Sultan Muhammad Jiwa Muazzam Shah

Sultan Muhammad Jiwa Zainal Adilin Muazzam Shah was the ruler of Kedah during a period of acute political instability in the mid-to-late eighteenth century, with his reign conventionally dated 1723–1778. [1, p. 26] His significance lies in the direct epistolary evidence he left behind: two Malay letters, one of which bears his personal seal, that illuminate his commercial and diplomatic relationship with the British merchant Captain Francis Light during the critical years preceding the founding of Penang. [1, pp. 24–28] These documents, preserved in Cambridge and London, provide the only surviving first-person account from the Kedah throne of the events that led to British settlement on the Malay Peninsula.

Reign and Political Context

Sultan Muhammad Jiwa ascended the Kedah throne in 1723 with the aid of Bugis mercenaries, a circumstance that would have long-term consequences for the state’s security. [1, p. 26] The failure to pay their fee is cited as one reason for the incursion of a later generation of Bugis warriors in 1771, though this does not appear to be the whole story. [1, p. 26] The troubled times connected with that event obliged the Sultan to withdraw to Kangar, in present-day Perlis, and made him receptive to possibilities of aid from any British who happened to be in the area. [1, p. 26] It was against this backdrop of vulnerability that the Sultan engaged with Francis Light, who had arrived in Kedah probably in 1771 and won the ruler’s favour. [1, p. 27]

In August 1771 Light reported to his principals in Madras that the Sultan was willing to make a concession of the Kedah Estuary, carrying with it control of the trade, to the British in return for military aid against rebellious Kedah dignitaries and their Bugis allies in Selangor. [1, p. 27] The contemplated alliance ultimately failed to materialise owing to the East India Company’s unwillingness to support offensive action against Selangor. [1, p. 27] The Sultan’s full name, Muhammad Jiwa Zainal Adilin Muazzam Shah, is confirmed by the appearance of the unusual element Zainal Adilin (“Adornment of the Just Ones”) under his seal in letter “A”, which Russell Jones treats as virtually conclusive evidence of its correctness. [1, p. 26] The name also occurs in the Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa and in the work of the British civil servant Anderson (1824), who recorded it as “Zeina Adelin”. [1, p. 26]

Commercial Correspondence with Francis Light

The two letters examined by Jones reveal a relationship of considerable intimacy and practical engagement. In letter “B”, dated 24 Dhu’l-Hijjah 1186 AH (18 March 1773), the Sultan addresses Light affectionately as “our son” and expresses deep annoyance at the conduct of Edward Monckton, the young emissary sent by the Madras Council in 1772. [1, pp. 29–31] The Sultan writes that “all that he has done to us has been entirely bad and harmful to us, he has done us no good whatsoever”, and that only out of respect for Monckton’s credentials from the Governor in Madras, and out of respect for Light, has he affected not to take heed of the emissary’s actions. [1, p. 31] The letter also records the Sultan’s request that Light bring pressure to bear on Kedah merchants—Nakhoda Mir Amin and Fakir Lebai among them—who had not returned with their vessels laden, and that they be instructed to trade back and forth to Salang Harbour. [1, p. 31]

Letter “A”, undated but contextually later, concerns a cargo of embalau (lac, derived from Laccifer lacca), kesumba (safflower, Carthamus tinctorius), and timah (tin) sent from Ujung Salang to Kedah. [1, pp. 25] The Sultan reports that he could find no purchasers for these goods at the prices quoted, and that owing to recent shortages—no doubt due to the disturbed state of the country—only small amounts of rice could be purchased, not the large quantities Light had requested. [1, p. 28] The Malay title Dewa Raja by which the Sultan addresses Light is demonstrated to be a direct translation of the Thai honourific P’ya Raja Capitan conferred upon Light by the King of Thailand, not a separate Kedah honour. [1, p. 27]

Research and Documentation

The letters survive in two collections: letter “A” and the shorter letter “C” are held at Cambridge University Library (MS Or. 2193), acquired on 17 August 1976 from the Adab Bookshop, Durham; letter “B” is in the School of Oriental and African Studies, London (MS 40320, file no. 8). [1, pp. 24] Jones identified at least seven letters from the Sultan to Light in the SOAS collection, most undated and devoted to everyday commercial business; one appears to record the Sultan bestowing an Indian woman with three children upon Light. [1, p. 29] The article by Russell Jones, published in the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1981, contributes to the historiography of early British commercial penetration in the northern Malay Peninsula by providing direct epistolary evidence of the Sultan’s perspective, complementing the English-language sources—Clodd, Anderson, Bonney—that have traditionally dominated the narrative. [1, pp. 24]

MBRAS Sources

• R. Jones (1981). Two Malay letters written by Sultan Muhammad Jiwa Muazzam Shah of Kedah to Captain Francis Light: with appendix. JMBRAS 54(3): 24–34

References

1. R. Jones (1981). Two Malay letters written by Sultan Muhammad Jiwa Muazzam Shah of Kedah to Captain Francis Light: with appendix JMBRAS 54(3): 24–34. Read on JSTOR