Islam is the second largest religion in the world and is observed by under half the population of Southeast Asia
A monotheistic religion originating in the 7th century CE from modern-day Southeast Asia, Muslim traders had reached Southeast Asia by the end of the first millennium CE. By the 13th century, Islamic kingdoms began to emerge, notably in West Sumatra and spreading through Island Southeast Asia to Mindanao. Islamic sultanates played a major role in the maritime trade routes and interaction with colonial powers during the middle of the second millennium. Today, Islam is the dominant religion in Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, southern Thailand and parts of sourthern Philippines.
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For more information, there’s also the Resources Page which has links to other themed collections such as the Virtual Archaeology page where you can visit Southeast Asian archaeological sites online, the Online Lecture Library, and academic papers for more up-to-date research.
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Islamic Archaeology in the News
The news reports indexed below usually link to external sites that were active at the time of posting; sometimes websites may be temporarily down or may have reorganised their underlying architecture or have even closed down – in these cases the links may not be available. Most of the news articles archived are in English; this is largely because I do not have a working competency in Bahasa, although when I am made aware of stories in this and other languages I try to index them.
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