Prof Solehah Yaacob: 'Srivijaya was an Islamic empire'

From the FB page of:


SEA Heritage & History







| How could the Malaysian Ministry of Education permit someone to make unfounded statements while presenting themselves as a " Professor " ?


" if she had expressed such views without invoking her academic credentials, I would not have considered it a concern.”


The claim that Srivijaya was an Islamic empire is not supported by credible historical evidence.


Primary inscriptions from the 7th century, including the Kedukan Bukit (683 CE) and Talang Tuwo (684 CE) inscriptions, clearly show Buddhist terminology and Sanskrit religious expressions. These inscriptions reflect Mahayana Buddhist concepts, not Islamic doctrine.


Chinese monk Yijing, who stayed in Srivijaya in 671 CE, described it as a major center of Buddhist learning with more than 1,000 monks studying Buddhist scriptures before traveling to India. His records provide direct contemporary testimony.


Archaeological findings in Palembang, Jambi and surrounding areas include Buddhist statues, stupas, and Vajrayana artifacts, not mosques, Islamic royal titles, or Islamic inscriptions from the Srivijaya period.


Historically, Islam began spreading significantly in the Indonesian archipelago around the 12th-13th centuries. By that time, Srivijaya had already declined after the 1025 attack by the South Indian Chola kingdom. The earliest clearly documented Islamic kingdom in the region was Samudera Pasai in the 13th century, not Srivijaya.


Mainstream historians such as George Cœdès, O.W. Wolters, Anthony Reid, and M.C. Ricklefs consistently identify Srivijaya as a Buddhist maritime empire.


Historical discussion should be grounded in inscriptions, archaeology, and credible scholarship, not retrospective reinterpretation without evidence.

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Source:


1. George Cœdès, The Indianized States of Southeast Asia (1968).
2. O.W. Wolters, Early Indonesian Commerce (1967).
3. Yijing, A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practiced in India and the Malay Archipelago (7th century).
4. Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce (1988).
5. M.C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1200 (2001).

#HistoryMatters #Srivijaya #SoutheastAsianHistory #EvidenceBasedHistory

'Srivijaya was an Islamic empire'?

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