What Are The Main Theories Of The Conversion Of Brunei To Islam

According to Pg. Hj Mohammad (1992) there were three theories which produce by historians about the conversion of Brunei to Islam. The first theory claims that Brunei was converted to Islam after the fall of Malacca to Portuguese in 1511 which was in the 16th century and the second theory claims that Brunei was converted to Islam soon after the establishment of Malacca Islamic Government in the early 15th century while the third theory claims that the conversion happened right before the establishment of Malacca in 1371 which was in the 14th century. However, the only theory that using the Portuguese sources as evidences to support the conversion of Brunei to Islam was the first theory. This theory was suggest by Robert Nicholl, in which he was convince

1515 who had been supervisor of the Spice Trade in Malacca from 1512 to 1515 and in this capacity he had been in a strong position to gather information from all over the archipelago from the merchants with whom he came in contact. Of Brunei he writes:
‘Borneo is made up of many islands, large and small. They are almost all inhabited by heathen, only the chief one is inhabited by Moors; it is not very long since the king became a Moor. They seem to be a trading people. The merchants are all men of medium stature, not very sharp-witted. They trade direct with Malacca every year. It is a country with plenty of meat, fish, rice and sago’
In analysing this statement, it can be found that Tome Pires stated that the King of Borneo was just converted to Islam. He was also describing the personality of the people and the country major production at that time. According to Nicholl (1980) the word ‘became’ is significant and by referring to the date, he had suggested that the king of Brunei must have embraced Islam and assumed the style of Sultan Muhammad in between early 1514 and late