New Javanese emerged as the main literary form of Javanese in the 16th century. The change in the literary system happened as Islam started to gain influence in Java. In its early form, New Javanese literary form was based on the variety spoken in the north coast of Java, where Islam had already gained foothold among the local people. Many of the written works in this variety were Islamic in nature, and several of them were translation from works in Malay. The Arabic abjad was also adopted (as Pegon) to write Javanese.