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A list of the butterflies of Borneo

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

A list of the butterflies of Borneo

J. P. Mead’s 1914 romanized transcription of the Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai presents a foundational Malay chronicle tracing the origin of the Pasai sultanate in northeastern Sumatra from pre-Islamic legendary foundations through its conversion to Islam and eventual conquest by Majapahit. Transcribed from the Raffles manuscript (now RAS London, MS 67), the text serves as one of the earliest surviving accounts of Pasai’s royal genealogy and the political geography of the Strait of Malacca in the medieval period.

Summary

The chronicle opens in a pre-Islamic setting with two brothers, Raja Ahmad and Raja Mohammad, who establish rival states in Semerlanga. Each acquires a miraculous infant daughter—Puteri Betong from a tree stump and Merah Gajah from an elephant—and the girls are subsequently married to one another, producing the sons Merah Silu and Merah Hasum. A fratricidal war kills both founding brothers, and the sons flee to Beruana, where Merah Silu discovers a supernatural source of gold (bracelets that transform into gold and silver when boiled) and accumulates sufficient wealth to be installed as ruler by Megat Iskandar at Buloh Telang. The narrative then pivots to the central theological claim of the text: a prophecy attributed to the Prophet Muhammad identifying a future Islamic kingdom “in the south” (Semudera), fulfilled when Merah Silu receives a dream-visitation commanding his conversion and is subsequently invested with royal regalia by Shaikh Ismail, an envoy from the Sharif of Mecca. He assumes the title Sultan Malik al-Salleh, and the state is renamed Semudera Daru’l-Islam (pp. 9–12).

The subsequent generations follow a pattern of fraternal rivalry and dynastic fragmentation. Sultan Malik al-Salleh’s son, Malik al-Tahir, founds the separate state of Pasai (named after the hunting dog Si-Pasai), while his brother Malik al-Mansur retains Semudera. A conflict over a woman leads Malik al-Mahmud to execute his minister Semayam al-Din and exile his brother to Temiang, where Mansur dies after visiting the grave of his murdered guardian. The narrative then focuses on Sultan Ahmad Permada Permala, whose paranoia drives him to poison his most powerful son, Tun Beraim Bapa, and to kill his son Tun Abdul Jalil when he learns that Puteri Gemerencang of Majapahit has fallen in love with him from a portrait. The Javanese princess drowns herself off Jambu Ayer upon learning of his death, and her father launches a punitive expedition that overwhelms Pasai after three days of fighting. The text closes with Gajah Mada’s campaigns of taalok (submission) across the archipelago and the legendary buffalo-fight that gives its name to Minangkabau (pp. 43–54).

The work functions simultaneously as a dynastic genealogy, a conversion narrative legitimizing Pasai’s Islamic identity, and a political geography of the Strait of Malacca. Mead’s introduction notes that the manuscript, while largely legible, shows traces of an “ignorant scribe,” and that the text contains no mention of Malacca despite numerous references to Pasai in the Sejarah Melayu (p. 1).

Key Findings

  • The manuscript is the same one used by Dulaurier, formerly belonging to Sir Stamford Raffles, now catalogued as No. 67 in the Royal Asiatic Society, London (p. 1).
  • The text explicitly states that Pasai was “the first to bring the faith of Allah and the messenger of Allah” in the southern lands, establishing its claim to primacy among Malay Muslim states (p. 1).
  • Sultan Malik al-Salleh’s conversion is narrated as occurring within forty days of the Prophet’s death, with the regalia sent by the “khalifah sharif” of Mecca; the sultan is described as reading thirty juz of the Quran without prior instruction (pp. 10–11).
  • The state of Pasai is named after the hunting dog Si-Pasai, which died at the site where Sultan Malik al-Salleh established his son’s new capital (p. 17).
  • The Majapahite invasion is led by Sina Pati Anglaga; the war lasts three days and three nights, after which Pasai’s forces break and the Javanese enter the istana, with the tree at Padang Pauh Bengkok bent by the weight of their spears (pp. 47–48).
  • The text concludes with a list of 27 states that submitted (taalok) to Majapahit at the time of Pasai’s fall, including Timbalan, Siatan, Jemaja, Bunguran, Serasan, Suabi, Pulau Laut, Tiuman, Pulau Tinggi, Pemanggilan, Kerimata, Belitung, Bangka, Lingga, Riau, Bantan, Bulong, Sambas, Mempauh, Sukadan, Kota Waringan, Banjar Masin, Pasir, Kotai, Berumak, Jambi, and Palembang (pp. 54–55).

Conclusion

Mead’s transcription preserves a text that constructs Pasai’s legitimacy through a dual narrative of prophetic destiny and martial achievement, positioning the sultanate as the first Islamic polity in the Malay world while simultaneously narrating its destruction by Javanese expansion. The chronicle’s genealogical framework—linking Pasai’s rulers to the Prophet through the Semudera conversion episode—serves a clear apologetic function, while the detailed catalogue of submitted states at the end reflects the political anxieties of a later period of Javanese hegemony.

Context

  • The source manuscript (RAS London, MS 67) was part of the Raffles collection; Mead’s 1914 transcription predates the more widely known Shellabear romanization of the Sejarah Melayu and provides an independent witness to the Pasai tradition as it circulated in the early twentieth century.
  • The text’s internal dating (“Monday, 21 Muharram, year seven of the Hijra”) is almost certainly a scribal corruption, as the narrative content (references to Majapahit, Gajah Mada, and the political geography of the archipelago) places the composition firmly in the post-1400 period.

References