Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Gordon Johnson, Cultural Atlas of 

India (New York: Facts On File, 1996); John F. Richards, 

The Mughal Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University 

Press, 1993).

Australia

The continent of Australia joins neighboring 

islands of i

ndonesia

 and n

eW

 z

ealand

 in demar-

cating the southwestern extent of the Pacific 

Ocean and the eastern extent of the Indian Ocean. 

Australia is separated from Indonesia by the Ara-

tura Sea and from New Zealand by the Tasmania 

Sea. Also part of the country of Australia is the 

large island of Tasmania, off the continent’s south-

east coast. The country has a total land area of 

some 2,967,100 square miles.

The Aboriginal peoples, Australia’s original 

inhabitants, settled the land as early as 40,000 

years ago. They created a diversity of cultures 

across the continent. They seem to have migrated 

from Southeast Asia. Europeans made note of 

Australia’s existence in the 17th century, but 

only in 1770 did Captain James Cook (1728–79) 

claim it for Great Britain. British settlement began 

less than two decades later, the first settlement 

being the infamous penal colony at Botany Bay. 

Over the next two centuries, the descendants 

of British settlers became the dominant force in 

Australia, making up two-thirds of its 19 million 

inhabitants. The remaining third constitutes an 

extremely diverse ethnic spectrum that includes 

many people from former British colonies from 

India and Southeast Asia.

The original Muslims in Australia were from 

a

Fghanistan

, men employed as 

camel

 drivers. 

Many settled in central Australia, and the con-

temporary town of Alice Springs was at one time 

referred to by local residents as m

ecca

. That 

original Afghan community did not perpetuate 

itself and eventually died out. (Some Muslims 

point to evidence of even earlier Muslims coming 

to Australia from m

alaysia

 and Indonesia to settle 

in fishing villages along the northern coast.) Over 

the next decades, the number of Muslims grew 

slowly and fluctuated widely. From a low point in 

the early 1930s (around 2,000), the community 

reached more than 10,000 by 1970. Since that 

time, it has grown at a much more rapid rate. It 

was approaching 150,000 by the time of the 1991 

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