Bawean

Bawean rises from the Java Sea north of Java, an island of hills and coastal settlements on the route across the archipelago. Local accounts associate the spread of Islam with the teacher Maulana Umar Mas'ud, who came from Java. The faith gained many adherents after the death of the local ruler Bebileono in 1601. Dutch East India Company ships visited Bawean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the island formally came under company control in 1743.