Datuk Ri Bandang

Datuk Ri Bandang, whose real name was Abdul Makmur and whose title was Khatib Tunggal, was a scholar from Koto Tangah in Minangkabau, West Sumatra, who spread Islam through the kingdoms of the eastern Indonesian archipelago: Luwu, Gowa, Tallo and Gantarang in Sulawesi, Kutai in Kalimantan and Bima in Nusa Tenggara.¹² From his arrival at the end of the 16th century he worked with his fellow scholars Datuk Patimang and Datuk Ri Tiro and their companion Tuan Tunggang Parangan.¹

He first preached in Kutai in East Kalimantan, and when conditions there were not ripe he moved on to Makassar, while Tuan Tunggang Parangan stayed in Kutai and in time brought its king and court into Islam.¹ The three datuks then divided the mission field according to each man's specialism and the character of South Sulawesi society: Datuk Ri Bandang, the jurist, took the kingdoms of Gowa and Tallo; Datuk Patimang, whose field was theology, took Luwu; and Datuk Ri Tiro, whose field was Sufism, took Tiro and Bulukumba.¹

The mission began in Luwu, where the courtier Tandi Pau entered Islam first, followed on 4-5 February 1605 by the king, Datu' La Pattiware Daeng Parabung, after a long dialogue with the scholar, and by the whole court; Islam became the religion of the kingdom and its rulings a source of its law, making Luwu the first Islamic kingdom of South, Central and Southeast Sulawesi.¹ Datuk Ri Bandang then settled at Makassar and preached in Gowa, Takalar, Jeneponto and Bantaeng, until the king of Gowa, I Manga'rangi Daeng Manrabia, and the king of Tallo, I Malingkang Daeng Manyonri, entered Islam with their peoples through his mission.¹

Datuk Ri Bandang died and was buried at Tallo, near Makassar, having established Islam in the leading kingdoms of South Sulawesi.¹ The sources read give no year for his birth or his death; his documented activity runs from the end of the 16th century to the conversions of the kings of Luwu, Gowa and Tallo and beyond.