Islamic Law and Maritime Management: How the Sultanate of Banten Managed Its Territorial Waters in the 16th –17th Centuries
Abstract
This article examines the role of Islamic law in shaping maritime governance in the Sultanate of Banten during the 16th and 17th centuries, with particular emphasis on its incorporation into administrative and regulatory practices. Rather than approaching Islamic law as a fixed or purely doctrinal system, the study conceptualizes it as a set of normative references embedded in port administration, commercial regulation, and maritime security. Adopting a socio-legal historical approach, the analysis draws on Bantenese legal manuscripts, European travel accounts, and Dutch colonial records. The findings demonstrate that Islamic legal norms operated in interaction with political authority and mercantile institutions through the consultative involvement of religious scholars, institutional coordination between the Sultan and port officials (syahbandar), and the selective application of legal sanctions and fiscal arrangements to govern a plural trading community. This article offers empirically grounded insights into Islamic law as a context-specific practice within Southeast Asian maritime societies.
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