Spice Route and Islamization on the West Coast of Sumatra in 17th-18th Century

摘要

In the XVII century AD, the West Coast of Sumatra was a very busy trade route visited by foreign merchants. In this region, spices were the main attraction of traders to come to trade transactions, so that the West Coast of Sumatra became a conquest of every country to hegemonize this region. In addition to trade flows, the region was also the path of the process of Islamization on the West Coast of Sumatra. It is very hard to deny that the Islamization process was driven by traders from Arab, Gujarati and China. This merchant not only carried trade commodities but also brought the ideology to propagate to inter-island traders as well as local traders. The Islamization process on the West Coast of Sumatra followed the spice route that have become a trader as good as the spreaders of Islam.