The alternation of pirates and powerful ministers
With the sudden death of Mahmoudsha II, the nearly three hundred years of rule of the Bairimisura family in Malaya ended here. Under the limited recognition of female inheritance by Sharia law, neighbors with the female lineage of the Sultan family are eligible to inherit the new Johor royal family. The Sultan of Kelantan tried to elect the daughter of the late Peking University native Sultan Raja Bakr as the Sultan, on the grounds that the young princess was the great-great-granddaughter of former Sultan Abdul Jail III of the Johor Empire and the niece of former Sultan Mahmoudsha II.
However, this request was unanimously rejected by the Bandaharo family: when the agreement was signed in 1676, it was recognized that the main premise of the restoration of Abdul Jail III was that it was not allowed to inherit the throne of Sultan in Peking University. The only bloodline of Abdul Jalil III, who had no male heir, was passed down to Peking University, and the paternal bloodline of the royal family came from Kelantan. Peking University lasted for half a century from the 17th to the early 18th century, and the rest of the sultans except Luoja Bakar were all women. If Raja Baccar's daughter comes to power, the most direct result is Kelantan annex Johor, which is an ending that the power of Johor is absolutely intolerable.
After the result of the "unanimous" recommendation of the minister, at the end of 1699, Abdul Jail Majid, then 43, inherited the Sultan, and the Bandahala dynasty of Johor (1699-1824) was established since then.
The "Johor Empire" under the Banda Halo family maintained its dominance over southern Malaya, the east coast of Sumatra and the Straits of Malacca. This title recognizes the "common-lord" status of Johor Sultan, but is also ironic. Because the pirates from the Bugiss occupy an important position in the political arena, they have become important real power through the "-day Menggong " and "Laxamana" class, and they have spread their bloodlines to the sidelines of the Sudan.
At the same time, Banda Hala's superiority had an overly strong "powerful ministers succeeding", which made countless opponents in Johor. In 1718, the young warlord Raja Kecil (deceased in 1746) led the Bugis pirates to rise up and attack Johor.
Abdul Jalil IV had no time to summon troops to deal with Kkiel's attack, and was eventually captured to Siak and killed by Luoja Kkiel. The original intention of Luozhe Kkiel's rebellion was: he claimed to be the posthumous son of Sultan Mahmoudsha II who was assassinated in 1699, and had a natural legitimacy to the throne.
But in the end, Raja Kkiel failed to become the Sultan of Johor as he wished, because Sulaiman Badrul Alam Shah (1699-1760), the son of Abdul Jalil IV, re-summoned troops by promoting the status of "Laxamana" in Bugis, expelled the Bugis faction under Kkiel, and restored the royal power. He found many documents, condemning Raja Kkiel as his illegitimate son, "How could a 20-year-old Raja give birth to an 18-year-old son?" (When Raja Kkiel rose up, his son could already command the army), and drove the latter to Sumatra. Luozha Kkiel led the Bhugisian forces to establish a country on the eastern coast of Sumatra, namely the Sultanate of Siak (1722-1949).
The army badge of the Sultanate of the West Asia
1850The territory of the Sultanate of the West Asia
The establishment of the Sultanate of the West Asia sultanate means that the Johor Empire was split and collapsed for the first time, and since then Johor lost control of Sumatra. Although Johor is nominally an "imperial", the middle and lower levels of Bugis gradually monopolized the superstructure of Malaya by holding positions such as "Tianmeng Gong" and "Laxamana", and carried out de facto separatist and management of Klang , Lingji, Selangor and other places. By the mid-18th century, the Bugis established an independent Sultanate in Selangor.
The tragedy of regicide happened again in two generations of Alamsha's son Muazzam Shah (1738-1761) and grandson Ahmad Riyat Shah (1752-1770). Alamsha was completely controlled by the Bugisian "Laxamana" in his later years, and when he died, Johor was already a "fragmented empire."
Muazamsha quickly succeeded to the throne on his own when his father died. He was poisoned to death only a year later on the way from Johor to Riau. The Bugis people regarded their base camp, the Riau Islands, located in the north of Indonesia, as the capital of the "Johor Empire", and moved all administrative agencies to the Riau Islands.
9 years later, a similar tragedy happened to Ahmed, the eldest son of Muazamsha. Since Ahmed had no heir, the management of the "Johor Empire" fell on his young brother Prince Mahmoud, namely Mahmoudsha III (1756-1811)
List of Johor monarchs during the Bandahara family and the cause of death
In the same year, Tun Abdul Majid (1718-1802), the cousin of Mahmoudsha III and the then "Bandahara" of Johor, separating Pahang and calling himself "Raja Bendahara of Pahang".
Abdul Majid's father Tun Abbass was the eldest son of Abdul Jail IV. He was originally appointed as "Bandahala" by his father to train him. However, because Dun Abbas himself was mentally ill and suspected of killing his relatives, Abdul Majid, as the eldest grandfather, was excluded from the inheritance rights by his grandfather. Although Abdul Majid also respected Johor as the sect leader, he actually maintained a very high degree of independence and autonomy and called himself "Raoja Bandahala" (prince and prime minister). Pahang's factual independence brought many uncertainties to the "Johor Empire" and also laid the root of disaster for Britain to take advantage of the situation.
The intervention of British imperialist colonists and the demise of the "Johor Empire"
In order to expel the Portuguese forces, the Dutch "East India Company" continued to transfer autonomy to pro-Dutch Malay aristocracy (especially the Bugis), so that when they truly trusted the Strait colonies, they actually had to rely on the cooperation of Malay aristocracy. Dutch has a permanent office in Malacca, and has not achieved direct colonial rule like Malay Islands in the Malay region.
Compared with the heir crisis that occurred frequently in the previous generation, after 42 years of stable rule, Mahmoudsha III was not worried about the age and identity of the heirs when he was old: in 1812, he had two young and strong sons, namely the eldest son Hussein and the second son Abdul Rahman. Husse was 35 years old at that time, and had two noble wives, namely the granddaughter of Abdul Jamal (1720-1802), and the daughter of Tun Ali (1782-1858, grandson of Abdul Majid), the fourth "Bandaharo" of Pahang. The only problem is that Hussein's two wives are relatively young and have not left a heir to Hussein at that time. The second prince Abdul Rahman had many children at this time, but his biological mother and wife were far inferior to his brother. No one questioned that after the death of Mahmoudsha III, the next sultan must be Prince Hussein's Sultan.
1812, Mahmoudsha III prepared to live in seclusion. When he was about to abdicate, Sultan instructed Prince Hussein to go to Paheng, thus consolidating his marriage with the Paheng royal family. As a result, news soon came about the sudden death of Sultan of Mahmudsha III - although the official statement was that Mahmudsha III died of food poisoning , people at that time generally suspected that it was the Bugis who were drugged behind the scenes.
Hussein Prince Although he is the eldest son, his biggest weakness is his lack of offspring and his dissatisfaction with the Bugis people. Chief "Laksamana" who was born in the Bugis and was the "deputy king" at that time [Note: "Deputy king" is pronounced in , the Malay pronounced as "Yang Dipertuan Muda". It was a position established by the Bugis. Raja Jafar, who was similar to "Regent"], immediately passed a decree to support the second prince Abdul Rahman as the Johor Sultan. This incident directly led to the intervention of another European force in Malay affairs.
Britain had taken over some of the Netherlands' territories in Malaya and the Malay Islands, but according to the London Agreement signed on August 13, 1814, Britain must return the original lease and trusteeship of Java, Malacca and other territories belonging to the Netherlands. It is obvious that this is not the subjective wish of the British colonists. Thomas Stamford Raffles, the British adventurer who was the deputy governor of Bengkulu at the time, chose to seek the support of the Malay aristocratic ruling faction in order to ensure that the interests of British imperialism in the Malay Islands and Malaya were not damaged. On July 5, 1818, Raffles wrote to Roja Jafar, begging the Bugis "Laxamana" faction to "not receive any Dutch envoys" to interrupt Johor's cooperation with the Netherlands. At the same time, William Farquhar, a British garrison officer in Johor, also wrote a letter to Roja Jafar on October 15 of the same year, suggesting that the Kalimo Islands or Singapore be selected as a stronghold, and the UK established a port city here. But the two found that Luo Jafar was deeply influenced by the Dutch forces and it was impossible to hand over the management of Singapore to the UK.
At the same time, Temenggung Abdul Rahman (1775-1825) has always supported his brother-in-law Hussein after inheriting his grandfather's title, even though his sister has never given birth to children. Hussein's defeat in the succession of the throne, coupled with Abdul Rahman being sent to Singapore as the "Tianmeng Duke" to manage local defense, Abdul Rahman decided to support the British's actions, thus determining Hussein's status as the orthodox heir of the Sultan.
Sultan Abdul Rahman himself is not very interested in the Johor throne and has always claimed to be the "Rao Nei-Linga Sultan". In addition, the whole Johor has a deep opinion on the faction of "Laxamana" in Bugis, so Raffles and Farquhar decided to support Hussein and bribe the favors of "Tian Meng Gong" Abdul Rahman.
Under the operation of Abdul Rahman, on February 6, 1819, Sultan of Abdul Rahman announced his retreat to Linga, and Hussein became the orthodox sultan of Johor. But Hussein's ruling territory was in Singapore, not Riau or Johor. According to the agreement signed by Raffles and Farquhar and "Tianmeng Gong" Abdul Rahman, Singapore's "business station" is governed by the United Kingdom, and other powerful countries in Europe and the Americas do not have the right to establish colonies here.
At this point, the "Johor Empire" was officially divided up. Hussein, as the nominal legal sultan, actually surrendered to the British Empire ; although Sultan Abdul Rahman managed Linga, he and the faction of the Bhugis around him were managed by East India . The British colonists began to seek more management authority over Singapore. By August 2, 1824, the British had full jurisdiction over Singapore. Hussein and the "Tian Menggong" family lost all the political power on the island, leaving only the allowances and lifelong salary officially issued by the British government.
Left: Sultan Hussein in 1819 (restored image in later generations); Right: Portrait of Donggu Ali
Hussein, who was gradually deprived of real power by the UK, began to fall into a state of self-abandonment. After the death of "Tianmeng Gong" Abdul Rahman, he relied heavily on Tamil Muslim son-in-law Abdul Kadir (Abdul Kadir), causing an incident of confrontation between Malay Muslims and Indian Muslims.
In 1835, the 59-year-old Sultan of Hussein died. His eldest son, Prince Tengku Ali (1824-1877), was only 11 years old. Singapore's three governors, Murchison, Bonham and Butterworth all requested the Governor of Bangladesh and various factions in Malaya to recognize Ali as the new Sultan of Johor, but because Ali was too young and Hussein was too heavy to bear the debts during his lifetime, he had not been approved. Pahang's "Raja Bandahara" Dun Ali did not intend to support his grandson, but instead tried to further strive for Pahang's independence on the issue of royal power in order to seek the political legacy left over from the separation of Johor.
Left: Dun Ibrahim (1860); Right: Abu Bakr (1890)
Donggu Ali became more and more debts after he ascended the throne to maintain the high expenses of himself and his wives, concubines and children in Singapore, which caused strong dissatisfaction between the father and son of "Tian Menggong" Dun Ibrahim (1810-1862) and Abu Bakr (1830-1895).
Dun Ibrahim is the successor of the late "Tianmeng Gong" Abdul Rahman and is the real military and political leader within the Muslim community of Singapore and Johor. In 1848, Abu Bakr clearly informed the Governor of Singapore that the "Tianmeng Gong" family could not regard Donggu Ali, who was in high debt, as the common lord of their father and son. As the debt deepened, Donggu Ali left Singapore on his own in 1855 without any support, wandered in various southern Malaya areas, and eventually died in Malacca in 1877.
Winsteid believes that the rise of the "Tianmeng Gong" family and the "Raoja Bandahara" of Pahang have always been "not to save" towards their grandsons. The reason is that the source of the two families is the Dun Abbas group who was deprived of inheritance. The death of Sultan Hussein gave them the opportunity to inherit the small clan.
Abdul Jamahl and Abdul Majid are both sons of Dun Abbas. Abdul Jamahl was enfeoffed to Riau by his uncle Suleiman Bader Alamsha in 1757, so he was divided into the "Tianmeng Gong" family. After Donggu Ali's death, his family was centrally placed in the "Kampong Glam" in Singapore, and he himself was posthumously respected as "Ali Iskandasha".
takes the Sultan Palace and the Sultan Mosque as the core. "Kampung Glam" has become a typical area of Singapore's famous Malay-Muslim community. Some descendants of Ali Iskandasha still live around the Sultan Palace and become Muslim citizens in Singapore. Therefore, with "Kampong Glam" as the core, Singapore has formed the earliest batch of large-scale local residents' communities.
"Tianmeng Gong" takes charge of Johor and the Sudan Community of Malaya
As Britain's rule in Singapore deepens, some Chinese compradors "Towkay" (pronounced by Minnan dialect, meaning "boss") who maintain alliances with Britain assisted colonists in labor trade along the coast of southern China, commonly known as "selling piglets", and a large number of Chinese workers were transported to southern Malaya and Singapore.
These Chinese workers are huge. They serve colonists and compradors, carry out plantation construction and tin ore mining, and gradually form the ethnic group size in southern Malaya and Singapore, with the majority of Chinese. Some Chinese leaders with relatively outstanding business became "Kapitan" through the appointment of colonial authorities. Xue Fucheng recorded this as: "The wise and capable officials are selected as Ma Liu Jia Bitan and other officials to specialize in Chinese affairs." For example, Kuala Lumpur developer Ye Yalai (translated by "Ye Alai" by translator of "History of Malaya"), obtained the position of "Kapitan" by simultaneously being loyal to the British colonial authorities, the Sultan of Selangor and Pahang "Raoja Bandahala", in order to develop actual jurisdiction over the Chinese community in Kuala Lumpur.
Left: Sultan of Selangor Abdul Shamad in Selangor; Right: “Kalib Khabitan” Yeyalai
The head of Yeyalai is Abdul Samad Sultan of Selangor (1805-1898). This person has historically been famous for his good at letting the Malays in various places disrupt colonial order, but also making the colonial authorities less afraid of him. During the 41 years of Abdul Shamad's rule, Malayan Sudans, which originally had different factions and families, gradually formed a consensus, that is, to respond negatively to the political economy of colonialism, and to focus on building a national construction that combines Malay national identity and Islamic cultural system, and to effectively manage the internal management of the Malay Muslim community. Regarding the gradually growing colonialist system, Malay Sudan is more willing to allow local residents to carry out endless uprisings against the colonists and passively suppress them afterwards. But at the same time, another part of Malay Muslim Sudan attaches great importance to advanced European technologies and advocates their children to study abroad.
"Tian Meng Gong" Abu Bakr gradually rose under this situation and became the most famous member of the Malayan Sultans. In 1885, Abu Bakr officially announced the abolition of the original ancient titles "Tian Meng Gong" and "Maharaja" and renamed "Sultan". At this point, the Johor Sultanate entered a new era - the "Tian Meng Gong Dynasty".
Pahang Sultandu Ahmad, took a picture in 1910
In the late 19th century, the rule of the Bandahala family in Malaya underwent tremendous changes: Pahang realized the Sultan system in the 1880s, and Sultandu Ahmad (1836-1914) abolished the ancient "Raja Bandahala" system and only retained the inheritance of the Bandahala family.
1911, the Dutch authorities deposed Sultan Abdul Rahman II (reigned on 1851-1930, 1883-1911) and incorporated the Sultanate of Riau-Linga into the Dutch East India. Abdul Rahman II is a nationalist. Unlike his timid great-grandfather, Abdul Rahman III, he regards his father Mahmoud IV as a shame and pursues the reorganization of a Malay nation-state throughout his life, but is suppressed by the Netherlands and exiled to Singapore. At this point, the direct inheritance of Suleiman Badel Alamsha I ended.
Riaune-Linga Sultan lineage (Note: In 1857, Dutch colonists joined forces with the "deputy king" of Bugis to depose Mahmoud IV and forcibly support Mahmoud IV's uncle as Sultan, namely Suleiman Badir Alam II. Abdul Rahman II was not only the son of Mahmoud IV and the son-in-law of his uncle Suleiman Badir Alam II, so he was able to inherit the position of Alam II without hesitation.)
Abu Bakr after becoming the Sultan of Johor, he carried out comprehensive reforms to the domestic political culture. He received an English education since childhood and completed his studies at a Singapore church school, thus mastering very fluent English. Abu Bakker tended to demand himself by the standards of Western gentlemen, so that the then governor of Singapore, Odd, commented on Abu Bakker: "In terms of his taste and habits, he was a British gentleman."
Before the death of "Tian Menggong" Dun Ibrahim, Abu Bakker did not marry his wife as soon as his father was adults, but followed the British ships to travel around the world to meet with the Queen of England and Emperor Takayasu of Japan to understand the cultures of different regions.
1862 Dun Ibrahim passed away, and Abu Bakr started his first business to return to Johor. At that time, the politics, economy and culture of Johor were very chaotic. Abu Bakker used his skillful English proficiency to attract investment in various parts of Johor through British consultants around him, combining the British system with the Malay Muslim Sudan system, thus restoring Johor's management. In 1868, Riaune-Linga Sultan Suleiman Bader Alam II presented the title of Abu Bakr "Maharaja" to recognize his rule in Johor.
Most of the voices of praise for Abu Bakr's behavior came from colonists, and the local Malay Muslim community was very resistant to him at the beginning. Although the "Tianmeng Gong" family to which Abu Bakr belongs is essentially a prominent branch of the Bandahola family, given the actions of the three generations of "Tianmeng Gong" of Abdul Rahman, Dun Ibrahim and Abu Bakr's grandchildren in Singapore, many Malay Muslims look down on this "uspionage" behavior deep in their hearts. The Malay Muslims at that time wrote a poem called "Pantun" (Pantun, a short Malay poem), satirizing Abu Bakker's behavior of crowning the Sultan in 1885:
"The lantern is tied to a ratten, The Gaudy lantern is bound in ratten,
is equipped with a dagger in the wooden scabbard; Humble Kemuning wood holds the Kris.
Tian Menggong has become a Sultan, The Temenggong has become a Sultan,
imitates his ancestor Bugis. Through his royal forebears the Bugis."
(Carl Trocki, Prince of Pirates: The Temenggs and The Development of Johor and Singapore, 1784-1885, National University of Singapore, 2007, pp 203)
Although Abu Bakr's ancestors were actually the prominent Bandahola family, in the eyes of people at that time, his ancestors, whose infamous "Bukis" in the minds of Malay Muslims, were accomplices.Since the Bugis started out as a low-level maritime soldier, it is a typical example of usurpation in the eyes of Malay Muslims who pay attention to the order of hierarchy.
Abu Bakr was very concerned about this. He directly regarded "Tian Meng Gong" as the title of family, and even personally began to reread the teachings of Islam , so as to "a more suitable idea for Europeans" and cooperate with the practice of integrating systematic Islamic law into the Malayan judicial system by Baginda Umar, a Muslim scholar in Terengganu.
Abu Bakr has had four marriages: his first wife was the daughter of Tun Tahir, Pahang, and they had a daughter, Tunku Besar Putri; the second wife was Cecilia Catherina Lange, a mixed-race child of Johor (1848-1939). The two married in 1870. For this reason, Cecilia converted to Islam and adopted the sutra name "Zubaidah". Three years later, she gave birth to Tunku Crown Prince of Johor (Tunku). Ibrahim, 1873-1959), Abu Bakr was 43 years old at this time. In addition to Ibrahim, Cecilia also had a daughter, Tunku Mariam (born in 1871); in the 1880s, he married Wong Ah Gew, a Chinese woman from Guangdong (1891), and in 1886, he had a daughter, Tunku Aziah. Wang changed his enrollment in Islam and took the name of "Fatimah". Abu Bakr's last wife was Khadijah Khanum, a Cherks Muslim woman he married during a state visit to the Ottoman Empire. In 1894, the latter gave birth to Abu Bakr's youngest daughter, Tunku Fatimah.
1874, Abu Bakr, Cecilia (Queen Zubadah) and Prince Ibrahim
It can be seen that Abu Bakr's reform did not fully cater to Western values. He tried more to reorganize the original order system of the Malay Muslim community, change the hierarchy that was monopolized by the aristocracy and religious upper classes in the past, and change the original dual order system of "God-Sultan" (God King) into a nation-state order with Malay culture-Islam as the core.
His reform temporarily alleviated the fear of British colonial rulers of him, won a lot of support from Britain and other European countries, and thus successfully achieved investment promotion in Johor and successfully reorganized Johor.
His marriage also reflects this cultural fusion: his four wives symbolize the state of internal and external political interactions in Johor. The marriage with the original wife symbolizes the interconnected Malay Sultan royal family; the marriage with Cecilia symbolizes the union with Europeans; the marriage with Wang symbolizes dealing with Chinese communities; the marriage with Heidiche symbolizes the interaction between Islamic countries.
This model was applied to other Malayan sultan royals with fewer interactions in the past, such as the Mahawangsa family in Kedah in the north, which gradually became closer to the main Malayan sultan royal family since the 19th century. Before that, their main marriage was the Peking University Sultanate in the north, and the political system was also the "honeysuckle" tribute to northern Malaya - Peking University was completely annexed by Siam (later Thailand) in 1902.
Kedah and Kelantan, which had previously focused on northern diplomacy, had to incorporate British Malaya through a series of subsequent treaties, and turned to the gradually formed Malayan Sudan government alliance to avoid being directly ruled by the Buddhist monarch.
Abu Bakr incorporated the Western nation-state consciousness into the construction of Malaya's state, replaced the original "God King" order, and downplayed the previous differences between the various Malay ethnic groups due to the differences in class, dialect and ancestral place, and gradually formed a Malay indigenous ethnic group with Islam-Malay culture as the core.
Although the leader in maintaining the construction of this nation-state community is the Malayan Sultan government, compared with the "God King" who was relatively independent and given too much theocratic color, the Malayan Sultan system that has continued to this day since the 19th century is more like a joint discussion of multiple monarchs in a community, laying the foundation for the later Malaysian Supreme Head of State system (Malay for Yang di-Pertuan Agong).
Currently, there are 13 states in Malaysia (after Singapore's independence, Sarawak and Sabah in northern Kalimantan joined successively, thus Malaya renamed Malaysia). In addition to Penang, Malacca, Sarawak and Sabah implement the governor's appointment system, a total of 9 states implement the monarchy, namely Kelantan, Kedah, Nemi-Nehl, Perlis, Selangor, Johor, Pahang and Terengganu. Among these states, Perls adopts the "Raoja" system, Neptuan Nanzhou adopts the "Yang di-Pertuan Besar" system, and the rest are the "Sultan" system. It can be said that compared with the later Muslims in the Malay Islands who unified the "Nusantara" through revolutionary means and integrated Islam into "Pan Chahira" to lay the foundation for Indonesia's founding, the transformation of the Malay sultanate countries was undoubtedly relatively conservative and stable.
On the one hand, the country construction process of Malaya (including later Malaysia) is more of a result of consultation. While Sudan maintains real power, it is also restricted by the federal parliament. This is the result of the continuation of the "deputy king" or "strict end" system. The connection point of the country is Islam. On the other hand, this system has a large number of feudal remnants, and reforms are often difficult to touch the core interests of the Sudanese class. In order to develop Malaya in the early stage, Sudan condons the British colonial authorities and Chinese compradors to introduce foreign workers from China and India on a large scale, while guiding religious Malay nationalism. The impact of both sides will inevitably lead to some long-term disputes and hidden dangers in the construction of Malaya-Malaysia.
Even so, from the perspective of the current national construction of Malaysia, Abu Bakker's reform has at least achieved the effect of uniting the local Muslim community in Malaya to " Malay people", ending the "God King" binary politics that is not adapted to the times, and promoting Malaya's chance to get rid of colonialism, which must be recognized.
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