Champa
Islam

Bani Chams or Bani Awal are Cham Muslims in Central Vietnam that converted to a version of localized Shi'a Islam mixed with Hindu-Chamic customs, as the faith started making headway among the population after the 10th century CE. The term "Bani" derived from Arabic term "bani" (بني) which means "people". The popular account mainly from oversea Cham communities assures that the Cham had been converted by either ʿAlī and his son Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafīyya. Al-Dimashqi claimed a story that the Alīds after being expelled, a small group of them took refugee in Champa; these Muslim immigrants therefore spread Shi'a among the Cham, which perhaps eventually led to the synthesis of the Bani Awal religion. In their devotions, the Cham Bani refer to Adam and Eve, the archangel Gabriel, Abraham, the prophet Muhammad, ʿAlī, Fāṭima, Ḥasan and Ḥusayn. They have religious organization dominated by a class of dignitaries who always wear white tunics, the pious colour of Islam, Quranic books with Cham commentaries, and simple mosques. However their Imams bear Cham-Sanskrit titles gru and acar. By the 17th century, the royal families of Champa had converted to Bani Islam. The Ahiér is particularly more than strange as they adhere to a hypersyncretic Islam-Balamon-Cham religion. Ahier, meaning later, implies that the Cham Ahier were people who converted to Islam in the 16th to 17th centuries, after the Bani Awal. Ahier and Bani Awal communities have blended Shi'a Islam, Balamon, with their own customs to the point that sectarian distinction no longer makes sense. For example, Allah is usually written as Po Uvalvah, and prophet Muhammad, which the Cham Bani refer as Po Rasulak was morphed into one of many important Cham deities. Most Cham are now evenly split between being followers of Islam and Hinduism, with the majority of Central Vietnam Cham being Ahier and Bani, while the majority of Cambodian Chams and Mekong Delta Chams are Sunni Muslim (also called Cham Baruw, meaning "new Cham"), though significant minorities of Mahayana Buddhists continue to exist.

Historical documents regarded that 18th-century Cham and Malay Sunni settlements in the Mekong Delta established by the Nguyen lords earlier than Vietnamese settlements in order to establish Viet-controlled settlements for frontier defense. The embodiment of more fundamentalist Sunni faiths in the Mekong Delta and Cambodia gave the Cham communities here socio-cultural inclinations toward the wider Malay/Islamic world compared with the fairly isolated Cham Bani in Central Vietnam. Islam also instigated certain ethno-religious values to the Mekong Delta Cham, which help them preserve and retain their distinct ethnic identity in a dynamic transnational environment.

Kelantanese Muslim preachers or imams sailed to Champa shores not long after the fall of Vijaya to teach their school among the local community, academic ties there were also established leading to long-lasting exchange of teachers between both regions over the centuries; certain placenames in Kelantan like Pengkalan Chepa (lit. 'Champa Landing') reflect this fact. Indonesian 15th-century records indicate that Princess Daravati, of Cham origin, converted to Islam, and influenced her husband, Kertawijaya, Majapahit's seventh ruler to convert the Majapahit royal family to Islam. The Islamic tomb of Putri Champa (Princess of Champa) can be found in Trowulan, East Java, the site of the Majapahit imperial capital. In the 15th to 17th century, Islamic Champa had maintained a cordial relationship with the Aceh Sultanate through dynastic marriage. This sultanate was located on the northern tip of Sumatra and was an active promoter of the Islamic faith in the Indonesian archipelago.

The lunisolar Cham Sawaki calendar is an amalgamation of the Islamic and traditional Cham calendars, which was based on the Indian Śaka era. A normal year in Sawaki consists of 354 days with 12 months; the average length of each month is either 29 or 30 days. The calendar has a 12-year cycle of zodiac called Nâthak. It sets three leap years for every eight years, compared to 11 leap years for every 30 years of the orthodox Islamic calendar.
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