Article

The bendaharas of Pahang

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

The bendaharas of Pahang

W. Linehan, a British colonial official in Pahang, published “The Bendaharas of Pahang” in 1926 in the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, offering a genealogical and political account of the Bendahara dynasty that governed Pahang from the mid-eighteenth century until the elevation of its last member to the sultanate in 1877. The article’s central concern is to trace the lineage, succession disputes, and eventual transformation of this quasi-independent ruling house from its origins in the Johore court to its absorption into the modern Pahang Sultanate under British protection.

Summary

Linehan’s article addresses a significant gap in the historiography of Pahang: the period between the extinction of the original Malacca-descended sultans in the late seventeenth century and the formal establishment of the modern Sultanate in the 1870s. During this interval, the Bendaharas—nominally regents (wakil) of the Sultans of Johore—exercised de facto sovereignty over Pahang, yet their history had received little systematic treatment. Linehan reconstructs this period by cross-referencing the genealogical table accepted by the Pahang royal family against Johore-derived sources, and he is candid about the discrepancies between them, particularly the doubtful early generations linking Abdul-Jalil to Hassan (pp. 335–336).

The narrative’s analytical core is the succession crisis between Tahir II (Bendahara Ganchong) and his half-brother Ahmad, a conflict rooted in questions of maternal legitimacy and the competing support of the elder chiefs versus a smaller but strategically better-positioned faction. Linehan shows how Ahmad’s eventual victory in 1864 was not merely a dynastic settlement but a structural transformation: the consolidation of authority under a single ruler who then negotiated directly with the British, secured Chinese financial backing for his campaign, and in 1877 obtained the elevation of his title from Bendahara to Sultan in exchange for accepting a British Resident (pp. 337–338). The article thus frames the Bendahara period as a transitional phase in which local dynastic politics and the expanding British colonial order converged to produce the modern Pahang state.

Primary sources informing the account include the Pahang State Regalia (a gold buckle bearing Abdul-Majid’s name dated 1184 A.H., and the kris penyalang of Koris I), the royal grave-yard at Kuala Pahang, the typed manuscript Hikayat Pahang (c. 1910), and the Shaer Tanah Melayu (Singapore, 1900). Linehan also draws on Wilkinson’s History and Abdullah’s Pelayaran for corroborating details (pp. 336, 338).

Key Findings

  • The Bendaharas of Pahang are traced to Abdul-Jalil (d. c. 1719), who had made himself Sultan of Johore in 1699; Wilkinson considered it probable they descended from a brother of Abdul-Jalil rather than from him directly (p. 335).
  • A gold buckle (Pending) in the Pahang State Regalia bears the name of Abdul-Majid (2nd Bendahara, fl. 1770) and the date 1184 A.H. (1770 A.D.), providing a fixed chronological anchor for the dynasty (p. 336).
  • The succession conflict between Tahir II and Ahmad was decided at Pekan Lama, where sixty of Koris II’s Bugis followers from Johore were killed; Koris II died c. 1864, ending his faction’s hold on Pahang (p. 337).
  • In October 1877 a treaty was concluded between the Governor of the Straits Settlements and Ahmad whereby the title of Bendahara was raised to Sultan, and Ahmad agreed to the appointment of a Governor’s Agent with consular powers; a British Resident was established the following year (p. 338).
  • Ahmad rewarded the wealthy Chinese who had financed his campaign with the salt and chandu monopolies of Pahang and the privilege of minting tampang (tin currency) (p. 338).
  • The Pahang expedition of 2,000 men sent by Ahmad in 1872 to assist Tengku Dziau’d-din of Selangor against Raja Mahdi demonstrates the military reach of the Bendahara in the pre-Resident period (p. 338).

Conclusion

Linehan’s definitive takeaway is that the Bendahara period represents a critical but under-documented interregnum in Pahang’s political history, during which a family of Johore origin exercised independent sovereignty and whose internal dynastic struggles were ultimately resolved not by traditional Malay mechanisms of succession but by the intervention of British colonial authority. The 1877 treaty marking Ahmad’s elevation to Sultan is presented as the decisive moment at which the old Bendahara system was superseded by the modern protected-state framework.

Context

  • Linehan was almost certainly serving as a British Resident or senior colonial officer in Pahang at the time of writing; the article’s intimate knowledge of the State Regalia, the royal grave-yard, and the “present royal family’s” accepted pedigree reflects an insider’s administrative vantage point rather than purely archival research.
  • The article draws on the Hikayat Pahang (a typed manuscript of over 200 sheets, c. 1910, of which Dr. Winstedt held a complete copy) and the Shaer Tanah Melayu (Singapore, 1900), both of which remain important but little-cited sources for early modern Pahang history.

References