Transition of power from Mahmud III to his two sons
One of the job of history is to piece together pieces of data in the past.
For instance, consider the following events in the Johor-Riau-Lingga-Pahang kingdom in 1811.
- Temenggong Abd al-Rahman (d. 1825) and his family relocated to Singapore from his home base in Riau.
- Tengku Husain (d. 1835) was in Pahang, as he was asked by his father to marry the daughter of Tun Ali (d. 1858).
- On January 15, Mahmud III (r. 1761 - 1811) died suddenly. Tengku Husain was bypassed and his half-brother Abd al-Rahman (d. 1832) was installed by Raja Ja‘far (d. 1864) in Lingga.
Now one way to weave the aforementioned materials in a coherent way is:
In 1811, the grandfather of Sultan Abu Bakar, Temenggong Abd al-Rahman, decided to move When Raffles came to Singapore, he asked Che Salleh who was the raja and Che Salleh took him that evening to Temenggong Abd al-Rahman. Raffles wanted to enthrone him but the Temenggong sent Che Engku Yahya to Che Abu Puteh to invite Tengku Husain to come to Singapore to fish. Raffles installed Husain as Sultan. Temenggong Abd al-Rahman wrote to Bendahari Ali in Pahang, who replied that he would continue his allegiance to Daik and not recognise Singapore (see R. O. Winstedt (1933) Abdul-Jalil, Sultan of Johore (1699 - 1719), Abdul-Jamal, Tememggong (ca. 1750) and Raffles's Founding of Singapore, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 2(117), p. 165)
The story of Singapore and Raffles could be very different if the 1811 migration did not take place.from Bulaŋ to Singapore. This migration of a band of about a hundred Malays was prompted by shifts and uncertainties in political landscape in Riau after the death of Sultan Mahmud III in January. 1811 is a critical year in Malay history because it marks the beginning of the end of an old empire.
However, the validity of this deduction immediately becomes questionable if a wrong date of death is employed. For example, in Ahmad F. Y. and Zam I (2002) Sejarah adat istiadat Kesultanan Johor (1529 - 1855), Yayasan Warisan Johor.Ahmad Fadzli Yassin and Zam Ismail (2002), we have:
. . . Pada tahun 1811 Temenggung Seri Maharaja Abdul Rahman, anak isteri serta pengikutnya, kira-kira 150 orang pindah dari Bulang ke Singapura. Pada 12 Januari 1812, Sultan Mahmud Syah III mangkat di Lingga . . .
Here, we see that the sequence of the two events are reversed and they are deemed independent of each other, and the causality we established earlier is completely destroyed.
Propagation of calendrical errors in Malay history
Dates are tricky. But Malay dates are trickier.
The date cited by Ahmad F. Y. and Zam I. is first made available in See R. O. Winstedt (1932) A History of Johore (1365 - 1895), JMBRAS 10(3), p. 73.
Actually P. J. Begbie (1804 - 1864) was the first person to comment on the death of Mahmud III in the English-language literature, but he gave only the year, as 1810.
Note that Begbie's publication is about 30 years earlier than that of Tuhfat al-Nafis. Unfortunately, Begbie's value was incorrect.1932 by R. O. Winstedt, who wrote:
On 12 January 1812 Sultan Mahmud Shah died at Lingga, leaving the succession ot his throne unsettled and actual power in the hands of Yamtuan Muda Ja‘far.
The source of Winstedt's date is unknown but it was almostly universally cited by most authors. Notable exceptions are Tengku Alam (1877), Dartford (1963), Ahmat (1971), Gallop (1994), and Buyers. And we can call them Camp A, Camp B, and Camp C.
| Camp | Year | Authors | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1810 is obviously incorrect since Mahmud III was still able to issue a letter to Raffles (on 9 Zulhijah 1225 | 5 January 1811). | |||
| B | 1811 | Ahmat. A, A. Gallop, C. Buyers | 1811 is consistent with Tuhfat al-Nafis (Manuscripts B, C, D, E) |
| C | 1812 | 1812 is not consistent with Tuhfat al-Nafis (Manuscripts B, C, D, E), but consistent with Manuscript A. |
Camp A is wrong
Camp A is apparently incorrect since Sultan Mahmud III was able to write a letter to Raffles on 9 Zulhijah 1225 (or 5 January 1811). The date was made available in 1970/1971 when the 30-year-old Ahmat A. was asked by John Bastin to study the ‘lost' Raffles letters when he was at SOAS. The date was again made available to the general public in 2009 by Ahmat A. when ‘Letters of Sincerity' was published by MBRAS. When these lost Malay letters were first discovered in 1970, John Bastin was overjoyed:
. . . but after he informed me on 24 October 1970 of a number of interesting discoveries he had made while sorting his parents' possessions, including ‘more treasure trove' relating to Raffles and Lady Raffles, I immediately arranged to visit ‘Inshriach', which I found in the throes of being cleared of furniture and unwanted household items preparatory to its sale. During the afternoon of the second day of my visit, Mr Drake casually placed before me an old green-velvet covered document case which, he said, he had found in the attic, and which, as it had once belonged to Raffles, might contain some items of interest. I can still remember the excitement I felt on opening the box and finding beneath other papers three neatly bound bundles of Malay letters written in Jawi script, some of them still in their original yellow silk covers, apparently unopened for a century and a half . . .
As we shall see later, these Malay letters are very important as they contain critical calendrical data to help us narrow down the possible values for the date of death of Mahmud III.
Camp C: Based on Tuhfat al-Nafis?
It is likely Winstedt got his date from Tuhfat al-Nafis. If this is the case, we should be able to reverse-engineer his value back to a corresponding date in Islamic calendar. And this is where we encounter a small problem. Winstedt's date is a Sunday and its Islamic approximation is (27 ± 1) Zulhijah 1226 AH (t = 1226, b = 12, h = 27 ± 1), which is clearly not in sync with the data given in Tuhfat al-Nafis.
$$\require{cancel} \cancel{\stackrel{\textrm{12 January 1812 (Winstedt)}}{\rm Sunday}} = \begin{cases}\stackrel{\textrm{26 Zulhijah 1226}}{}\\ \stackrel{\textrm{27 Zulhijah 1226}}{} \\ \stackrel{\textrm{28 Zulhijah 1226}}{} \end{cases}$$Suppose we adjust Winstedt's value by replacing 1812 with 1811 (e.g. Buyers). This way, we surprisingly obtained 17 Zulhijah 1225, which is one day off from the value mentioned in Tuhfat al-Nafis.
$$\cancel{\stackrel{\textrm{12 January 1811 (Buyers)}}{\rm Saturday}} = \begin{cases}\stackrel{\textrm{15 Zulhijah 1225}}{}\\ \stackrel{\textrm{16 Zulhijah 1225}}{} \\ \color{brown}{\stackrel{\textrm{17 Zulhijah 1225}}{}} \end{cases}$$| Camp | Year | Author |
|---|---|---|
| A | 1810 | P. J. P. J. Begbie (1834) Malayan Peninsula, Vepery Mission Press, p. 286.Begbie (1834) |
| A | 1810 | Letter (dated 26 November 1877) from Tengku Alam to Henry Herbert (In office: 6 August 1877 - 29 June 1890), the then newly appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies. See C. O. 273/92, Claims of Tengku Allum to the Moar Succession, W. F. Robinson to The Earl of Carnarvon, 5 December 1877Tengku Alam (1877) |
| C | 1812 | R. O. R. O. Winstedt (1932) A history of Johor, JMBRAS 10(3), p. 73.Winstedt (1932) |
| A | 1810 | P. G. P. G. Dartford (1963) A short history of Malaya, Longmans, Singapore, p. 100.Dartford (1963) |
| C | 1812 | K. G. K. G. Tregonning (1964) A history of modern Malaya, Eastern University Press, Singapore, p. 100.Tregonning (1964) |
| C | 1812 | N. J. N. J. Ryan (1965) The making of modern Malaysia and Singapore, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, p. 88.Ryan (1965) |
| C | 1812 | J. J. Kennedy (1967) A history of Malaya, Macmillan & Co, Kuala Lumpur, p. 92.Kennedy (1967) |
| C | 1812 | C. A. C. A. Trocki (1979) Prince of Pirates, Singapore University Press, Singapore, p. 28.Trocki (1979) |
| C | 1812 | Abdullah Zakaria Ghazali (1984) Persaingan di antara Sultan dengan keluarga Temenggung di Johor 1835-1885, PhD Thesis, University of Malaya. See also Abdullah Zakaria Ghazali (1997) Istana dan Politik Johor, Yayasan Penataran Ilmu, Kuala Lumpur.Abdullah Zakaria G. (1984) |
| C | 1812 | Ahmad Fawzi Basri (1988) Johor (1855 - 1917) Pentadbiran dan Perkembangannya, Penerbit Fajar Bakti, Petaling Jaya, p. 7 (See Note 50: Ahmad Fawzi was aware of the difference between the year of death listed by Begbie and Winstedt, but he quoted Winstedt's value in his work)Ahmad Fawzi Basri (1988) |
| B | 1811 | A. T. A. T. Gallop (1994) Warisan Warkah Melayu, The British Library (for The National Archives of Malaysia), London. See p. 189, Footnote 65. Gallop (1994) |
| B | 1811 | Ahmat A. (1971) A descriptive account of the Malay letters sent to Thomas Stamford Raffles in Malacca in 1810 and 1811 by the rulers of the indigenous states of the Malay archipelago, M. A. Thesis, SOAS, University of London. See also Ahmat A. (2009) Letters of Sincerity. The Raffles collection of Malay letters (1780 - 1824). A descriptive account with notes and translation, Malaysian Branch of Royal Asiatic Society, Kuala Lumpur, p. 121; Ahmat A (2016) Antara Sejarah dan Mitos, SIRD, Petaling Jaya, p. 25.Ahmat A. (2009) |
| C | 1812 | B. W. Andaya, L. B. W. Andaya, L. Andaya (2017) A history of Malaysia (3rd ed), Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 119.Andaya (2017) |
Camp B and the internal inconsistency in Tuhfat al-Nafis
Syahadan kata sahib al-hikayat tiada berapa (lamanya dan tiada berapa) antaranya, iaitu pada Hijrah sanah 1225, pada lima belas (15) hari bulan Zulhijah (12) hari Khamis (5) jam pukul dua belas (12), maka Baginda Sultan Mahmud pun memanggil (paduka adinda bagindanya) Yang Dipertuan Muda Raja Ja‘far . . . Syahadan kata sahib al-tawarikh maka apabila sampailah belas hari bulan Zulhijah pada malam Selasa (3) waktu subuh, maka mangkatlah Baginda Sultan Mahmud kembalidaripada negeri yang fana ke negeri yang baqa,qalu (’inna li-llahi wa ’inna ilaihi raji‘un , | iaitu pada Hijrah al-Nabi sallal lahu alaihi wasallam sanah1226 ).
There are actually two pieces of calendrical data related to Mahmud III's passing in Tuhfat al-Nafis.
- Raja Ja‘far was summoned and Mahmud III decreed that his throne was to be passed to Si Komeng (Abd al-Rahman). A suspicously precise datetime was given: Khamis, 15 Zulhijah 1225, 12 o'clock.
- The death of Mahmud III was announced several paragraphs later. The data was only given partially in Manuscripts B, C, D, E: Selasa, 18 Zulhijah, Subuh. In the shorter Manuscript A, Hooker tells us that the year data was supplied as 1226.
We did a couple of permutations and it becomes clear that only 18 Zulhijah 1225 is able meet the ‘Selesa' constraint and its Gregorian equivalent must be 15 January 1881.
$$\stackrel{\textrm{18 Zulhijah (1225)}}{\rm Selesa} = \begin{cases}\stackrel{\textrm{13 January 1811 (Sun)}}{}\\ \stackrel{\textrm{14 January 1811 (Mon)}}{} \\ \color{brown}{\stackrel{\textrm{15 January 1811 (Tue)}}{}} \end{cases}$$ $$ \cancel{\stackrel{\textrm{18 Zulhijah (1226)}}{{\rm Selesa}}} = \begin{cases}\stackrel{\textrm{2 January 1812 (Thu)}}{}\\ \stackrel{\textrm{3 January 1812 (Fri)}}{} \\ \stackrel{\textrm{4 January 1812 (Sat)}}{} \end{cases}$$ $$\cancel{\stackrel{\textrm{12 Zulhijah (1226)}}{\rm Selesa}} = \begin{cases}\stackrel{\textrm{27 December 1811 (Fri)}}{}\\ \stackrel{\textrm{28 December 1811 (Sat)}}{} \\ \stackrel{\textrm{29 December 1811 (Sun)}}{} \end{cases}$$Actually, 15 January 1881 is also the value deduced by Ahmat Adam (2009). Here, the arithmetically-correct Gregorian date of 14 January (first supplied by Gallop in 1994) must be rejected in order to meet the ‘Selesa' constraint stipulated in Tuhfat al-Nafis, since 14 January 1811 was a Monday. Note that 15 January 1811 is equivalent to (19 ± 1) Zulhijah 1225.
| Manu- script | Wasiat date | Mangkat date | Parent manuscript is dated on | Copied on | Copied in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies Library, KITLV Or. 69\(t_{\rm A}\) | 15 Zulhijah 1225 | 18 Zulhijah 1226 | 17 Rajab 1283 | 8 Syaban 1313 | Penyengat |
| Royal Asiatic Society Library, Maxwell 2\(t_{\rm B}\) | 15 Zulhijah 1225 | 12 Zulhijah (?) | 17 Rajab 1282 | 15 Rajab 1307 | Klang |
| A lost copy once owned by Tengku Fatimah of Johor\(t_{\rm C}\) | 15 Zulhijah 1225 | 18 Zulhijah (?) | ? | 19 Jamadilawal 1342 | ? |
| Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Library, MS 87\(t_{\rm D}\) | 15 Zulhijah 1225 | 18 Zulhijah (?) | 17 Rajab 1283 (Ahad) | ? | ? |
| University of Leiden Library, Cod. Or. 8545\(t_{\rm E}\) | 15 Zulhijah 1225 | 18 Zulhijah (?) | ? | 13 Rajab 1283 (Ahad) | ? |
| Istana Syarqiyyah, Terengganu\(t_{\rm T}\) | 15 Zulhijah 1225 | 18 Zulhijah 122(?) | ? | ? | ? |
Additional evidence in Malay letters and seals
We have reasons to believe that Abd al-Rahman was installed very hastily by Raja Ja‘far after Mahmud III died in 15 January 1811. This can be inferred directly from the data marked in his seal since Jumaat 1225 in the seal can only mean 18 or 25 January 1811.
$$\stackrel{\textrm{Inception of Abd al-Rahman's reign}}{\textrm{Jumaat 1225}} = \begin{cases}\stackrel{\textrm{18 January 1811 (Fri)}}{} \\ \stackrel{\textrm{25 January 1811 (Fri)}}{} \end{cases}$$
Also, the fact that Abd al-Rahman was referenced as the new Sultan in a letter written by the Shahbandar of Lingga to Raffles on April 1811 (see Ahmat A. 2009) again shows that Winstedt's value of 1812 cannot be true.
Earlier, we know that Tuhfat al-Nafis is internally inconsistent since Khamis and Selasa are gapped by 4 days but 15 Zulhijah and 18 Zulhijah was only gapped by 2 days. However, without external data, there is no way for us to tell which of them is incorrect. Fortunately, we can use the day-of-week calibration data in the following three Raffles letters
- Mahmud III to Raffles (9 Zulhijah 1225)
- Engku Sayid M. Zain of Lingga to Raffles (10 Zulhijah 1225)
- Tunku Pangeran of Lingga to Raffles (12 Zulhijah 1225)
to show that 15 Zulhijah 1225 had to be a Khamis, a fact that is correctly given in Tuhfat al-Nafis. Now if the ‘Selesa' constraint is to be biasly given more weightage, Raja Haji must have erred when he wrote 18 Zulhijah was a Selesa. 20 Zulhijah 1225 (= 15 January 1811) is the date that is more consistent with the Raffles's letters. Here our correction affects on the Islamic date, since our proposed Gregorian solution (15 January) is a ‘Selasa'.
| Day | Y | M | D | . | t | b | Probable value of h | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jumaat | 1811 | 01 | 05 | . | 1225 | 12 | 07, 08, 09 | Mahmud III to Raffles. Ahmat A. (2009), p. 126. |
| Sabtu | 1811 | 01 | 06 | . | 1225 | 12 | 08, 09, 10 | Engku Sayid M. Zain of Lingga to Raffles. Ahmat A. (2009), p. Tersurat kepada sepuluh haribulan Zulhijah hari Ahad, waktu jam pukul sembilan, bertarikh 1225 sanah.129. |
| Ahad | 1811 | 01 | 06 | . | 1225 | 12 | 09, 10, 11 | |
| Isnin | 1811 | 01 | 07 | . | 1225 | 12 | 10, 11, 12 | Tunku Pangeran of Lingga to Raffles. Ahmat A. (2009). p. Kita maklumkah warkah ini kepada dua belas haribulan Haji, pada jam pukul satu termaktub 1225 sanah.134. |
| Selasa | 1811 | 01 | 08 | . | 1225 | 12 | 11, 12, 13 | |
| Rabu | 1811 | 01 | 09 | . | 1225 | 12 | 12, 13, 14 | |
| Khamis | 1811 | 01 | 10 | . | 1225 | 12 | 13, 14, 15 | V. M. Hooker (1998), p. 326 |
| Jumaat | 1811 | 01 | 11 | . | 1225 | 12 | 14, 15, 16 | |
| Sabtu | 1811 | 01 | 12 | . | 1225 | 12 | 15, 16, 17 | Winstedt meant 1225 but 1226 was printed? Christopher Buyers gives the date as 12 January 1811. Did Buyers retain Winstedt day/month data but switch the year from 1812 to 1811? |
| Ahad | 1811 | 01 | 13 | . | 1225 | 12 | 16, 17, 18 | |
| Isnin | 1811 | 01 | 14 | . | 1225 | 12 | 17, 18, 19 | Gallop (1994), p. 189, Sultan Mahmud Syah died just a week later, on 14 January 1811. In a letter to Raffles written on 8 January (actually 12 Zulhijah 1225), the Tengku Pengiran reported ‘Concerning that one letter I did not show it to Sultan Mahmud since I did not meet him [again]' (Ahmat 1971: Appendix, p.8). However, in the same letter the Tengku Pengiran reports that Raffles's Palembang agent Radin Muhammad, who was then in Lingga, had been spreading rumours about the secret mission to Java and so all the chiefs knew of the matter, and indeed Engku Sayid refers to it in his letter to Raffles (185).Footnote 65. |
| Selasa | 1811 | 01 | 15 | . | 1225 | 12 | 18, 19, 20 | V. M. Hooker (1998), p. 327, Ahmat A. (2009), p. 122. |
| Rabu | 1811 | 01 | 16 | . | 1225 | 12 | 19, 20, 21 | |
| Khamis | 1811 | 01 | 17 | . | 1225 | 12 | 20, 21, 22 | |
| Jumaat | 1811 | 01 | 18 | . | 1225 | 12 | 21, 22, 23 | Inception of Abd al-Rahman's reign? |
| Sabtu | 1811 | 01 | 19 | . | 1225 | 12 | 22, 23, 24 | |
| Ahad | 1811 | 01 | 20 | . | 1225 | 12 | 23, 24, 25 | |
| Isnin | 1811 | 01 | 21 | . | 1225 | 12 | 24, 25, 26 | |
| Selesa | 1811 | 01 | 22 | . | 1225 | 12 | 25, 26, 27 | |
| Rabu | 1811 | 01 | 23 | . | 1225 | 12 | 26, 27, 28 | |
| Khamis | 1811 | 01 | 24 | . | 1225 | 12 | 27, 28, 29 | |
| Jumaat | 1811 | 01 | 25 | . | 1225 | 12 | 28, 29, 30 | Inception of Abd al-Rahman's reign? |
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | |
| Selasa | 1811 | 04 | 30 | . | 1226 | 04 | 5, 6, 7 | Abd al-Rahman was referenced as the new king. Shahbandar of Lingga to Raffles. See Ahmat A. (2009), p. 136 |
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | |
| Sabtu | 1811 | 12 | 28 | . | 1226 | 12 | 11, 12, 13 | |
| Ahad | 1811 | 12 | 29 | . | 1226 | 12 | 12, 13, 14 | |
| Isnin | 1811 | 12 | 30 | . | 1226 | 12 | 13, 14, 15 | |
| Selasa | 1811 | 12 | 31 | . | 1226 | 12 | 14, 15, 16 | |
| Rabu | 1812 | 01 | 01 | . | 1226 | 12 | 15, 16, 17 | |
| Khamis | 1812 | 01 | 02 | . | 1226 | 12 | 16, 17, 18 | |
| Jumaat | 1812 | 01 | 03 | . | 1226 | 12 | 17, 18, 19 | |
| Sabtu | 1812 | 01 | 04 | . | 1226 | 12 | 18, 19, 20 | |
| Ahad | 1812 | 01 | 05 | . | 1226 | 12 | 19, 20, 21 | |
| Isnin | 1812 | 01 | 06 | . | 1226 | 12 | 20, 21, 22 | |
| Selasa | 1812 | 01 | 07 | . | 1226 | 12 | 21, 22, 23 | |
| Rabu | 1812 | 01 | 08 | . | 1226 | 12 | 22, 23, 24 | |
| Khamis | 1812 | 01 | 09 | . | 1226 | 12 | 23, 24, 25 | |
| Jumaat | 1812 | 01 | 10 | . | 1226 | 12 | 24, 25, 26 | |
| Sabtu | 1812 | 01 | 11 | . | 1226 | 12 | 25, 26, 27 | |
| Ahad | 1812 | 01 | 12 | . | 1226 | 12 | 26, 27, 28 | R. O. Winstedt (1932), p. 73 |
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