POWER BEHIND THE THRONE

As the saying goes, "Behind every successful man, there is a woman". There appears to be a number of women of the court who have left their mark in the Malay court history. Some of them were even female rulers.

The Promotion of Tun Mutahir

The Promotion of Tun Mutahir to the position of Bendahara Melaka was in fact the result of the influence of a lady of the royal household.

According to The Malay Annals by R O Winstedt, after the burial ceremony of the last Bendahara, Sultan Mahmud Shah had listed down 9 possible candidates for the new Bendahara. However, the Sultan's mother who was following the selection process from behind a door had whispered her choice of a relative, Tun Mutahir. The Sultan acceeded to her choice.

I am reminded of a movie on the Moghul rulers where there was a curtain behind the Sultan's throne where the queen and other female members of the royal family were seated. They would also whisper their opinion to the Sultan and therefore all the Sultan's decisions would appear to be his alone.

Queens of Kelantan

According to Sejarah (History) Kelantan the first queen of Kelantan was Che Siti Wan Kembang, daughter of Sultan Ahmad. She is believed to have ascended the throne following the death of the male regent who was a relative. She did not marry and later gave up the throne to her adopted daughter, Putri Sa'dong.

Putri Sa'dong was noted for her beauty. Although she was married, the King of Siam demanded to marry her. She was taken to Siam but refused to sleep with the King. Her excuse was that the King had sores on his body. Later she cured him of the sores on condition that she be allowed to return to Kelantan. Return she did only to find that her husband had been unfaithful to her.

During the ensuing quarrel she stabbed her husband to death. Her reign ended abruptly.

Queens of Patani

Patani, once a cradle of Islam in SEA was for a period of time, ruled by four queens in succession!

There were two versions as to the reason for this:

1. That the aristocrats were tired of despotic male rulers (European account);

2. That the male lineage ran out (Hikayat Patani/Patani Annals).

It is said that Raja Ijau (Green), the first queen, was installed when all male royal successors have died in two palace revolutions. She was the sister of the late young Sultan who had been murdered while seated on the lap of his aunt, the regent. She too died in that revolution.

During her reign (1584-1616) trade and diplomatic ties flourished with the Portuguese, Dutch, English. Japanese and SEA. Raja Ijau paid attention to her people's needs. She was remembered for her project in constructing a canal to check the salinity of a river.

She was succeeded by her sister, Raja Biru (Blue) (1616-1624). She was accredited for building a stone dam to regulate the swift flow of a river that threatened the palace.

The third queen was Raja Ungu (Purple) (1624-1635) who had just married the Sultan of Pahang before ascending the throne. She returned to Patani after the death of her husband to rule Patani.

She is said to pursue an anti-Siam policy and was supported by other Malay states and the English merchants. It is said that Siam had taken offence to the fact that the queen's daughter(?), Raja Kuning (Yellow), who was married to a Siamese Officer had been married off to someone while her husband was away.

Raja Kuning ascended the throne from 1635-1688. During her reign Patani-Johore relationship became strained. The reason being, during the absence of the Sultan, the Yang Dipertuan Muda (either the Sultan's brother or cousin) had "violated" Raja Kuning and then had a "affair" with her dayang (maid), Dang Sirat. Apparently, Dang Sirat was a court singer and was capable of magic spells. The Yang Dipertuan Muda managed to escape thus saving his life. However, according to Dutch source, his followers were massacred while Hikayat Patani says that they were expelled.

Upon the death of Raja Kuning, her lineage ended. The Patani Malays elected Raja Bakal, a descendant of the Sultan of Kelantan. The new dynasty did have a queen, Raja Dewi (1707-1716).

It is noted that religious forces did not raise any objections to the rule by queens.

As history is told, in 1728, the Siamese broke up the Patani Kingdom.

Queens of Aceh

Aceh too had four queens about the same time as the Patani and Kelantan queens:

Safiyatuddin Taj al-Alam (1641-1675)

Naqiyatuddin Nur al-Alam (1675-1677)

Zaqiyatuddin Inayat Shah (1677-1688)

Kamalat Zinatuddin Shah (1688-1699)

Aceh had been ruled by despotic sultans for 50 years. When the very despotic Sultan Iskandar Muda died without an heir, his son-in-law, the Pahang Prince Iskandar Thani, was installed as Sultan. Although he was not very powerful, his moderate rule was appreciated by Aceh's dignitaries as they were fed-up with the despotic rule of previous Sultans. They were also fortunate that Sultan Iskandar Muda had eliminated all his sons whom he suspected of being in league to cause his own downfall. Only a illegitimate son, Tengku Itam, had survived.

When Sultan Iskandar Thani died, the dignitaries installed the Sultan's widow as raja. The story goes that Sultanah Taj al-Alam was an intellegent and just raja and Aceh became peaceful and prosperous. Power, however was still in the hands of the dignitaries. They were often challenged by Tengku Itam. Such challenge became serious during the reign of the 3rd sultanah (queen) when the dignitaries divided up the padi growing area into three and to be headed by district heads.

Although there were attempts to topple every queen, they all failed until a fatwa said to be from mecca, which forbids Muslim women from being raja. With this Sultanah Kamalat had to give up the throne.

It should be reminded that when the first queen was installed, it was with the support of the renown ulama of Aceh, Nuruddin Ar-Raniri who was  close with Sultan Iskandar Thani. He had become very influential in Aceh after winning a religious debate with sufi members such as Hamzah Fansuri and a few others. Unfortunately when his influence diminished, the rule of the queens in Aceh ended.

Queens of Johor

Yes, Johore to had a queen who surfaced after Johore underwent a period of turmoil. Firstly, she had to face the Portuguese then Aceh and finally Jambi which was a vassal of Johore at the time.

The war with Jambi was over a womam.....The Sultan's younger brother, Raja Muda, had married the daughter of the ruler of Jambi. He had returned to Johore several times without ever taking his wife with him. To the people of Jambi, this was an insult and war ensued in 1859 extending for 20 years. It only ended when Johore finally defeated Jambi.

Raja Muda died after the war ended in 1675 and two years later Sultan Abdul Jalil died. He was replaced by his nephew Sultan Ibrahim. In the mean time, his son-in-law in Jambi, Laksamana Paduka Raja Tun Abdul Jamil had become an influential man. After taking Jambi, he, with the help of Jambi, had defeated Palembang and it's ally, Bugis. With that he became less respectful of Sultan Ibrahim. Meanwhile Sultan Ibrahim was already thinking of eliminating him.

On 16 Febuari, 1675 Sultan Ibrahim died suddenly. It is said that he had been poisoned by his three wives. All three wives were later punished by death. His young son was installed Sultan Mahmud while his wife, daughter of Laksamana Paduka Raja (her name unknown) ruled as queen. She was entrusted to care for Sultan Mahmud as her ward.

However, the dignitaries of Johor were not too happy with the Laksamana who had given important government positions to his sons without consultations with them. They suspected that this was all his plan.

At the throne, Sultan Mahmud was placed on the lap of the queen instead of the Bendahara's in accordance with the Johore tradition. Johore dignitaries found this disrespectful and a revolt ensued during which the Laksamana was defeated.

There were two versions to what happened to Sultan Mahmud and the queen. In short, Sultan Mahmud was saved by the Bendahara, while Laksamana was persued and later caught at sea near Trengganu. He was later put to death by a kris. With regard to the queen, it is said that she and her sister who had been promised to Raja Muda Indragiri, were drowned at sea. Hence ended the three years reign of the Johore Queen, 1685-1688.

Such was the intrigue in the Johore palace.