The headstone of Shaikh Muhammad Saleh (1916)

It is believed that Nakhoda Nan Intan founded Batu Uban in 1734. It is unclear whether Nakhoda Nan Intan was the same Malay captain who failed to complete the mission assigned to him by Tunku Raden Muhammad (MS 40320/7, f.105). If Nakhoda Nan Intan is indeed Nakhoda Pu Intan, then the Nakhoda who founded Batu Uban would have been a contemporary of the English captain and spoke to him at least once.

The site of Dato Keramat appears on a map issued in Singapore to accompany the Singapore and Malayan Directory (1933). It is located at the first quadrant formed by the junction of Dato Keramat Road and Perak Road. The site was then occupied by a police station, which remains in operation today. This location may mark one of the earliest settlements in Penang (circa 1705), if a description recorded by Saunders (1885) from a Penang Land Office survey register of 1795 is correct. The entry reads: No. 571. Datoh Kramat Burying Ground. Garden Ground. Measuring on the East and West sides, three orlongs. On the North and South sides, four orlongs and a half; Containing in all thirteen orlongs and a half. This ground was cleared by the Datoh Kramat about ninety years ago, and Maharajistia possesses himself of this ground as being a relation of the Datoh Kramat by descent. The ground is planted with cocoanut trees and fruit trees and many people are buried in it. Noriah et al. (2006, p. 29), however, chose to associate the site with Teluk Jelutong.

It is therefore unreasonable to equate Nakhoda Intan with Shaikh Muhammad Saleh, since Shaikh Muhammad Saleh, the owner of the headstone found in Batu Uban, died in 1916. A rather huge time gap of approximately 130 years exists between him and Francis Light/Nakhoda Intan.

In Captain Walter Alves’s 1763 map, the Watering Place is most likely Ayer Rajah Bay (present-day Gurney Bay), while the settlement marked as ‘A Town here', opposite the area between Prai River and Juru River on the mainland, is probably Kampung Sungai Gelugor. Merican (2014), however, identifies the town as Batu Uban. Yet, if Kampung Sungai Gelugor was indeed founded by Malay fishermen from Sumatra, the absence of a river at Batu Uban makes it a less convincing candidate.

Perhaps a simpler explanation is that modern authors have mistakenly conflated Nakhoda Intan with Nakhoda Pu Saleh bi-fadlillah Malik al-Rahman. The latter is believed to have held high social status in Penang's business community during Light’s administration, as he referred to himself as the Syahbandar of Aceh in a letter (MS40320/3, f.40) addressed to Light. The name was then doubly-fused with Shaikh Saleh Shaikh Ahmad al-Makkawi.

The headstone reads: al-Fatihah al-Shaikh Muhammad Saleh ibn al-Shaikh Ahmad al-Makkawi الفاتحة الشيخ محمد صالح ابن الشيخ أحمد المكاوي. The name of the owner of the maqam is then followed by the calendrical data: fi yawm al-Jumaat Khamsah Jumada al-Awal 1334 sanah في يوم الجمعة خمسة جمادى الأولى ١٣٣۴ سنة. The Gregorian equivalent of the Hijri date of 5 Jumada al-Awal 1334 is 10 March 1916. Curiously Lisan al-Din misread the last digit of the Hijri year as 2 and claimed that the name of the owner is correct but the date was incorrectly marked. 262 Bandar Hilir on the other hand, admitted that the last digit is illegible/unclear to him but he chosed to render the last digit as 3, and proceded to give an incorrect Gregorian year of 1912, and he is of the opinion the owner of the headstone was the grandson of Nakhoda Intan instead of the Nakhoda himself. The last digit is clearly a four written in the Persian style, rather than the Mashriqi form of four commonly used by modern Malays.

1. For instance, see A. M. Merican (2023) The avatar of 1786: Decolonizing the Penang story, Penerbit University Sains Malaysia. The year 1734 is explicity marked on the signboard of a mosque in Batu Uban. It is not known if the number was derived epigraphically or by other means.
   
   
   In Minangkabau, Nan is a pronoun meaning who, which, or that. See Wilkinson (1901), p. 674. Pu is likely a contracted form of Empu, a Javanese honorific used for elders or respected individuals. If the young Nakhoda Intan founded Batu Uban in 1734 and was around 25 years old at the time, he would have been a plausible but unlikely candidate (approximately 80 years old) to be sent by Tunku Raden Muhammad to retrieve the slave boys from Light.
   
   
2. Tunku Raden Muhammad was probably a grandson of Sultan Muhammad Jiwa.
   
   
3. Merican (2014), drawing semi-directly from Stevens (1929), mistakenly asserted that a certain Dato' Jenaton was granted a 50-acre plot of land on the island. In fact, the name cited by Stevens was Maharaja Setia, not Dato' Jenaton (and there is no evidence that we can use to map Dato' Jenaton to Maharaja Setia). Merican (2023) later changed his mind and suggested that Dato' Jenaton was given a 100-acre plot by Sultan Muhammad Jiwa. Furthermore, Merican (2014) partially truncated Mills’s statement (1925, p. 37), giving the impression that Mills had written that ‘Penang was a jungle uninhabited' when he conveniently omitting Mills's qualifying phrase of ‘save a few Malays.' Probably Merican was influenced by Noriah et al. (2006) and he did not consult Mills (1925) directly.
   
   Actually pre-Light Malay occupation of Penang was acknowledged by the British administration. For example, Saunders (1885) tells us, based on an old Register of Surveys made in 1795 (preserved in the Penang Land Office) that Kampung Datoh Keramat was the most ancient settlement in Penang and it was cleared by the Datoh Keramat about 90 years ago (i.e. 1705) and a certain Maharaja Setia inherited the land from Datoh Keramat. Maharaja Setia was again a contemporary of Light and interacted with him many times to discuss infrastructure projects in Penang. In fact, Light noted in his diary on 19 July 1786 that he had received assistance from the island’s inhabitants.
   
   See A. M. Merican (2014) Kedah/Pulau Pinang as the alam rantau Minangkabau: Pre-colonial Malay history from Pagaruyung to Batu Uban, in 23rd International Conference of Historians of Asia 2014 (IAHA2014), 23 - 27 August 2014, Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia. See also F. G. Stevens (1929) A contribution to the early history of Prince of Wales' Island, JMRAS, and C. J. Saunders (1885) Ancient settlement in Penang before British occupation, in Maxwell (1885) Notes and Query, p. 6. Noriah Mohamed, Muhammad Haji Salleh, Mahani Musa, Mohktar Saidin, Ahmad Jelani Halimi, Mohd Isa Othman, Sohaimi Abd. Aziz (2006) Sejarah awal Pulau Pinang, Laporan Hasil Penyelidikan Geran Penyelidikan Jangka Pendek, Universiti Sains Malaysia, p. 24.
   
   
4. Moreover, the presence of the oldest Malay school (circa 1826) in Sungai Gelugor suggests that it was more populous and urbanized than Batu Uban, making it the stronger contender for Alves’s town.
5. Nakhoda Pu Intan was mentioned in an undated Surat tulus ikhlas, berkasih-kasihan, muafakat yang tiada berkesudahan daripada Tunku Raden Muhamad, sampai kepada sahabat beta, Gawarnador Pulau Pinang, yang akil bijaksana, telah masyhur sampai ke mana-mana, dari atas angin dan ke baruh angin kedengaran bahana. Kemudian, dari itu, barang tahu sahabat beta, maka adalah titah yang Dipertuan ke atas jemala beta: suruh beri surat akan sahabat beta, nyatakan budak sahaya Wan Takrif, bernama Mek Banun, lima beranak itu, pulangkan pada Wan Takrif menurut janji Gawarnador hendak pulangkan dengan kebajikan. Maka itulah surat titah itu beta beri pergi pada sahabat beta. Maka minta sahabat beta, serahkan pada Nakhoda Po Intan, budak lima beranak itu, beri mari pada beta ini. Dalam itu, jika sahabat beta hendak bayar harganya, dua ratus rial, serahkan pada Nakhoda Pu Intan ini bawa. Inilah beta nyatakan pada sahabat beta. Tamat al-Kalam.demand letter written by Tunku Raden Muhammad to Francis Light (MS 40320/7, f.105). The Tunku demanded that Light return five slave boys and hand them to the Nakhoda Pu Intan or buy them at a price of 200 rials.
   
   It is likely the Light did not give the slave boys to Nakhoda Pu Intan, since Surat tulus ikhlas, berkasih-kasihan, muafakat yang tiada berkesudahan, selagi ada cakerawala, matahari dan bulan, kepada pihak bersahabat, handai, dan taulan, daripada Tengku Raden Muhamad, mari sampai kepada sahabat beta, Gawarnador Pulau Pinang, yang akil bijaksana, telah masyhur sampai ke mana-mana, dari atas angin dan ke bawah angin, kedengaran bahana pada perintah kebajikan kedua pihaknya dengan sempurna. Kemudian dari itu, barang tahu sahabat beta, ahwal akan surat kertas daripada sahabat beta, dibawak Nakhoda Pu Intan ini, telah sampailah kepada beta bersama surat ikrar Mak Banun itu. Maka itulah surat ikrar Sayid, anak Seri Raja Khan. Beta suruh bawak kenyataan Wan Takrif tebus Mak Banun itu, anak beranak, kepada Sayid, diserahkan kepada Lebai Ngah sampaikan kepada sahabat beta.
   Maka perintah sahabat beta itu sudah beta tahu, tiada menilik pada orang kaya dan miskin, sama adanya, yang telah sudah sahabat beta perintahkan di Pulau Pinang itu, jalan sebenarnya juga diturut, jadilah beta harap ikhlas sudah tatkala sudah fikirannya itu. Maka minta sahabat beta, serah Mak Banun, anak beranak itu, pada Lebai Ngah ini, boleh dibawaknya mari sampai pada beta, dengan tulus ikhlas yang sudi adanya, dari karena nyata diketahui am dan khas. Banun, anak beranak itu, ditebus Wan Takrif, tuannya pun ada maujut. Maka sahabat beta pun faham, tiadalah siapa orang mau mengatakan dirinya itu jahat, melainkan baik juga dirinya itu. Intaha al-kalam. Tamat.second demand letter was carried by Lebai Ngah to Penang (MS40320/3, f.58):
   
   
6. The only calendrical data related to the slave retrievement missions can be found in MS 40320/9, f.110. The date was Sunday, 15 Zulkaedah (unknown year). Probable Gregorian solutions are: 16 June 1794, 23 June 1793, 25 July 1790, 17 August 1788, etc.
   
   
7. Nakhoda Bayan delivered a letter from Penang to Perak and he was mentioned in a letter (MS 40320/11, f.34) written by Sultan Alauddin Mansur Shah Iskandar Muda Khalifah al-Rahim (r. 1773 - 1792), the Sultan of Perak, on 19 Zulhijjah 1202 (Saturday, 20 September 1788). Nakhoda Kecil was mentioned in a letter (MS 40320/5, f.24) written by the Bendahara of Kedah on 27 Muharram 1204 (Saturday, 17 October 1789). A Malay captain named Nakhoda Pu Saleh was mentioned in MS 40320/4, f.9 & f.10 and MS40320/3, f.40. Only Nakhoda Kecil is mentioned by Light in his diary on 23 July 1786. The Malay captain was employed to maintain civil order among the Malay tree fellers, who were paid one rial for every four trees they cut.