Occasionally the Silliman Journal is pleased to devote an entire
quarter to some lengthy, specialized study. This quarter we are
privileged to present in full the important paper on “Theories of the
Introduction and Expansion of Islam in Malaysia” prepared by Dr.
Cezar Adib Majul and read before the Second International Confer-
ence of Historians of Asia which met at Taipeh, Taiwan in August
of 1962. The paper was printed originally in the Proceedings of the
Conference and js reprinted here with permission. :

A Filipino of Lebanese ancestry, Dr. Majul is Dean of the Uni-
versity College, University of the Philippines, and is widely known
as one of the foremost historians and political scientists of Asia. He
holds the Ph.D. degree in Political Science from Cornell University
and is the author of three scholarly books having to do with the
Philippine Revolution and one of its theorists: The Political and Con-
stitutional Ideas of the Philippine Revolution; Mabini and the Phil-
ippine Revolution; and Apolinario Mabini: Revolutionary.

Partly because of his own Muslim background, Dean Majul has
long had an interest in the history and spread of Islam in this part
of the world and has travelled extensively and read widely in the
the field. He has heen privileged to examine the precious tarsilas
(genealogies) of some of the Tau Sug families in Sulu, a privilege
rarely granted to outsiders. Study of these farsilas is essential to
competent scholarship concerning the history of Islam in the Philip-
pines. The paper here presented is one of the first fruits of Dean
Majul’s studies in Malaysian Islam and there are many more such
studies to follow in the years ahead. He brings to his work in this
field the same scholarly craftsmanship that he has shown in his
studies of the Philippine revolution and Apolinario Mabini. Not since
Dr. Najeeb Saleeby (who was, incidentally, a compatriot and warm
friend of his father) has a scholar with the interest and competence
of Dean Majul brought his skill to bear on the study of Islam in the
Malay world and particularly the Philippine portion of it.

Peter G. Gowing