Along the riverfront in Bandar Seri Begawan is the largest water village in Asia, Kampong Ayer. About 30,000 people live here the way they have for at least 1,500 years...Leaving the river would be leaving their traditional culture behind, and it is a cost they don't wish to pay.
Islam spread through northwest Borneo in the 15th century. The first Muslim ruler of Brunei was Awang Alakber Tabar, who took the name Muhammad when he accepted Islam. He married a Muslim princess from Johor. Throughout the 15th century, Brunei was overshadowed by the powerful state of Malacca. When the Portuguese conquered Malacca in 1511, many Malaccan Muslims migrated to Brunei, raising Brunei’s importance.
By the 19th century, much of this empire had been whittled away by war, piracy, and the colonial expansion of European nations.
The small sultanate has amazing mosques :
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