L I S T OF THE MAHOMEDAN SOVEREIGNS OF BRUNI, OR BORNEO PROPER Hugh Low

L I S T

OF THE

MAHOMEDAN SOVEREIGNS

OF

BRUNI, OR BORNEO PROPER

Hugh Low

No. 1.—Sultan Mahomed, who introduced the religion of Islam.

No. 2.—Sultan Akhmed, the brother of Sultan Mahomed. He married the daughter or sister of Sum Ping, a Chinese chief who had come down to Borneo, by order of the Emperor of China, to seek for the jewel which was in the possession of the dragon of China Balu. He went with his daughter on her marriage to Sultan Akhmed from China Batangan to Bruni, taking all his people with him, and there built the bar of stones at the mouth of the river and the Kota Batu at the residence of the Sultans. Sultan Akhmed had a daughter by his Chinese wife who was married to

No. 3.—Sultan Berkat, who had come from the county of Taif, in Arabia, and who was a descendant of the prophet through his grandson Husin ; he enforced the observance of the religion of Islam and the laws of the Mahomedans, and built a mosque.

No. 4.—Sultan Suleiman, son of the Berkat. He carried on his father's policy of propagandise and strict observance of religious rites and duties. He was succeeded by his son

No. 5.—Sultan Bulkeiah,* called Nakoda Ragam, on account of his numerous caprices. He seems to have been a person of great activity and intelligence, made many voyages to Java, Malacca, Johor. and other places, and conquered the countries of Soolook and Luzon. He married Lela Men Chanei, the daughter of the Batara, or King, of Soolook, and was succeeded by his son

* Pigafetta's visit to Borneo, which took place in 1521; was probably towards the end of the reign of Bulkeiah.

No. 6.—Sultan Abdul Kahar, called Merhoum Kramat, from the popular tradition of his phantom having appeared on horseback, after his demise, at the head of the armies of Bruni on one of the two occasions of the city being attacked by the Spaniards in the reign of his son in 1577 and 1580. Abdul Kahar had forty-two sons, of whom

No. 7.—Sultan Saif-ul-Rejal succeeded him. Two of his brothers were : the Bendahara Sari, whose mother was a Javanese Princess; and the Bendahara Raja Sakam, whose mother was a Bajau Princess, through whom he inherited great possessions in the Bajau countries as far as Luzon. He was of a very arbitrary and licentious character, but resolute and brave. The Spaniards, at the instigation of two Pangirans—Sri Lela and Sri Retna—attacked Bruni on two occasions, and took it on the second in 1580. During the troubles the Sultan with all the Court retired to Suei, a river to the westward of Baram, leaving Raja Sakam as Regent to defend Bruni, which he seems to have done gallantly, and finally to have forced the Spaniards to retire. After this he brought his brother the Sultan back to Bruni, and himself conducted an expedition to Belahit, to which river the Pangirans Sri Lela and Sri Retna had retired ; there they were slain, and the Bendahara returned to Bruni to support the  Government of his brother. The troubles of this reign were probably owing to the licentious disposition of Raja Sakam, who is said to have taken all the most beautiful of the daughters of the Nobles for his wives and concubines, and it was his carrying away the daughter of one of them, for such a purpose, from her father's house on her wedding day, that drove Sri Lela and Sri Retna, who appear to have been sons of the former Sultan and half-brothers to Saiful-Rejal and the Bendahara, into rebellion. Sultan Saiful- Rejal had two daughters, and afterwards two sons by his wife, and other children by concubines. The eldest Princess was an idiot ; the second was the Raja di Misjid, who settled her property (Bajau) on Raja Tuah, the daughter of her youngest brother, Sultan Hasan ; these bequests became the nucleus of the wealth of her family—-the Pulau Rajas. The eldest son of Saiful-Rejal was

No. 8.—Sultan Shah Bruni, who succeeded his father, but, having no children, and after a reign of some years, having no hope of lineal succession, abdicated in favour of his brother, Sultan Hasan. During this and the following reigns many very large brass cannon were cast in Bruni. A son of the Sultan Saif-ul- Rejal by a concubine, who was made Pangiran Temenggong Mahomed by his brother Sultan Hasan, was the chief superintendent of the foundries.

No. 9.—Sultan Hasan, brother of Shah Bruni. He is described in the Bornean traditions as the most arbitrary, powerful and magnificent of the sovereigns of Borneo. He is called the Merhoum di Tanjong, from his palace and his tomb both having been at Tanjong Cheindana, the point of land behind Pulau Chermin, at the entrance of the Borneo river. He is said to have consolidated the provinces of the kingdom, and to have completed the conquest of such as were not previously thoroughly subdued. He fortified Pulau Chermin, and had a bridge constructed by which he could pass from his palace to the fort ; elephants were in use for State purposes, and the etiquette of the Court was modelled on that of the Sultan of Achin, Mahkota Alam. He married four Princesses, and had many concubines, and his palace was full of female servants. The eldest of his brothers by a concubine he made the Pangiran Temenggong Mahomed ; the second brother was the Pangiran di Gedong Bruni, notorious for the cruelties he inflicted as punishments ; the third brother of the Sultan by a concubine was the Pangiran Shahbandar Abdullah: all of them left children. The Sultan Hasan was the first sovereign who established four great Officers of State, the number having been formerly confined to two—the Bendahara and the Temenggong ; to these he added the di Gedong and the Pemansha. The only legitimate sons of Sultan Hasan, whom I can trace, are the Sultan Abdul Jalil-ul-Akbar and the Sultan Mahomet Ali ; the two legitimate (laughters I find mentioned are the Raja Siti Nur Alam, who inherited from "Raja Retna, her aunt, and the Pangiran Tuah, who is said also to have been very rich.

No. 10.—Sultan Abdul Jalil-ul-Akbar, son of Sultan Hasan. He was called the Merhoum Tuah, so that he was probably the eldest son. He was succeeded by

No. 11.— His son Abdul Jalil-ul-Jebar. His father had a son by his first wife, who was called Raja Besar Abdul. The short record of the Borneo Princes, obtained at Soolook by Dalrymple, reckons this Prince as one of the sovereigns of Borneo in the place in which the name of his son, Sultan Nasr-Addin, should have been inserted. Abdul was killed at Labuan by order of his brother Abdul Jalil-ul-Jebar, but there would seem to have been a civil war before this event, as the Pangiran Maharaja Lela, the son of the Pangiran di Gedong Besar, a son of Sultan Hasan by one of his concubines, and consequently a cousin of Raja Abdul, is said in the Selesilah to have been extremely courageous and enterprising, and that it was he who was able to fight against the son of the Merhoum Tuah, the Pangiran Besar Abdul. The Sultan Abdul Jalil-ul-Jebar was the second son of the second wife of his father. This lady was a Javanese Princess, named Siti Kaisa, He had been called Pangiran Tingah, and is known as Merhoum Tingah, from his being the second of the three children of his mother, the eldest having been a son named Omar and the youngest a daughter, who had no family. The Sultan Abdul Jalil-ul-Jebar had also a third wife and family, consisting of Sultan Muaddin, another son Pangiran di Gedong Damit, and several daughters. The eldest son of Abdul Jalil-ul-Jebar was named Amat, and he died at Kemanis for want of a supply of opium, and is buried there.

No. 12.—Sultan Mahomet Ali, a son of Sultan Hasan and brother of Merhoum Tuah, succeeded his nephew Abdul Jalil-ul- Jebar. The son of the Sultan Mahomet Ali was the Pangiran di Gedong Omar. His manners were so insolent, that the Nobles and people, headed by the Raja Bendahara Abdul Mubin, who was a grandson of Sultan Hasan through one of his daughters, requested the removal of the obnoxious "Wazir ; his father consented, and his house was attacked by the Bendahara. The di Gedong fled to his father's palace, which was burnt, and all the males of the royal family, except two infants named Hasan and Husin, were put to death by being garotted in the garden. This occurred on the evening of Sunday ( Malam Isnein ), the 14th Rabi al Ahkir, a.h. 1072. The Sultan Mahomet Ali is hence called Merhoum Tumbang di Rumput. The two infants were protected by their brother-in-law, Pangiran Bongsu, and the government was seized by the Bendahara, who reigned under the title of

No. 13.—Sultan Abdul Mubin. He is called the Merhoum di Pulau from his having lived at Pulau Chermin, and having been executed and buried there. The people of Bruni with the Kedeians, headed by the Pangiran Bongsu, who had been made Bendahara by the usurper, after some time rebelled against the Sultan Abdul Mubin. For greater security, he had fortified Pulau Chermin, and its situation enabling him to cut off all communication between the sea and the town, he removed to the island and carried on the war from there. Treaties of peace were on several occasions concluded, but always broken by the Pangiran Bongsu ( who had assumed the title of Sultan Muaddin), as soon as his resources were recruited. The war lasted about twelve years, during a great part of which time Abdul Mubin had been living at Kinarut, and four Pangirans Temenggongs had been killed in attacking him from Bruni. He finally returned to Chermin, under a treaty which his rival had sworn on the Koran to observe, but which was immediately broken. By the assistance of a force from the Sultan of Soolook, the forts on the island were captured, and the Sultan taken and krissed at his own desire, instead of dying by being strangled in the customary manner. The Sultan Abdul Mubin was the third son of Pangiran Tuah, the second daughter of Sultan Hasan by her husband the Pangiran (afterwards Bendahara) Mahomed, the Raja of the Kampong Pandei Kawat, so that he was the nephew of the sovereign whose throne he had usurped, and whose life he had taken.

No. 14.—Sultan Muaddin was the fourth son of the Sultan Abdul Jalil-ul-Akbar, and after death was called Merhoum Bongsu. He was the nephew and son-in-law of Sultan Mahomet Ali, Merhoum Tumbang di Rumput.

No. 15.—Sultan Nasr-Addin, known in history as Merhoum di Changei, was the son of Pangiran Besar Abdul, the eldest son of the Sultan Abdul Jalil-ul-Akbar by his first marriage. He succeeded Sultan Muaddin.

No. 16.—Sultan Kemal-Addin was the next sovereign and the younger of the two infant sons of the Sultan Mahomet Ali, who had been spared from the massacre of his father and brothers. He is called the Merhoum di Lobah, and abdicated in favour of his son-in-law.

No. 17.—Sultan Mahomed Ali-Uddin, in whom the claims of the various branches of the royal family are recorded to have met, was the son of the Pangiran di Gedong Shah Bubin, the son of Sultan Muaddin. His mother was the sister of the Raja Tuah Abdul Mumin Amir-ul-Wazir, son of the Bendahara Untong, son of the Raja Ahmet, eldest son of Sultan Jalil-ul-Akbar, the eldest son of Sultan Hasan. Sultan Mahomed Ali-Uddin, who is known as the Merhoum di Bruni, and was called also Raja Apong, died before his father-in law and great uncle, the Merhoum di Lobah, who again ascended the throne. He was succeeded by

No. 18.—Sultan Omar Ali Saif-uddin, the son of Sultan Mahomed Ali-Uddin, must have become Sultan at a very early age. He is recorded by Dalrymple to have reigned in a.d. 1762, and the date of his death, as stated in his tomb in Bruni, is the 22 Zul Haji, a.h. 1209, corresponding with 10th July, a.d. 1795 Sultan Omar Ali Saif-uddin married Raja Putri, daughter of the Sultan Kemal-addin, Merhoum di Lobah, and had by her the Sultan Mahomed Tej-Waldin. When this Princess died the Sultan married her sister Raja Nur Alam, who was the mother of Sultan Mahomed Khan Zul-Alam. His third wife was the Pangiran Istri Bongsu, also a daughter of Merhoum di Lobah, and widow of Pangiran Pa-Mancha Kassim, who was by her the father of Pangiran Sa Lia.

No. 19.—Sultan Mahomed Tej-Waldin succeeded his father Sultan Omar Alt Saif-uddin. The date of his death is the 2nd Zul Haji, a.h. 1221=14th February, a.d. 1807.

No. 20.—Sultan Mahomed Tej-Waldin resigned in favour of his son, the Sultan Jemal-ul-Alam, who died during the lifetime of his father, on the 9th Shahban, a.h. 1210=18th February, 1796, after a reign which is variously stated as having lasted from six to nine months. His father re-ascended the throne, and occupied it till his death in 1807, as before recorded.

No. 21.—Sultan Khan Zul-Alam, half-brother of the Sultan Tej-Waldin, succeeded him. His wife was the Pangiran Sa Lia, whose child Raja Nur Alam was married to the Sultan Mahomed Jemal-ul-Alam, and their son became Sultan Mahomed Ali Saifuddin II., whose sister became the first wife of the present Sultan Abdul Mumin. After Pangiran Sa Lia's death the Sultan Khan Zul-Alam married Pangiran Nur Selam, a daughter of Pangiran Sri Rama, and had issue daughters. The third wife of the Sultan Mahomed Khan Zul-Alam was the Pangiran Selamah, also a daughter of Pangiran Sri Rama ; her children were the Pangiran Sri Banun, Muda Mutalam ( who usurped the sovereign power as Sultan Mahomed Alam, and was also called Raja Api ), Muda Hasan, Pangiran Muda Mohomed, and others. The date of Sultan Mahomed Khan Zul-Alam's death is not recorded on his tomb. He is said to have been Sultan at the time of the eruption of the mountain Temburu which took place in 1815.

No. 22.—Sultan Omar Ali Saif-uddin, the second son of the Sultan Mahomed Jemal-ul-Alam succeeded his great uncle, but Raja A pi attempted to subvert the succession in his favour, and there appear to have been several years of troubles in Bruni, until the authority of the legitimate Sultan was established by the death of Raja Api, who was strangled at Pulau Chermin, and his family dispersed, Raja Muda Hashim and the Raja Muda Mahomed, his brothers, and other relatives going to Sarawak. The Sultan Omar Ali Saif-uddin II. died in Bruni in 1852.

No. 23.—The Sultan Abdul Mumin, the present Yang di Pertuan, is descended from Sultan Kemal-Addin. He succeeded to the throne by the will of his predecessor and the general consent of the people.

Source : Royal Asiatic Society (Journal Straits Branch)