Katip Sumat uprising () was a revolt in 19th century Southern Vietnam. It was led by Cham Muslim leader Katip Sumat. This is the only ever-recorded jihad war involving Vietnam.
Background
The remnant of the Champa Kingdom in a small enclave in Southeast part of Mainland Southeast Asia, Panduranga, known to the Vietnamese as Principality of Thuận Thành, had been annexed by the Vietnamese from the Nguyen lord's domain in 1692, who vassalized it instead of incorporating. During the Tayson rebellion (1771-1789) as the Nguyen were overthrown, Panduranga king Po Tisuntiraidapuran switched alliance to the Tayson rebels. By 1793, Panduranga effectively became a vassal client state of the Nguyen, who later conquered all of Vietnam in 1802. The first Nguyen emperor, Gia Long, tried to keep Panduranga as a vassal state. His successor, Minh Mang, an absolutist, wanted to annex and assimilate the last Cham entity. However, he met challenges from the Viceroyalties of Saigon and Hanoi, and increasing Cham resistance.
Islam began proliferating in Champa from the 11th century, growing more popular after the 1471 Vietnamese conquest of Champa. It replaced or blended with traditional Hindu-Chamic customs. The majority of Cham Muslims in Central Vietnam, including the royal family, were followers of Bani or localized Cham Shiites and still keep practicing Hindu-Chamic traditions, while on the other hand, the Cham Muslims in the Mekong Delta and Cambodia were majority Sunni. The dynamic omnipresence of the Cham people and their diaspora communities scattered throughout Southeast Asia remains a great challenge posing to every ruler of Vietnam as well as Cambodia.
In August 1832, after the death of his foremost enemy, Viceroy of Saigon–Le Van Duyet, Minh Mang of Vietnam triumphantly annexed Panduranga and held the last Cham king Po Phaok The as royal hostage in Hue court. Minh Mang forced the Chams to integrate, as well as purging dissents and supporters of Le Van Duyet. A Khâm Mạng (generalized as "temporary assigned") official was sent to Panduranga as the new magistrate and to punish the Chams who were suspected to be supporters of Duyet.
Several Cham officials were jailed, sent to exile, or executed, and their properties were confiscated. Shortly after the purge, the Khâm Mạng office ordered the Cham to abandon their culture and practice Vietnamese customs. They forbid the Cham Bani and Sunnis to exercise Ramadhan month and Cham Hindus to worship their ancestors, completely removing the traditional Cham social hierarchy. The Vietnamese office further ordered total rapid assimilation of the Chams, integrating Panduranga into Vietnamese administration, heavy taxes, social structures, land, military services were implemented, and issued brutal punishments for those who dare to oppose. Still, these policies were just to increase Cham dissatisfaction and resistance to Vietnamese brutal subjugation.
Katip Sumat, a Cambodian Cham khaṭīb that had been studied Islam in Kelantan, Malay Peninsula, was outraged hearing the news that Champa was annexed by the Hue court in 1832 and Vietnamese oppressive rules over the old Panduranga. Cham sources did not assert a specific biography for Sumat whether was he actually a cleric or a religious student. He left Kelantan and returned to Cambodia in early 1833, which at the time was in a state of anarchy and being occupied by Vietnam. Sumat assembled his follower bands, mostly made up of Cambodian Chams and Malays secretly crossed into Panduranga, at first, to organize an uprising against the Hue court and reclaim Cham independence. However his plan was compromised shortly after when a Cham Hindu official named Po Kabait Thuac, because of fearing retaliation, reported Sumat's potential uprising to the Vietnamese court. In response, Minh Mang immediately asked all alleged Cham supporters of katip Sumat to be arrested, but it turned out to be poor intelligence gathering of the Hue court, in which later all suspects were released and Thuac was executed by the Vietnamese court for "making false accusation."
Nevertheless, Sumat was frustrating and distrusted "some of Cham gentlemen are betraying him," and he intended to give up the movement in reluctance. But his supporters tried to convince him to continue taking lead in the uprising. Finally, the katip agreed to renew the movement, but took a more radical Islamist path over the original national liberation goal, under Islamic banner.