malacca

MALACCA-JOHOR

BRIEF HISTORY

The ruling house of Malacca, and later Johor, was one that enjoyed the highest prestige throughout the Malay world. The claimed ancestry of the Royal House extends to Alexander the Great. However, they seem to have actually originated with the foundation of the ancient Hindu state of Tamasak on the island of Singapore. The Royal family fled to the area around Malacca after the destruction of the city by the ruler of Palembang. The ruler of Malacca embraced Islam during the early years of the fourteenth century, taking the name of Sultan Iskander Shah.

The new sultanate rose to world prominence as a trading empire during the rest of the century. Strategically located in the middle of the straits, between Malaya and Indonesia, it was well placed to earn enormous profits as the entréport to the Indies. Using this wealth, the sultanate was able to enforce its suzerainty over much of peninsular Malaya and the islands. Her wealth soon earned the jealousy of the European powers, the phrase "he who holds Malacca, holds the throat of Venice", encompassing those feelings, succinctly. The Portuguese were the first to act, seizing the city almost by accident during a wedding feast on 24^th July 1511.

The Sultan and Royal family fled first to Kopak, but was driven by the Portuguese from there to Kampar in Sumatra in 1526. The Sultan was driven from Kampar and after wandering from place to place, eventually established his capital on the banks of the Johor river, in the extreme South of peninsular Malaya. Thereafter, they were known as Sultans of Johor. Their wealth and power slowly diminished as the Portuguese and then the Dutch began to control the trade of the Indies. The male line of the ruling family died out in 1699. The Bendahara family then assumed the Johor sultanate. They had frequently intermarried with the Sultan's family and provided the holders of the powerful office of Bendahara (Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief). However, the fame and pre-eminence of the old line of Sultan's remained a powerful force within the Malay world for centuries. Most of the Malay ruling houses in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines proudly claim descent from them, however tenuous their link may be.

STYLES AND TITLES:
The Sovereign: Duli Yang Maha Mulia Paduka Sri Sultan (reign name) ibni al-Marhim (father's name), Sultan of Malacca later Johor.
The wife of the Sovereign (royal): Raja Permaisuri.
The wife of the Sovereign (commoner): Raja Perempuan.
The Heir Apparent: Raja Muda.
The other sons of the sovereign: Raja (reign name) ibni al-Marhim Sultan (father's reign name).
The daughters of the Sovereign: Raja (reign name) binti al-Marhim Sultan (father's reign name)
The other male descendants of the sovereign in the male line: Raja (reign name) bin (father's title and name).
The other female descendants of the sovereign in the male line: Raja (reign name) binti (father's title and name).

RULES OF SUCCESSION:
Male primogeniture, the sons of the chief Royal wife (Raja Permaisuri) taking precedence over those of a junior Royal wife or commoner.

ORDERS AND DECORATIONS:
None.

GLOSSARY:
See Malaysia, main page.

SOURCES:
Abdul Samad Ahmad. Sejarah Melayu (Sulalat us-Salatin). Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur, 1979.
C.C. Brown. "Sejarah Melayu or 'Malay Annals'. A translation of Raffles MS 18 in the Library of the R.A.S., London", Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 25, Pts 2 & 3 (No 159), 1952.
Armando Cortesão (ed). The Suma Oriental of Tomè Pires, an account of the East, from the Red Sea tto Japan, written in Malacca and India in 1512-1515, translated from the Portuguese MS in the Bibliothèque de la Chambre des Députés, Paris. Hakluyt Society, London, 1944.
Prof. P.E. de Josselin de Jong. "Who's Who in the Malay Annals", Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume XXXIV, Part 2, 1961.
Ensiklopedia Sejarah dan Kebudayaan Melayu, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 1995.
Leonard Y Andaya. The Kingdom of Johor 1641-1728. Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1975.
C. A. Gibson-Hall, M.A. "On the alleged death of Sultan Ala' ud-din of Johore at Acheh, in 1613". Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume XXIX, Part 1, 1956.
Muhammad Yusoff Hashim. Hikayat Siak: Dirawikan Oleh Tengku Said, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, KL, 1992.
Muhammad Yusoff Hashim. The Malay Sultanate of Malacca. A study of Various Aspects of Malacca in the 15t^hand 16^th Centuries in Malaysian History translated by D.J. Muzaffar Tate. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, KL, 1992.
W. Linehan, M.A., M.C.S. "A History of Pahang", Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume XIV, Part 2, 1936.
Captain H.M. Said. Genealogical Tree of the Johore Royal Families, Government Printing Office, Johore Bahru, 1923.
Wang Gungwu. "The First Three Rulers of Malacca", in Admiral Zheng He & Southeast Asia edited by Leo Suryadinata. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 2005.
R. J. Wilkinson. "Events Prior to British Ascendancy", Papers on Malay Subjects, Part I. FMS Government Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1908.
R. O. Winstedt. "The Genealogy of Malacca's Kings from a copy of the Bustanu's-Salatin", Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, No 81, March 1920, pp 39-47.
Sir R. O. Winstedt, KBE, CMG, D.Litt (ed). "The Malay Annals or Sejarah Melayu", Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume XVI, Part III, 1938.

MALACCA 2	MALACCA 3	MALACCA 4
BENDAHARA	JOHOR II	MAIN

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