The Sultanate of Demak was Muslim state located on Java's north coast in Indonesia, at the site of the present day city of Demak. A port fief thought to have been founded in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, it was influenced by Islam brought by Arab and Gujarat traders. The sultanate played an important role in the establishment of Islam in Indonesia; the new religion's influence manifest by the Great Demak Mosque Wali Songo (the 'Nine Saints').

Origins

Demak Grand Mosque.

Demak�s origins are uncertain although it was apparently founded in the last quarter of the fifteenth century by a foreign Muslim, probably a Chinese who was perhaps named Cek Ko-po.^[1] It is thought that perhaps it was his son to whom the Portuguese gave the name 'Rodim', which most likely meaning 'Badruddin' or 'Kamaruddin', and he is thought to have died c. 1504.^[1] Rodim�s son, or possibly his brother, was the founder of the Demak�s brief domination in Java. Known as Trenggana, later Javanese traditions say he gave himself the title Sultan. It appears Trenggana had two reigns�c 1505�1518 and c 1521�1546�between which his brother in law, King Yunnus of Jepara filled in.^[1] One of Wali Songo, Sunan Kalijaga was the teacher of Raden Patah and had great influence on the philosophy of the Kingdom. Babad Tanah Jawa(or the Javanese Chronicle) recorded him as Jimbun.

Conquests

Trenggana spread Demak�s influence east and west and c 1527, during his second regin, he conquered the last Javanese Hindu-Buddhist state, Majapahit of East Java. Majapahit had been in decline since the later fifteenth century and was in an advanced state of collapse at the time of the Demak�s conquest.^[1] Majapahit's heirlooms were brought to Demak and adopted as Demak's royal icons. Demak was able to subdue other major ports and its reach extended into some inland areas of East Java that are not thought to have been Islamised at the time. Although evidence is limited, it is known that Demak's conquests covered much of Java: Tuban, an old Majapahit port mentioned in Chinese sources from the eleventh century, was conquered c. 1527;

Raden Patah was succeeded by Pati Unus (1518 - 1521), known best for his two attempts in 1511 and 1521 to seize the port of Malacca from the control of Portuguese. This campaign attempt ended with a loss of the King's life.

The King's brother-in-law, Trenggana (1522 - 1548), crowned by Sunan Gunung Jati (one of Wali Songo), became the Third and the greatest King of Demak. He conquered the Hindu based ressistance in Central Java, Banten, Sunda Kelapa (which will become Jakarta) in the future, and ended his campaign as he was killed in Panarukan, [East Java] in 1548.

Javanese legends of Demak

Later Javanese chronicles provide varying accounts of the conquest, but they all describe Demak as the legitimate direct successor of Majapahit although, they do not mention the possibility that by the time of its final conquest, Majapahit no longer ruled. The first 'Sultan' of Demak, Raden Patah, is portrayed as the son of Majapahit's last king by a Chinese princess who was exiled from the court before Patah's birth. The chronicles conventionally date the fall of Majapahit at the end of the fourteenth Javanese calendar, a time when changes of dynasties or courst was though to occur. Although these legends explain little about the actual events, they do illustrate that the dynastic continuity survived Islamisation of Java.

Decline

The death of the strong King sparked the civil war of succession between the King's younger brother, Sekar Seda Lepen; and the King's son, Prince Prawoto; all two were killed in this civil war; and finally Sekar's son, Arya Penangsang won the throne.

Arya Penangsang soon faced heavy opposition from his own vassals due to his unlikeable character, and soon was dethroned by a coalition of vassals led by Jaka Tingkir, Lord of Boyolali, who had kinship with the King Trenggana. Jaka Tingkir assumed the role as the King but he moved all the Demak heirlooms and sacred artifacts to Pajang, then he ended the Demak Kingdom history when he founded his new kingdom: the Kingdom of Pajang.

References

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