ABSTRACT
Islam began to spread into Southeast Asia in thirteenth century, first arriving at the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, and slowly expanding across much of the rest of the island world. The religion spread from the Indian Subcontinent and chiefly by Sufis, practitioners of a form of mystical Islam readily taken up by Southeast Asian populations already acquainted with worlds of potent spirits and mysticism. The Sejarah Melayu, written over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is the prime example of the great annalistic tradition of the Malay Islamic kingdoms. The Sejarah Melayu traces the history of the sultanates up to and including the arrival of Portuguese warships from Goa. Some of the names found in the Sejarah Melayu suggest that its author was familiar with earlier Javanese adaptations of the Mahabharata stories. The Sejarah Melayu suggests that the origins of the Javanese rulers can be traced through the same genealogies that produced the Malay sultans.
