith by peaceful methods alone.[67]
But the progress of Islam in the west of Java seems to have been much slower than in the east; a long struggle ensued between the worshippers of Siva and the followers of the Prophet, and it was probably not until the middle of the sixteenth century that the Hindu kingdom of Pajajaran, which at one period of the history of Java seems [[386]]to have exercised suzerainty over the princedoms in the western part of the island, came to an end,[68] while other smaller heathen communities survived to a much later period,[69]—some even to the present day. The history of one of these—the so-called Baduwis—is of especial interest; they are the descendants of the adherents of the old religion, who after the fall of Pajajaran fled into the woods and the recesses of the mountains, where they might uninterruptedly carry out the observances of their ancestral faith. In later times, when they submitted to the rule of the Musalman Sultan of Bantam, they were allowed to continue in the exercise of their religion, on condition that no increase should be allowed in the numbers of those who professed this idolatrous faith;[70] and strange to say, they still observe this custom, although the Dutch rule has been so long established in Java and sets them free from the necessity of obedience to this ancient agreement. They strictly limit their number to forty households, and when the community increases beyond this limit, one family or more has to leave this inner circle and settle among the Muhammadan population in one of the surrounding villages.[71]
But, though the work of conversion in the west of Java proceeded more slowly than in the other parts of the island, yet, owing largely to the fact that Hinduism had not taken such deep root among the people here as in the centre of the island, the victory of Islam over the heathen worship which it supplanted was more complete than in the districts which came more immediately under the rule of the Rajas of Majapahit. The Muhammadan law is here a living force and the civilisation brought into the country from Arabia has interwoven itself with the government and the life of the people; and it has been remarked that at the present day the Muhammadans of the west of Java, who study their religion at all or have performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, form as a rule the most intelligent and prosperous part of the population.[72] [[387]]
We have already seen that large sections of the Javanese remained heathen for centuries after the establishment of Muhammadan kingdoms in the island; at the present day the whole population of Java, with some trifling exceptions, is Muhammadan, and though many superstitions and customs have survived among them from the days of their pagan ancestors, still the tendency is continually in the direction of the guidance of thought and conduct in accordance with the teaching of Islam. This long work of conversion has proceeded peacefully and gradually, and the growth of Muslim states in this island belongs rather to its political than to its religious history, since the progress of the religion has been achieved by the work rather of missionaries than of princes.