Sultan Muhammad Alimuddin I

Sultan Muhammad Alimuddin I (r. 1735–1773) was the ruler of the Sultanate of Sulu whose reign was shaped by the competing imperial ambitions of Spain and Britain, his personal fascination with Christianity, and the centralizing reforms he attempted to impose on a turbulent aristocracy. De la Costa characterises him as “a highly intelligent and sensitive individual, capable of conceiving large views on the government of his realm, but somewhat lacking in the resolution of will and the practical grasp of affairs necessary to carry them into effect” [1, p. 71].

Accession and Early Reforms

Alimuddin succeeded his elder brother Nasaruddin in 1735, an accession that Ovando attributed to the machinations of his still-living father, Badaruddin I [1, p. 43]. Before his accession, Alimuddin had spent time with an Arab community in Batavia, where he acquired command of Arabic and Malay and won recognition as a pandita (Islamic scholar) [1, p. 43].

From the earliest years of his reign, Alimuddin sought to strengthen his government against the unruly Sulu aristocracy. He organised an army and navy under his immediate control, coined money to establish a uniform currency under state supervision, began the codification of Sulu law, both Koranic and customary, and attempted to regulate worship [1, p. 44]. His persistent efforts to negotiate peace with the Spaniards at Zamboanga, whose garrison had been reoccupied in 1718, probably sprang from a recognition that he needed time to make these reforms effective [1, p. 44].

The Treaty of 1737, concluded between Sulu and the Spanish colonial government at Manila, was a genuine treaty between two sovereign and independent states, each recognised as such by the other [1, p. 43]. Alimuddin’s “tribute mission” to China, which arrived at the imperial court in 1744, was in reality a trade mission, the Qing court’s diplomatic fiction requiring that only vassals send tribute [1, pp. 44–45].

The Jesuit Mission and Deposition

The Treaty of 1737 encouraged the Jesuit missionaries at Zamboanga to pursue the conversion of the Sulus to Christianity. In 1744, Philip V of Spain wrote to Alimuddin requesting permission for the Jesuits to preach in the sultanate, and Alimuddin granted this request in 1747, even permitting his son and heir, Muhammad Israel, to receive religious instruction from the missionaries [1, pp. 45–46]. The missionaries arrived at Jolo in July 1748, but the Sulu aristocracy interpreted their presence as the first step toward Spanish annexation [1, p. 47].

Opposition grew rapidly, led by Alimuddin’s younger brother Bantilan. Alimuddin tried to retain his ascendancy by demonstrating his continued commitment to Islam, refusing the missionaries access to his dying sister and withdrawing the crown prince from their tutelage, but he did not break his pledged word by sending the missionaries away [1, p. 48]. An attack in which Alimuddin was wounded convinced him that his position had become untenable, and he left Jolo for Basilan on 1 September 1748 [1, p. 48]. Bantilan soon dissolved the regency and proclaimed himself Sultan Muhammad Mu’izzuddin [1, p. 49].

Exile, Baptism, and Restoration

Alimuddin went to Manila, where he was received by the interim governor, Bishop Juan de Arechederra, and requested Christian baptism [1, p. 49]. After a course of religious instruction and a contested examination by a board of theologians, he was baptised on 29 April 1749 at Pangasinan and christened Fernando [1, p. 51]. Manila celebrated with “four days of illuminations, three of masquerades, three of bullfights, four nights of fire-works, and three comedies” [1, p. 51].

A Spanish expedition under Governor Ovando restored Alimuddin to his throne in 1751, but Governor Zacarias of Zamboanga, suspecting disloyalty, arrested Alimuddin and 217 of his retinue and sent them to Manila as prisoners [1, pp. 53–54]. Alimuddin remained in captivity until the British capture of Manila in October 1762, during which he had taken part in the city’s defence and been seriously wounded [1, p. 57].

After the Treaty of Paris in February 1763 restored the Philippines to Spain, Alexander Dalrymple of the East India Company arranged Alimuddin’s return to Jolo, where the Ruma Bechara (council of state) reinstated him as sultan on 8 June 1764 [1, p. 68]. Three weeks later, Alimuddin ceded to the Company all Sulu territory in northern Borneo and southern Palawan, a grant he described as a sale, remarking that “what was sold was irredeemable” [1, p. 69]. In 1773, feeling the weight of his years, Alimuddin abdicated in favour of Muhammad Israel; the year of his death is unknown but cannot have been much later [1, p. 70].

Research and Documentation

The most extensive account of Alimuddin’s reign prior to de la Costa’s article was Najeeb M. Saleeby’s History of Sulu (1908), reissued in 1963 [1, p. 43]. De la Costa, drawing on Jesuit provincial archives, East India Company records, and Spanish colonial documents not available to Saleeby, supplemented and in certain places corrected the earlier account [1, p. 43]. The cession documents reproduced in the article’s appendices, particularly the cession of 2 July 1764, became foundational legal instruments in the East India Company’s subsequent claims to North Borneo [1, p. 76]. De la Costa noted that much research remained to be done, particularly on the Sulu records dispersed in private hands, which he identified as the best hope of clearing up the many questions left unsolved by Western-language materials [1, p. 71].

MBRAS Sources

• H. de la Costa (1965). Muhammad Alimuddin I, Sultan of Sulu, 1735–1773. JMBRAS 38: 43–76

References

1. H. de la Costa (1965). Muhammad Alimuddin I, Sultan of Sulu, 1735–1773 JMBRAS 38(1): 43–76. Read on JSTOR