Title of Bendahara

Bendahara was a traditional Malay administrative position equivalent to a Prime Minster in today’s context.

In the old Kingdom of Malacca, he was the Sultan’s right-hand man, the chief advisor on public service an administration, diplomatic ties, war strategy, and Chief Justice for all civil and criminal affairs. He was also the controller of the treasury.

He could condemn people of all ranks to death; not even noblemen or persons of foreign nationality were outside his jurisdiction.

The Bendahara families were so respected that various sultans married into them and thanks to the influence and support to these powerful officials, the sons of such marriages usually retained the upper hand in question of succession even though other sons of the sultan had a better claim to the estate.

The first Bendahara of Perak was Tun Mahmud Sri Agar di-Raja of Johore created Bendahara c. 1530 by the first ruler of Perak, Sultan Mudzaffar Shah I. From about 1700, a family of Megats, possibly from Kedah, held the Bendaharaship of Perak, of whom Megat Iskandar is the earliest mentioned in history, who was followed by Megat Terawis.

The most famous Bendahara in Malay history is the legendary Tun Perak.
Title of Bendahara

Sulalatus Salatin or Sejarah Melayu

The Sulalatus Salatin is considered the most important Malay historical work. Sulalatus Salatin or Sejarah Melayu was written by Tun Seri Lanang in 1612.

The book was about the history, the achievement and the downfall of Malacca empire. The book probably reflects eighteenth-century rather than sixteenth century practices.

It was called ‘the most famous, distinctive and best of all Malay literary works’ by Sir Richard Winstedt, one of the most prominent scholars to study this work in detail during the last hundred years.

The core of the Sulalatus Salatin purports to record the history of the Malay Sultanate of Malacca from the time its establishment in the late 14th century to its fall to the Portuguese in 1511. Later versions also include historical accounts relating to other Malay Kingdom, including Johor and Siak, which postdated that of Malacca.

 Although Sulalatus Salatin was written with the intention of prompting the extremes of the Malay kings, its author did not take this to extremes. On the other hand, the flaws of the Malay kings did not escape the writer’s attention. The most ever criticism is reserved for Sultan Mahmud, who could not resist the sight of a beautiful woman.
Sulalatus Salatin or Sejarah Melayu

Battle of Malacca in 1641

The Dutch had started their seafaring activities in the east at the close of the 16th century. At that time the Dutch came to the Johore Empire.

Unlike the Portuguese who came before them, the Dutch were there to become allies with empire and in turn make a fortune by taking control of the bustling spice trade.

With the support of the Johore, the Dutch planned to take control of Malacca in 1641. Determined to secure Portuguese Malacca Dutch Admiral Willmsoon Cartekoe and ships from Johore besieged the powerful fortress, commanded by Governor Manuel de Sousa Coutinho.

With no hope of aid from Goa, the city surrendered six months later after a bloody assault, effectively ceding control of the spice trade (June 1640-14 January 1641). Some of the defeated Portuguese fled to Makassar, to live and trade under the Sultan of Gowa.

To thank the Johore Empire, the Dutch lifted all taxes and trade restrictions that they had forced on the other states.

Under Dutch occupation after 1641 Malacca’s importance as an entrepot declined as Johore and Patani became more independent and prominent in regional trade and war. By the end of the 17th century Johore was one of the strongest Asian powers in the region.
Battle of Malacca in 1641

Islam during Malacca sultanate

As Islam spread down the coasts of Sumatra – being adopted by the courts of Aru and Deli in the 1400s, it also gained adherents on the peninsula.

It is the ruler of Malacca appears to have adopted Islam with encouragement of the lord of Pasai. According to Sulalat al-Salatin, the dynasty of Malacca was founded around 1400 by Parameswara from Palembang after an interim period in Temasik. It was a first a Hindu Kingdom in 1402 and later converted to Islam with the marriage of the princess of Pasai in 1409.

His marriage also encouraged a number of his subjects to embrace Islam. Later, Parameswara transformed the Hindu Kingdom of Srivijaya into a Muslim Sultanate – the Sultanate of Malacca. He assumed the title of Sultan Iskandar Shah.

Centered in the down town of Malacca, the sultanate stretched from Muslim Malaya settlements of Phuket, Setol, Pattani, bordering Ayutthaya Kingdom of Siam.

By 1413, Malacca had become a fully fledged Muslim sultanate. Islam became established throughout Malacca’s empire, by the end of the 15th century, included all the states of the Malay Peninsula and those on the east coast of Sumatera.

Islam became the region’s principal religion, its rise coinciding with the decline of the Buddhist Srivijaya and Hindu Majapahit empires.

Wealthy Muslim traders were drawn to conduct business there and Malacca also became a well-known center of Islamic scholarship.

The spread of Islam happened at the peak of Malacca’s glory between 1459 and 1477 during the reign of the sixth sultan, Mansor Shah.
Islam during Malacca sultanate

City-state of Malacca

The Muslim city-state of Malacca was founded in 1401. Malacca developed during the fifteenth century into a wealthy entreport. The suburb was already home to a multi-ethnic community of merchants.

During the days of the Malacca Sultanate, these intrepid ancient seafarers not only came from neighboring regions but also from as far away as China, Japan and the Middle Eats to trade for the fabled Asian spices.

Four officials administered the foreign merchant communities: one for the Guajaratis, one for other Indians and Burmese, one for Southeast Asia, and one for the Chinese and Japanese.

Malacca, located in the west coast of the Malayan Peninsula, first emerged as a major trading port in the early fifteenth century, when Parameswara, avoided Thai rule with the aid of the emperor of China.

By 1500, Malacca was the largest and most populous commercial emporium in the international trade world of Southeast Asia. Malacca was the crucial transit point for spices and many other commodities heading east to China and west to India and Europe, and a port city quite dependent on the trade in pepper.

Malacca also became a center of Islamic learning from which scholars spread Islam throughout the region.
City-state of Malacca

Naning War (1831-1833)

The Naning War represented a resistance to curtailment of autonomy from without.

Naning was an area adjacent to Malacca settled by the Minangkabau. After the mid 17th century, Naning was traditionally obliged to deliver a tenth of its produce to Dutch Malacca as tribute, but it was never enforced.

As time went on, people of Naning and other Minangkabau polities came under the control of the Johor Empire.  As Johor began to lose influence, a situation developed in Naning where political leaders of small district began to assert individual authority.

The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 placed Malacca under English East India Company jurisdiction; Malacca became part of the Strait Settlement in 1826.

A new governor Robert Fullereton (1826-1828) assumed that Naning was part of Malacca and hence subject to its land laws and judicial system, with it penghulu and suku head to be salaried government tax collectors, and delivery was expected of the traditional tribute of produce.

Problems of face developed on both sides. Dol Said refused to give up his independence, and the English East India Company did not like being defied by a relatively minor Malay leader. Penghulu Dol Said, resisted and demanded the recognition of Naning’s autonomous status. The English East India Company’s response was a protracted war to impose its will.

In 1831, 120 English East India Company troops were sent to collect tax. The state had no roads and the British Indian troops became bogged down in guerilla warfare in jungle tracks and lanes between rice fields.

A second expedition ended Naning’s resistance after a three-month campaign in 1832, but the costly and humiliating war discouraged British expansion in Malaya for the next four decades.

During second expedition and with assistance from the Malays of Rembau, English East India Company force managed to capture Tabuh in mid-1832, thereby ending the conflict.

The Naning war had made Dol Said a hero and earned him a permanent place in the history of Malacca. He was given a pension every month until he passed away in 1849.
Naning War (1831-1833)

Majapahit Empire from Java (1292-1478)

The Majapahit Empire was a loose system of external dependencies and tributary states stretching from Sumatra in the west to the Spice Islands in the east including Malay Peninsula. Its imperial city located on the lower course of River Brantas in eastern Java.

The Majapahit Empire followed the Srivijaya Empire and lasted from 1292-1478.  It was replaced by the Malaccan Empire.

The founder of the Majapahit Empire, Kertarajasa, was the son-in-law of Kertanagara, the ruler of the Singhasari Kingdom, also based in Java and a rival of the Srivijayans.

Kertanagara was an aspiring empire builder whose achievements stimulated the rise of Majapahit; He endeavored to assert Javanese supremacy over a declining Srivijaya and dispatched naval forces around the Java Sea.

Kertanagara drove the Srivijayans out of Java altogether in 1290.  The Majapahit kingdom became the most powerful of the kingdoms in Hindu Java and came to be regarded by the later generations as the major source of Javanese culture. This was the first time the major islands of the Indonesian archipelago had been united under one commands.

Majapahit grew strength because of successfully combined agricultural production with export trade.

The arrival of Islam on Java and a massive revolt on the north of the Island eventually left the empire weak and in disarray.

To make it worse, this internal threat came at the point when a rival kingdom, Malacca, was growing stronger. Malacca was setup in 1403, by Parameswara, who had ruled in Palembang under Majapahit reign.
Majapahit Empire from Java (1292-1478)

History of Pahang

Chinese records referred to 13th century Pahang as a vassal of the waning Buddhist Srivijaya Empire (7th-13th centuries AD), a Malay thalassocracy whose capital was located in Sumatera.

Pahang reputedly fell to the King of Siam around the 12th century.

Malay influence in Pahang was only re-established in the 15th century when it was annexed by the Malacca sultanate.

The Portuguese seizure of Malacca in 1511 saw Pahang as a vassal of the Johor-Riau Empire, which itself came under the influence of the Bugis in the 18th century.

In the 16th century the state became a pawn in the four-way struggle for ascendancy between Johor, Aceh the Dutch and the Portuguese.

After the decline of the Acehnese Empire in the mid-17th century Pahang was ruled by Johor for 200 years.

Following a protracted civil war in the mid-19th century, Wan Ahmad became sultan in 1882.

British sovereignty began in 1888, and it was rocked by insurrections in 1891 and 1896.

Pahang as incorporated into the Malayan Union in 1946, the Federation of Malaya in 1948 and Malaysia in 1963.
History of Pahang

Raja Haji Riau

Raja Haji Fisabilillah was born at Ulu Sungai, Riau in 1725. He was a fearless warrior and a pious Muslim of Bugis origin.

He led a mercenary force against the Minangkabau invasion in the Johor-Riau-Lingga Kingdom and thus played a crucial role in resorting the Malay sultanate in the eighteenth century.

Malay sultan granted him the office of Yang Dipertuan Muda Riau Malay Empire in 1777. According to Tufhat an-Nafis, the empire was at the peak of power. Under his influence Johor-Buginese authority was imposed on the principal Malay States flanking the Straits of Malacca. These included Jambi and Indragiri on Sumatera.

Riau’s harbor was regularly frequented by hundreds of Buginese, Javanese, Siamese and Chinese vessels, trading in fine goods and staples ranging from European chintz, Javanese batik and silk-weave from nearby island to Siantan to the best shellac and top quality Siam rice.

It was the time when many junks form China and many ‘khatibs’ from Java came to Riau to teach religion. 

In January 1784, Raj Haji began massing troops from Selangor, Riau and Rembau. Two weeks afterwards, he and his allies attacked Malacca. Their effort were thwarted by the arrival of Netherlands government fleet commanded by Admiral Peter van Braam in May 1784 with orders to impress local lords with the power of the Netherlands.

Van Braam attacked Riau in June 1874. Raja Haji later was killed by the Dutch at in Teluk Ketapang Melaka on 18 Jun 1784.
Raja Haji Riau 

Tun Perak of Malacca

Tun Perak of Malacca
Tun Perak is regarded as one of the three outstanding man in the Malay world, comparable to Aria Gajah Mada of Majapahit and Raja Senayan of Pasai.

Tun Perak, son of Bendahara Tun Parapati Sedang who assumed the name of Sriwa Raja. After the death of Sriwa Raja, Tun Perak did not enjoy any office instead he went to Kelang to be married and settled in Kelang entirely.

After sometime, the people of Kelang expelled their head man, and came to Malacca to ask for replacement, Sultan Muzaffar Syah asked them whom they wished, they replied, that the Sultan would particularly gratify them by appointing Tun Perak to the office.

When Sultan Muzaffar Shah refused to pay allegiance to the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya, large Thai army marched overland under Awi Chakra. The Thais were met and routed at Ulu Muar, where great leadership was shown by Tun Perak.

Tun was appointed Bendahara and in 1456 he led brilliant victory over the Thais at Batu Pahat together with brilliant legendary warrior Hang Tuah.

He was an all rounder who even headed the building of Sultan Mansor Syah’s new palaces after the Hang Jebat rebellion.

As a wise man of principle, Tun Perak on a number of occasion made hard decisions that seemed to challenge even the wishes and wisdom of the sultan himself.

Because of Tun Perak’s disapproval, Sultan Mansor Syah had to send the heir apparent and his preference, Raja Muhammad, into exile in Pahang when the latter killed the bendahara’s son, Tun Besar, in a game of sepak raga.

Although ordered by Sultan Mansor Syah to recapture Pasai and despite being capable of fulfilling the command, Tun Perak stayed adamant not to execute the order.

He had Malacca in mind, as he later revealed to the sultan that he had ample evidence that the candidate favored by the sultan was a traitor who would not be loyal to Malacca.

Tun Perak died in 1498 and succeeded by his brother Tun Putih.
Tun Perak of Malacca