The Ruler as Perfect Man in Southeast Asia, 1500–1667

Abstract

In this chapter, I discuss the reasons for the conversion of almost all the rulers of South Sulawesi to Islam in the remarkably short period between 1605 and 1611. I begin by going back to the very origins of ethical prophecy, charismatic authority, and alphabetic scriptures among the urban artisans and merchants of the ancient Middle East. I argue that their exposure to the competing symbolic traditions of the powerful agrarian empires of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran, Greece, and Rome tended to undermine their confidence in the validity of their own symbolic traditions and made them receptive to religious visions with a more cosmopolitan relevance. These cosmopolitan symbolic systems also proved attractive to political rulers who were trying to govern multiethnic world empires. I show that similar forces were at work in Island Southeast Asia between 1300 and 1600, and this is what explains the conversion of the entire region during this period.