State of Gowa

About 1530 the Makarese state of Gowa began to expand its power over its neighbours by conquest. By the mid-sixteenth century Gowa had established itself at the head of loosely united empire and had emerged as a major trading power in eastern Indonesian.

In 1605 the king of Gowa adopted Islam. The ruler of Gowa publicly pronounced the Islamic profession of faith in September 1605. In a society where rulers were the focus of social life and its norms, other Makarese quickly followed these rulers.

Apparently the invitation to the Bugis state of Bone and other states to adopt the new faith was rejected. Gowa responded with a series of campaigns in 1608-11, as a result which Islam was imposed throughout the Bugis-Makarese area.

During the seventeenth century these trends and the general pattern of Gowa’s expansion and rising power continued at an even swifter pace.

At the end of these wars Gowa was the predominant state of South Sulawesi. Its ‘empire’ like other Indonesian states, was founded on military supremacy but was not a tightly centralised system of domination.

Sultan Hasanuddin (reign 1653 to 1669) was the last independent ruler of Gowa, and the one who saw the debacle of the Makassar Wars (1666-1669), which ended in Gowa’s subjugation.
State of Gowa

Bugis in Selangor

Originating from Sulawesi, the Bugis were a seafaring race and their maritime power dominated the Malay states of Johor, Selangor and Kuala Linggi. In 1667 the Dutch East India Company captured the Bugis capital city of Makassar and this intrusion acted as a catalyst for the dispersal of the Bugis people across the Malays world.

Not long after the rise of a Bugis dynasty in Aceh in 1727, Bugis power was established in the kingdom of Johor in 1728.

Intermarriage with Malay royalty and nobility enabled the Bugis to identify with and become increasingly Melayu, and their influence spread throughout the peninsula. The Bugis were so strong that they successfully installed a new sultan in Selangor.

In the 18th century, the interior of Selangor was virtually uninhabited and when the migration of Bugis from the east took place, many settled there. During the period of conflict between the Minangkabau and the Bugis Raja Kechil invaded Selangor.

The Bugis eventually drove the Minangkabaus out in 1742 but realized they needed to establish solid governments in these settlements. To the end they set up the sultanate of Selangor, only this time a Bugis family held the title.

Raja Lumu (1705–1778) was the first Sultan of Selangor. He was the son of the famous Bugis warrior prince Daeng Chelak. He took on the title of Sultan Sallehuddin of Selangor in 1742.
Bugis in Selangor

Mempawah kingdom

West Borneo has been in the history of humans for a long time. There were at least three sultanates that existed in West Borneo, and they were the Sultanate of Pontianak, the Sultanate of Mempawah and the Sultanate of Sambas.

The Bugis Kalimantan was important in the past as they had their own sultanate in Mempawah. One of the founders of Mempawah sultanate, Opu Daeng Manambon, had family links to other sultanate in the province – Pontianak, Sambas and Tanjungpura sultanates which spread the Bugis’ influence further.

Opu Daeng Manambon was originally from Bugis sultanate of South Sulawesi. According to Hikayat Opu Daeng Manambon, the Bugis adventures spread the archipelago after Dutch occupied Makassar in 1667. This hikayat recounts the tale of five Bugis brothers who traveled through the Malay world; one becoming yang dipertuan muda of Riau- Johor., while others dispersed.

The second brother, Opu Daeng Manambon, visited Sukadana, where he married a daughter of the sultan whose mother came from the ruling family of Mempawah. Later this Daeng Menambon moved to Mempawah and became its ruler.

In the past times Mempawah was a subordinate kingdom of the kingdom of Tanjung Pura. During the Dutch colonial period, the Dutch government appointed Pontianak Sultanate as the Dutch representative to preside over all the kings in West Kalimantan.
Mempawah kingdom

Tuhfat al-Nafis (The Precious Gift)

Winstedt had described the Tuhfat al-Nafis as the most important work of Malay historical literature after the Sejarah Melayu. Tuhfat-an-Nafis is indeed a ‘precious gift’ not only to Malay history but also, even more importantly, to Malay historiography.

The book provide us with genealogies of Malay, Buginese, Siak and Johor kings down to the founding of modern Singapore by Raffles. The book offers a realistic and accurate narrative of events and personalities of the Malay archipelago - in particular of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and West Kalimantan - from the late seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century.

Specifically, it detailed the fortunes of the Johor-Riau Empire during the 18th century vis-a-vis the various participants in the Malay Archipelago – Malay, Bugis, Minangkabau, Dutch and English. The events narrated are given exact dates.

Details about the expansionist deigns of the Dutch, another major player in the Malay Archipelago, are featured including Anglo-Dutch relations to the mid-nineteenth century.

The authorship of the Tuhfat is clear and undisputed: Raja Ali Haji Ibn Raja Ahmad (1809-1869). Raja Ali Haji himself wrote theological and didactic prose and poetry, A ‘linguistic’ study of Malay also stands to his credit. However, his most famous work, the Tuhfat-al-Nafis, is the first historical work in Malay which not only sets out its sources with previously unknown precision but also covers a world much larger than the one known form most Malay historical texts.
Tuhfat al-Nafis (The Precious Gift)

Raja Haji Ali (1808-1873)

Ali Haji bin Raja Haji Ahmad also known as Raja Haji Ali was a greatest Malay writers of the 19th century. He was the grandson of Raja Haji, Marhum Teluk Ketapang, whose demise occurred in battle during the attack on the Dutch in Malacca.

He belonged to the Malay-Bugis royal house of Riau and underwent a broad education, which was to equip him to make a significant contribution to various areas of learning.

Raja Haji Ali is best known for his writing:
*Tuhfat al-Nafis (1865) – The Precious Gift
*Salasilah Melayu dan Bugis 1890

The Tuhfat is a history of the Johor-Riau-Lingga area from the late seventeenth to the mid-seventeenth century. Parts of the book contain long sections of genealogies of the royal families, including the major achievement of each reign.

Raja Haji Ali completed Tuhfat al-Nafis during a period when the Malay world was in great flux. Rivalry and conflicts were evident between the Bugis, their Malay hosts and the Dutch colonial authorities.

The diverse skills of Raj Ali Haji were displayed his expertise in various field, which cover Malay language, theology, law, history, grammar, poetry, custom and traditions, and statecraft.

The principal works of grammar by Raj Ali Haji are composed in:
*The Bustan al-Katibin 1857
*The uncompleted Kitab Pengetahuan Bahasa

Two works on statecraft:
*Intizam Waza’if al-Malik 1857
*Thamarat al-Mahammah 1857

Among the elements of reform that are found in the works of Raja Ali Haji are the disclosure of dates, acknowledgment for using other sources as reference and validation and the author’s own statement that any errors found in his writings would be corrected by his descendents on the future.
Raja Haji Ali (1808-1873)