THE REGIONAL KINGDOMS OF EARLY MEDIEVAL INDIAThe impact of IslamAfter the conquest of North India in about 1200 and Central India and its
harbours in about 1300, by Muslim rulers, Islam also spread to Southeast
Asia via the maritime trade routes which connected India with the spice
islands of the East. We find the first traces of Islam in Atjeh (North
Sumatra) at the end of the thirteenth century and in Malaya in the early
fourteenth century. In the fifteenth century Islam penetrated the interiors of
the respective countries, whereas it had hitherto been mostly confined to
the coasts. Just as rulers at an earlier stage of Southeast Asian history had
found it convenient to adopt an Indian religion, they now found the
Islamic creed more helpful in many respects.
India once more became an important transmitter of cultural influences
under the new dispensation. Indian Sufism played an important role in the
early spread of Islam in Indonesia. The oldest tombstones of Muslim rulers
and traders in Southeast Asia point to an influence from western India,
mainly Gujarat, whose traders played a major role in the spice trade from
Indonesia via India to the ports of Western Asia. But Muslim traders of the
Coromandel coast were also active in this connection. In 1445 Tamil
Muslim traders even staged a coup at Malacca, installing a sultan of their
choice. In this way they greatly enhanced their influence in an area of great
strategic importance. However, a few decades later the Portuguese
conqueror of Goa, Albuquerque, captured Malacca with nineteen ships
and 800 Portuguese soldiers. Thus, after a millennium of intensive
intercourse, the era of European influence started for India and Southeast
Asia at about the same time.