Madura and its people 3
have focused on Madura Island and the 67 small nearby islands including Ba-
wean, Sapudi, Kangean, and others. Madura proper is comprised of the regen-
cies (kabupaten) of Bangkalan, Sampang, Pamekasan, and Sumenep, moving
eastward on the island (see map 2). Although Sumenep is considered the cultur-
al capital, each regency had its own political institutions and various local influ-
ences.
As stated above, Madura itself presents a somewhat inhospitable envi-
ronment. Compared to the fertile soil and abundant rainfall characteristic of
Java, Sumatra, and Kalimantan, Madura receives far less rainfall and has poor
chalky soil. This results in extremely unfavorable conditions for agriculture and
an inability to sustain a large population. Maize was traditionally the principal
crop, supplemented by beans and some other vegetable crops. Raising livestock
has been critical to the subsistence economy, particularly cattle and goats. (The
Madurese are well-known for the tradition of kerapan sape ‘bull racing’, and
the annual event draws spectators to the island from a wide region. A descrip-
tion of the tradition is included in the texts in Chapter 16.) Given the conditions
present on the island, a tradition of fishing and seafaring developed, and many
Madurese became traders. Those Madurese who migrated to Java and other
parts of Indonesia (to escape these conditions on Madura) largely worked as
laborers and food vendors.
The tradition of trading created close ties with the pasisir kingdoms on
the northern coast of Java, and these ties were important in the rapid introduc-
tion of Islam to Madura in the early 16th century. This was hastened further by a
political system which made the more egalitarian religion of Islam particularly
appealing to the large proportion of the population that did not belong to the
nobility in the courts of the three principal kingdoms of Sumenep, Pamekasan,
and Bangkalan. According to Mansurnoor (1990), as Islam spread, the religious
leaders, the kyai, increasingly assumed positions of standing and some power as
the kings, the rato, recognized the wisdom of officially embracing the popular