![Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Sultan_Omar_Ali_Saifuddin_Mosque_02.jpg)
Malayness ( ms, Kemelayuan,
Jawi: ) is the state of being Malay or of embodying Malay characteristics. This may include that which binds and distinguishes the Malay people and forms the basis of their unity and identity. People who call themselves
Malay are found in many countries in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...
, united by a notional shared identity but divided by political boundaries, divergent histories, variant dialects and peculiarities of local experience. While the term 'Malay' is widely used and readily understood in the region, it remains open to varying interpretations due to its varied and fluid characteristics. 'Malay' as an identity, or nationality, is considered one of the most challenging and perplexing concepts in the multi-ethnic world of
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...
.
Much of the ethos of Malay identity are thought to originate from the ascendancy of
Melaka Sultanate in the 15th century. After
the fall of Melaka in 1511, the notion of Malayness developed in two ways: to claim lines of kingship or acknowledge descent from
Srivijaya and
Melaka
Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...
, and to refer to a pluralistic commercial diaspora around the peripheries of the
Malay world that retained the Malay language, customs and trade practices of the Melaka emporium. By the mid 20th century, an anti-Western colonialism concept of a romanticized Malayness has been an integral component of
Malay nationalism
Malay nationalism ( Malay: ''Semangat Kebangsaan Melayu'' Jawi: سمڠت كبڠساءن ملايو ) refers to the nationalism that focused overwhelmingly on the Malay anticolonial struggle, motivated by the nationalist ideal of creating a ''B ...
, succeeded in ending the British rule in Malaya.
Today, the most commonly accepted pillars of Malayness; the
Malay rulers
The Conference of Rulers (also Council of Rulers or Durbar, ms, Majlis Raja-Raja; Jawi: ) in Malaysia is a council comprising the nine rulers of the Malay states, and the governors or ''Yang di-Pertua Negeri'' of the other four states. It was ...
,
Malay language
Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , Rejang script, Rencong: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spo ...
and culture, and
Islam, are institutionalized in both Malay majority countries,
Brunei
Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...
and
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
. As a still fully functioning Malay sultanate, Brunei proclaimed
Malay Islamic Monarchy as its national philosophy. In Malaysia, where the sovereignty of individual subnational
Malay sultanates and the position of Islam are preserved, a Malay identity is defined in
Article 160 of the Constitution of Malaysia
Article 160 of the Constitution of Malaysia defines various terms used in the Constitution of Malaysia, Constitution. It has an important impact on Islam in Malaysia and the Malay people due to its definition of a Malaysian Malays, Malay person un ...
.
History
Pre-European period
The
Malay World, the home of the
Malayic
The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family. The most prominent member is Malay, which is the national language of Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia; it further serves as basis for Ind ...
Austronesian tribes since the last
ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...
(circa 15,000–10,000 BCE), exhibits fascinating ethnic, linguistic and cultural variations as a result of having inherited different layers of foreign influences. The indigenous
Animistic
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning ' breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, ...
belief system
A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take ...
, which employed the concept of ''semangat'' (
spirit
Spirit or spirits may refer to:
Liquor and other volatile liquids
* Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks
* Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol
* Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...
) in every natural objects, was predominant among the ancient Malayic tribes before the arrival of
Dharmic religion
Indian religions, sometimes also termed Dharmic religions or Indic religions, are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent. These religions, which include Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism,Adams, C. J."Classification of ...
s around the beginning of
first millennium
File:1st millennium montage.png, From top left, clockwise: Depiction of Jesus, the central figure in Christianity; The Colosseum, a landmark of the once-mighty Roman Empire; Kaaba, the Great Mosque of Mecca, the holiest site of Islam; Chess, ...
CE. The Dharmic period was in turn superseded by
the introduction of Islam and the expansion of Malay sultanates in different parts of the region from the 12th century onwards.
The term 'Melayu' (Malay) and its variants predates the Islamic era, in a sense which appears to apply as an old
toponym
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
to the
Strait of Melaka
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...
region in general. Among the notable occurrences are ''
Malayadvipa
The Melayu Kingdom (also known as Malayu, Dharmasraya Kingdom or the Jambi Kingdom; , reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciation ''mat-la-yu kwok'')Muljana, Slamet , (2006), ''Sriwijaya'', Yogyakarta: LKIS, . was a classical Buddhist kingdom l ...
'' in
Vayu Purana
The ''Vayu Purana'' ( sa, वायुपुराण, ) is a Sanskrit text and one of the eighteen major Puranas of Hinduism.
''Vayu Purana'' is mentioned in the manuscripts of the Mahabharata and other Hindu texts, which has led scholars to p ...
, ''Maleu-Kolon'' in the 2nd century Ptolemy's
Geographia
The ''Geography'' ( grc-gre, Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις, ''Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis'', "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, com ...
(on the west coast of
Golden Chersonese), ''Mo-Lo-Yu'' in the 7th century
Yijing
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...
's account, ''Malaiur'' in the 11th century's inscriptions in
Brihadeeswarar Temple, ''Malai'' in 12th century
Idrisi
TerrSet (formerly IDRISI) is an integrated geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing software developed by Clark Labs at Clark University for the analysis and display of digital geospatial information. TerrSet is a PC grid-based syste ...
's
Tabula Rogeriana
The ''Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq'' ( ar, نزهة المشتاق في اختراق الآفاق, lit. "The Book of Pleasant Journeys into Faraway Lands"), commonly known in the West as the ''Tabula Rogeriana'' (lit. "''The Book of ...
, ''Malayu'' in the 13th century
Padang Roco Inscription
The Padang Roco Inscription, in Indonesian Prasasti Padang Roco, is an inscription dated 1286 CE, discovered near the source of Batanghari river, Padangroco temple complex, Nagari Siguntur, Sitiung, Dharmasraya Regency, West Sumatra, Indonesia.
E ...
, ''Ma-li-yu-er'' in the 13th century's
Yuan chronicle, ''Malauir'' in the 13th century's
Marco Polo's
account, and ''Malayapura'' in the 14th century's
Amoghapasa inscription.
Despite its ancient origin, the term 'Melayu' did not establish itself as an
ethnonym at least until the advent of the
Melaka Sultanate in the 15th century.
Islamisation
Islamization, Islamicization, or Islamification ( ar, أسلمة, translit=aslamāh), refers to the process through which a society shifts towards the religion of Islam and becomes largely Muslim. Societal Islamization has historically occurre ...
developed an
ethnoreligious identity in Melaka, with the term 'Melayu' then beginning to appear as interchangeable with Melakans, especially in describing the cultural preferences of the Melakans as compared to those of foreigners.
Tome Pires
A tome or codex is a large book, especially one volume of a multi-volume scholarly work.
Tome may also refer to:
Places
* Tome, Miyagi, city in Japan (formerly Tome District)
*Tome, New Mexico, an unincorporated community and census-designated ...
explained how Melaka itself classified merchants into four groups, among which the ''Malayos'' or ''Melayu'' did not appear, suggesting they were not then regarded as a category outside of Melaka itself. It remains unclear when the notion of Malayness began to characterise areas beyond Melaka, but it is generally believed that
Malayisation
Malayisation (Commonwealth spelling) or Malayization (North American and Oxford spelling) is a process of assimilation and acculturation, that involves acquisition ( ms, Masuk Melayu, literally "embracing Malayness") or imposition ( ms, Pemelayu ...
intensified within the Strait of Melaka region following the territorial and commercial expansion of the sultanate in the mid-15th century.
European period
![Malays and Javanese](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Malays_and_Javanese.jpeg)
By the 16th and 17th centuries, 'Malay' and 'Malayness' were associated with two major elements; first, a line of kingship acknowledging descent from Srivijaya and Melaka; and second, a commercial diaspora retaining the customs, language and trade practices of Melaka. In his 16th century Malay word-list,
Antonio Pigafetta
Antonio Pigafetta (; – c. 1531) was an Venetian scholar and explorer. He joined the expedition to the Spice Islands led by explorer Ferdinand Magellan under the flag of the emperor Charles V and after Magellan's death in the Philippine Islands, ...
made a reference to how the phrase ''chiara Malaiu'' ('Malay ways') was used in the Maritime Southeast Asia, to refer to the ''al parlare de Malaea'' (
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
for 'to speak of Melaka').
Kingship, and its polity (''kerajaan''), was a prominent pillar of Malayness in the area around the Strait of Melaka. Islam was another pillar because it provided kingship with some of its core values. The commercial diaspora constituted a group of people outside the Strait of Melaka area—
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...
,
Makassar and
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
—who defined their Malayness primarily in terms of language and customs, which were the third and fourth accepted pillars of Malayness, respectively. While Islam was an objective criterion to define the kingship and his subjects (Muslim and non-Muslims), anyone who claimed to embrace Islam could be counted as Malay. Non-Muslims and non-Malays could be labelled as Malays as long as they spoke and wrote Malay and followed a Malay way of life, or if they ''
Masuk Melayu''—meaning, don certain clothes, follow certain culinary practices, and become an integral part of the Malay-speaking trading network. The
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
,
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
used the labels 'Malay' and 'Malayness' in this way.
The subjective aspect of Malay and Malayness allowed a distinct plurality in the composition of the category 'Malay', since it was open to new recruits from any background, both within and outside the Malay World. In the 18th century, the people of
Siak in
eastern Sumatra, through violence and literary text, succeeded in becoming a subgroup within the larger Malay community, similarly in the 19th century
Riau
Riau is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the central eastern coast of Sumatra along the Strait of Malacca. The province shares land borders with North Sumatra to the northwest, West Sumatra to the west, and Jambi to the south. Acco ...
, powerful migrant
Bugis elites within the Malay heartland, diplomatically negotiated and legitimized their positions, thus gaining the needed identity as Malay. Other instances can also be observed in
North Sumatra and
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...
, where tribal communities, in particular the
Batak and
Dayak people
The Dayak (; older spelling: Dajak) or Dyak or Dayuh are one of the native groups of Borneo. It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic groups, located principally in the central and southern interior of Borneo, each w ...
s, being systematically drawn into the Malay sultanates.
In
British Malaya, the principle of 'plural society' underscored the social order of the modern colonial and post-colonial periods. From the 17th–19th centuries, the colonial administrators—first the Dutch, followed by the British—redefined the meaning of 'Malay' and 'Malayness',
setting boundaries
Personal boundaries or the act of'' setting boundaries'' is a life skill that has been popularized by self help authors and support groups since the mid 1980s. It is the practice of openly communicating and asserting personal values as way to p ...
legitimized by rules of law and policies, thus elevating it to a 'nation'. After the establishment of the
Straits Settlements in 1824, the concept of a Malay ethnicity gradually became 'Malay nation', an identity that was accepted by both the colonial power and the Malays themselves, primarily as the result of the growing presence of others who were either European or Chinese. As early as the 1840s, the writer
Abdullah Munshi used the term ''Bangsa Melayu'' ('Malay nation'), and that term gradually entered the public sphere. The 1891 colonial census recognized three racial categories, namely, Chinese, Tamil, and Malay. With increased immigration of Chinese and Indian labour to Malaya in the early 1900s, a plural society was established, in which the concept of Malay as a nation became fixed and indelible.
Decolonisation and modern period
Malay nationalism
Malay nationalism ( Malay: ''Semangat Kebangsaan Melayu'' Jawi: سمڠت كبڠساءن ملايو ) refers to the nationalism that focused overwhelmingly on the Malay anticolonial struggle, motivated by the nationalist ideal of creating a ''B ...
, which developed in the early 1900s, had a cultural rather than a political character. The discussions on a 'Malay nation' focussed on questions of identity and distinction in terms of customs, religion, and language, rather than politics. The debate surrounding the transition centred on the question of who could be called the real Malay, and the friction led to the emergence of various factions amongst Malay nationalists.
The leftists from
Kesatuan Melayu Muda
Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) ( Jawi: كساتوان ملايو مودا ; "Young Malays Union" in Malay) was the first leftist and national political establishment in British Malaya. Founded by Ibrahim Yaacob and Ishak Haji Muhammad, KMM grew ...
were among the earliest who appeared with an ideal of a
Republic of
Greater Indonesia
Greater Indonesia (in id, Indonesia Raya) was a political concept that sought to bring the so-called Malay race together by uniting the territories of Dutch East Indies (and Portuguese Timor) with the British Malaya and British Borneo. It was ...
for a
Pan-Malay identity. The version of Malayness brought by this group was largely modelled on the anthropological concept of
Malay race
The concept of a Malay race was originally proposed by the German physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840), and classified as a brown race. ''Malay'' is a loose term used in the late 19th century and early 20th century to describe the ...
, that transcend the religious boundary and with the absent of the role of monarchy. Another attempt to redefine the Malayness was made by a coalition of left wing political parties, the
AMCJA, that proposed the term 'Melayu' as a
demonym or citizenship for an independent Malaya.
In the wake of the armed rebellion launched by the
Malayan Communist Party
The Malayan Communist Party (MCP), officially the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), was a Marxist–Leninist and anti-imperialist communist party which was active in British Malaya and later, the modern states of Malaysia and Singapore from ...
, the activities of most left wing organizations came to a halt following the declaration of
Malayan Emergency in 1948 that witnessed a major clampdown by the British colonial government. This development left those of moderate and traditionalist faction, with an opportunity to gain their ground in the struggle for Malaya's independence. The conservatives led by
United Malays National Organization
The United Malays National Organisation ( Malay: ; Jawi: ; abbreviated UMNO () or less commonly PEKEMBAR), is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest continuous national political party within Malaysia (since its i ...
, that vehemently promoted Malay language, Islam and Malay monarchy as pillars of Malayness, emerged with popular support not only from general Malay population, but also from the Rulers of the
Conference of Rulers
The Conference of Rulers (also Council of Rulers or Durbar, ms, Majlis Raja-Raja; Jawi: ) in Malaysia is a council comprising the nine rulers of the Malay states, and the governors or ''Yang di-Pertua Negeri'' of the other four states. It was ...
. Mass protests from this group against the
Malayan Union, a unitary state project, forced the British to accept an alternative federalist order known as the
Federation of Malaya, the Malay translation of which was ''Persekutuan Tanah Melayu'' (literally 'Federation of Malay Land').
The federation would later be reconstituted as Malaysia in 1963.
In modern times, the traditional Malay notion of fealty to a ruler, charged to protect Islam in his territory, is central in both Malaysia and Brunei. In Brunei, this has been institutionalized under the state ideology of
Malay Islamic Monarchy which proclaimed on the day of its independence on 1 January 1984. As a still functioning Malay sultanate, Brunei places Islamic institutions at the centre of the state's interest. It retains an elaborated Malay social hierarchy central to the community. In Malaysia, nine Malay sultanates were formally absorbed into the foundation of the modern state and the historical association of Malay with Islam is entrenched in the
Article 160 of the Constitution of Malaysia
Article 160 of the Constitution of Malaysia defines various terms used in the Constitution of Malaysia, Constitution. It has an important impact on Islam in Malaysia and the Malay people due to its definition of a Malaysian Malays, Malay person un ...
.
A degree of Malayness is also retained outside Brunei and Malaysia, in particular, among communities in coastal areas of
Sumatra and
Kalimantan in Indonesia and
southern region of Thailand, that historically ruled by Malay sultanates.
See also
*
Bumiputera Bumiputera or Bumiputra, which is a Malay word, comes from the Sanskrit word ''Bhumiputra'' which may be transliterated as "son of earth" or "son of the soil" (Bhūmi; भूमि = earth; putra = son). It has different definitions in Brunei and M ...
*
East Indies
The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around ...
*
Ethnic Malays
Malays ( ms, Orang Melayu, Jawi: أورڠ ملايو) are an Austronesian ethnic group native to eastern Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and coastal Borneo, as well as the smaller islands that lie between these locations — areas that are col ...
*
Greater Indonesia
Greater Indonesia (in id, Indonesia Raya) was a political concept that sought to bring the so-called Malay race together by uniting the territories of Dutch East Indies (and Portuguese Timor) with the British Malaya and British Borneo. It was ...
*
Malay Archipelago
*
Malay race
The concept of a Malay race was originally proposed by the German physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840), and classified as a brown race. ''Malay'' is a loose term used in the late 19th century and early 20th century to describe the ...
*
Malay world
*
Malayisation
Malayisation (Commonwealth spelling) or Malayization (North American and Oxford spelling) is a process of assimilation and acculturation, that involves acquisition ( ms, Masuk Melayu, literally "embracing Malayness") or imposition ( ms, Pemelayu ...
*
Malaysian Malay
*
Malaysian Malays
Malaysian Malays ( Malay: ''Melayu Malaysia'', Jawi: ) are Malaysians of Malay ethnicity whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in the Malay world. In 2015 population estimate, with the total population of 15.7 million, Malaysian Malays ...
*
Maphilindo
Maphilindo (for Malaya, the Philippines, and Indonesia), is a proposed, nonpolitical confederation of the three Southeast Asian countries in the Malay Archipelago.
Background
The original plan for a united state based on the concept of ...
*
Nusantara
*
Pribumi
Native Indonesians, also known as ''Pribumi'' (), are Indonesians whose ancestral roots lie mainly in the archipelago, distinguished from Indonesians of known (partial) foreign descent, like Chinese Indonesians (Tionghoa), Arab Indonesians, India ...
Regional religion:
*
Religion in Malaysia
Malaysia is a multireligious country, whose official religion is Islam. As of the 2020 Population and Housing Census, 63.5 percent of the population practices Islam; 18.7 percent Buddhism; 9.1 percent Christianity; 6.1 percent Hinduism; and 2.7 ...
*
Religion in Singapore
Religion in Singapore is characterised by a wide variety of religious beliefs and practices due to its diverse ethnic mix of peoples originating from various countries. This means that Singapore is commonly termed as a "melting pot" of various ...
*
Religion in Thailand
Buddhism is the largest religion in Thailand, practiced by over 93% of the population. Buddhism is the State religion as per the Thai constitution, despite which, it guarantees religious freedom for all Thai citizens, though the king is requ ...
General:
*
Ethnoreligious group
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Malay Islamic Identity
Ethnoreligious groups in Asia
Racial and religious quotas in Malaysia
Malay people
Islam in Indonesia
Islam in Malaysia
Islam in Brunei
Islam in Singapore
Islam in Thailand