Misool, formerly spelled Mysol (Dutch: Misoöl) or Misol, is one of the four major islands in the

Raja Ampat Islands Raja Ampat (), or the Four Kings, is an archipelago located off of the northwest tip of Bird's Head Peninsula (on the island of New Guinea), Southwest Papua , Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. It comprises over 1,500 small islands, cays, and sh ...

Southwest Papua Southwest Papua (; ) is the 38th provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia to be created, and was split off from West Papua (province), West Papua on 8 December 2022. Despite being named "southwest", this is actually a misnomer and this prov ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. Its area is 2,034 km². The highest point is 561 m and the main towns are Waigama, located on the island's northwest coast, and Lilinta on the island's southeast coast. The inhabitants speak the Ma'ya language, Biga language and

Matbat language Matbat is a heavily Papuan-influenced Austronesian language spoken in West Papua, Indonesia, on the island of Misool, Raja Ampat islands Raja Ampat (), or the Four Kings, is an archipelago located off of the northwest tip of Bird's Head Penin ...

, as well as Indonesian and its dialect,

Papuan Malay Papuan Malay or Irian Malay is a Malay-based creole, Malay-based creole language spoken in the Papua (Indonesia), Indonesian part of New Guinea. It emerged as a contact language among tribes in Indonesian New Guinea (now Papua (Indonesian provin ...

. Other main islands of this group off the western end of Southwest Papua are Salawati,

Batanta Batanta is one of the four major islands in the Raja Ampat Islands in Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. Its area is 479.52 km2 (including smaller offshore islands) and its highest point is 1184 m. The Pitt Strait (Indonesia), Pitt Strai ...

and Waigeo, and there are numerous smaller islands such as Kofiau.

Etymology

The name ''Misool'' is from Ma'ya language which meant port or harbour relating to when the first king from Waigeo arrived on the island. Original inhabitants ( Matbat) called the island with the name ''Batan Me''.

Ecology

Terrestrial

Misool is part of the Vogelkop–Aru lowland rain forests ecoregion, which includes the other Raja Ampat Islands and the

Bird's Head Peninsula The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: , , meaning Bird's Head in Indonesian and Dutch) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanjung Doberai'') is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indones ...

on mainland New Guinea. Plant communities include alluvial, or lowland alluvial rain forest and lowland hill rain forest. Native animals include

marsupial Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...

s, murid rodents, bats, and many birds, including several

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

species. Some native animals include: * '' Echymipera kalubu'', common spiny bandicoot * '' Echymipera rufescens'' * '' Dorcopsis muelleri'' * '' Phalanger orientalis'' * '' Spilocuscus maculatus'' * '' Petaurus breviceps'' * '' Macroglossus minimus'' * '' Nyctimene aello'' * '' Pteropus conspicillatus'' * '' Aselliscus tricuspidatus'' * '' Pipistrellus papuanus'' * Lesser bird-of-paradise (''Paradisaea minor'')

Marine

Misool and the Raja Ampat Islands are part of the

Coral Triangle The Coral Triangle (CT) is a roughly triangular area in the tropical waters around Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste. This area contains at least 500 species of reef-building corals in each ...

, and islands' coral reefs and coastal waters are some of the most biodiverse on Earth. Native fish include the Misool rainbowfish (''Melanotaenia misoolensis'') and Misool yellowfin rainbowfish ('' Melanotaenia flavipinnis''). A section of Raja Ampat Marine Recreation Park covers the coastal waters southeast of the island. The park was designated in 2009.

History

Islam first arrived in the Raja Ampat archipelago in the 15th century due to political and economic contacts with the Bacan Sultanate.Wanggai, Toni V. M. (2008)
Rekonstruki sejarah umat Islam di tanna Papua
econstruction of the History of lslam in Papua Syariff Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta (in Indonesian). Retrieved 2022-03-13. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the

Sultanate of Tidore The Sultanate of Tidore (Jawi script, Jawi: ; sometimes ) was a sultanate in Southeast Asia, centered on Tidore in the Maluku Islands (presently in North Maluku, Indonesia). It was also known as Duko, its ruler carrying the title Kië ma-kolano ( ...

had close economic ties with the island, which was ruled by king in Lilinta descended from Gurabesi of Waigeo, while Tidore appointed another king in Waigama.Slama, Martin (2015),
Papua as an Islamic Frontier: Preaching in 'the Jungle' and the Multiplicity of Spatio-Temporal Hierarchisations", ''From 'Stone-Age' to 'Real-Time': Exploring Papuan Temporalities, Mobilities and Religiosities''
ANU Press, pp. 243–270, During this period, Islam became firmly established and local chiefs had begun adopting Islam. Misool was a part of the Dutch colonial empire under the

Netherlands East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

administration. The Japanese occupied the island in 1942, became the base of

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

until 1945.No. 92 of the

Japanese Monographs The Japanese Monographs, Japanese Studies on Manchuria, and Japanese Night Combat Study are three groups of publications written by Japanese officers, prepared by the Military History Section of the Headquarters, US Army Forces East, and distributed ...

— "Southwest Area Naval Operations, Apr. 1942 – Apr. 1944", 10 September 1947.

Pulau Misool Nature Reserve

Pulau Misool Nature Reserve was established in 1982. It covers the southern portion of the island, with an area of 840 km².

References

External links

* * Jelle Miedema, ''Perspectives on the Bird's Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia:'' Proceedings of the Conference Leiden, 13–17 October 1997
Indonesia Field Project - Misool - Marine Conservation Agreements
Raja Ampat Islands Islands of Indonesia Islands of Oceania Uninhabited islands of Indonesia {{SwPapua-geo-stub