Banjar

The Banjar are the dominant Austronesian people of southeastern Borneo's riverine lowlands, around the Barito delta and the port of Banjarmasin. They formed from local Dayak tribes absorbing Malay and Javanese settlers. In the fourteenth century Javanese migrants founded the Hindu kingdom of Negara Dipa under Majapahit influence, succeeded by Negara Daha in the fifteenth.

When Prince Samudera fled a succession revolt, he won Demak Sultanate backing and in 1526 founded the Islamic Sultanate of Banjar, ruling as Sultan Suriansyah from Bandar Masih, the future Banjarmasin. English and Dutch traders arrived in 1602 and 1603, but Dutch expeditions in 1606 and 1612 both failed.

They speak a Malayic language enriched with Dayak and Javanese words, the lingua franca of southern Borneo. After Sheikh Muhammad Arsyad al-Banjari returned from Mecca in 1774, they adopted Shafi'i Sunni Islam, which shaped their law, learning and customs.