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Islam and Malay kingship1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

A. C. Milner
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Extract

Islam is often seen as playing only a minor role in pre-colonial Malay political life. J. M. Gullick, for instance, in his seminal work Indigenous political systems of Western Malaya concludes that Islam “was not to any significant extent a ‘state religion’”. The “chaplains of the more devout Sultans and chiefs”, he explains, “never attained any collective importance in the political system owing to the lack of organization”; there were “no Kathis (Muslim judges and registrars) until the era of British protection”; and no evidence exists that “Islamic legal doctrine” was “effective law”?

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Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 113 , Issue 1 , January 1981 , pp. 46 - 70
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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1981

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References

Notes

2 London, 1965, 139. Gullick also notes that there “were no public rituals of Islamic content”.

3 See, in particular, Voorhoeve, P., “A Malay Scriptorium”, in Malay and Indonesian Studies, edited by Bastin, J. and Roolvink, R., Oxford, 1967, 256–67.Google Scholar

4 The word is used in the Sejarah Melayu; see Shellabear, W. G. (ed.), Sejarah Melayu or the Malay Annals, Singapore, 1950, 1.Google Scholar

5 This is noticeable not only in Portuguese records, but also in the missionary records of the 19th century. For an important collection of Portuguese missionary records, see de S, A. B. and de Silva Rego, A., Insulindia: Documentaçāo para a Historia das Missoes do Padroado Português do Oriente, Lisboa, 1954–1958, 5 vols. The 19th-century archives of the London Missionary Society are contained in the Archives of the World Mission, now located in the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.Google Scholar

6 Hamilton, Alexander, A new account of the East Indies, London, 1930, II, 51.Google Scholar

7 Anderson, J., Mission to the east coast of Sumatra etc., Edinburgh, 1826, 277.Google Scholar The laws and punishments of Deli, as described by Anderson, do not suggest strong adherence to Islamic law, ibid., 276–77. On the need for caution regarding foreign accounts of Muslim matters in Southeast Asia see also Majul, C. A., Muslims in the Philippines, Quezon City, 1973, 89–90.Google Scholar

8 Hill, A. H. (ed.), “Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai; a revised romanized version of Raffles MS 67, together with an English translation”, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (hereafter JMBRAS), XXXIII, 1960, 64.Google Scholar

9 Winstedt, R. O. (ed.), “The Malay Annals; or, Sejarah Melayu. The earliest recension from MS No. 18 of the Raffles Collection in the library of the Royal Asiaticer Society, London”, JMBRAS, XVI, 1938, 177 and 190.Google Scholar

10 See, for instance, The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires, edited by Cortesao, A., London, 1944, 242;Google ScholarAndaya, L. Y., The Kingdom of Johor 1641–1720, Kuala Lumpur, 1975, 209;Google ScholarKroesen, C. A., “Geschiedenis van Asahan”, Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde (hereafter TBG) XXXI, 1886, 116;Google ScholarNicholl, R., European sources for the history of the Sultanate of Brunei in the sixteenth century, Bandar Seri Begawan, 1975, 89.Google Scholar

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12 Winstedt, R. O., “Kedah Laws”, JMBRAS, VI, 1928, 41.Google Scholar See also the appendix to the so-called Pahang legal digest, Kempe, J. E. and Winstedt, R. O., “A Malay Legal Digest”, JMBRAS, XXI, 1948, 64.Google Scholar

13 Andaya, , Kingdom of Johore, 208.Google Scholar

14 Nicholl, , European Sources, 32, 89.Google Scholar

15 de Sa, and de Silva Rego, , Insulindia, III, 23.Google Scholar See also the definition of “caciz” in Jacobs, H. Th. Th. M. (ed.), A Treatise on the Moluccas (c. 1544), Rome, 1971, 369;Google Scholar and the article “casis, caxis, caciz” in Yule, H. and Crooke, W., Hobson-Jobson, New York, 1968.Google Scholar

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17 Nicholl, R., “Relations between Brunei and Manila”, Brunei Museum Journal, IV, 1977, 153.Google Scholar In Trengganu a French report of 1769 notes that the “special function” of one of the ruler's uncles was “to administer justice” (report of Pierre Manneron, in Dunmore, J., “French Visitors to Trengganu in the Eighteenth Century”, JMBRAS, XLVI, 1973, 157).Google Scholar For a general comment on the role of the ruler in the administration of law, see Crawfurd, J., History of the Indian Archipelago, Edinburgh, 1820, III, 79–81.Google Scholar For a general comment on the prominent officials in “Malay countries”, see Bowrey, T., A geographical account of countries round the Bay of Bengal, 1669–1679, Cambridge, 1903, 260.Google Scholar

18 Nicholl, , European Sources, 156.Google Scholar

19 Governor to Secretary of State, 10 October 1888, and enclosures., CO273/155 (Public Records Office, London).

20 Hill, , JMBRAS, XXXIII, 1960, 73.Google Scholar For other mentions of sharī'a, see, for instance, Sweeney, P. L. A. (ed.), “Silsilah Raja-Raja Berunai”, JMBRAS, XLI, 1968, 11 and 14;Google Scholar and Winstedt, , JMBRAS, VI, 1928, 24.Google Scholar

21 When sharī'a is employed, it is sometimes portrayed as only one, rather than the sole, source of law. See, for example, the recent account of the laws and customs of Brunei, Yusuf, P. M., “Adat Istiadat Diraja Brunei Darussalam”, Brunei Museum Journal, III, 2, 1975, 43;Google Scholar see also a 19th-century document conferring titles on certain Pahang chiefs; Linehan, W., “A History of Pahang”, JMBRAS, XIV, 1936, Document V. 213.Google Scholar

22 Crawfurd, , History of the Indian Archipelago, III, 77.Google Scholar M. B. Hooker discusses these texts in a forthcoming book on Islamic law in Southeast Asia. For a translation into Malay of an Islamic legal text see Meursinge, A.Handboek van het Mohammedaansche Regt in de Maleische Taal, Amsterdam, 1844.Google Scholar

23 The Undang-undang Melaka and its relation to other Malay legal digests is discussed by Fang, Liaw Yock in Undang-undang Melaka, The Hague, 1976, 1.Google Scholar

24 See the comment by Hugh Clifford quoted by Jakeman, R. W., “The Pahang Kanun of Sultan Abdul Ghafur, another text”, JMBRAS, XXIV, 3, 1951, 150.Google Scholar

25 Hikayat Pahang, 88. The author is grateful to the Arkib Negara, Malaysia, for permission to consult this recension of the Hikayat.Google Scholar

26 Winstedt, R. O., The Malays; a cultural history, Singapore, 1947, 99.Google Scholar On the use of the Undang-undang in the Johor Empire see von Angelbeek, C., “Korte schets van het Eiland Lingga, en deszelfs Bewoners”, Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen (hereafter VBG) XI, 1926, 48–9.Google Scholar

27 On the development of qānūn law, see Lewis, B., in a review of Gibb, and Bowen, , Islamic Society and the West, vol. 1, part 1,Google Scholar in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XVI, 1954, 599.Google Scholar

28 Liaw, , Undang-undang Melaka, 38–9.Google Scholar

29 ibid., 75.

30 Malays, of course, also participated in the trans-Asian trade network and some may have joined the Muslim community in the years before the Islamization of the Malay world, see Schrieke, B., Indonesian sociological studies, The Hague, 1957, II, 245;Google ScholarJohns, A. H., “Islam in Southeast Asia: reflections and new directions”, Indonesia, XIX, 04 1975, 38.Google Scholar

31 Cortesāo, (ed.), The Suma Oriental ofTomé Pires, 267.Google Scholar See also an early 19th-century Chinese account, the Hai-lu, translated in Cushman, J. W. and Milner, A. C. “Eighteenth and nineteenth-century Chinese accounts of the Malay Peninsula”, JMBRAS, LII, 1979, 19–20.Google Scholar The modes of execution prevailing among the Malays are generally non-Islamic; for instance, Crawfurd, , History of the Indian archipelago, III, 108–9;Google ScholarDunmore, , JMBRAS, XLVI, 1976, 157;Google ScholarAnderson, , Mission to the east coast of Sumatra, 276.Google Scholar Also, the Islamic punishments of mutilation and whipping were rarely found in the archipelago, Crawfurd, , History of the Indian archipelago, III, 105 and 107.Google Scholar

32 Cushman, and Milner, , JMBRAS, LII, 1979, 18.Google Scholar

33 Liaw, , Undang-undang Melaka, 89.Google Scholar

34 See, for instance, Nicholl, , Brunei, 12.Google Scholar

35 For example, see Anderson's description of family law in the east Sumatran state, China, Bulu, Mission to the east coast of Sumatra, 267.Google Scholar

36 See, for instance, Dutch comments on late 18th-century Perak, Andaya, B. J. W., Perak, the abode of grace: a study of an eighteenth century Malay state, Ithaca, New York, 1975, 306.Google Scholar

37 Minute by Sir Stamford Raffles on the establishment of a Malayan college of Singapore, Appendix to the Singapore Free School annual report, 1837–8, Singapore, 1838, 45.Google Scholar

38 Maxsden, W., A history of Sumatra, London, 1817, 346.Google Scholar

39 Ahmad, Kassim (ed.), Kisah pelayaran Abdullah, Kuala Lumpur, 1964, 89.Google Scholar Comments of this type are frequently encountered. See, for instance, the opinion of the Regent of Perak, Raja Yusoff, in 1882, in Wilkinson, R. J. (ed.), Papers on Malay subjects, selected and edited by Burns, P. L., Kuala Lumpur, 1971, 250.Google Scholar On Palembang see van Sevenhoven, J. J., “Beschrijving van de Hoofdplaats van Palembang” VBG, IX, 1823, 68–9, 80–81.Google Scholar On Trengganu, see Medhurst, W. H., China: its state and prospects, London, 1838, 347.Google Scholar

40 The various “layers” of Malay culture are analysed in a number of works by Sir Richard Winstedt; see, for instance, The Malays and The Malay magician, London, 1961.Google Scholar

41 van Anrooij, H. A. Hijmans, “Nota omtrent het rijk van Siak”, TBG, XXX, 1885, 312.Google Scholar

42 Maxwell, W. E., “The laws and customs of the Malays with reference to land”, JMBRAS, XIII, 1884, 79 and 91–2.Google Scholar Regarding the ruler's unlimited rights over his subjects ibid., 108.

43 Liaw, , Undang-undang Melaka, 62–4.Google Scholar

44 ibid., 176.

45 “Penuntu ugama Rasul Allah”; see Paterson, H. S., “An early Malay inscription from Trengganu”, JMBRAS, XI, 1928, 255.Google Scholar

46 Hikayat Pahang (see n. 25 above), 3 and 78.

47 Hikajat Ketoeroean Radja Negeri Deli (located in the Oostkust van Sumatra Instituut collection at the Instituut voor de Tropen, Amsterdam), 45.Google Scholar When Munshi Abdullah visited Pahang in the 1830s he was told that one who attempts to alter custom (adat) runs the risk of being punished by the supernatural power (daulat) of the former Pahang sultans. See Ahmad, Kassim, Kisah pelayaran Abdallah, 40.Google Scholar See also the role of the Raja in the establishing of the Laws, Kedah, Winstedt, , “Kedah Laws”, JMBRAS, VI, 1928, 15;Google Scholar and the comment in the Malay Annals regarding the part played by the ruler of Malacca in the compilation of law codes, Winstedt, , “Sejarah Melayu”, 84–8 and 92.Google Scholar

48 See, for instance, “Bijdragen tot de kennis der Residentie Rio”, Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch - Indië, I, 1853, 412;Google ScholarClifford, H., Studies in brown humanity, London, 1898, 176.Google Scholar For descriptions of Malay audiences, see Singapore Daily Times, 29 July 1875;Google ScholarRead, W. H., Play and politics: recollections of Malaya, London, 1901, 35;Google Scholar and “Journal kept on board a cruiser in the Indian Aichipelago”, Journal of the Indian Archipelago, VIII, 1854, 170.Google Scholar

49 Wilkinson, R. J., “Notes on the Negeri Sembilan”, in Wilkinson, , Papers on Malay subjects, 304.Google Scholar These “notes” were first published in 1911. See also the comments of the Reverend Favre: “A journey in Johore”, Journal of the Indian Archipelago, III, 1849, 51.Google Scholar

50 Sennett, R., The fall of Public Man, Cambridge, 1977, Pts l and 2.Google Scholar See also the discussion in Lienhardt, G., Divinity and experience, Oxford, 1967, ch. IV.Google Scholar

51 See, for instance, Winstedt, , “Sejarah Melayu”, 121;Google ScholarHill, , JMBRAS, XXXIII, 1960, 66.Google Scholar

52 Hikajat Ketaeroenan Radja Negeri Deli, 129.Google Scholar

53 ibid., 54. For indications in other texts that service to the Raja could bring benefits in the afterlife see Winstedt, , “Sejarah Melayu”, 144;Google ScholarAhmad, Kassim, Hikayat Hang Tuah, Kuala Lumpur, 1968, 319.Google Scholar

54 Wolters, O. W., The fall of Srivijaya in Malay history, Ithaca, 1970, ch. VIII.Google Scholar

55 The “Telaga Batu” inscription, lines 25 and 26 in de Casparis, J. G., Prasasti Indonesia, II, Bandung, 1956, 36, 45–6.Google Scholar See also the Talang Tuwo inscription in Coedès, G., “Les inscriptions malaises de çrīvijaya”, Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême Orient, XXX, 1930, 38–42.Google Scholar

56 Dhavamony, M., Love of God, according to Saiva Siddhanta, Oxford, 1971, 23.Google Scholar

57 Wilkinson, R. J., A Malay-English Dictionary, London, 1959.Google Scholar O. W. Wolters discusses the importance of Bhakti ideas in relation to Khmer kingship in “Khmer ‘Hinduism’ in the Seventh Century”, in Early South East Asia; essays in archaeology, history and historical geography, edited by Smith, R. B. and Watson, W., New York and Kuala Lumpur, 1979, 427–42.Google Scholar

58 For a helpful comparison of kingship in India and South East Asia, see Dumont, L., Homo hierarchicus: the caste system and its implications, London, 1972, 262–3.Google Scholar On Indian kingship, see Mabbett, I. W., Truth, myth and politics in ancient India, New Delhi, 1972, ch. VII.Google Scholar

59 Winstedt, , “Sejarah Melayu”, 84.Google Scholar Pieres supports this account; see Cortesão, (ed.), The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires, 242.Google Scholar For the ruler's importance in the Islamization of two other states, see also Hill, , JMBRAS, XXXII, 1960, 55;Google Scholar and Sweeney, , JMBRAS, XLI, 1968, 11.Google Scholar

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62 Schrieke, , Indonesian sociological studies, II, 232;Google ScholarMeilink-Roelofsz, M. A. P., Asian trade and European influence, The Hague, 1962, 20–1;Google ScholarMeilink-Roelofsz, M. A. P., “Trade and Islam in the Malay-Indonesian archipelago” in Islam and the trade of Asia, edited by Richards, D. S., Oxford, 1970, 145;Google Scholar and Tibbetts, G. R., “Early Muslim traders in South-East Asia”, JMBRAS, XXX, 1957, 43.Google Scholar

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64 Hill, , JMBRAS, XXXIII, 1960, 57–8.Google Scholar See also the descriptions in Malay texts of the adoption of similar titles by the Melakan ruler (Winstedt, , “Sejarah Melayu”, 84);Google Scholar and Patani ruler (Teeuw, A. and Wyatt, D. K. (eds.), Hikayat Patani, The Hague, 1970, 74–5);CrossRefGoogle Scholar and the Kedah ruler (Salleh, Dzulkifli bin Mohd. [ed.], Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa, Kuala Lumpur, 1973, 147;Google Scholar and Low, J., “Kedah Annals”, Journal of the Indian Archipelago, III, 1849, 416).Google Scholar

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85 The travels oflbn Battuta A.D. 1325–1354, translated and edited by Gibb, H. A. R., Cambridge, 1958, I, 3. Gibb notes that Ibn Baṭṭūṭa refers to “all the temporal rulers” as “Sultans”.Google Scholar

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134 Regarding an increase in the number of Arabs in the Malay world see Van den Berg, L. W. C., Le Hadhramout et les colonies Arabes dans l'archipel Indien, Batavia, 1886, 105–10;Google Scholarde Vries, S. J., “De Invloed van den Islam in Indie”, Mededelingen vanwege het Nederlandsch Zendelinggenootschap, XXXIV, 1890, 38;Google ScholarKern, R. A., De Islam in Indonesie, 1947, 110.Google Scholar For a discussion of the role of Arabs in the Malay world, see, in particular, Van den Berg, , BKI, VI, 9, 1901, 104 ff;Google Scholarvan den Meulen, D. and van Wissmann, H., Hadramaut. Some of its mysteries unveiled, Leiden, 1964, 44, 80–1, 89, 96–7, 114, 121 and 189.Google Scholar

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144 Brakel, L. F., The Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah, The Hague, 1975, 59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The comparison of recensions of Malay texts will certainly have profitable results. The Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa may be of particular interest. In the account of the Islamization of Kedah in a manuscript dating from the late 19th century, the implementation of sharī'a is referred to time and time again; see Salleh, Zulkifli bin Mohd. (ed.), Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa, 144–9.Google Scholar But there is no indication of such a concern in Low's translation of a text owned by Ahmad Tajuddin Shah, 1803–1854, see Low, , op. cit, 471–7 (cf. n. 64, above).Google Scholar

145 Wilkinson, R. J., “Malay Beliefs”, JMBRAS, XXX, 1957,Google Scholar originally published 1906, 40. During the 19th century certain states or regions established a special reputation for the observance of Islamic obligations. See, for instance, Clifford's report on Trengganu, JMBRAS, XXXIV, 1961, 100;Google Scholar on Riau, de Bruijn Kops, G. F., “Schets van den Riouw-Lingga Archipel”, Natuurkundig Tijdscrift voor Nederlandsch Indie, IV, New Series, 1, 1885, 342;Google Scholar see also de Scheemaker, L. on Batu Bara in East Sumatra: “Nota betreffende het Landschap ‘Batoebarah’”, TBG, XVII, 1869, 470–1 and 478.Google Scholar For an English translation of a “shariahminded” attack on “innovations” in Malay Islam, see Shellabear, W. G., “An exposure of counterfeiters”, Muslim World, XX, 1930, 359–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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148 Hanitsch, R., “Tin and lead coins from Brunei”, JMBRAS, XLIX, 1907, 113.Google Scholar

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150 Allen, J. de V., “The Elephant and the Mousedeer – a new version: Anglo-Kedah relations, 1905–1915, JMBRAS, XLI, 1968, 57.Google Scholar For a fundamental critique of title-giving in Malay states see the Singapore journal, al-Imam, II, no. 8, 4 February 1908. I am grateful to Ustaz Abu Bakar Hamza for drawing my attention to this reference.Google Scholar

151 Roff, W. R., “The origin and early years of the Majlis Ugama”, in Roff, W. R. (ed.), Kelantan: religion, society and politics in a Malay state, Kuala Lumpur, 1974, 108.Google Scholar In Selangor at that time the ruler appears to have taken a similar initiative; Roff, W. R., Origins of Malay nationalism, Kuala Lumpur, 1967, 72–3;Google ScholarSaid, N. Mohd. Amin bin Wan Mohd., Pesaka Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, 1966, 59.Google Scholar In Perak, the Regent, Raja Yusuf, in 1882, complained, at a state council meeting, that “corruptions” of the “Religious Law (Shara')” had occurred in Perak; (Wilkinson, , Papers, 250). It cannot be assumed, of course, that a ruler necessarily acted to pre-empt fundamentalist leaders rather than as a consequence of a sincerely held understanding of Islam. Sultan Zainal Abidin of Trengganu, for instance, whose piety is often attested in the sources, may have been convinced on religious grounds by the arguments of the “shariah-minded”.Google Scholar

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154 Roff, , in Roff, W. R. (ed.), Kelantan, 137.Google Scholar For a note on the establishment of similar councils in other Malay states, see Roff, , Malay nationalism, 73–4.Google Scholar

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156 Statement by North Sumatra Division of the Masjumi party 12 March 1946, in Feith, H. and Castles, L. (eds.), Indonesian political thinking, Ithaca, 1970, 56.Google Scholar

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