Article

Mahmud II and Abdul Jalil III, 1685–1720 A.D

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Mahmud II and Abdul Jalil III, 1685–1720 A.D

R.J. Wilkinson, a colonial administrator and author of the multi-volume History of the Malay States, published this article in 1931 to examine the reigns of Sultan Mahmud II and Sultan Abdul Jalil III of Johor (1685–1720), arguing that although these two reigns constitute “a dark page of Malay History,” they are of special interest because they mark the origin of five Malay dynasties: Lingga, Singapore, Trengganu, Pahang, and Johore (p. 28).

Summary

Wilkinson’s article addresses a period of dynastic instability in the Johor Sultanate following the death of Sultan Ibrahim in February 1685. The young Mahmud II (styled Abdul Jalil in the Johor History and the 1689 treaty, but conventionally known as Mahmud) was placed under the regency of a Dato’ Paduka Raja — the Queen-Mother’s brother — who died in 1688, after which the Bendahara Sri Maharaja assumed the regency and the court relocated from Riau to the older capital at Makam Tauhid (pp. 28–29). Wilkinson draws on the unpublished Hikayat Johor to present the Malay court’s own defence of Mahmud, which attributes his cruelty to lunacy (“he was under the influence of the moon”), and recounts the episode in which he ordered the pregnant wife of Megat Seri Rama to be opened and her unborn child extracted. Mahmud was killed in August 1699 at Kota Tinggi, and the Bendahara Abdul Jalil succeeded him ex-officio on 3 September 1699, not by blood relationship but by the constitutional custom that the Bendahara takes the throne when the ruling house dies out (pp. 29–30).

The second reign is dominated by the Minangkabau attack on Johor on 21 March 1717, led by the pirate-king Raja Kechil of Siak. The Yamtuan Muda (Raja Indera Bongsu) was killed in the fighting, and Sultan Abdul Jalil fled to the East Coast. A peace was patched up in late 1719 or early 1720 on the condition that the Sultan give a daughter in marriage to Raja Kechil; when the Sultan’s party attempted to flee back to the East Coast, they were intercepted at Kuala Pahang, the Sultan was killed, and the princesses were taken to Riau where Raja Kechil married Tengku Kamariah by force (pp. 30–31). Wilkinson reconciles the Bugis History’s statement that Abdul Jalil reigned 22 lunar years of which 19 were peaceful with the three troubled years of 1717–1720, noting that the Bugis text itself compresses these events into a single confused episode (p. 30).

The article’s substantive weight falls in its genealogical reconstruction of the five dynasties that emerged from this period. Wilkinson traces the Johore line through Sultan Sulaiman (r. 1722–1760) and his son Abdul Jalil (d. 1761); the Trengganu line through Zainulabidin (installed 1725, d. 1733) and his son Mansur Shah, who reigned some sixty years and became the leading figure of the “Malay” party at the Riau court; and the Pahang Bendahara line through six successive holders, cross-referencing the Bugis History, the Hikayat Johor, Dutch treaties, and the official genealogies published by Linehan and in Wilkinson’s own History (pp. 31–34).

Key Findings

  • Sultan Ibrahim of Johor and Pahang died on 16 February 1685; the Dato’ Paduka Raja who administered the regency during Mahmud’s minority died in 1688, after which the Bendahara Sri Maharaja (Abdul Majid) became ex-officio regent (pp. 28–29).
  • Sultan Mahmud II was killed in August 1699 at Kota Tinggi while mounted on a follower’s shoulders; his posthumous names are Mangkat di-julang and Marhum Kota Tinggi (p. 29).
  • The Minangkabau force under Raja Kechil of Siak captured Johor on 21 March 1717; the Yamtuan Muda Raja Indera Bongsu was shot in a coppice and is known posthumously as Marhum di-Kayu (p. 30).
  • Sultan Abdul Jalil III was killed at Kuala Pahang in late 1719 or early 1720 and is known as Marhum Kuala Pahang; the Bugis History records his reign as 22 lunar years, 19 of them peaceful (pp. 30–31).
  • The first Sultan of Trengganu, Zainulabidin bin Abdul Majid, was installed by Sultan Sulaiman in 1725 and died on 7 March 1733; his son Mansur Shah (Tun Dalam) reigned approximately sixty years and married Tengku Bulang, daughter of Sultan Sulaiman, in 1739 (p. 31).
  • The Bendahara line of Pahang runs through six holders from Tun Mas Anom (I) to Tun Abdul Majid (VI), the last of whom was still alive in February 1802 and had signed Dutch agreements in 1784 and 1787 (pp. 32–33).

Conclusion

Wilkinson’s definitive takeaway is that the historical significance of these two reigns lies not in their political events but in their genealogical consequences: they are the point of divergence from which five separate Malay dynasties descend. He explicitly disclaims finality for his reconstructed lists, stating that “further evidence will come by degrees” and that the article’s purpose is to “sum up what we know at present and so bring us a stage nearer the truth” (p. 34).

Context

  • Wilkinson held the rank C.M.G. and was the author of the standard colonial-era History of the Malay States (3rd edition referenced throughout); this article functions as a supplementary genealogical study supporting that larger work.
  • The primary archival sources are the unpublished Hikayat Johor in the Batavian Society’s library at Weltevreden, the Bugis History (Silasila Melayu dan Bugis, 1911) as translated by Overbeck, and Netscher’s De Nederlanders in Djohor en Siak; the article’s historiographical contribution is the systematic cross-referencing of these three traditions with Dutch treaty documents to produce the first integrated genealogy of the five dynasties.

References