Islam in Vietnam is primarily associated with the Cham people, an Austronesian minority ethnic group, roughly one-third of Muslims in Vietnam are of other ethnic groups. There is also a community which describes itself as of mixed ethnic origins that also practices Islam and, on some occasions, describes themselves as the Cham, or Cham Muslims, in southern Vietnam, mostly around the region of Châu Đốc or Ho Chi Minh City.
History Spread of Islam (750–1400)
Uthman ibn Affan, the third caliph of Islam, sent the first official Muslim envoy to the Tang dynasty in China in the Yonghui period (650–655).Abul-Fazl Ezzati, 1994, The Spread of Islam, Tehran: Ahlul Bayt World Assembly Publications, pp. 300,303, 333. Seafaring Muslim traders were known to make stops at ports in the Champa Kingdom en route to China very early in the history of Islam. During the 9th to 12th centuries, various medieval Arabic geographical works identified modern-day eastern Indochina as the lands of the Qimar (Khmer, Cambodians), the Sanf (Cham), and the Luqin (Vietnamese). Arab Muslim merchants reached Luqin (Hanoi) while Vietnam was under Tang China's rule. Luqin (Hanoi in northern Vietnam) was home to one of the largest Muslim communities in Vietnam when Vietnam was ruled by Tang China.
The earliest known material evidence of the continued spread of Islam is Song dynasty–era documents from China, which record that the Cham began converting to Islam in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. Following the usurpation of Lưu Kế Tông (r. 986–989), many Chams and Muslims sought refuge in China. The Song dynastic records state that in 986, hundreds of people from Champa, led by Pu Bo E (Abu Nurs), arrived in Hainan. In the next two years, nearly 500 refugees from Champa arrived at Canton, headed by Li Ning Bian and Hu Xuan (Hussain), who "demanded the protection of China".
Simultaneously, during the Mongol invasions of Vietnam, a notable presence of Muslim generals emerged among the Mongol ranks. Figures like Omar Nasr al-Din held sway, and a significant portion of the invading Mongol army in both Đại Việt and Champa consisted of Muslim Turks and Persians. During their short conquest, the Mongols managed to spread Islam, although it was never large enough to challenge the Vietnamese. During a visit to Champa in the 1340s, Ibn Battuta described a princess who met him, spoke in Turkish, was literate in Arabic, and wrote out the Basmala in the presence of the visitor. However, Ibn Battuta did not consider Champa an Islamic state. The number of followers of Islam began to increase as contacts with the Sultanate of Malacca broadened in the wake of the 1471 collapse of the Champa Kingdom, but Islam would not become widespread among the Cham until the mid-17th century.
Origin of Islam in Champa
Origin of Shiite Bani Islam first appears in early Cham texts as Asulam, as the Cham people still refer to it today. Bani Awal (Bini ralaoh, people of Allah) religion, a syncretic, localized version of Shi'a Islam, gained dominance in 17th-century Panduranga. The unspecified origin of Bani, as well as the coming of Islam to Champa, are still contested by researchers who need to interpret several sources and Cham folktales, and try to reconstruct the history of Islam in Champa, for that matter. Scholars like Antoine Cabaton and Pierre-Yves Manguin proposed two preliminary theories for the apostle of Islam to Champa: The first theory states that Islam could have been introduced by Arab, Persian, Indian merchants, scholars, and religious leaders, from the 10th to 14th century. This periodization makes some efficient sense because Champa has been well known by Middle East literature since the early medieval era, and the presence of Muslim communities in Champa is also attested by archaeology, medieval Perso-Arabic and Chinese geography texts.
For example, Al-Dimashqi claimed a story that after being expelled, a small portion of Alīds took refuge in Champa; these Muslim immigrants thereby spread Shi'a among the Cham, which perhaps eventually led to the synthesis of the Bani Awal religion. Two Kufic gravestones found in Phan Rang dating from 1038 to 1039 of an Arab Muslim merchant named Abu Kamil, who originated from Egypt, indicate a certain sort of reiterated autonomy of a mercantile Muslim community in the city-state of Panduranga, which was granted by a Cham king who understood their importance in commerce and trade. The Cham Bani have been suggested to be religious adherents of the Isma'ili sect of Shi'a traders in medieval Champa. The legendary king of Panduranga Po Ovlvah, who reigned from 1000 to 1036 in the Cham annals, and whose name is believed to be a Cham rendition of Allah.
The popular accounts mainly outside of Champa, from the Cham diasporas, assure that the Cham had been converted by either ʿAlī and his son Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafīyya. A comparative oral tradition from the Cambodian Cham communities also states "Lord ʿAlī had sent Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafīyya to Champa to teach Islam." Several related Cham tales such as Po Rasulak, Po Ali, and Po (Fāṭima) Phwatima seemingly narrate the connection between early medieval Champa and the Islamic world. These are testified in Cham Bani wedding ceremonies, in which the bride and groom's ceremonial names are the Cham representations of ʿAlī and Fāṭima. For instance, a Cham man in Kampong Cham province born in 1885 said that his genealogy began with Sayyid Mustafa, who claimed to be a descendant of ʿAlī. Sayyid Mustafa went to Phan Rang and taught Islam while learning Akhar Thar Cham script, then walked to Cambodia and taught Islam to the Cambodian Cham.
However, according to most historians, plausibly, the Cham only began converting to Islam en masse after the fall of Vijaya in 1471.
Contradictory narrative and Malay origin of Cham Islam The second theory argues that Islam arrived in Champa through a later, shorter, indirect way from the Malays, is considered more convincing and valid. After the fall of Vijaya in 1471 to the 17th century during the Age of Exploration, global trade in early modern Southeast Asia experienced a booming upward trajectory. Anthony Reid explains that at the same time, the Portuguese and Spanish Christians had arrived in the region and carried out ambitious colonial conquests and trade dominance, provoking political associations among the Southeast Asian Muslims. Among them were the Cham diaspora of merchants, warriors, and refugees who had adopted the Islamic faith from the Malays through peaceful correlation, were operating commercial activities throughout Southeast Asia, and built a strong relationship with them. Those Cham Muslims then returned to their homeland and started preaching Islam to their fellow people by the 1500s.
Contacts between Islamic sultanates on the Indonesian Archipelago with Champa (Panduranga) increased during 15th and 16th centuries. Cham texts relate the introduction of Islam into Champa began with a princess of Makkah and two Malay princes from Kelantan who came to Champa to promote the messages of the Qur'an. When the princess returns to her homeland, her Cham lover feels unable to abandon his ancestors' religion and adopt Islam, so the second tale tells that the Cham king Po Rome (r. 1627–1651) conceived hybridization according to Cham custom to ensure interreligious harmony in Cham society upon the advice of the Malay princes. The Malay Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) made a reverse claim: the Cham are credited for the introduction and promotion of Islam to Java. In conclusion, Manguin attributes the Islamization of the Cham people to their active participation the regional maritime networks, and the Malay states and Malay traders, which also had a great impact on the process.
Flourishing period (1400–1800)
A Spanish record in the late 1580s reported that "many Muslims live in Champa, whose Hindu king wanted Islam to be spoken and taught, resulted in many mosques existed along with Hindu temples". Many Cham Qur'an manuscripts and Bani legends were written during this period in Panduranga, for example, several Bani legends, the first relating to Fāṭima, daughter of the Prophet, and this is followed by an explanation of the origin of mosques, created by the Prophet Muhammad, ʿAlī, and the archangel Gabriel.
To resolve growing hatreds between the Balamon and the Bani Awal, King Po Rome ordered the Cham Bani to have their religion more integrated with Cham customs and beliefs, while pressing the Ahier to accept Allah as the most supreme God, but allowed them to retain their worship of traditional Cham divinities, excellently reforging peace and cohesion in his kingdom. Thus, it preserved the pre-Islamic Cham identity while entangling and incorporating Islam into the basis of Cham culture. King Po Rome is an important deity who is being venerated by the Cham people today. Connections between Pandaranga and the extra Malay/Islamic world blossomed. Syncretism was widely practiced at all levels, best known for incorporating cosmopolitan Islamic doctrines into existing indigenous Cham beliefs and Hindu pantheons. The Cham Bani developed a distinct Islamic literature, with a beckoned combination of more or less Arabic passages, including Islamic heroes and prophecies, cosmology, Islamization legends, Qur'anic verses, royal chronicles and genealogies, and Malay-Cham wordlists. The multipurpose lunisolar sakawi calendar, was likely Po Rome's best combination of the previous Cham Śaka era with the Islamic lunar calendar.
The Cham Bani blended Shi'a teachings and traditions with their own traditional Cham customs, such as keeping old Sanskrit titles among the clergy; the Ramadhan (Ramawan) month was reduced to a three-day-festival instead of the whole month; daily praying time was four hours and the last hour at night was skipped. Despite that, Bani Awal follows strict monotheism; Awal imam (acar) must perform praying (saemiang), rituals, and ordination only inside the mosque (magik, masjid). Cham Bani do not accept the worship altar of dead ancestors, nor the placement of deceased father and mother inside the house. Names of deceased persons are forbidden to be called directly. Instead, the Bani would remember them by calling slant names. The Bani would refurbish their ancestors' cemetery steles and have a remembrance ceremony to pay respect and filial piety to ancestors every year on the Gabur Rak day, which usually takes place at the end of the Šaʿbān (Shaban) month.
European missionaries described Champa in the 1670s as having the majority of its population being Muslims, a Muslim sultan, and a Muslim court. In 1680, Panduranga king Po Saut (r. 1659–1692) styled himself with the Malay honorific Paduka Seri Sultan in his handwritten letter to the Dutch in Java.
The Nguyen invaded Panduranga in the 1690s and locked the Cham polity in complete isolation, which resulted in the disconnection between the Cham and the Malay-Islamic world. By the early 1800s, the majority of Cham Muslims in Old Champa (Central Vietnam) were practicing Bani Shiism, still using the traditional Akhar Thrah Cham script. Meanwhile, the majority of Cambodian and Mekong Delta Chams became orthodox Sunni Muslims and adopted Arabic-derived Jawi script.
Persecution under Minh Mang