Riau Malays (Jawi: ملايو رياو, Melayu Riau) is a Malays sub-ethnic originating from the Riau and Riau Islands province. The main areas of the Riau Malays are on the east coast of Riau, mostly in Bengkalis, Indragiri Hulu, Kampar, and the Pekanbaru City area which was the base of the Malay Kingdom in the past. The Riau Malays are famous for Riau Malay Literature which is well applied in rhymes, syair, gurindam, hikayat, karmina, seloka, traditional poems, local proverbs, mantras, and romance stories, as well as other forms of expression which they use to express their feelings.
Etymology
Malay (), derived from the word Malaya dvipa from the Hindu scripture Purana which means land surrounded by water which refers to a Old Malay Kingdom in Jambi in the 7th century.
The name riau itself has three opinions. First, from Portuguese word, rio means river. In 1514, there was a Portuguese military expedition exploring the Siak River, with the aim of finding the location of a kingdom that they believe exists in the area, at the same time pursuing the followers of Sultan Mahmud Syah who withdrew to Kampar after the fall of the Sultanate of Malacca. The second opinion "riau" comes from the word "riahi" which means sea water, which is thought to have come from the book One Thousand and One Nights.
The third opinion is taken from the word rioh or noisy which comes from the naming of the local people which means crowded, the hustle and bustle of working peoples, which became known since Raja Kecik moved the center of the Malay kingdom from Johor to Riau ulu in 1719. This name was used as one of the four main countries that formed the kingdoms of Riau, Lingga, Johor, and Pahang. However, the result of the London Treaty of 1824 between Dutch and England resulted in the splitting of this kingdom into two. The Johor-Pahang hemisphere is under British influence, Meanwhile, the Riau-Lingga hemisphere was under the influence of the Dutch.
Origin
Riau is thought to have been inhabited since 10,000,000-14,000,000 BC. This conclusion was drawn after the discovery of tools from the Pleistocene era in the Sengingi River watershed in Kuantan Singingi Regency in August 2009. The stone tools found included a penetak ax, perimbas, shaver, flakes, and core stones which are the basic ingredients for making shaver, and flakes. The research team also found some wood fossils that are thought to be older than the stone tools. It is suspected that the human user of the tools found in Riau is Pithecanthropus erectus, as has been found in Central Java.
The Riau Malay Empire was also a continuation of the Sriwijaya Empire heritage based on religion Buddhist. This is evidence of the discovery of Muara Takus Temple which is thought to be the center of the Srivijaya government, which has an architecture resembling the temples in India. Besides that, George Cœdès also found similarities in the structure of the Srivijaya government with the Malay sultanates of the 15th century. The Malay kingdom started from the 12th century Bintan-Tumasik Kingdom, followed by a period of Islamic Malay Sultanates.
The earliest text that discusses the Malay world is Sulalatus Salatin or what is known as Sejarah Melayu by Tun Sri Lanang, in 1612. According to the book, Seguntang Hill is the place where The Sapurba came, whose descendants were scattered throughout the Malay World. Sang Mutiara became king in Tanjungpura and Sang Nila Utama became king of Bintan before finally moving to Singapore.
Religion
"So all the Malay customs are also valid according to Syarak and Syariah. It is these customs that have been passed down from generation to generation to the land of Johor, the land of Riau, the land of Indragiri, the land of Siak, the land of Pelalawan, and all the lands of the Malays. All customs that are not based on Islamic law are wrong and cannot be used anymore. Since then, Malay customs have been called syarak-based customs which adhere to the book of Allah and the sunnah of the Prophet".<p style="text-align: right;">— Tonel, 1920.
Malay society in general is identical with Islam which is the foundation of the source of their customs. Therefore, the customs of the Riau Malays bersendikan syarak and syarak bersendikan Kitabullah.
Prior to the arrival of Islam to the archipelago, many parts of the region were under the Srivijaya Kingdom between the 7th and 14th centuries which were heavily influenced by Hindu-Buddhist traditions. At that time Islam had been introduced when the Maharaja of Srivijaya sent a letter to the Caliph Umar bin Abdul Aziz, containing a request to send a messenger to explain Islamic law to him.